Elementary Chemistry One advantage of Home School; you can learn fun and amazing things at your own pace. The kids are studying geometry, algebra, and we even have had some chemistry lessons. Good stuff for elementary school kids. Here's a whiteboard after a chemistry lesson on fuels and carbohydrates:
carson Fire Station Open House How often do you get to use an actual fire hose? Several weeks ago, the fire station near us had an open house. So went visited with the fire fighters and the kids were able to learn more about their jobs.
Manassas, VA The kids and I decided to give Angela a day off, so after the food drive, we went shopping, then to Manassas, VA. It was a neat town and it had a great museum. They had a scavenger hunt / quiz that the kids eagerly completed. It wasn't easy,
Motorcycle Girl Savannah decided that she knows how to ride a bicycle, she should learn to ride the motorcycle. So she started practicing on Saturday and did well.
Boy Scout Canned Food Drive We woke up early on Saturday and distributed bags for the Boy Scout canned food drive. It was cold, but the kids eagerly served.
Halloween The kids had a blast trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. We were able to meet more of the neighbors. We were the only kids out on Halloween on our street. We also went onto a nearby cross street, where we saw one other child. In the end, people were happy to
Neighborhood Wildlife It's amazing the wildlife you can observe in our neighborhood. We went for a small walk this afternoon and this is what we saw (we also saw a fox and lots of birds, but didn't get pictures of them): I love how this beautiful flower is
Switch Witch The Switch Witch has visited us the last couple of years. We let the kids pick out their favorite candies, then Mom and Dad trade the 'Switch Witch' gift for the rest of their candy. The kids end up a with small gift and only the candies they
savannah Learning to Ride Bicycle We didn't have a good area for the kids to ride bicycles in Atlanta, so Tucker and Savannah didn't get much experience until we moved to Fairfax. A few weeks ago, Tucker said, "I don't want the training wheels on my bicycle anymore.
Carson and Savannah Angela and I upgraded our phones, and the camera on my new phone is really good. I took a couple quick shots of the kids and was shocked at how well they turned out.
US Marine Corp Museum, Quantico Living near DC, you have easy access to amazing places and most of them are free. We decided to go to the United States Marine Corp Museum near the Quantico Marine base (about a 25 minute drive from our house). We were in awe; even walking up to it is
Warrenton, VA Keith and the kids spent Saturday exploring Virginia. They starting by visiting a nice small town, Warrenton, VA. It was a clean old town with charming historic buildings. Surrounding it were beautiful farms and country roads lined will the autumn leaves.
Lots and Lots of Yard Work The kids and I bagged up 13 large yard bags of pine needles and leaves this weekend. The scary thing: there will be at least another dozen or two more in the next couple of months. The mower does an amazing job and vacuuming up the pine needles.
carson Mt Bethel Elementary Fun Run The boys wanted to participate in the Mount Bethel Elementary Fun Run. We're not the most athletic family, but they did pretty well on the one mile run. After the race, I asked the kids if they'd like to stay and look at the booths and
Halloween Trick or treating Getting ready to go to the trunk or treat at the church building We carved pumpkins the Monday before Halloween, but they got moldy and collapsed 4 days later! Savannah in her Wee School class fall party
carson Carson's Pinewood Derby - Super Mario Brothers Car It's Pinewood Derby time again for Cub Scouts. This year, Carson decided to go with a Super Mario Brother's theme. He came up with a really creative car!
carson Carson's Origami Video Here is a video of him Carson explaining how to make one of his origami creations: [ Your browser does not support this video. ](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media.keithandangela.com/2015-03-10+Carson%27s+Origami/2015-03-10_CarsonsOrigami.mp4)
carson Carson's Rubiks Cube Record Carson loves solving Rubik's cubes. He now has a 2x2x2 cube, a 3x3x3 (standard rubik's cube size), a Pyraminx (pyramid shaped cube), and a 4x4x4 on order. So far, his records are: 3x3x3: 59 seconds Pyraminx: 27 seconds 2x2x2: about a minute Here is a video
Christmas Nativity The Mattys' spent the afternoon and evening with us. We had fun with archery, dirt bikes, and just playing. Dinner was delicious. After dinner, we re-enacted the nativity. It was so cute. [ Your browser does not support this video. ](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media.keithandangela.com/2014-12-24+Christmas+Nativity/
Santa At our request, Santa came to our home a day early. Tucker devised a plan to determine if Santa is real. He decided that there were two options. Option one: leave a plate of cookies. If they have been eaten by morning, then Santa must exist. The other was to
