week 13 (Nov 30th-Dec 4th): Thanksgiving Freeze

 Thanksgiving week brought with it a two week freeze of activities here in Oregon. Our co-op took a break and we slowed down a bit in general with all that we do. The boys did math worksheets and, ta-da, our Minecraft writing workbooks arrived! Guess what? Tears and stress and arguing to get one little sentence out of Michael, and he whipped through the first two pages of the Minecraft book like writing is his favorite subject!! I forget sometimes that my view of education is not forced paperwork, but finding ways to incorporate learning into their favorite subjects. (He is reading over my shoulder as I write this and wants to clarify that math, actually, is his favorite subject, ha ha) Speaking of math, we finished the first book of Beast Academy! 

We grew our own turkey this year and had the experience of butchering and cooking one from scratch. We also made pie, mashed potatoes, and a veggie dish all from vegetables we had grown this year. One day we ventured to the mountain and played all day in the snow. We also fit in working on our CSA barn projects to build a wash/pack station as our clientel grows next year. 

Last week we also stayed low, only seeing two other co-op families one day. Michael had his next Lego League video meeting, making and presenting a dancing robot. He also has made a robot car he programmed to drive a ways, turn around, drive back, play music and display words across the reader board. He is having fun learning how to program it.

We painted winter scene pictures, read three chapters of Story of the World, then did a side unit study about Louis, the king of France, even watching The Man In the Iron Mask. We recently watched Three Musketeers, so it was a cool to make connections, even if most of the movies are fiction. We also learned about the big fire of London and the next wave of the plague. 

The boys asked to stay home from Forest School, so they helped me in the garden instead. After a good two hours or so of helping me dig out and make level, bark chip walkways, they started a hole. Almost every day since they have ventured out to dig some more. It currently is as high as the older boys chests, and at least as wide. They say it is a mine and they plan to harvest gold, clay, iron, diamonds, and whatever else they can find. 

We also took a walk in our woods and cut fir tree branches. The plan was to make Christmas wreaths to hang around the house, but we have used them for multiple projects since then.

Hope your Thanksgiving was warm and content,

The Dillmans