Niagara Cave and the Alohomora podcasts...

Over Memorial weekend we found ourselves in serious need of a daytrip. So, we took Mango to see Niagara Cave in Harmony, MN. Mane and I went on the cave tour last summer and thought it was great. We knew Mango would love it, and the drive was a good excuse to spend some time together without so many distractions.

We listened to Alohomora podcasts for part of the drive. We've gotten hooked on them over the past several months...while cleaning the house and doing puzzles and driving in the car. If you're a Harry Potter fan, you're sure to enjoy these podcasts. The hosts are conducting a "global re-read" of the series with weekly analysis of each individual chapter! They're currently reading Half-Blood Prince, but all the podcasts are available for download.

In any case, the rain stopped long enough for us to get a photo outside the cave:

It's awfully difficult to get photos inside:

It's like an underground canyon. Sometimes you can see the walls go up 150 feet overhead! The underground waterfall is amazing! The cave stays a steady 48 degrees Fahrenheit and damp all year. We especially enjoyed seeing the chapel, the echo chamber, and the mineral deposits that glow in the dark after you shine a black light on them. The tour is a mile long walk, covering 250 stairs. So, it's not for the faint of heart...or the claustrophobic. For those of us who had been sitting in the car for several hours, it was welcome exercise!

GAMES!

We've been enjoying so many games this year. Thought we'd share a few:

 

 

 

 And we seem to always have a puzzle going lately, too. Whenever Grandma walks into the house, she can't help but sit down & work on the puzzle for a while. This is our newest 1000 piece puzzle with all wooden pieces. The board stows nicely under the couch when we aren't working on it:

Life Lessons

The last few months have brought us:

Visits to the library that made us feel like we were in the Griffindor Common Room...

 

Two visits to the History Center for the 1968 Exhibit (one on our own & one with Mango and the grandparents, who felt that there should be chairs for them to sit in and be part of the display also)...

 

A trip to the Minneapolis Institute of Art with friends to celebrate The Year of the Dragon...

An afternoon at the FIRST Robotics Competition...

...And a whole lot of experience working with people and businesses! Mane has accompanied me to my place of employment, where I was the temporary manager while the owners were out of town for a month. She learned to greet people, make polite conversation, attend to small requests, and anticipate the needs of both the employees and the customers. She was a great help, and this was a fantastic opportunity for her to learn what the management of a small business looks like. She was right there with me while I was answering calls, scheduling appointments, ordering supplies, cleaning, organizing, and problem-solving!

Mane has also launched her own small business designing and building custom computers for people. She and Mango have built her website over the last several months, and last night they delivered her first computer to her first customer! It took them about 2 weeks to work with their client, set the budget, research the component options, order the parts, and build the computer.  Mane explained the various internal components of a computer to me yesterday. Mango supervised the building of the computer, but she did all the work herself.  

Harry Potter

Some friends of Mane are hosting a Harry Potter themed birthday party in October. So, our plan to read the first book this school year got promoted to the top of the list. Mane has turned into a Harry Potter groupie, and I'm capitalizing on the obsession!

Drawing for the homeschool notebook:


A page of King's Cross Station, also for the school notebook:


Finding England on the map:


In the coming week, we'll be using some passages from the book for handwriting practice and learning about other things in the book that are true reflections of English culture (food, clothing, idioms, etc...)!