Jamestown: Here we come! (Part 1)

Statue of Pocahontas

(We had been reading several books about her that week)

John Rolfe (Pocahontas' husband)

He was great! He interacted with the kids and really made history come alive.

Archeological digging still in process......really cool to see!

Statue of Captain John Smith overlooking the James River

Model of first Jamestown fort

Glass building in background is where the first statehouse was built

Now the location of artifacts found from archeological dig

Plaque below the wooden cross.....To the Glory of God!


Kids standing where the first permanent English settlement began

Outside the church in the Jamestown settlement

(5th church built on site.....fires destroyed most of the others)

Inside the church

Last weekend, David woke me up on Saturday morning around 9:00 and said, "Let's do it.....let's go to Jamestown today." We had been studying it in school that week, but I did not think we could actually go there and visit....wasn't it a long way? Little did I know that it was only a 2 1/2 hour drive from our house! David had been doing some research that morning on the computer and found a great deal on priceline for a hotel room nearby in Williamsburg for the night. So we literally threw some clothes together and by the afternoon we were walking on the same ground that the early settlers discovered 400 years earlier. How many times do you get to study something and actually go and see it the next day? We all had a lot of fun exploring the area and learning a lot. I wonder where we will be headed this weekend? Maybe we need to study the Caribbean Islands next week?

Jamestown: Here we come! (Part 2)

My Englishmen:)

The kids in front of the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery ships

Inside the ship....sleeping nook

On deck of the Susan Constant (largest one) overlooking the 2 others

Touring the Powhatan village

Touching the deerskin

Outside a Powhatan home

(homes were built by the women in the village)

Luke grinding corn

Standing on a huge map outside the museum with their bows and arrows from our trip

One exhausted kiddo on the way home!

After eating pancakes at the local pancake house in Williamsburg, we headed to the living history museum: Jamestown Settlement. It is a 30,000 square foot living-history museum located a few miles from historical Jamestown. It was built in 2007 in celebration of Jamestown's 400 year birthday. It has a theater, hands-on museum, Powhatan Indian village, 3 replicas of the 3 ships that carried the settlers across the ocean, and James Fort as it would have looked 4oo years ago. It was a lot of fun and we ended up staying there a lot longer than we had anticipated. Definitely a must-see if you ever visit the Williamsburg area.We definitely had some tired kiddos (and big kids!) at the end of the weekend, but it was so worth it!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Luke posing in front of the yummy chocolate fudge cake (Kids picked it out at a local bakery in town)

Reading homemade cards the kids made

Happy Birthday, Daddy! He woke up to a delicious breakfast in bed prepared by the kids: banana pancakes, turkey bacon, eggs and orange juice. The kids wrote a song for him that they performed along with drums and tamporines. If he wasn't already fully awake, he was now! We also took him out to dinner that night and had a yummy fudge cake for dessert. We love you Daddy and hope your day was extra special!

Week 2

Andrew using his blocks to practice writing his B's
One of the advantages of homeschool.....reading while lying on the sofa:)

Andrew working on his computer skills

Painting a map of Columbus' voyage to the New World

The final product

We had another great week here at Shaw Academy:) Together,we learned a lot about Christopher Columbus and his four trips to the Americas. We also did some neat experiments with air pressure and gravity. During Bible (aka BIB...."Bible in bed") the children learned what Jesus' name means ( The Lord Saves) and what the Old Testment says about Jesus. Definitely our favorite part of the day! Hanging out in bed together and reading God's Word.....nothing sweeter on Earth!

Honey Joins the Family

Daddy holding Honey
Trying to hold Honey

Luke with his new pet

Honey's new cage....defintely reminds us of a space ship!

A new pet joined our family on Sunday. Luke was so excited about being able to have and care for a pet of his very own. Eventually we would like to get a puppy, but we settled on an easier alternative for now. He had lots of choices: frog, lizard, turtle, fish, kitten? Which would it be? He chose a hamster just like his big sister. He even wanted the same species....Chinese dwarf hamster. Sunny has been such a wonderful and easy pet, and Luke wanted one just like Sunny. Well, he definitely looks a lot like him, but that's where the similarity ends so far. He is VERY fast! He has not gotten away yet, but he certainly would like to! He literally jumps out of your hands! We will keep you posted on our latest hamster escapes....I mean adventures!

By the way, he named him Honey. It was in honor of my two hamsters growing up whose names were Honey and Sunny. He also has a brownish/goldish color.

Pie in the Face

Here is Sarah with Mrs. Cole, a second grade teacher, who volunteered to get a mouthful of pie at the festival

Oops! Meant to post this a few months ago! I found this clip in the blog archives.

Sarah was picked from a school drawing to be the pie "thrower" at Falcon Fest, an end of the year carnival at her school. Of all the students to be picked, Sarah was probably the least excited (and most nervous) of the bunch!

Our first week

Will it float or sink? (the answer is .......)

Float!

My little scientists at work
Luke's viking ship under construction


Hat on and ready to try out her ship



Here are a few pictures from our first week of homeschool. We learned about Leif Ericcson and the vikings in history, so we decided to make our own viking ships. It was a lot of fun! I found an inexpensive way to create them by using trash! Gotta love the internet....such amazing ideas out there! Sarah could not wait for her ship to set sail down our backyard creek. Unfortunately it did not go anywhere. We are waiting for the next good rain to fall so that the creek will have a good flow. We also did some float/sink experiments in science. Will post more soon!