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Category: 2013

first time sledding this year ~ family traditions

October 20, 2013Written by Joy

This past week, we got a pretty good snow in our area. While we did get snow in our city, it didn’t stick for long. So we headed off to the mountains to find the perfect sledding place. This is one of my favorite family traditions. I look forward to every snow we get!

We found this great place called Berthoud Pass. There is a trail that you can walk along with this huge hill that you can play in the snow. There were people skiing, snow boarding, hiking, snowshoeing and sledding.

It didn’t take the kids long to get their snow pants, jackets, hats and gloves on. They headed up the hill pulling their sleds behind them.

Claire’s first trip down didn’t go so well, but she laughed, got up and headed back up the hill. The snow was like powder and they had to make a couple of trips in the same place to get the snow packed down.

Samuel was trying to find the best path down. Once he got going, he didn’t want to stop!

What was so wonderful besides watching my children laugh and have a wonderful time? Meeting another homeschooling family playing in the snow! The kids played so well together and shared our sleds with them. They even raced down the hill! There was a lot of good laughs and a friendship made at 11,000ft.

This was our view from Berthoud Pass. I see it as a place we will visit many times a year. We can’t wait to go back to hike the trail!

Once we said our goodbyes, we headed on around Loveland Pass. We had been there about a month ago and couldn’t wait to check it out when it had snowed.

As you can tell, the drive to Loveland Pass, did not disappoint. The view was amazing. The wind was blowing so hard, that the snow was just blowing around and off the tops of the mountains.

Once we got to the Loveland Pass pull-off, some of us (ahem, me and a couple of the kids) sat in the van! It was COLD! the wind was blowing like CRAZY! We saw people being dropped off, so they could ski, snow board and snow show down the mountain. I don’t see how they were staying so warm with the wind blowing like it was.

My husband braved the wind and the cold and ended up with some amazing pictures. The view was a sight to behold. God’s creation is so amazing and wonderful to be in. I am so thankful and blessed that we are able to live in this area.

How has the weather been in your area? Are you taking any fun trips with your family? I would love for you to share your family traditions with me!

2013, family, photography Berthoud Pass, family, Loveland Pass, mountains, photography, sledding, snow, traditions

Wednesday’s Around the World ~ Christopher Columbus

October 16, 2013Written by Joy

I didn’t get last week’s Wednesday’s Around the World up, but wanted to try and have something up this week. I have been having some more health issues. They thought it was my gall bladder, but blood work, an ultrasound and an imaging scan said that my gall bladder was fine. I go back tomorrow to the doctor, to see what the next step is. While we have done the basics of our school work, projects and activities have been put on hold.

We have started studying about Christopher Columbus and him discovering North America. Our lessons with Christopher Columbus will be split up into a couple of lessons. This week was just reading about his early life and how he came to sail the first time in 1492, to North America.

Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain in 1492.

The kids colored their ships, they think by the description that it was the Santa Maria. It was said that of the 3 ships, the largest was the one that Columbus sailed on. From reading about the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, the largest was the Santa Maria.

Claire working on her copy work.

I am excited to continue our study about Christopher Columbus and the project we will be doing next. Hopefully, we will be able to build three ships and let them sail in our sink or bathtub. I know the kids will be excited about this.

Samuel working on his copy work.

Next week, I will definitely have more information about Christopher Columbus. While he is most noticed and celebrated for the fact that he discovered North America, there really is a lot more to his story. Some of it isn’t really good at all. I know I was surprised at what I learned about him. I discovered things that I definitely wasn’t taught when I was in school!

What all have you been studying about in history and geography? Have you done any projects or activities lately? I would love for you to share them!

2013, homeschooling, Wednesdays Around The World 1492, Atlantic Ocean, Christopher Columbus, geography, history, homeschooling, Nina, North America, Pinta, Santa Maria, Wednesday's Around the World

Wednesday’s Around the World ~ Leif Ericsson and the Vikings

October 2, 2013Written by Joy

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Wednesday’s Around the World ~ Leif Ericsson and the Vikings

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This week on Wednesday’s Around the World, I am sharing with you about Leif Ericsson and the Vikings. Who is Leif Ericsson and what does he and the Vikings have to do with studying the United States? Leif Ericsson was a Norseman, who lived in the far north of Europe. They had a hard life in the area they lived, because the weather could be brutal, with very cold temps, winds and snow. They were sometimes called Vikings, which just means exploring. They explored to find food for those times that they ran short of food. They traded with others, but sometimes they had to steal and they even looked for new places to live.

The Vikings used large boats that could go very fast with the unique sail that had. When the wind wasn’t blowing, they had a large oar that many men could pull to make the boat go. The large boat had a dragon head on the front and a dragon tail on the back. The dragon was very intimidating to those people that the Vikings came across. It filled them with fear and scared them a lot. As the Vikings moved around they created colonies as they explored. A lot of the Vikings, including Leif Ericsson’s dad, settled on land a land that is now called Iceland.

It was always a dream of Eric the Red, Leif’s dad to find a better place to live for him and his family. They hit the open waters and found a place west of Iceland and called it Greenland. Although it was very similar to Iceland, he named it Greenland in hopes that the name would bring more people to settle. However, due to a famine, people kept going to Iceland, instead of Greenland. One a particular day when the weather was awful, a Viking ship accidentally was blown off course and missed Greenland. They kept sailing even further west and came to unfamiliar land. They sailed down the coast, hoping to see something that would remind them of Greenland. They never did see anything they recognized, so they turned around and sailed back east. After 4 long days on the sea, they finally reached Greenland. They told Eric the Red what they had seen and his son, Leif overheard them. Leif wondered why they did not go ashore and explore the land. As Leif continued to get older, he never forgot that story.

One day, Leif told his dad his was heading out on the sea, towards the west to find this land. On the 4th day of his voyage, Leif and his crew caught sight of the land. At first, he did think it looked like Greenland, but as they continue to sail down the coast, he noticed that the land began to change. Leif and his crew went to the shore and started exploring. Leif called this land Vine-land. They stayed their through the winter and then returned to his dad and the people of Greenland. He told them all about the rich land they had found. Soon, other Vikings followed him to this new land and they set up a settlement. The settlement only last a few years due to the battles with the Indians that lived there. Vine-land, the place that Leif Ericsson discovered is known today as, Newfoundland, Canada.

The kids and I had a fun time learning about Leif Ericsson, his family and the Vikings. We learned that Leif had discovered what is now known as Newfoundland, Canada in North America. This was the first time that someone discovered North America in A.D. 1000.

We looked on our world map and found Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Greenland. We then kept following our finger all the way west and right to Newfoundland, Canada in North America.

My kids and I are learning a lot and enjoying the lessons in the Adventures in U.S. History from My Father’s World.

What have you been studying about in History and Geography? Link up with us and share!

2013, homeschooling A.D. 1000, geography, history, homeschooling, Leif Ericsson, link up, My Father's World, North America, Time-Line, vikings, Wednesday's Around the World

family time looking at fall colors…

September 29, 2013Written by Joy

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If you have been following me here for a while, you know that our family loves to go riding and seeing all the sites and views that our area has to offer. Being in the mountains, you can drive the same scenic route and see something differently every trip. However, I think my all-time favorite time of the year going riding, is when the leaves are changing. This is our 2nd fall in Colorado and I was so excited that we finally got to see the leaves this year, since we missed them last year.

We have driven the Guanella Pass before, and have fallen in love with it. It is a beautiful drive that has many trails that you can hike. It also has camping sites all along the drive that you can use. We are hoping to go back camping here, soon!

To get to Guanella Pass, we drive to the Georgetown, Colorado side and enter there. It is an old mining town that has a beautiful historic Main Street that you can walk and look at. You will drive right down Main Street to get to the road that takes you on Guanella Pass.

Before you do start driving on Guanella Pass, be sure to stop at the Georgetown Visitor Center. It is filled with a lot of history and some of the items that they have in there are amazing.

There is this park area, with a lake (I can not remember the name of it), that my kids love going to. They enjoy throwing rocks in the water and climbing on the rocks. There are picnic tables, grills and rock fire pits that you can use.

Up at the Guanella Pass Summit, there are a couple of different pull-offs that has trails you can hike in several different directions. By the time we had made it to the summit, it was getting late, so we didn’t hike.

It was just so beautiful, standing there and looking all around at the gorgeous mountains and blue sky that God created. It just takes my breath away.

I love that my kids enjoy taking trips like this with us. I remember going on drives with my parents and it brings back such wonderful memories for me. We leave the electronics off (phones and tablets), and take this time to just talk and be with each other.

The mountains have a little snow on top, from the previous evening. While it rained in the valleys, there was snow at the top. The white snow reminds me of white frosting just sitting on top.

While the higher you go, the less trees and shrubs you see, the mountains are still alive.

While we did see a lot of beautiful color and scenery, the one thing we didn’t see on this trip, was wildlife. I am thinking they were off in the trees hiding, since there was a lot of traffic out at this time.

I think this was the last weekend that the leaves will have color for this year. It is turning cooler and the leaves are slowly falling to the ground. This pass will be closing in the next couple of weeks and won’t open until the last snow clears in the spring time.

While I will miss this place during the winter, I am excited about the other places that we will be able to visit. The state of Colorado is full of so much history and has so many unique and beautiful places to visit. The hard part will be choosing what area we will visit next.

Do you go on family trips? What places bring back wonderful memories for you? I would love for you to share them with me!

2013, family, photography Autumn, color, Colorado, fall, family, family traditions, Guanella Pass, kids, leaves, mountains

Wednesday’s Around the World ~ The Pledge of Allegiance

September 18, 2013Written by Joy

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Wednesday’s Around the World ~ The Pledge of Allegiance

So, I am behind in posting Wednesday’s Around the World. The last couple of weeks have been a little stressed in our area. We live in Colorado and are very near all the flooding areas. We were blessed to not have been directly affected by the rain and the flooding. My husband and son had to take a couple of detours to work due to closed roads/bridges, but that was it. Yes, we were truly blessed. Also, due to all of the rain and damp weather, I had a Fibromyalgia flare-up. I am very thankful for the dryer weather that we are having now.

Now on to Wednesday’s Around the World. We have started slowly back to studying history with My Father’s World. We are using the Adventures in U.S. History this year. The first couple of lessons covered the Star Spangled Banner, the U.S. map and where we live and also getting a time line started.

Adventures in U.S.History

The student notebooks that are pictured above, will hold their pages that they learn each day. They will also add in the pages for each state that we will learn as well. The first page that they put in their folder was The Pledge of Allegiance (which I forgot to take a picture of). So what is The Pledge of Allegiance, you ask? It is a promise that Americans make to their country. The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy. He wrote The Pledge for a Columbus Day program celebrating the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus discovering America. There was a change in 1923 and 1924 when “the flag of the United States of America” was added. Then in 1954 Congress added the words “under God”. This is how it reads now,

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

My kids and I are saying this together, every morning. It is important for me to teach my children what this nation was built on and to stand up for what they believe.

The next thing we did was make a time-line. Since our wall space is limited, I decided to put our time-line in a 3 ring notebook. This way, we can add pages as we continue to work through the ages. We did start with Jesus being born. We will continue to add the important dates that we learn in U.S. History.

Time-Line

Another lesson we did, was go over a map of the United States. The kids got a blank map of the United States. We talked about the directions of North, South, East and West. Once they learned the directions, we got busy labeling different places on the map. The kids learned where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are at. They learned that Canada was north of us and Mexico is south of us. Then, they got to put an X on where we lived at on the map.

Working on US Map

After the first day, (I had a child upset that we were not continuing on with the history we used last year), the kids started enjoying our lessons. They can already say The Pledge of Allegiance without looking at the paper and they can point out on a map, where they live. I really think we are going to enjoy learning about the United States history this year.

I am excited to be hosting a link-up again. I am looking forward to seeing what y’all are learning about in history. Be sure to link up below and share with us!

2013, homeschooling, Wednesdays Around The World history, homeschooling Wednesday's Around the World, Map, My Father's World, The Pledge of Allegiance, Time-Line, U.S. History, United States