A New Christmas Tradition: A Gingerbread House

Well here we are trying out a new family tradition. We love to spend time doing things with the kids that they can get involved in and along with them being able to help put it together they also get to eat it after it is all over.

Here My Hubby is trying to keep the sides together. We laughed so hard because on the first try the entire house collapsed. It was so funny trying to get this thing all together.

We all have some candy to start the decorating process.

Here are all the bags of candy in the hands of the little artists.

Here the kids are adding the Peppermints to the top of the roof.

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The Peppermints are now finished on the peak of the roof.

 

Here are the kids putting on the gumballs for the roof.

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Now the Gingerbread man and the tree are ready to finish decorating.

Here are the kids decorating the gingerbread man.

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The Finished Product!

Even our Elf the kids have named Carter enjoyed the house while we were all sleeping. The kids weren't;t the first ones to get to eat it after all.

6 weeks home school review

  Well as the title suggests it has been 6 weeks already that school has been in session, and for us here it has been an exciting time thus far. We have learned so many things like languages' and how they began. Below are pictures of the cuneiform that each child made for their own language. The cool thing was as they dried out they became pretty brittle which is exactly what happened the real thing if it wasn’t protected:

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For history we learned about how God watered the earth before there was rain, and he did so by condensation. The kids got to see this in action as the photographs show below. They put rocks in the bottom of a jar and then dirt on top of that. Then they put a plant in the jar and added a little bit of water. the next day they saw the water all over the inside of the jar:

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All of these fun things were in between the typical reading, writing, and arithmetic that we study each day. Not much to photograph in those classes but they are doing very well in all of them. We like to mix in these little projects to break up the day so as not to just be stuck in a book for the entire day. Learning needs to be exciting as well to keep their interest as high as we can get it. You will spend time doing what you love so we just want to make school something that they love to do. We also like to take mini field trips as well to give them some hands on things to teach in conjunction with what they are studying. Last week I took them to the library in town that has story time and it just so happened that they brought a live piglet for the reading of “Charlotte’s web”. This was a lot of fun for all of us.

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Another cool experiment we did for history was to make and old looking map. To accomplish that we boiled tea on the stove and then let it cool down. Once it was cool we dipped a piece of cloth into the tea and scrunched it in our hands and let it out to dry. Once it was dry we drew the map onto the cloth and now we have an old map. Tristan and I really had fun doing this together! It turned out really great and we even left the frazzled edges to make it look more authentic.

We also did a replica of Stonehenge. There is a lot of speculation as to what these rocks were placed like this for and one of the theories is that it was built to tell the rising and the setting of the sun to measure the moon and seasons. Why else would someone go through so much trouble to hoist rocks that weighed 28 tons each and bring them from 300 miles away! All this before there were cranes. whew that is one heavy rock. Below is a much lighter version of Stonehenge.

The last item we wanted to share was our timeline. We do this to follow along with all the historical facts and then when we are complete there is a complete time line in chronological order that they can see:

 

So this is a synopsis of the first 6 weeks of school and we are having a ball teaching. We look forward to the rest of the year and we can only hope the next 6 weeks is as exciting as the last 6 weeks have been. More to come later! Be Blessed!

School Days Are Here and Oh What Fun!

Well this has been a great two weeks so far. I was a bit nervous in the beginning but the kids have done great and have worked very hard on their work. They really love our science and history curriculum because it is very hands on. We have already started our time line for History and the children all got to make their own pictures for it. We also did our very first Science project which dad helped with and they were so excited that he could help.Finally we took our first field trip and that was a blast. We would like to say a special thank you to Mr. Keith Bates for all of his help and giving us the tour of the CFD. We learned so many things about a fireman that I didn't even know myself. They have to go to school for ten weeks and only come home on the weekends to see their family and that is only part of their training. Some of the other parts of training involve a timed obstacle course. This used to be just running, sit ups, and push ups, but now it is more geared to what they may face on the job.  He also showed us all the equipment inside the trucks and what each one is used for. One of the pieces of equipment we got to see were the jaws of life. We always have heard about it but never had we seen it in person. There were three different hoses and each one was used for a specific size and kind of fire. There was just so many items it was hard to believe it all fit in those trucks. I think the coolest thing of all to us was he took us into a room and turned the lights off to make it completely dark. He used this hand held thermal imaging gun and we could see everyone in the room in total darkness. Then he put his hand on the wall and removed it and we could see the image of  his handprint still on the wall it was so amazing. This could be used if a place was completely filled with smoke and you couldn’t see anything you could still see people and where to find them. Then as a surprise the kids got to sit in the truck and turn the lights on. Then when we were leaving he gave each child a book, coloring page, stickers and a fireman hat which they love. So again thank you Mr. Bates for all you done that day.

Above is their classroom they use for training. Kids got to see that even they have to go to school.Above is their kitchen. It is pretty large because they all stay there for 24 hours on their shift so they all have to eat together.

Above is a picture of the bed they have to sleep in overnight on their shift.Above is how they line up their clothes to put them on very quickly.Here is their fire truck.Here is a picture from the front. Here Tristin is trying on their oxygen tank to feel how heavy it is.

From the other side

Here the kids got to hold the actual hose.

Here are some of the tools they have stored on the truck. These panels slide out and they have tools on both sides.

More tools

Here are the “Jaws of Life”

 

Here is a generator.

Here is 900 feet of hose that they use to attach to a fire Hydrant. It isn’t thought about until needed but take a good look at how far a fire Hydrant is from your house. You need one within 1000 feet so they can hook to it. Otherwise they will run out of water.

The hose is all the way to the other side of the fire/Rescue writing

Here are multiple Ladders

Here is another truck they usually would take with them.

A view of the inside

Another look at the inside.

Look at all those gauges

In the bottom left corner are the different hose sizes

In the upper right are airbags they use to lift cars or other objects. He said they could lift the fire truck if need be.

 

This truck has 1200 feet of hose.

 

More Equipment

Here is the vehicle they use for football games and sporting events in case of injury.

Here all the kids got to sit in the truck

Jaden Above

Emilee

KayLeigh

Jonathan

Tristin

 

kenslei

Here is Tristin running the lights

  

Another view of all the controls these vehicles have. The panel that runs the water is a 40 hour class of instruction alone.

Thank you Mr. Bates for showing us so many aspects of the life of a fireman.

Here is the whole family

    

Here are all the kids with their Fireman hats on. This was a pretty awesome time and the information alone that we were told was so beneficial to us and to the kids.

We look very forward to the many different places we plan on going for school trips and all the things that we will be learning.