Berry Picking on a Warm October Day and Homeschool Highlights

 

 The Berry Patch in Nevada

 

Homeschool Highlights

Homemade seesaw to talk about levers and how to make work easier based on where you put the fulcrum 

actual seesaw at a park in Gilbert

rubberband car to teach potential and kinetic energy

momentum and collisions

gears

Triangles are a strong shape for bridges

They each made a clay pot while studying Mesopotamia and then painted then how they wanted when they dried. 

Birdwatching with her new binoculars

what is a force?

tropical fruit for Costa Rica and we made Picadillo de Papa

Making flan for Mexico. We also had a yummy tamale bake

  It is sometimes a challenge to find gluten free recipes but I really like cooking and wanted to cook our way around the world for geography this year.

I didn't take pictures of a lot of the meals but have found some amazing recipes that I have already repeated. I made Jamaican brown chicken and coconut rice and peas. We loved the rice and peas, the peas were really kidney beans. I have made that one many times since! I made another Picadillo when we did Cuba. Picadillo de Cuba. The unusual ingredients in this recipe were raisins and green olives. I don't like either of those things so it is a mystery why we loved this dish so much. The kids loved Pao de Queijo from Brazil. It is naturally gluten free and tastes like a chewy cheesy roll. They also loved poutine from Canada, it is fries with cheese curds and gravy. I loved the Peruvian dish called pollo saltado, yum! It has a unique flavor that I cannot get enough of.

Alfajores from Argentina. We also made steak and chimichurri

 

Once we got to Germany I wasn't sure what to make but then I wanted to make everything! I should have taken a picture of the schnitzel with German potato salad and red cabbage with green apple. That one took a while but was soooo good! I will definitely make that again. August could not stop raving about it. I also tried spaetzle with a mushroom sauce. Spaezle is a noodle dough that is pushed though holes into boiling water and it cooked immediately. I don't have a spaetzle maker but I used a cheese grater and it worked fine. I also tried currywurst, a fast food in Germany. 

This past week I had to overcome my fear of frying things. The hot oil makes me nervous. I made fish and chips with mushy peas. This was while studying England. 

We are doing Ireland this week and have already made golden potato and leek soup with gluten free soda bread.

Riley's Horseback Riding Lessons

 Riley has been horse obsessed for a while now so she was delighted to find out that we signed her up for riding lessons to learn more about horses!

Her first lesson she learned the basics about safety around horses and how to groom and saddle a horse. Then she got to ride! Her horses name is King. She had him for lesson 1 and 2.

For lesson 3 she got to ride a nice horse named Onyx. We used the indoor arena because it was very windy and cold. She goes for her 4th lesson soon, it will be the last one until spring. We have had a few lessons postponed for weather.

First day of classes and field trips!

 First day of HSAP(homeschool assistance program) classes

 They were excited to go and make new friends at school! Nora and I like to go to the park while they are there or run errands.

We got cookies at Dutch Oven Bakery once too!

 

Field Trip to Iowa Falls for a riverboat ride with HSAP

It was a gorgeous day for an outing! We had a great time on the boat learning about the wildlife that call the river home. Then we found the swinging bridge and went across that. Then we found a fun park on the other side! We played there for a while but then it started to rain so we left but we got back to the car before the rain picked up. 

Fun in a park in Ames and gorgeous light coming through the clouds

Deals Orchard Field Trip with HSAP

We started out this trip with a tour of how the apples are sorted to get ready to go to stores. Then we got to see the cider press and watch a video about how they make their delicious cider! Then we took a tractor ride out to the field where we learned about the picking process. All of the apples are hand picked! Each kids got to pick an apple and we went back to the country store. The kids and I each got a cider slush, which I am still craving. They were really good. We got a gallon of cider and some cider donuts to take home. We then had a picnic and played in the play area. They had a petting zoo, bounce pillows, big slides, hamster wheels on a track, a corn maze, corn play area, tricycle track and some other things. The kids wanted to stay all day. We will definitely want to go back next year!