Tour 1 Week 6

 

    We've reached the Jigsaw Puzzle stage of the pandemic.  My dining table has been covered with puzzles in-progress for over a week now. The recent Birthday Boy started it with his new Star Wars Mandalorian puzzle (obviously I bought it because - Baby Yoda). We are re-watching Season 1 and eagerly anticipating Season 2 later this week.  This seemed to start a chain reaction of puzzle-doing and I ended up making a trip to the Dollar Store to pick up a few puzzles for Little Guy, who desperately wanted to be included in all the puzzle-making fun. 

    Because, yes, we had an extensive collection of puzzles that went untouched for months (years?) and now that I finally unloaded them to goodwill everyone is asking me where the puzzles are.

    It's the natural cycle of things when you have kids.  

October Birthdays

I have to admit that I feel a twinge of jealousy over the the fact that two of our family members have birthdays in October. 

Okay more than a twinge.

A birthday in October means celebrating in a season of crisp air, leaves crunching beneath your feet, faint smells of apple cider and wood-burning. 

A birthday in February means celebrating in a season of cold to your bones, long, gray days, seasonal illness, and the realization that spring is nowhere in sight.  

via GIPHY             (Actual Footage of me in February)

Given the Pandemic Situation, we decided to take full advantage of the beautiful weather with celebratory activities outside.  For my husband's birthday, we enjoyed a sunset horseback ride at nearby Koteewi Park followed by dinner on a patio. We've had a few dates over the years that included horseback riding - especially during our getaways to Brown County. I think I might add "learn to actually ride a horse" to my bucket list.  

First I have to make a Bucket List.

Tour 1 Week 5

 

    This is what my desk often looks like in the middle of our school day. We do the bulk of school activities here or in our enclosed porch room (we don't really know what to call it), depending on the weather. 

        As I mentioned in a previous post, I decided to take two weeks to cover our Week 5 topics. It was nice to take a more leisurely pace with things and get in at least most of the reading I had planned. One of the biggest challenges for me is that I want to read all. the. books. I am a big fan of using literature to teach anything and everything.  

Wolf Park

    Nearly every day I learn something with my boys or from my boys.  This week the most interesting thing I learned is that buffalo never, in fact, roamed in North America. Ever. 

That's right - the song is wrong. 

But it's in your head now, isn't it? 

Not a Wolf. Or a Buffalo.

       Bison however, come in two versions - American and European. As their names suggest, that's where they live. Likewise, there are two types of Buffalo - Water (found in South Asia) and Cape (found in Africa). Since this is not a Wikipedia page, I'll let you do your own further research into the matter, but let's just say that the song is wrong, we've all been lied to and it's generally blamed on confused explorers.