Maplewood State Park ~Pelican Rapids, MN

Maplewood State Park

I love this park so much that we ended up going three times while visiting family in MN!

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The first time we ended up just taking the twins and my niece.

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This is the woodland trail loop.

It is under a mile but so pretty!

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I may have told my husband that I was not going home…

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Minnesota in the fall is hard to leave!

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My adorable niece.

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For the second visit, we had all of our kids and came into the park from the south.

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This is a small portion of the Star Loop trail.

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Next, we walked some of this beautiful trail near Maplewood Church.

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I had actually decided to try a family picture with this stunning backdrop but a birthday party started.

I could not bring myself to get out my tripod and set everyone up for a family pic with an audience.

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We drove into in the park a bit more and ended up stopping to take this pic on a side road.

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I love how it looks like everyone is cooperating and having fun but in real life, I had one mad at me and glaring for most of the pics…

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On our 3rd visit, we had just the girls(the boys opted to stay and play with cousins).

We hiked on the Ironwood Trail.

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I can’t get over how pretty the woods were.

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The girls decided to throw leaves at Nick on the hike back to the vehicle.

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Love these.

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I am already missing fall in Minnesota!

Shepherd’s Cross ~Claremore, OK

Shepherd’s Cross has a really pretty farm with friendly people.

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We went to their pumpkin patch while we had a friend staying with us two weeks ago.

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This is a running farm so I do believe they have electric fences going, so be careful with little ones.

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My strategy when we have extra kids around?

All the fun things possible.

As little downtime as we can manage.

HA

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So, of course, I did quick face paint before we went.

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My nine year old requested a 19th century English Gentlemen.

 

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They have a lot of free things to do, including games and a hay maze.

 

 

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 Such a pretty location.

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Cuties.

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The staff is very nice and informative.

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This is what a worn out 3yr old looks like…

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She was done waiting for the others to finish coloring.

Ha

Do you have a favorite pumpkin patch?

Curriculum 2017-2018

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Since we are doing year-round school now grades are a little less clear-cut than normal.

So this is the curriculum I will be using for my twins that are in 1st-2nd grade.

RightStart Math Level C (we are actually still finishing up level B right now)

All About Spelling Level 1

For Handwriting, I am making my own worksheets for the twins.

They have been doing Handwriting Without Tears but they need more repetition and practice.

So I made my own worksheets that still follow the same approach as the program.

For Grammar, I am trying to work on a Montessori approach.

I bought these stencils and made the shapes out of felt.

I am hoping that this more hands-on approach will make it easier for them.

For History, I get picture books that are in the same time period the boys are learning.

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I am using easy readers like Bob books and other phonics based books for the twins reading.

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Science is similar to the boys, I just get books that cover the time period or place we are learning about.

I do try to get hands on things to go with it if possible though.

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The boys are both in 6th grade.

The boy’s math is not pictured here because it is all online.

They do VideoText.com and Khan Acadamy for math.

We have been doing both of those since last year and like it so far.

They also do;

All About Spelling Level 6(we started at level 1 and still really like it).

I am having them work through Spectrum Language Arts workbook this year for grammar.

I suppliment their history with Draw and Write through history and World Empires, World Missions, World Wars Activity Book with History Revealed.

We use the Draw and Write through History more than the other.

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This is what the inside of the two books look like.

The History Revealed book has activity and books suggestions.

I mean to use it more than I do.

I just don’t seem to get around to it.

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I have really liked the Draw and Write through History series.

It is a little too advanced for the girls yet though.

I liked the series called Draw Write Now for them but only have one book so far.

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This is the inside of the Language Arts book and Spelling book.

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I found this book filled with fact sheets on World War 1 for a really good deal and have really liked it.

I usually find free quizzes or crosswords online for the boys but this was so cheap and easy I could not pass it up.

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I have some of these Professor Noggins quiz games to help the boys review what they have learned.

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This is an example of how many books I bought for our current study.

I rely heavily on library books for the boy’s History, Science, and Geography.

I also bought a few ebooks to go with our current study.

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For handwriting practice, I have the boys do copywork from our current study.

For example, speeches from World War 1 or poetry from that time period.

I tie the different subjects together by timeline and keep track of it on a spreadsheet.

September The Industrial Revolution , Cotton Gin USA French and Indian Wars, and American Revolution The Runaway’s Revenge, The Chimney Sweep’s
Ransom(ebooks). G.A Henty Novels
1700’s Mid-Late Beethovan US Supreme court
October The Locomotive, Steam Engines Napoleon, French Revolution, William Carey, Lewis and Clark Alexandre Dumas Beethovan
November Steam Boat, Erie canal War of 1812, Francis Scott Key, Peter Cartwright, William Carey The Broken Blade and The Wintering
~The Sign of the Beaver, Mark Twain, Abandoned
on the Wild Frontier, “William Wordsworth
” ,Cooper
Early 1800’s Beethovan
December James Audubon, Samuel F. B. Morse Africa Battle of the Alamo, David Livingston, Davy Crockett,
Daniel Boone
Jules Verne Mid 1800’s
January Gold, Thomas Edison, Joseph Lister,
Ferdinand Cohn, Microbes
California Gold Rush, Oregon Trail
February Cells Irish Potato Famine
March Bacteria
April
May Alfred Nobel(Dynamite), Louis Pasteur, Robert
Koch, Viruses
Clara Barton, Pre-Civil War, Lincoln, Crimean War Mid 1800’s
Elevator, Transcontinental Railroad Eastern USA, Mexico Civil War, Clara Barton, Cinco de Mayo
Gregor Mendel, Genetics Western USA Oregon Trail, Westward Expansion
June Nikola Tesla, Bell, Electricty Germany, France Franco-Prussian War, the statue of liberty, Eiffel tower The Young Franc Tireurs And Their Adventures in the Franco-Prussian War,
Lamplighter
1870
George Washington Carver, Marie Curie William Booth, Van Gough, Paris Expo Sherlock Holmes, 1880
August Wright Brothers, Flying Antarctica Russo-Japanese War, Entente Cordiale, Leading up
to WW1, Roosevelt, Panama Canal, Antarctic Exped.
Brighty 1900’s
September Albert Einstein Europe WW1 The west point story(ebook), Spies of World War 1(ebook), one of ours (ebook). Sergeant York (ebook) 1914
Amelia Earhart, The Great Depression,
Atomic bomb WW2, Winston Churchill, Chuck Yeager Sound of Music, Winged Watchman(ebook), Lost Squardron 1939

 

This is what we covered over the last year.

It is constantly changing.

If I see something interesting I would like to cover than I find a place to add it in.

I like that I can just add in things we maybe missed to catch the next time around.

I don’t stick to a set schedule on how long each study will take.

It mostly depends on interest level and amount of materials to cover.