A Fun Fungi Adventure Hike!

We are so lucky to have so many resources available to us here where we live when it comes to life-learning environments. Today there was a foraging fungi hike hosted at Kemp Natural Resources Station with Cora Mollen and Anne Small of Northstate Mycological Club. It was free for anyone interested and you were to bring your own basket and a knife if interested in bringing home any specimens found. I knew we had to go!

We were tickled to discover that some friends were planning on going as well and it worked out perfectly to go together since Zoey had just spent the night at this friend's house the night before (for a back to school party...so, if they look tired, it's because they are!). 

It was a bit of a rainy, soggy and damp day which is actually pretty perfect weather for mushroom hunting!

I really wish that I had thought to bring something to record with, we saw so many specimens and I couldn't recall everything once I was back at the car after hiking and chatting for over two hours. 

It was so neat to have such a range in ages all partaking in this activity. This was our small group...there were two groups of about - 10-12 people and we split up in the woods to see what we could find and then we all met back at the pavilion and shared our finds and talked about what things were, characteristics of different specimens, etc.

I was excited to find the one pictured below which is called, Hygrocybe Conica or the Witch's Hat mushroom! Very fun!

And someone else found what they call Witch's Butter...

These are our finds that we ended up bringing back home.

I honestly cannot think of a better way to spend some free time! Out in the woods, learning, having fun with friends! Life doesn't get much better! 

Our Curriculum Picks for 8th Grade

With the start of our homeschool year quickly approaching, I thought I'd write up a post sharing what it is that we've decided on for our final choice for coursework for Zoey. We're changing things up a bit from last year...pretty much everything actually, except for our math curriculum which we loved.

Zoey shared her input on what it is that she liked and what she didn't care for regarding last year and this is what we came up with...

Here are our picks for 8th grade.

English/Literature/Writing/Grammar

Oak Meadow's 8th grade English curriculum

• The Giver
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• A Wrinkle in Time (we will be skipping this one since we read it last year!)
• The Hobbit
• Lord of the Flies
• The Call of the Wild
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• The Elements of Style
• 100 Days of Writing

In English, students read seven classic novels while studying vocabulary drawn from the reading and concentrating on grammar and composition skills. Weekly assignments in writing, grammar, and usage provide ample practice for the student preparing to enter high school.

Social Studies

Oak Meadow's 8th grade Civics curriculum

Oak Meadow’s Eighth Grade curriculum introduces students to the concepts of civics through a study of the champions of freedom, federal, state, and local governments, and the economic system. Students witness their local government in action, explore issues affecting their state, and also become aware of national issues. Our experiential approach to understanding social issues includes practical activities such as community service projects and interviewing local community leaders. Students are encouraged to learn how to make a difference on a local level by learning more about the people and businesses in their area.

(Depending on how this goes, we do have the Medieval Times books from Beautiful Feet to add in if she wants more to take on.)

Science

Oak Meadow's Physical Science for 8th grade

The Science curriculum focuses on the principles of physical science, including mass and matter, force, energy, sound, light, color, electricity, magnetism, and mechanics. Emphasis is placed on preparing the student for more advanced science by including assignments that require the student to conduct experiments, perform mathematical calculations, and report on their findings.

(Depending on how this goes, we may or may bot be supplementing using the book list for Guest Hollow's Chemistry older course.) 

Math

Math-U-See

We aren't going to be changing things up here as what we used last year was working! 

Health

Lifetime Health Textbook from Holt Publishing

Foreign Language

First Form Latin from Memoria Press 

Zoey has been asking about and expressing an interest in Latin for quite some time and after looking this over, I feel like it will be a good fit for her being a beginner and will also reinforce her use of grammar as well. 

Extra-Curricular Activities

Ballet/Pointe and Modern Contemporary dance classes twice a week. 

Drama second semester through local homeschool co-op

Guitar lessons (possibility)

Yoga (at home)

Life Skills (various activities and projects done at home and/or in our community

Community Outreach (to be decided by Zoey for her Civics course)

Art

Crash Courses - Philosophy

So, this is the plan thus far! Some (hopefully!) minor tweaking will take place I am sure once we get things rolling. Our official "soft" start date for school is Friday, September 1st which mirrors our public school calendar locally.

I'd love to see what it is that you are using this year in your homeschooling! Feel free to drop me a link in the comments below!

2017 Total Solar Eclipse

Zoey had dance class right up to the moment of totality here in our area in Wisconsin so we were incredibly thankful that Zoey's friend that we were dropping off afterwards let us stay at her house for a bit so we got to see what we could using the pinhole technique and by taking a peek through a welders mask. Very cool!

And here are some eclipses found in shadows!

Kinda Cool...

Zoey has really gotten into music this summer. She went from not knowing or really listening to anything at all to discovering a love of many different bands and musicians from all sorts of musical genres! It's been awesome!



Along with this newfound love of music has come the interest of possibly learning how to play a musical instrument...and talk of forming a band with friends. I happened upon this video the other night while perusing Facebook and shared it with Zoey. Thought I would share it here too just because it's pretty interesting!

Enjoy!

Berry Picking!

Zoey and I were lucky to have a beautiful afternoon and nothing pressing to do, so we headed out to find some blackberries.

We found a new spot with a ton that are ripe already and there are many more on there way to being ready, so we'll have to be sure to make it back in the near future.

I'm thinking tomorrow I'll bake a sponge cake so we can enjoy it with our freshly picked berries and whip cream!

We also found some new (to us) little spots near the water which we explored a bit.

It was so private and quiet here...loved it! We'll have to go back once we start having fall colors.