November has been enrichment month for the boys and I, since ending our homeschooling one of the things I miss most is our field trips. Then it hit me, we can still do field trips whenever we want! So I decided to schedule an outing each week of the month to broaden our horizons, explore some landmarks in Michigan and just spend time together learning. The boys have been very appreciative of my efforts and most of them were a big hit. First we went to a Friday evening performance by the Oxford Community Theater of "Who Remembered My Soul" a fabulously written play about the stories of Holocaust survivors. It was done in a Reader's Theater format but all the actors did a great job of memorizing their script and relaying it as if it were their own. This sparked some great discussion on the way home.
Our next outing was to Midland, the boys had a Friday off of school so I made reservations for tours of the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio plus the Herbert H. Dow Home. We went through Alden's home first and were the only ones on the tour other than a gentleman from the Bay City area who shared with the docent that his father had been on the planning commission for a church in Dearborn that the architect designed. This caused much giddiness from the various employees at the landmark and when we went into the archives they pulled out the files on the project and found the man's father's name on some documents and showed us some Polaroids of a craftsman making the huge wooden cross that hangs in the sanctuary of the church. While all the cupboards were open the boys and I were reading all the labels fascinated by the projects Mr. Dow designed. Much conversation was had about how cool the house would be to play hide-n-seek and have Nerf wars in. The Dow legacy was also of interest. Fox wished he could see some of the movies that Mr. Dow had taken.
After a satisfying lunch we then went over to house Alden grew up in. The Herbert H. Dow home, built 1899, is a beautiful structure in general but the most surprising tidbit to me was that Herbert and Grace Dow had the forethought to plumb and wire the house for electricity even though these advancements were not being used yet. The coat bench in the entry foyer was an heirloom that had been in Grace's family beginning with her grandmother, knowing she would inherit it, the space was specifically designed for the piece. However it is not the oldest piece of furniture in the home, this is instead a lovely Asian tea cabinet with intricate carvings and all sorts of hidden doors and drawers. It was nice being the only ones on the tour that day because the docent let the boys and I ask questions all the way through the home and was very forthcoming about the Dow family and her experiences working with the organization. She was interestingly an entomologist by trade employed by the Dow Gardens but loved the home so much she eventually began doing tours as well. I highly recommend a trip to Midland to see these marvelous landmarks as well as the full garden. We've also made a mental note to return and visit the Alden B Dow Museum of Science and Art plus the Herbert H Dow History Museum.
The next week we headed out in the evening after school to Saginaw for their Heart of the Holidays event. In the literature I found it said that the Children's Zoo was open for free and lighted, plus they were lighting several other buildings that evening. There were to be horse drawn carriage rides and a gingerbread house contest also. Well, the zoo was not lighted much, it was a very dark night and you could not see the animals at all, the paths weren't even lit very well. It was quite pointless, we never did find the building that had the gingerbread contest, the wait for the carriage ride was ridiculous, and there really wasn't that much going on over all. We did stop at the living nativity display in front of the church to pet the sheep, goats, and donkey, admired the Clydesdales from the sidewalk and quickly took our leave. That evening was truly a bust other than giving Fox some driving time taking us out there. Oh well, can't win them all.
There was no school for us the Wednesday before Thanksgiving so we took the opportunity to head over to Farmington Hills for some adventure. As luck would have it my daughter Alex and her boyfriend were able to join us after they got off work which was a real treat. Our first stop was the Holocaust Memorial Center. I had read about this some time ago when we homeschooled but the kids were to young at the time to make it a field trip, then Alex went into school and things got crazy from there so we never visited. This was good timing since Fox has been studying the time period in history and the younger boys have touched on World War II as well. Being that we are coming into the holiday "gimme gimme" season it was also a wonderful sense of perspective as to how good we have it. Even in tough times I can say we have never known true suffering to the extent that Jewish families did during this horrendous effort. They really did a wonderful job planning the museum. I liked the display of three quilts, each square designed by a survivor and an audio story accompanies their square. Also the interactive stations at the end of the tour that give you scenarios regarding tolerance and humanity asking what would you do, was quite poignant as well.
After such a hard hitting excursion we needed to follow it up with some fun. Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum just two miles up the road was definately the ticket. The place is packed with coin-op machines, from quirky to tricky, antique to modern, funny to frustrating. Alex and Paul had fun in the photo booth and got "married" via coin-op license. Fox tried every fortune telling machine there was. Ben and Ethan pretty much did a little of everything but mainly stuck with the pinball machines. I took a trip in the wayback machine having a go at PacMac and Asteroids, then finished out the night at my old standard - skee ball. There was so much crammed into the little space, from things hanging on the ceiling, pictures of celebrity visitors, old signs, and the machines themselves. Marvin should really consider upsizing to a larger space! Good times, could have easily gone through $20 in quarters a piece!! Consensus was this stop was the best of the all.
Trimester One ended before the Thanksgiving break, Ethan already got his report card, all As and one B. Ben hasn't received his report card yet but I know from the school website he has all As (pretty much has all year). Fox's grades are the ones still outstanding since Finals had to be scored before the grades were compiled.
At the Fall Sports Banquet the Cross Country team was recognized for having 100% Athletic Scholars which means everyone on team maintained a 3.2 grade point average or above. That's nothing to be sneezed at! Keep up the good work Broncos!
In between (an sometimes during) my substitute teaching days I am still working on my novel for National Novel Writing Month coming round the bend to 40,000 words out of a total 50,000 to win the challenge. My concept has been one in the hopper for many years and although it came into print a little different than I anticipated the result is still pleasing to me. That's about what's been going on in our neck of the woods. The little white snow flakes have been starting to blow but I am by no means ready for winter. Hope all is well in your world.
