November/December Homeschooling

Savannah and I continue to plug away at homeschooling and have found a lot of enjoyment and an increase in knowledge as the days go by. We had to postpone French since neither one of us was having any kind of success with it. I'm working on finding another French program to use or else Savannah can save it for when she goes back to public school. As for the other subjects they keep us both busy, me with planning, Savannah with the work and studying. We try to get out of the house from time to time for some fun field trips. One fall morning we drove around looking at all the beautiful leaves and scenery and took some pictures for her Fall Science poster. We just had to stop and talk to this cute donkey and horse.

For Science we have been studying the human body and have enjoyed several experiments. One of Savannah's favorites was making a rubber bone. She soaked a chicken bone in vinegar for 3 weeks...

and since vinegar is an acid, albeit a weak one, it stripped the bone of its calcium, making it weak and rubbery. We laughed as we both bent the bone and thought of Professor Lockhart when he "heals" Harry Potter's broken wrist in the second Harry Potter movie.

Another fun experiment was checking if various items, like seashells, rocks, and eggshells, have calcium in them.

She looks like such a little scientist!

Learning about the skeletal system.

For our Science class I had bought a frog to dissect as we learned about the various systems in the body. Neither Savannah or I were particularly thrilled about it but I knew it would be useful in our studies plus the science activities book we use called for it. Savannah's expression here mirrored my own on the day we had to get started.

It took a little getting used to...

but Savannah is clearly a trooper!

In her history class we spent almost a month studying Ancient Egypt since Savannah loves Egypt! She had a couple projects that she really enjoyed doing - one was making canopic jars.

The other was The Hall of Pharaohs project. She had to research the lives of ten of the most famous or important pharaohs, mainly from the New Kingdom, and make up a short report on each of them that included their name in hieroglyphs, the dates that they ruled, five facts about them, and a picture. She did an awesome job! Here are just two of the reports she did; we hung all ten in the hallway leading to our basement.

And of course there are those little perks of schooling at home. I mean, what better way to learn about Ancient China then while enjoying Chinese food at the best Chinese restaurant in our area?

Gotta love those fortune cookies!

Hangin' Out

Although school, soccer, and church activities seemed to dominate our lives this past fall, we all still found ways to just hang out and have some fun. Xander started piano lessons which he has loved...

and has attempted to pass on his new musical skills to his younger brother. Just warms the heart, doesn't it? I wish they would always get along this well (as I type they are yelling at each other in the other room).

David and I took Savannah to see the latest Hobbit movie which we all thoroughly enjoyed! (The perks of homeschooling!)

After spending weeks immersed in Ancient Egypt in school, Savannah taught Noah all about being a mummy.

Breaking free!

My cute little Egyptian boy. He put his costume together all by himself...pretty impressive!

The kids spent every available hour after school outside playing with friends. They ran around the neighborhood like wild kids, completely carefree of life's responsibilities. Oh, to be young again. Well, not really. But they do have fun playing football, tag, running around the neighborhood playground, riding their scooters, and playing in their fort. One day I was walking one of the neighbor girls to her door and came across what Noah insisted was a plastic snake. I was a little unsure but Noah said, "See, Mom? Watch!" and went to pick it up...and that's when it moved! Noah's hand shot back so fast that I couldn't help but laugh. I know by looking at the picture that you'll wonder why we ever thought it was a toy snake but it was so teeny and lying flat and still. It must have known I was taking its picture because it raised its head and almost smiled at me.

One afternoon I heard Xander calling for me from the backyard. This is what I came across.

Noah is too much!

Who can resist such fun fall leaves?

The boys kept raking them up into huge piles and made me take several sequence shots of them running and jumping into the leaves.

David and I spent the fall season carting kids around to their soccer practices, cheering them on at their games, keeping busy with work and church assignments, and enjoying football games and for me, lots and lots of reading. One of my favorite things that occurred this fall was we got new carpet in our family room. Earlier in the year Xander had burned a small section of our carpet as he experimented with what would happen to a Kleenex if you held it over a flaming candle. Well, no surprise there, the Kleenex caught on fire and Xander flung the flaming cloth away from himself and onto my floor. Thank goodness a big burn on my floor was the total sum of the damage. It gave us a great excuse to get new carpet which we were sorely in need of.  I had to include a picture of the burn...X marks the spot! As we say, X for Xander!

ABBYs!

I was so excited to learn that not only Xander but Noah also had earned the ABBY student of the month award for October. On the first Wednesday in November Savannah and I headed over to the boys' school to see them recognized. Noah was up first and boy, was I proud of him! One of my greatest worries each day is how well Noah is maintaining control over his little body that just overflows with energy and pizazz but apparently, so far this year, he's been using it in positive ways.
  Way to go, little No!

I just love that little face!!

Noah and his wonderful teacher, Ms. Pope.

Getting some love from his big sister.

Later that afternoon it was Xander's turn. Ever since kindergarten he has received the ABBY award for October and this year proved no exception.

He still towers over the majority of the kids in the third grade.

Xander loves his teacher, Ms. Siegel.

So proud of my Xanderman!

A Wonderful Visit

Some of the highlights of each year are visits with family and friends who live far away. Over a year ago one of my closest friends moved to Utah and I have truly, truly missed her. Her husband Josh has made it back to Maryland for a few visits due to work so I suggested to her that the next time he came out she needed to come with him. Yippee yay, she finally made it out here in November! Although she was only here a few days we managed to spend some quality time together, going to lunch a few times, shopping, and a couples dinner date. 

Lunch with friends!

My sweet, wonderful friend Lenae!

I can't wait for our next visit! 

Soccer Comes to an End

  It's always so hard to say goodbye to outdoor soccer because we absolutely love, love, love watching our kids play! Noah's last game of the season was probably the most exciting. His team ended up down 4-0 but rallied in the second half to end the game with a tie with one of those important goals coming from our No.

A nice throw in.

Gearing up for a big kick with that left foot of his.

One last tunnel! Check out Noah crawling his way through.

Receiving his trophy.

The Blue Tornadoes!

What a cute little soccer player!

Xander's team also had a great last game and ended up with a win which placed them in third for their league. Not too bad for their first year together!

In his final few games the coach had him play defense with the option to attack and score. Unfortunately Xander wasn't able to put any in the goal but he sure kept a lot of goals from being scored.

Hanging out with his team at the year-end team party. What a fun evening! We even ran into his old rec soccer coach who was wondering what had happened to Xander this season and wasn't too happy to see that he had lost Xander to a travel team.

Really kind words about Xander from Coach Kevin.

Another trophy to add to his growing collection.

Savannah's outdoor season ended with a tournament up in Pennsylvania on what could easily be called the coldest day of the century. We always have to be at her games 45 minutes early and about 10 minutes before her game had even started Noah was crying, begging us to take him home. We bundled up as best we could but we were so not prepared for the frigid cold.

I seriously do not know how Savannah survived playing in the cold. She refuses to wear leggings because she hates extra clothes on while she plays. Crazy!

They split their games, winning 1 and losing the other. They were guaranteed a game on Sunday but, due to the cold, the tournament was cancelled on Sunday. Yes, it was that cold! So, outdoor soccer is finished but our soccer lives continue with indoor! Soccer is never officially over for the Pierces!