Academy Raiders Blog

Being-There Experiences...

I said before how we changed our Guilds to ones which better suited our local area and where we could go on outings to.  So we went to two glass museums for our 'Glass-makers Guild' ...(xxx) outside the 'Red house Glass Cone'. 

  (xxx) pretends to shape glass on the end of the blow-pipe, on an old glassblowers bench. 

  (xxx) is looking at very old glass pieces, some are Roman, found in England 300AD.

This was so interesting to watch...we all loved it.

(xxx) is looking into the old 'Lehr' where the finished pieces cooled down slowly so they didn't crack.

Rusty old machinery!

(xxx) is feeling the raised pattern on the cameo glass.

An amazing lightbulb.

The Faire

Well, despite sick kids, we headed out to Arizona for the Renaissance Festival on Monday.  I knew that if I didn't just go, it would never happen.  It was me and my five youngest kids.  Pierce is almost 14 and is very helpful.  We got in late on Monday and had to set up the pop-up tent trailer in the dark.  I had never done it before, but Pierce really knew what he was doing, thank goodness!!  The next morning we headed to the faire.  Most of it was pretty commercial and there were a lot of shops selling things.  But it was definitely an experience.  The buildings were permanent and really cool.  On out way in, there were tons of school kids waiting with their classes and unfortunately some were making comments about our family being in costume.  This got to my 11yo and he had a bit of an attitude the rest of the day.  The jousting match was a little lame, but still gave the kids an idea what it would have been like.  After lunch we found the area where they do the reenactment of daily living.  This was, of course, the stuff we really came for.  There was a glass blower, weavers, spinners, candle makers, etc.  Most of the people working there were a couple of HS families so there were kids.  It was awesome.  There were some nice examples of the buildings and furniture. 
We also had fun buying some cool things.  (xxx) got a nifty wooden bow.  (xxx) and (xxx) both wanted some little dragons that sit on your shoulder and you can make them move with a cable down your sleeve.  (xxx) got sealing wax and a seal.  I got a wall hanging.  Of course, everyone that worked there was in costume and I came away definitely feeling like our costumes were very lame.  But it gave me a lot of ideas! 
We headed home after the faire because kids had activities on Wed.  We took a different route home and experience a hair-raising drive into a deep canyon with a gorge.  When we got to the bottom and pulled over to see the river, my brakes were smokin'!! And that was with taking the overdrive off!  I wouldn't take that road again.  But in the end we got home safe and sound.
Today we took a tour of our local newspaper.  An early being there experience for Gutenberg.  The newspaper was awesome.  We learned so much.  They even gave us a printing plate to take home.  We also did a tour of a bank last week.  A being there related to money. Rebecca

Field trip to the bank.  This was a neat field trip.  We saw everything behind the scenes.  The vaults, the safes, how the tellers send things to the drive up, etc.

At the faire.  We had just arrived.

In front of the jousting arena.

This lad was making a net.

This girl was making yarn dolls.  She gave (xxx) one to take home.

The kids with the spinner.  She also showed us her drop spindle.

The funnest thing the boys did.  A game where you tried to knock your opponent off the log with a sack.  After this their costumes looked very authentic with straw stuck all over their jerkins.

The end of a long day.The jesters wishing us a good journey.

The King's chancellor took a final picture with us outside the gates. You can see (xxx) and (xxx)'s dragons and (xxx)'s bow

The river at the bottom of the gorge

Where we are

This is Kim in Michigan.  I am blogging on behalf of my friend, Lisa, and myself.  We are temporarily on hold from the study due to a very serious injury that Lisa has sustained.  We are, however, enjoying all the stories, and photos that everyone is posting.  Keep them coming.  It will make our job easier when we start up again.  Thanks for keeping us encouraged and fired up.

Meet the Lovesees

Hello
We live in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  We have 8 children.  Our oldest is 20 and newly married.  Our two oldest daughters are 17 & 15 and go to public high school.  I HS my oldest until 10th grade when he wanted to go to school.  His sisters followed suit for high school.  But I think about pulling them out daily.  Next are 3 boys, 13, 11 & 7, that are HS.  Then a 5yo daughter and a baby boy that will be 2 in May.  My husband is a physicist and I am a biologist and chemist.  I no longer work and am home with the kids.  I love HS and it is how I define myself and my family.  Here is picture of the family, except me and oldest son, 700 feet below the surface of the earth in Carlsbad Caverns in December.  My two younger kids are really into being "Park Rangers" and going to National Parks. Rebecca 

Plodding along

Well, we are plodding along, behind schedule.  I am trying not to get too wrapped up in the schedule and enjoy what we are doing.  We have been plagued by illness, nothing too serious, but we are usually very healthy and it has slowed us down a bit because first one person gets something and then a few days later, someone else.  There also seems so be so much to do and I am trying not to feel compelled to do every single thing.  We had a great brain week.  I felt like the kids learned a lot and they really seemed to enjoy everything.  We added a few things of our own including doing life-size tracings of each kid that they drew their nervous system on.  I was amazed at what the kids learned, especially the younger ones.

Getting ready to dissect!!  Husband Alex as Dr. Bonsai.

The kids with their neurons.

Tracing each other to make diagrams of the nervous system.

We then had a very busy time trying to get all the costumes finished.  The kids were very excited about this.  The surprise was the interest that my almost 14yo son took in all this.  All the kids helped sew their costumes, put (xxx) was a huge help and became a "Master" at putting in grommets and sewing in general.  He really got into his costume and likes wearing it.  This was not something I expected from him.  He started making wallets, as he calls them, after he finished with costumes, and made them for everyone.

(xxx) making wallets while dressed in most of his costume.

I liked the idea that someone posted of having a medieval dinner so much that I decided to have one also that Leonardo could come to.  So on Monday for FHE we got ready.  The kids didn't really know what was happening, just that there was a lot of bustling and preparing and trying to get costumes finished.  I had plans to cook food, but in the end, ran out of time and had my husband pick up a rotisserie chicken, a block of cheese,fruit and some loaves of bread up on the way home.  I boiled some eggs and we had some sparkling cider.  That saved a lot of time and stress!!!  After hubby got home, he changed into Leonardo and we had a feast with our guest by candle and fire light.  My husband has taken all of this quite seriously and has researched before hand extensively.  Another surprise, as he has never really been involved with the schooling before!!  He really knew a lot about Leonardo.

Kids waiting anxiously for our guest to arrive!  

Leonardo arrives carrying a book that contained calligraphy supplies and his notebook.  I am going to let the kids learn to do calligraphy with nib pens.

The family with Leonardo da Vinci!!

We have started on Meeting at Guild Hall,but I am struggling with it a little.  I'm not quite sure what I am doing.  The kids decided to make a Pizza Guild and even though it wasn't quite what was called for, I let them go for it because they were enthusiastic about wanting to become Masters at making pizza. I feel a little lost but hope that I'll feel back in the groove when we start making bread and making candles.  There is still a lot that I have not done, like the quote book and the time line.  I have started to make them, but not finished.  The other big surprise was how much the older boys liked the poems during brain week.  I actually ordered the book off Amazon (I had a copy from the library)because they enjoyed and understood the poetry!!  We leave Monday to go to Arizona for a Renaissance Festival.  So that will put us another two days behind!  At this rate we'll never catch up!  Is it just me, or is there a lot of material to cover??  I have a hard time fitting it all in with the other stuff we do like soccer, lessons, field trips, math, etc. We still need to make the guild money and do the laws, etc. 

Well, happy lighting those minds on fire!!!  Rebecca

We met at Guild Hall

We ended up getting really drawn into the preparations for the Guild Hall meeting.  I knew my dh would be off today (Friday),  so we decided to have our Guild Hall Meeting then....so Monday to Thursday we prepared for the meeting.  My children have really responded well to the creative parts of the adventure, where we make things.   I have focussed on these aspects the most and not so much the songs, poems or dance inquiries.  I decided to change the 3 guilds to 'Glass makers', 'Potters' & 'Tanners' because we have a glass making region near us, a leather museum and famous Pottery region near us too...(we live in the Midlands of England).  We will still do some of the other inquiries to do with wool e.g. I ordered some raw wool from the Shetland Islands (the postage was expensive though!) and we will dye our wool and spin it etc. but I thought the 'Being there' experiences would be better for us, based on what was near to our home.  I couldn't find any sheep shearing near us for example.  There are 6 in our family so we paired up for the guilds.

I am in the glass Makers Guild with (xxx) and we researched some websites to find tools, drew a design, painted it onto a piece of material, then stuck letter stickers on  to make the guild Emblem/sign.  Lokking back it was quite a lot of work...but so much fun too.  (xxx) and (xxx) are in the 'Potters Guild' together and have loved working together.  (xxx) and Dad are the 'Tanners Guild' so really (xxx) (15) works alone mostly.

Because we are talking about different tools etc I wanted the children to experience using a new tool.  We did some lino cutting to make the ink stamps for the Apprentice, Journeyman, & Master level.  It went really well and was challenging as lino cutting and printing is quite tricky.

 

They turned out well and we will use them as our stamps even though they are too big, I'll adapt the Guild Ranking sheet.

Another preparation we did was 'aging' the documents using tea, coffee and tearing the edges of the paper...

We made our 'Guild aprons'

I bought some wax to seal the documents..which the children loved...

Here we all are...after an amazing week!

First week under our belt

I hope that I am posting this in the right spot.  We finished up our first week and jumped into week two today.  THis is so much fun for both me and my son.  We have used MANY different cirriculums for school in the past, but this one is by far the best one for him.  He actually looks forward to school each day now.  So here are a few pictures...hope you enjoy.

This is caleb getting ready for "brain surgery" as he called it.

Yes that is me at the Witty witty wizard

(xxx) with his completed Neuron model

Here is (xxx) making his neuron model...and yes that is a plastic brain we had to go out and buy after day #1.  He was so excited he wanted to do it all again.  THis way he can do it everyday if he wants :)

Here's what the baby does while we're in school.  He's only 14 months old.

Here is Leonardo talking about his life with the kids.  (my DH was volunteered to play the part :))

Week One of Our Adventure

It has been an amazing week for our family.  Here are some photos ...

Alison, my friend came for Brain Day as our scientist.

The brain dissection... (xxx) separates the two hemispheres.

(xxx) and (xxx) (our twins) are fascinated...

                                                                                          

(xxx) makes his model of a neuron (yes with pasta tubes for the myelin sheaths on the axon!)

This was our model to show the neurons connecting...each person made their neuron out of different materials...including pipecleaners, funky foam, wool, plastic scoobies, wire, beads, a marble and pasta tubes!

Adam my husband was Leonardo with his notebook.

Our family...

Can't wait for next week.