NC State Fair 2009

We finally made it to the NC State Fair. We have lived here for 6 years and had never gone. This year Mimi treated us and it was awesome! Thanks Mimi!

Some Southern Fair Food....


C2 entered his Lego Schoolhouse into the Lego Competition. He didn't win, but it was fun!

Everyone enjoying a treat!

That would be a deep fried Reeses.

Rides!

A really fun time!

Invention Convention

Our homeschool Tapestry of Grace Coop held an Invention Convention as our Unit 1 Celebration. The boys had learned all about the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and some great inventors and now it was time for them to create some inventions of their own. They did a wonderful job!

We'll start with C2. His invention was called the Remote Tracker. He was tired of us always loosing the remote, so together with his dad, he came up with this invention. He actually used a remote control car to create it!

C1, being the lover of all things sweet decided to create Clementine Soda. He did a great job, it was actually quite good.

He took the ingredients you see below and blended them in my Vita-Mix blender.

The original idea was to then make that mixture into tablets that you could dissolve in seltzer water for the soda. You can see him here trying to put them into a mold. We then put the mold into my food dehydrator to create a capsule, but it didn't work. They completely dried out. So he just poured the mixture into some seltzer instead.

Lastly we have L. He decided to do a report on an inventor. He chose Thomas Jefferson! His presentation was excellent.

It was a wonderful day! We are very proud of the boys for all of their hard work!

Gem Mining

For our second unit in history we will be studying Westward Expansion and the Gold Rush. It seemed fitting to start the trip off with gem mining.

We went to The Emerald Hollow Mine.

From their site:

It is the only emerald mine in the United States open to the public for prospecting. Nestled snugly in the foothills of the beautiful Brushy Mountains, this North Carolina Emerald mine is located in the small town of Hiddenite, North Carolina. This locality is recognized as one of the most unique and interesting geological locations on the North American continent.

We really enjoyed our time there. Check out some pictures from our adventure!

The trip was broken into four different parts. The first one was surface collecting. Here is a picture of L trying to find some gems and then J sharing his finds.


The next part of the trip was sluicing. Here is C1 listening to the directions and below that you can see C2 actually looking for gems. We dumped out a bucket of dirt onto a screen and then with a bristle brush and water brushed the dirt away to find gems. There were some really neat finds.



Next we went to the creek to find gems in there. The water was very cold and we didn't have boots. They still managed to find lots of gems.

Lastly, we had an Earth Science lesson on some of the rocks and minerals there.

Here is a sample of what the boys found. I wish you were able to see how beautiful these gems are. The picture doesn't really do them justice.

We had a wonderful time and would highly recommend this trip. It was a great way to begin our next unit.