Field Trip – Kings Mountain NMP

March 15, 2020July 8, 2020Hoover Academy Leave a comment

We made a stop at Kings Mountain National Military Park on this hot and humid day.

“Kings Mountain is a unique battle for several reasons. It was one of the few major battles of the war fought entirely between Americans: no British troops served here. In the South, many people were divided. When the war started, some fought for independence, others for loyalty to England.

Kings Mountain is also unique in that large numbers of riflemen fought here. Rifles were not used much by the armies. A rifle was a hunting weapon, used by families on the frontier. The American militia that fought here mainly used rifles; the Loyalist troops had mostly muskets.

The difference between a rifle and a musket is speed versus accuracy. A rifle is slow to load, but very accurate. Riflemen can hit a target at 200 or 300 yards. Yet the rifle can only be fired once a minute. A musket, with a smooth bore, is easy to load but inaccurate. Muskets have an accurate range of about 100 yards, but can be fired up to three times a minute.”

We hike the one mile hike. We were surprised Brother walked almost all of it on his own.

Field Trip – New River Gorge National River

March 9, 2020July 8, 2020Hoover Academy Leave a comment

The New River Gorge National River was beautiful. The air was crisp but the sun was warm as we got to explore the area.

We got there later in the day but Sister was still able to work on and get her Junior Range Badge. She loved following the path they lead out for her. She was able to learn about the wildlife, history around the river and take a walk to see the expansion bridge.

Field Trip – Hopewell Cultural NHP

March 8, 2020July 8, 2020Hoover Academy Leave a comment

We hit a few of our national parks on our trip too and from Charlotte, North Carolina. Our first stop was to the Hopewell Cultural National Historic Park.

We were able to learn all about the people that build the mounds and what the used the mounds for. Some of the mounds were ceremonial, for burial and some for living.

One of the rangers was nice and went through and showed us some of the things they made. An item to note was a piece of mica that had been recently found. She explained how there is not mice locally so it had to have been brought to the area, mostly likely by traders.

Sister even completed everything she needed to become a Junior Ranger. She was so proud!!!

The weather was perfect for us to go out and walk through the mounds. Even though some are replicas it gives you a feel for our vast the area was.

P – Penguin, Week 20

March 7, 2020April 19, 2020Hoover Academy Leave a comment

Penguin week fell during a time we had snow. Perfect timing!

Sister got to do two fun crafts and fun science experiment. Her first craft was a cute penguin thermostat. The second was a penguin she got to add cotton ball to make it fluffy.

We had a few and found some great books at the library. Patience, The Emperor’s Egg and How Big is a Million? were such cute stories about penguins. On top of the cute story they were educational at the same time.

We can’t forget to wear our fun penguin outfits and toys!

E – Elephant, Week 19

February 25, 2020March 2, 2020Hoover Academy Leave a comment

This week we studied “e” is for elephant. One of her crafts included an elephant “hat”.

One of our favorite things is finding the themed books at the local library and home library. Plus there is always the one that came with the deluxe kit. This week we had a LOT of favorites. They were Thirsty, Thirsty Elephants, Soon, Elmer and A Sick Day for Amos McGee.

Little Brother loved his “schooling” too! We read That’s Not My Elephant, played and talked about the different zoo animals and went over our ABCs.

Don’t forget to check out our other blog posts!
Organizing My Father’s World God’s Creation A to Z
My Father’s World – God Creation A to Z
S Sun
M Moon
L Leaf
A Apple
T Turtle
U Us
D Dinosaur
O Octopus
W Water
I Insects
G Goat
C Cow
H Horse

H – Horse, Week 16

February 17, 2020March 2, 2020Hoover Academy 1 Comment

Fun with horse! The local library and our home library had a nice stack of horse books to read this week! Her favorite book this week was the Barbie beginner reader! She was able to read a lot of it herself! I’m so proud of how far her reading has come this year.

We have been having a lot of fun finding things in every day life and in our home that matches that weeks’ theme. As you can see there were some crafts for school, but we also colored the horse kids menu from a local Mexican restaurant, we had a horse learning-to-sew, a horse puppet and a plastic play horse to add to the pile.

Field Trip – Fair Oaks Farm

February 7, 2020February 20, 2020Hoover Academy Leave a comment

Fair Oaks Farm was the perfect field trip location for Cow week. Nanny and her mom took Sister and Brother there to tour the farm.

The farm has cows and pigs. First stop was the pigs. They got to see how they pigs are taken care of. Plus got to see the birthing area.

The cows were next. They got to see the cows and how they are milked. They then have a separate building for calves being birthed.

You can’t go to a dairy farm without trying some ice cream!!

C – Cow, Week 15

February 3, 2020February 20, 2020Hoover Academy 2 Comments

This is the second week studying farm animals. One of the things Sister learned this week was how to make butter!

Little Brother even got to take a turn shaking the cream.

Reenacting Hey Diddle, Diddle was a really cute fun idea! We were able to use her dog and cat plushies, cow puppet, play plate and spoon and cut out the moon out of construction paper.

We were able to get another nice stack from the public library in addition to a few books we had. Her favorite books for the week were Click, Clack, Moo cows That Type and Hey Diddle, Diddle because of acting it out.

G – Goat, Week 14

January 24, 2020February 20, 2020Hoover Academy 3 Comments

Goat week is the first of three weeks talking about farm animals. We were able to get a nice variety of books between our home and public library. Her favorite book was Poppy and Sames Telling the time. Her favorite song (and book) for the week was Old MacDonald Had a Farm!

During this week we made Alfredo with goat cheese. Sister was not a fan. It was a good experience for her to try a different kind of cheese, even if she didn’t like it.

We had a set of animals puzzles with strings. It was great for practicing hand eye coordination. She wanted to do the pig one this week.

I – Insect, Week 13

January 13, 2020February 20, 2020Hoover Academy 4 Comments

We had a lot of fun for insect week! This is the week we added ants to our ant hill! We read the Usborne Books and More Beginner book Ants. All week we watched how hard they worked digging out tunnels.

This was another week that we didn’t need to get any books from the library because our home library had everything we needed. We even had some books that Brother loved being read. Sister favorite book was The Usborne Big Book of Big Bugs with it’s fold out pages. Brother’s favorite was That’s Not My Bee. Together they both really loved the Pull-Back Busy Bug Book because they loved watching the lady bug zoom around the pages and the two Eric Carle books. The Eric Carle book The Very Quiet Cricket makes cricket noises on the last page. The Very Lonely Firefly has fireflies that light up on the last page. So in short, the interactive books won the day.

For snack time, we made the Oreo pudding mud cups with gummy worms in them. Sister decided that gummy bears and M&Ms make good “bugs” too so we had to add some of them too.

Our kitchen is under construction, so we did her school work in the living room. It actually worked out pretty well using the piano bench and her little chair. She loves to do crafts and this week she made a little lady bug, a honey comb and painted a rock like a lady bug!

Brother even got some “school” time. We played with some puzzles, read books and talked about shapes.