Day 1 for Oak Meadow 4!

Finally finally Oak MEadow 4! Not much, but they liked it. We discussed old trees. We happen to live in the middle of an ancient growth forest, the Cross Timbers, so the idea of an ancient tree living outside their window isn't an abstraction. The trees here are hundreds of years old.

Also continued Paddle, and Life of Fred. Paddle is in Wisconsin, after 4 months! We remembered the turtles and fish and waterbirds we saw at Martin Park when we were talking about being stuck n a marsh, and Minecraft again made an apperance as the iron ore and coal was loaded onto boats and trains.

The teens are writing their House of the Scorpion papers. Abby is further along than Faith, as usual, but Faith finishes strong, so I expect they both will be done at about the same time. I told them I didn't expect 5 pages, but that 3 was a definite goal.

Paddle-to-the-Sea, Life of Fred Apples, Hero's Journey 6

Continued PttS with the kids. Paddle is wandering around Lake Superior, after a close brush with a log saw. Also started Life of Fred: Apples with Trixie and Gloria. I love Life of Fred.

Faith and Abby are finishing House of the Scorpion this week. They both decided they don't like reading to a schedule, and plan to read the next book ("Kidnapped," by Robert Louis Stevenson) at a regular pace and then reread as necessary. Next week, unexpected houseguests again - it has been rather a extraordinarily houseguest-y summer, for us! - and then a final paper and evaluation of the curriculum. I'm sure we're going to continue.

The kids will start OM4 after the guests leave, so, say August 17. Let's do it!

Paddle-to-the-Sea Chapters 4-6

We made it to the lake and the sawmill. The kids looked in our giant atlas to see what part of the world we were talking about. It's good to have paper maps and digital. The sensory experience of running your hands on the page and measuring distance aren't the same on a screen, but the detail and other information are better on a computer. Good to have both. Then we watched a Roger Rabbit short where a sawmill figured prominently (as well as some actual videos of sawmills) so the kids could get an idea of the scale of the size and noise in a typical midcentury sawmill.

Paddle-to-the-Sea, Chapters 1-4

Gilbert, Trixie and Gloria are all reading Paddle-to-the-Sea with me. So far, we're up to Chapter 4, just barely in the water. They all want to put a little boat in the river now.

I'll document this with photographs, of course. I think it will mesh well with OM4, which we'll be starting in about a week!