Summer Plans...

We always start our summer with the Riverbank Pow Wow and the summer solstice. It's such a amazing event to start the summer... after that we just know it's late evenings of swinging on the porch... catching fireflies... roasting marshmallows... swimming... hiking....gardening and all the other great summery stuff!

We have a few camping trips planned. One with friends and the other just us. Yes, I know we just bought this tent last summer. But we've got our eye on a different one from Coleman that sets up in less than a minute... if you can believe that! Our tent from last year had a few problems last time we camped, like caving in! But I'm sure if we used more a few more anchor ropes we'd be okay... My husband is the one not lovin the tent. I'm still into it.

Noah has a few camps to attend this summer all at the Turner Dodge House. His first camp is Revolutionary War Camp, then Harry Potter (for the 4th year) and last but not least Civil War Camp (for the 3rd year.)

Of course we'll be going to the Civil War Muster in Jackson, MI and a few small field trips: letterboxing hunts and some other historical places. Speaking of historical places we are planning on a trip to Gettysburg for our fall birthday trip, which may have to be in Sept. not Oct. when our birthday really is. But that's okay. Oh yes, we'll be staying a whole week with a day trip to Washington DC to visit a few of the Smithsonian Museums. I'm so excited for that!

As for homeschool plans: Noah and I are learning to speak Ojibwa... at least I'm are trying. We've just started with these wonderful language Cd's I found through the library. Noah can now say: Hello, Are you Anishinaabe?, No, Yes, and thank you. He's much better at this than I am.... I guess my brain is a little slow these days.

We'll still be hanging out with our homeschool friends at park days each week. Towards the end of summer we'll be brushing up on our Civil War history... getting ready for our trip. Also I'm gathering up lesson plans for some fall classes I'm teaching the homeschoolers. Michigan's Native People and Letterboxing.

You know, this is almost the same as last summer's plans. Hmmm.....

Have you made any plans for summer yet? Hope you have a wonderful, relaxing summer ahead!

Off to Camp. Reporting for Duty... Sir!

Noah is at Civil War Camp today. He's one excited boy!

This is serious business... to learn and experience all he can about the Civil War. Next weekend in the Civil War Muster in Jackson, MI. Then on Sept. 12th we are riding the Civil War train in at the Little River Railroad in Coldwater. We've stocked up on more Civil War books from the library. His favorite subject to start the year with!
He wants to be a reenactor someday. I'll help him pursue his dreams in any way I can. It's funny how certain things become passions for certain people. He really loves history in general.
He tells me he's thinking of become a college history professor and make documentaries.
Not bad:) umm... but what happened to running for President? That's okay, I would worry too much if he ever was President.
Now, I'm off to come up with some Civil War math and writing activities for next week. Have a great weekend!~

Worksheet update*

I wanted to share what I came up with for some Civil War math and activities. I find a on-line word search puzzle maker and type in some Civil War words to generate a puzzle, then I save it to Word Pad and add some Civil War clip art to it.
Next I made up a Civil War math sheet using some fictional scenarios and some factual scenarios. Such as how many soldiers in a battle? Which I used reference books for the actual numbers. Then I added clip art to this.
Lastly I found a Civil War slang vocab list on-line and printed it out just for fun. This all took about a half hour to make. The possibilities are really endless. You can do this any subject that interest your child. I like to call in interest led homeschooling. I've done this for The Revolution, medieval times, Colonial times, Dragons and Harry Potter... whatever he's into at the moment. Actually we don't use many dittos in our homeschool, he's a hands-on kind of guy. But Noah likes these interest led ones.

Nincompoop notes: I noticed that I spelled the word soldiers wrong on the work sheets, Ugh! What a dope. I corrected and reprinted them before Noah will see them. He'd nail me on that one for sure! Teachers and moms make mistakes too:)