More DaVinci

We have lots of snow around, but because of some bizarre warming and freezing this winter, it isn't great "snowman snow".... here is how the kids are dealing with that;)

After our visit to the museum, the kids are excited to continue with Da Vinci.  About a week ago we made some sculptures from a salt dough.  This was followed by paper mache.  I have fond, but messy, memories of this in grade school art class.  It didn't disappoint!  Audrey is making a ball, James is making an owl and Noah an octopus.  Ben wanted absolutely nothing to do with touching the paste and opted for (minimally) helping me make a volcano then sticking to painting while the others worked.  If nothing else, Ben knows his limits and what he is willing to do:)

Boston Visit!

We have been studying a lot about Leonard DaVinci during the last month or so. The Boston Museum of Science had an awesome special exhibit about DaVinci, so we were all over that!  I was a bit nervous about how it would go in a more grown-up museum with all of the kids by myself (Gabe was on call this weekend and couldn't make the trip), but they did an amazing job!  Like good homeschoolers, they loved checking out DaVinci's inventions, had lots of questions for the kind lady diseccting the ox eye, the one with the sea shells and the volunteer who helped them assemble the bones of a chimpanzee...  They were also happy to make some secret messages with invisible ink at the end.  There are some serious advantages to visiting places while everyone else is in school:)

After the science museum we spent two nights with our Boston friends.  On Saturday with joined our Vermont friends and attended the Women's March Boston.  I struggled with this idea at first, but realized that this was an incredibly important way to expose the kids to democracy in action and to be part of something bigger than themselves.  We have had lots of thought provoking and interesting conversations during the weeks leading up to the march. I thought for sure we would have to have some harder conversations after the march based on what they saw or heard.  I was blown away by how appropriate everyone was. The kids did far better than I could have ever imagined!  It was packed with people, they waited and listened patiently during the rally and then we had to wait about 90 minutes just to march. We were all proud to watch the news that night to see what we were a part of on not just a local or country scale, but globally.  The above is a picture of them sitting, having snacks and keeping busy with quite activities. It was totally worth all of the hassle for this experience:)

Winter Observations

The pigs are growing well and are adapting well to the snow and cold weather, they seem quite content in their house.  They are such neat animals to get to know... I hope we won't have too much of a hard time saying goodbye in a month...  They are gentle with the kids and love to have people around to talk to them.  They run all around in the paths they have packed down.

The next picture down is James.  He has gotten hooked on the Box Car Children book series.  As is his personality, James can't put the book down until he finds out what happens in the end.  Here is the mistake I made this morning... letting him bring the book into the grocery store... Let's just say more than once I had to help him narrowly miss a display or retrace my steps to figure out where he was last wandering:)

We had a gorgeous day this week and took science outside to make some observations about nature.  All four kids enjoyed this and came up with some great drawings and discoveries.

Audrey sometimes struggles with bedtime for many different reasons, but on this night, I came upstairs to find this in the kids bathroom.  She obviously thought this set up would be more comfortable than her bed.  Of course, she changed her mind because when I came up stairs she was back in her room... She certainly keeps us on our toes!

Skiing and Braces!

Ski season is getting exciting around here!  With plenty of great snow we have all spent time at both Titcomb and Black Mountain. Ben has become a great skier with good control and, to our surprise, is scared of going too fast, so he makes great turns.  Audrey is also getting out on the slopes with her edge wedgies and "backpack".  She seems unafraid, so we will see where that heads.  She will, hopefully, get lots of practice at Titcomb this year while all three brothers are in Sno Cats.

In other exciting news, Noah has braces.  He has lost all but one of his baby teeth, so we are hoping we can get this taken care of earlier in his life.  He is pretty excited about having braces, not so excited about not being able to chew gum for the next 2-3 years;)