November isn’t nearly so busy up in Canada… this American Thanksgiving thing takes getting used to and we have not gotten there yet. I am not a Black Friday shopping person… that is WAY too close to Christmas for my comfort. BUT we do try to cover something about it each year in our homeschool curriculum.

What is funny is that when I do these blog entries looking back at these months long gone I try to think about the month before I look at the pictures on the camera and our phone… November… well beyond Thanksgiving… well I drew a total blank… November, fall, I am pretty sure Nana and Baba took a trip… maybe… crochet, I know I did a lot of that (but when don’t I?)… we had to have homeschooled… crafted some I am sure… but concrete things… well darn you November, you just didn’t stick on the brain!

These flew off to Canada for a group of little girls to enjoy.

Oh wait! Remembrance Day… I mean Veteran’s Day… Though I wear my poppy and called it the former… don’t forget that. We did a mini unit on it that month. I do love the In Flander’s Fields poem (and not just because a Canadian wrote it).

Let’s see… we played in the snow… at the end of the month.

We did Home Depot.

We were thankful with our gratitude turkey feathers.

Echo got her inner artist going.

Trinity and Emanuel helped me make handmade Christmas cards.

We managed to make it to a craft at the Lakeshore educational store. 

We started our Christmas decorating with a mini tree in the basement. 

And put the large one up in the dining area for a lovely Christmas glow.

We made a trip to the Lego store at Mall of America. The kids love playing with the blocks they have out for use. 

Of course we set up our advent calendars. Echo got her very own paper chain countdown that she helped me put together.

We had company over. Cousin Robbie one night, the Schwartz family another.

We made a visit over to Robbie’s house too where Aunty Judy introduced us to their turtle.

And had a homeschool field trip to a newspaper for the twins! 

Of course we did some shopping and with decorations at Walmart and cute little ones at Sam’s.. I took pictures. I think all in all we did good last November!!

We had a few hours free and the need to show our Canadian visitor Uncle Sean a little Minnesota history… what better place than the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul? HERE

We have our teacher’s membership (totally an awesome deal… you get a discount on the year and access to so many great educational venues) renewed so we were good to go. The drive wasn’t overly long and the weather absolutely beautiful! 

There was so much to see (and photograph) so I indulged. Right in the center of a rather impressive set of staircase is the replica of an old wooden flyer – a Jennie. 

This model took 10 yrs to create.

Then there were the different sections of the museum itself to enjoy. We did not visit all of them but managed to take in quite a bit. Sean was especially interested in the war era section complete with videos, a malt shop and more. 

Behind the counter

Do my kids even truly understand what this is???

A very simple pinball game.

What songs were popular back then?

Of course we checked out the weather area so that Sean could see the tornado video that freaked out the twins a year or two ago.

How dare I interrupt their reading???

Learning about how to ready wild rice eat.

And we ran through the grainery, the section on settler life and the area on the native american roots. 

Finally tall enough to play in the whole area!

I was absolutely thrilled that we managed to not miss the very impressive Hmong exhibit. This is a special exhibit that is only in place for a limited time and I was rather concerned we would miss it. I absolutely loved the colours in the traditional clothing… I am absolutely committed to covering the Hmong people and their history and reasons for coming to Minnesota next year. I think it will be a great experience for all of us. 

Cherished items brought to Minnesota.

I think we wore out Uncle Sean!

So sit back and enjoy the rest of the images. All in all a GREAT outing… I think we all learned something new. 

Part of “The Greatest Generation” display.

I used to collect Betty Boop items myself!

Echo was pro at assembling artillery shells.

I found this an interesting artifact… a medal for a large family…

Retro… but yet… popular recently too!

Waving good-bye before she “boards the plane”.

Victory undergarments… these made me giggle. They were designed the year BEFORE the USA went to war.

Can you lift a pack half the weight of what someone could carry in one pack on a hunting expedition? Echo can’t … it weighed more than her!

Creating a pattern.

Learning about the fur trade.

We listened to part of the video about the schools the native children were sent to… such a weird image… our kids who have their right to whatever education I chose for them and the children who had no choice.

Airport seating hasn’t changed much has it?

And now for the rest of my Hmong images:

Such a wonderful day!

Where were you in 2007? This bridge collapse in Minnesota will always stick in our minds… Ken’s folks drove that bridge the morning it fell and dear friends would have been on it at the time of collapse if not for a dr’s appointment! HERE

We covered Christmas in a new way… we found some lapbooks and some mini units and worked our way through some interesting topics. I feel like I should include some of the links and a brief overview of what we used:

• The history of Wassailing…. this was a booklet topic in our lapbook series and something that we had never discussed. You can find a good link HERE. Most of these are from the site WhyChristmas.com
• The history of the Christmas Cracker. We had these one year at my mom’s and they were a hit. You can find this one HERE.
• Holly (and Ivy). Greens and their part in Christmas is actually rather interesting. Read some more HERE.
• Christmas presents. Why do we give presents? HERE
• Just what DO kids leave for Santa around the world? This was an especially fun one for the boys who laughed at some of the ideas. We may just have to leave something different out next Christmas ourselves! This article is from the site Mother Nature Network HERE.
• Christmas in Sweden. This was a suggestion from our lapbook… the diversity of other Christmases is amazing and one I think we need to focus on more. Our own traditions are fun but to implement some others… could be an adventure! Back to the WhyChristmas.com site HERE.
• The history of the Nativity plays. Why are they so popular and universal? HERE
• Saint Nicholas Day in Europe. Another unique tradition. Link thanks to TimeAndDate.com HERE.
• Mince Pies, a British tradition. Link thanks to Project Britain HERE.
• The history of Christmas Cards… I don’t know why but I enjoy these histories of ideas. And Christmas Cards was interesting. Link thanks to WhyChristmas.com HERE.
• The history of Christmas Stockings thanks to ChristmasWithLove.com HERE.
• We had to go to Wiki for a couple topics… Christmas Trees (HERE) and the Star of Bethelehem (HERE).

Useful materials:

• Christmas Symbols… a lapbook you can purchase from Currclick HERE.
• I could not find out Candy Cane unity that we originally purchased from Currclick up for download but this lapbook from Homeschool Share looks like a fun one that we will have to try out for ourselves another year. HERE

I know this is super brief compared to other entries but I especially wanted to share the webpages we found with all the somewhat obscure knowledge the kids found entertaining! For books… well sky is the limit! We do have our family favourites of course but there is so much out there that is informational at the libraries!