Easter 2014

Our church celebrates the preparation for Resurrection Sunday with an old fashion Brethren Love Feast (note, we are not actually Brethren) and a foot-washing. Here's one diligent little foot-washer.










I was able to take the girls to my grandmother's house for Easter again this year, so we dyed eggs and harassed some barn cats. Visiting with family was a pleasure too. Happy Easter to the rest of you we haven't seen yet!







 

A whole lot of learning has also been going on here. Last week the two big girls spent two hours pouring over the Little Passports package that came in the mail. This month's packet on Egypt brought with it an artifact hidden in plaster, so the girls chipped away at it patiently to unearth a sarcophagus. Pearl also spent time playing the related geography games online. Thanks Aunt R!

We had our final CHAMP co-op. I had rented a chest of colonial 'arti-fakes' from the museum in York, then I led Pearl's class and then Sapphire's class through exploring the objects. Both classes were pretty much terrified of the blood-letting bowl, but they loved dressing up like colonials.

In the evening we had our Show and Tell, a little closing ceremony that allows the children a chance to take the stage and show their new knowledge.









And so far we've fit two field trips into this week. Pearl toured a local courthouse and jail on Tuesday, and today I took her and a friend to the Landis Valley Museum for a wool to weave workshop. We carded wool and learned to weave tape.

Trophies and Treasures

Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Pearl took last week off since she needed to readjust to Eastern Standard time. We did go to co-op, of course, where the girls in my class built a spoon doll with all the layers of colonial women's clothing.  This week I told her we have to get back into it, though I think we will skip history, culture, and geography after all she learned on the trip.

Jet-lagged, but happy

The girls seemed mostly shocked by the fact that boys wore dresses until they were breeched at seven, and that under all those layers, they didn't have any underwear.

Yesterday, after waving the palms at Palm Sunday service, we had a chance to celebrate a friend's first birthday, then the little girls attended their first Awana Grand Prix. Their daddy chose to ignore the speed race element and worked with the girls entirely on design. They each painted their pine wood derby cars, though they got a little help with the touch up.

In the end, Sapphire was pleased that she earned a trophy that reads "2nd" since of course two is more than one, and Ruby only got a "1st." 

I have been aggressively cleaning my attic, and this has uncovered some nice memories. Here is my contribution to my sixth grade class's Book of Aspirations from 1990, twenty-four years ago.

"My dream is to become a historian. I am interested in history and with to build on that. I could use this and later become a college professor. I would especially like to learn about the European countries, and someday I would love to go to Europe myself. I think that this could help me because I could find more reliable information. I hope that I can do both of these things in my life, and enjoy them too."

Four others from my class wanted to be an archaeologist. Only one wanted to be a marine biologist, so this must have been during the window of time between Indiana Jones and Free Willy.  I didn't realize these plans had been with me for so long. Here is another dream fulfilled: a big girl holding her baby cousin for the first time.

Stitchin' Samplers

 
Pearl is getting ready for a big trip, and that means packing and preparation. We came home from our sneaker-buying outing to find that Sapphire and her daddy had been hard at work crafting a creative pinewood derby entry for Awana. Can you tell what favorite frozen treat inspired them?

Today I took the girls to our co-op. I had been excited to teach Pearl's class about samplers, and, from the comments I overheard as they were stitching, I think they loved it. Many of the girls had never stitched a thing before, and my helpers and I had plenty of re-threading and helping to do.

fter lunch, our co-op headed into York to see the York Heritage Trust museums. The kids enjoyed seeing a Conestoga wagon, a York city trolley, and a working sawmill. I was relieved once Sapphire had moved past all those working parts.

Then we toured the Gates House and the Golden Plough Tavern, both from the mid-eighteenth century. This was the perfect field trip for our Colonial Crafts class, and the girls got a kick out of just about everything. They saw a candle dipping machine and practiced being an excitable, fairly inefficient fire brigade.

Pearl has been reading many audio books with the help of the Kindle. Choosing books for her is especially tricky, but I suppose I only have myself to blame. Recently, when I selected A Little Princess, she refused to listen to more than a minute of this perfectly interesting book. When I asked her why she wouldn't give it a chance, she told me, "The reader does not have a British accent." This requirement knocks out a good many of the audio books we have available! We have had better luck with How to Train Your Dragon, A Horse and His Boy, Robin Hood, and The Book of Three.