Poetry by James

James has been writing poetry too. Here's two of his latest poems that he created at our recent book club meeting with our homeschool group.

Green

Green is grass
Grass is green
Green is leaves
Green is a tractor cutting hay


Giraffe
long neck
eating drinking, sleeping
I love giraffes
lovely

Cal's poem

We've been studying the American Revolution for a few weeks. I asked Cal to summarize our learning by writing. He chose to create the following poem:


AMERICAN REVOLUTION
POEM

The American Revolution was good and bad
Some kids had to fight with their dad
People just had to shoot
But they didn’t throw their boot

The Tea Party made it start
Patriots did their part
Taxes from Britain they wanted to stop
There was a battle on Bunker’s hilltop

There was a fight at Lexington and Concord
From somewhere the first shot soared
They fought on the village green
Some were kids that were only sixteen

They fought at day and at night
The Patriots won the whole fight
The Patriots wanted to be free
So they worked tirelessly

As they worked there was not silence
They wrote the Declaration of Independence
Their own country the Patriots got
And it all started with one shot

Maple Syrup

We boiled all day and made 1 1/4 gallons of syrup today.

Cal's pictures

Some pictures taken by Cal, including a self-portrait.

Cleaning out duck boxes

A couple of weeks ago on a beautiful sunny day we headed over to help Marty and Cindy clean out the duck boxes.

Checking for eggs.

Adding fresh wood chips

Ready for this year's ducks!!

APRIL FOOLS!

The last post was a JOKE! Ha Ha. It didn't get much of a response, though?

NUMBER 5!!

BIG NEWS! Our family is growing again. Our fifth child will be born in the end of November. This will make 3 birthdays within a week or so. Five kids! WOW.

Big brother

He's such a good big brother!!!

Boys' Writing

Maple Sugaring Day by JB

One morning we started to make maple syrup. The first thing we did was build a fire with wood. Then we put cement blocks around the fire. We put the big pot over the fire. When the fire was going we poured sap into the big pot. It started to boil. While it was boiling we sat around the fire, added more sap, and we had fun. For fun, we went sliding down our hill without sleds. We had fun sliding and going fast. When we went down we pushed snow out of the way so there was ice underneath.
Noni, Jidoo, Marty, and Cindy came to watch us make maple syrup. When the sap was almost syrup we put it into a smaller pot and boiled it over the propane burner. We boiled it until it turned dark brown and into syrup. Then we filtered it into jars. With some of the syrup we poured it onto snow and ate with pickles and kielbasa.
I had a fun day making maple syrup!!!

Maple Syrup by Cal


Maple syrup is so yummy
It is good in your tummy
It is sweet and very sticky
But it is not one bit icky

Maple sap looks like water
You can collect it with your daughter
Boiling it is takes all day
While you wait you can play

Maple trees produce the sap
And in the tree you put a tap
On each tap hangs a pail
And a cover to keep out hail

Maple syrup is used to eat
And it makes things really sweet
I like waffles, crepes, and pancakes,
Ice cream, French toast, whatever Mom makes.

Syrup

We made some syrup yesterday. Here are some pictures and a video of the day:

Oh yeah, the kids had time for a little fun too:

Sunshine!

Beauty:

Snowshoes

A sampling of snowshoes. We get around pretty good with them. Lily loves 'em.

A sampling of snowshoes. We get around pretty good with them. Lily loves 'em.

Maple Time

We put out our taps and hung our buckets recently. We have 15 taps this year.

Lily

Just some cuteness.......

Skating

We get out to skate every day at least once a day....it's great having a rink in your backyard.

Leah is happily sporting her new "hot" pink laces...when I was telling her they were "hot" pink she reached down and touched the laces and said "Yeah, they are a little warm." I guess hot pink wasn't in her box of crayons! She also told me that they make her skate faster!.

Hockey Weekend - part 2

After leaving Potsdam we headed towards Lake Placid before going home. On our way we stopped in Saranac Lake to see them building this ice castle for their Winter Celebration weekends. We could see them harvesting the ice right from the lake and then using it to build the castle.

We then stopped in Lake Placid to skate and play hockey. There is a large area cleared off for skating. There were many people outside walking, skiing on the lake, skating, playing hockey, and enjoying the beautiful day! Isn't this a beautiful place to skate?? We had a great time this weekend!!

Hockey Weekend

We recently took a trip up to Potsdam, NY to visit with Gramma Betty and watch some Clarkson hockey for the weekend.

We had a great time visiting with Gramma Betty. The kids loved watching the deer stealing the birds' food right in her backyard.

We also enjoyed watching the Clarkson hockey team beat RPI and Union!!! Woohoo!!!

And everyone LOVED Leah's hat she got from Uncle Mark! She wore it all weekend and got comments from everyone!

Rink's Back!

After a January thaw that melted all my ice, I've got a decent slab out there now. It's still a work in progress, but it's enough to skate on now. The kids spend hours each day out there. Here are some pics and a video of the action.

Kids' writing

Cal's tree poem:

Beech Trees

Beech trees have gray bark.
Sometimes they have an arc.
Some leaves stay
On all year. You can hear them
When you’re near.
Their leaves change from green
To brown. And a few fall, fall,
Fall down.


James' tree story:

Birch Trees

Birch trees are yellow or white. If you peel some of the birch bark off, inside it will be pink. The bark is thin like paper. Birch bark is good for starting a fire. Birch trees are big and tall. They grow straight up. I like birch trees because they are good for starting a fire. You can hear the wind blow its leaves.


Leah's tree story:

Pine Trees

Pine trees are beautiful. Once I saw a pine tree on Christmas Day. It was covered with snow. It was a small baby tree. The pine needles were gone. I like this tree because it is so small and it will never die until it gets big and old.

Backyard Rink!

With the cold weather last week I was able to get a rink started. It was bumpy and uneven, but the kids had fun.

This is a bunch of homeschoolers in Phys. Ed. class.


Lily tried skating too. She didn't like it too much.
















The rink is all but gone now with the warm weather, but they got a little use out of it. Hopefully we'll get some more below zero temperatures soon!! Right?