Happy Halloween!!!!

Well in case you couldn't tell Halloween is THE holiday around here...second only to Yule!

The Littles were here today - so we had some fun reading books and watching the It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!

GC was in a very festive outfit and happy to act as our great pumpkin all day!

The purple hairspray did not go over the night before as well as we thought it would so KM and I got a little inventive for her fairy hair!

After more tweaking to the costume, KM headed out with a friend to go trick or treating this evening


----- and then back for a movie marathon!

1 Day to Halloween and

...we had to get ready for a party!

She tweaked the costume several times this week and I think it is JUST right!
Although I might be a bit partial to the wearer and the costume itself!

Physics Friday - #3

She created a force scale that measured in Newtons -

Then did a demonstration of Inert Mass and a Gimbal to show how something can stay stable even when moving.

2 days to Halloween

...so we decided to read some SPOOOOOKY stories and watch some "SCARY" movies!
Here are our favorite picks -

• Here There Be Witches - By Jane Yolen is a GREAT compilation of stories and poems!
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - From the Imagination of Gris Grimly - was a FANTASTIC graphic novel version of this classic.
• Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz - this is such a great read aloud. As the kids get older and really INTO reading them they just get better and better everytime!
  
• What would be a better time than this to check out Ancient Mysteries-Witches which we found available through Netflix!
  
• We DVRed the Monsters vs. Aliens Halloween special that was on Wednesday night.
• We ended our evening with Spiderwick Chronicles and KM watched SpongeBob Halloween - I bailed on that one...just can't stand it sorry!

Do you have any favorite halloween stories or flicks to share? We will have more to come!

Percy Jackson And The Olympians ~ The Lightning Thief

On our way back from the MOS on Wed, the girls in the back seat of my car saw a billboard for -

Percy Jackson And The Olympians The Lightning Thief

I can't even TELL you how excited they were! The entire way back from Boston - a good 50 minutes with the traffic - they talked non-stop about who should be in each part, who they hoped would be in it, what parts they can't wait to see!

It was the most interesting tween conversation I have heard in a long time!!!

3 Days Til Halloween...

so went to see the MOS to see the Harry Potter: The Exhibition! We weren't allowed to take pics put you have to check this out if you are in the area or it comes to your area! It was FANTASTIC! We of course then came home and immediately started watching the movies to try to spot all the things we saw in the exhibit!

4 days til Halloween...

which around here means Pumpkin Carving!

SC was a little freaked out by the gushy guts of the pumpkin, but KM enjoyed it as always!

I got the pattern here - Spooky Ghost! Watch to see what we do for the rest of the week!

Corn Maze Day

We had a fantastic Homeschooling Day at a local Corn Maze yesterday!

First we did the maze!

Then there was a Cow Train - which went a LOT faster than some of the kids were expecting!



Then they had their faces painted! I was amazed that SC sat and let the woman paint on her cheek! SC got a dolphin and KM got cherries!



Next they visited some goats...



and played in a corn box!



We finished off the visit with a Hayride!


Despite it being FREEZING out we had a great time!

PHYSICS FRIDAY - #2

This week she built an ATV - including putting all the links together - that could reach speeds of 1.04 miles per hour.

Then she did some experiments with Gravitional Force -
The contraption had to be 6 feet high so we had to do some quick thinking on that one -

Here was the final outcome -

Sports Stadium

----she spent all afternoon constructing this one!

Meet the Masters - Van Gogh

We starting using the Meet the Masters Art Series this past week and KM is really liking it. We got a TERRIFIC group buy price on it through Homeschool Buyers Co-op.

The first artist that we started out with was Van Gogh and we made our own renditions of Starry Night using oil pastels.

We will be working on this program every other week or as time allows and I will be sure to post pics of each her own masterpieces.

There is nothing like friends in the wild!

Especially if they are wild friends!

We went questing this past weekend and took one of KM's BFFs with us!

They always have such a great time together!I love that they can be silly and goofy,

wear witches hats and slide down rocks

without a care in the world!


To see more pics of these great hiking spots check our our nature blog -
GCK Homeschool Nature Photo Journal.

More than Half Way There!

KM is a total book worm, so any sort of reading challenge is right up her alley!

As a scholastic "classroom" she has the opportunity to help books get donated to some great charities and she is already more than half to her 100 book mark!



To find out more about Scholastic Classrooms Care Program please check out their site!

PHYSICS FRIDAY - #1

WE STARTED OUR PHYSICS WORKSHOP KIT THIS WEEK. KM DECIDED THAT SHE IS GOING TO HOLD OFF ON DOING THE ACTUAL MIDDLE SCHOOL PHYSICS FROM SIMPLE SCHOOLING, AS RIGHT NOW IT JUST DOES NOT APPEAL TO HER. HOWEVER THE KIT THAT YOU ARE SUPPOSE TO USE IT WITH IS VERY APPEALING.

WE WILL BE POSTING PHOTOS OF THE EXPERIMENTS AND WORKSHOPS EACH FRIDAY FOR ALL TO SEE.

DUE TO POSSIBLE COPYRIGHT ISSUES I WILL NOT BE GOING OVER THE INSTRUCTIONS, BUT YOU CAN TAKE A LOOK AT THE KIT HERE .

Fall has arrived...

and around here that means...

scarecrows,


pumpkins,

and witches!

The farm that we went to had a huge bail scarecrow that was happy when you arrived...

and sad when you left!!!