pumpkin picking

2023-24 School Year–Week Seven

Ladybug learned how to find reference angles in pre-calculus. She started reading The Divine Comedy. In history, she read about the Byzantine Empire and the fall of the Comneni dynasty. She finished the chapter on solving two-dimensional motion problems in physics by using the range equation to solve for parabolic motion. She wrote an essay about the three main narrative point-of-view choices in writing. In health, she started a new chapter on interpersonal harmony.

Chickadee reviewed geometry terms in math. In grammar she reviewed coordinating conjunctions. She finished the chapter on the digestive system in science, ending with the renal system. We started reading Felicity’s Surprise. In history she read about the Sui dynasty in China and the Yamato dynasty in Japan. We continued reading Anne of Green Gables and baked Miss Ellen’s Pound Cake from The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook.

And finally, it cooled off just in time for us to go pumpkin picking today! There’s not much that ruins a field trip like trying to pick a pumpkin while it’s hot out, so I was very grateful for the literal change in the wind!

Chickadee Thursday

Last Friday was one of Chickadee’s favorite days of the year…our annual trip to the Braeutigum Orchards pumpkin patch!

She was very excited to find a stripey pumpkin again this year, which she named Tony, following the similarly-named Tiger and Tigger she picked in previous years.

A Perfect Fall Afternoon at the Pumpkin Patch

On Friday afternoon, we went to pick out a pumpkin or two (or four!) at Braeutigum’s. It was the perfect day for it…cool, with big puffy clouds. We rode in the tractor pulled wagon to the pumpkin patch for the first time in several years:

There were many different varieties from which to choose:

We also saw the local wildlife:

Moose had the day off of school, and Turkey and Bunny are done with their college classes fairly early on Fridays, so they joined us:

When we got home, we enjoyed a snack of hot apple cider and fresh apple cider donuts:

Now it really feels like fall is here!

2022-23 School Year–Week Eight

We started the week with a rare Sunday field trip, to Grant’s Farm:

Ladybug learned how to identify the conjugates of a binomial in algebra 2. In chemistry, she read about single, double, and triple bonds to finish the fourth chapter. We finally finished Romeo and Juliet…she’s glad to be done with that (although we do still need to watch the movie)! She read about the High Kings of Britain, Niall of the Nine Hostages, and St. Patrick in history. In grammar, she started identifying appositive phrases. Now that it’s October, we set aside Recipes from the World of Tolkien for the time being, and made a dinner from The Nightmare Before Christmas Cookbook, featuring Vampire Brothers Bloody Party Punch, Snake and Spider Stew, (an albondigas or Mexican meatball soup with fettuccine “snakes”), and Oogie Boogie Meringues.

Chickadee made factor trees in math, and reviewed multiplying three-digit numbers. We finished reading Heidi and started Homer Price. In history, she learned about the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and the Hyksos. We read about hyenas, mongooses, and meerkats in science, finishing the chapter on Feliforms. She put everything together that she’s learned in grammar so far to diagram some complex sentences. We also did a little baking together this week, making s’mores cookies from the My Little Pony Baking Book:

And we ended the week with a field trip to the pumpkin patch:

We’re already almost a quarter of the way done with the school year…I can’t believe it!

2021-22 School Year–Week Ten

This has been a really long week, so I guess I’m kind of glad it’s over. But we have had a lot of fun, too, so it wasn’t all bad. Ladybug learned about the different kinds of triangles in geometry. She worked on writing conversations for her writing course. In science she looked at the difference between plant and animal cells under the microscope. We’ve made it through the worst part of Little Women…but now there’s very little of the book left! We finished all of the main recipes I wanted to make in The Little Women Cookbook…Jo’s Gingerbread, and baked New England cod served with 1850 tartar sauce.

Chickadee continued to make factor trees in math. We read about sea snakes in science. She continued to diagram the predicate nominative in grammar. Her geography lesson focused on Antarctica, so we didn’t do any cooking this week…and we didn’t want to eat raw fish like penguins!

We also visited the pumpkin patch this week, and picked out a nice trio of pumpkins. This is always one of my favorite field trips of the year!

I can’t believe next week is already the last week of October!

Pumpkin Picking in the Time of COVID-19

I was kind of worried about pumpkin picking this year. Actually, I had pretty much given up on the idea of us going, and I was planning on just buying a pumpkin when I went grocery shopping, because there was no way we were comfortable with piling into a tractor-pulled wagon with a bunch of people who would hopefully be wearing masks. But then I found out that most sincere pumpkin patch in the area, Braeutigum Orchards, was not only requiring masks and social distancing, they were also offering the option to walk to the pumpkin patch, and that was something we were all comfortable with! Yesterday was the perfect fall day, so we took a break from school to find the Great Pumpkin.

Actually, in some ways, in addition to being a slightly new and different experience, it was a superior experience. We got to see some parts of the farm up close for the first time ever, and it was beautiful:

There were still quite a few pumpkins left, even though it’s pretty late in the season. One thing I love about Braeutigum’s is the wide variety of pumpkin shapes and colors they offer. Being able to borrow one of their hand wagons was a fun new experience, and made our job much easier, too, which is how we ended up with four different pumpkins in three colors!

We stopped to visit the animals while we were there…we always see the chickens and turkeys, but we don’t usually get to see barn cats…we came across at least six of them!

Taking pictures was a little different this year, what with the masks and all, but it’s a memory.

Did I mention it was a beautiful day?

Of course we picked up apple cider and apple cider donuts to enjoy at home:

This was a really positive experience in a surreal time, and made yesterday feel almost like a normal day!