Sumo Wrestling & Tuesday Classes

The homeschool group in Virginia has classes every Tuesday - first is History, then we have a lunch break, second class is Film making, and third is Sign Language class.

our teachers - ginger and julie,
demonstrating how 'sumo' is done

History class is usually pretty fun! We read a few chapters out of our history book, and then our Teacher Julie quizzes us about it. Afterwards we do a craft or play a game related to what we just learned. This week in particular we learned about Samuri, so it was only natural to have our own sumo match! We learned all about the process the sumo will go through, how they have to drink water to purify themselves, and so on.


Film Making class was broke into two groups. Group A wrote and filmed a Wizard of Odd movie, based of the wizard of oz. Group B wrote and filmed a zombie movie. Each group got to work hands-on with deciding on props, special effects, editing the movie and even picking out the soundtrack. I ended up being on the Zombie making team!

Sam getting excited

Sign Language is a class I have mentioned before here.

Today for Sumo wresting we all brought pillows and just strapped on to our fronts and the other to our backs :) It was a lot of fun and it was nice to see all of the kids learning and even enjoying themselves!

Me and Jessie!

Glencoe Museum

I'm always willing to explore new places, and this place in particular is somewhere I've driven by many times, but for some reason our family has never stopped there. This place is called the Glencoe Museum. I actually had no idea what this place was about until we visited it just recently.

• Glencoe gives visitors a fascinating look back at the Victorian way of life during the post-Civil War years. Built by Confederate Brigadier General Gabriel C. Wharton, the house and grounds provide an intimate view of a lost way of life.

I learned a lot from going to the museum, and I'm glad we finally took the trip inside!

The doorways and ceilings are so huge and tall, not to mention all of the many windows of this house, it is so bright inside. My mother said it reminded her of her great-aunt's house :)

A courting chair, how times have changed...

This house was filled with such elegance, and housed many things that seem so foreign but yet at the same time familiar. Many of the things I recognized, and even my mother used when she was a girl.

This house is different from a modern day home- they have a fire place in many of the rooms, also there was no indoor bathroom or running water. Our guide was very informative and answered any questions we had! (We've also seen him before, he works at the local library as well!)

The upstairs had a bedroom, but also had many different kinds of artifacts and information.

We learned about Native American history, and also go to see items the Native American Indians in this area would have used. Another thing we learned about was the Civil War and the railroad history of Virginia.

•  A purple heart. A military decoration for those wounded or killed in action. My grandfather received one of these.

We also ventured downstairs, to a room which is now used as an art gallery, the art shown was quite interesting and I enjoyed looking at the gallery. Before the tour was over, there was one more stop to take- the one room outdoor school house!

The cone of shame...

I really enjoyed our time here at the Glencoe Museum and we all learned so many new things!

Ingles Farm

I love adventure and going new places, so I was rather excited that we'd be going over to the Ingles Farm here in Virginia! The farm, also known as Ingles Ferry, is a great example of what life was like back in the 18th century. We got there on a Sunday morning just before they opened, the air was still cool and no one else was there touring the farm except us!

Me wearing wooden shoes, imagine walking in these!

It was a very educational experience and yet very enjoyable, we learned about different weapons and tools used in the 18th century, about how people would have lived and survived, also about the clothes they wore and what kind of food someone would have eaten. Joshua was especially interested in learning about how to make bullets, and was very happy to see their example of how to shoot a gun.

We learned about Carding Wool and using a Spinning Wheel, something I'm already familiar with, My mother uses a droop spindle and we card wool all the time! I enjoyed petting the Hog Island Sheep, they felt like a sweater!

•  Ingles Farm Hog Island Sheep, they are a breed of sheep descended from animals first brought to Virginia's Hog Island in the 1700s. During the 1930s and 1940s, storm conditions forced the island's residents to evacuate, leaving some sheep behind. These sheep adapted to the environment free of human intervention, becoming feral.

 
A lovely lady sat us down, and she told us the story of Mary Draper Ingles, about her being captured by the Shawnee Indians and the tale of her escape, it's a very interesting tale, I could imagine going through something like that! Click here to read more about Mary Draper Ingles

Flax Flowers, just before harvesting

 

 

 

 

• Flax is grown both for its seeds and for its fiber. Various parts of the plant have been used to make fabric, dye, paper, medicines, fishing nets, hair gels,cloths,ropes,high quality paper and soap. Flax seed is the source of linseed oil, which is used as an edible oil, as a nutritional supplement, and as an ingredient in many wood finishing products.

After which we learned about Flax, and I got to help in the process of making flax! In the end, this will become a piece of clothing, or can also be used as flax seed (something we eat in our house!) and many other things. It was such a wonderful day, and we all learned so many new things. It's interesting how things from the 18th are not all too different from what we use today.

Ingles Farm

Storms and power outage

Heatwave, humidity, storms, lightning, thunder, rain, winds, destruction... what a way to start the summer!

It all started on June twenty ninth- Mom and I had just gotten home from attending an event at the state park, when dad announces that "Bad storms are coming" I knew it was going to rain that night, but I didn't realize how bad it would then become. Everyone in the campground started to put their awnings up, I was standing outside when the clouds became black as night, and then the wind started. A wind that was said to be 60-80mph, and I defiantly believe it. The cool breeze was refreshing from the days humidity, but it was so strong I felt as if I'd be lifted off the ground. The trees started dancing in the wind, you could feel the camper shaking and rocking back and forth. I honestly have never seen a wind like this in my life! Tornadoes of dust swirled around in the air, taking rocks and other objects around and around with the dust. My aunt said that her neighbor "had just gotten home when the storm hit" getting out of their vehicle and putting her little three year old daughter on the ground "when the wind literally picked her up, she started flying away!" she had to grab her by the arms, luckily the girl is OK. I could never imagine being picked up by the wind like that.

A tree limb fell right on top of a camper, destroying their awning and creating a large hole in the roof of their camper. Dad went out there with a flashlight, despite the strong winds, many other people went out to join him. After the wind had died down a bit, you could see many flashlights shining in the dark, going all which ways checking out the damage in the campground. By morning many of the people had left and gone home, except for us few that live here. There was four-five generators all running at once, it was so very noisy outside, plus the the fact the temperature was a hundred and ten degrees outside and one hundred percent humidity, it felt miserable. Along the road many huge trees were knocked down in the storm, for almost four days we had no electricity or power. Luckily our motor home as a battery, and we also have a built in generator. Though it still meant no showers or water for awhile!

 

The next day we all pitched in to started cleaning up parts of all fallen trees and branches, no one was hurt here though four campers had branches/trees come down on them. In the area, it was estimated an entire two million people without power, they were opening cooling shelters for people in need. Luckily we've had our power back on for a few days now, though the heat is still tremendously hot, and many people are still without power. People in the stores were fighting over lanterns, bottled water, and water jugs, you could tell they were getting desperate! I am thankful that we are blessed to have cool air conditioning and water.