It was a beautiful weekend in the Ozarks to enjoy the outdoors!  On Saturday, after cheering on my oldest son's football team, we headed out to the City to take in what we could of the Homeschool Weekend activities.

We headed over to McHaffie's Homestead to look around for a few minutes before the Homestead Pickers started up.  If you've never actually looked around McHaffie's Homestead you really need to check it out.  We've been reading Laura Ingalls Wilder so this time my kids were especially interested the construction of the cabin.  At 2:30 we enjoyed a wonderful time down at the Homestead Pickers' Shed with lots of music and some very interesting stories.  These guys are not only great players but they know so much about the folk tunes and their origins.  They've even put together a Folksong Collection of 36 well-known folksongs, with lyrics and origins of the songs as well as 2 CD's which contain recordings of each song. Such a great resource!

I do have to mention that a highlight for us on Saturday was watching Adrienne help play the fiddle on "Boil That Cabbage Down" and listening to our little friend Jamison play "Old Joe Clark" on the mandolin!

This year's Homeschool Weekend had tons of activities especially designed to enhance Homeschool curriculum, including Roller Coaster Physics, Spelunkin' in Marvel Cave, The Wonders of Woodcarving, Classic Candles, The Art of Leather and a special kid-friendly Culinary & Craft School class.  Not to mention, of course, all the visiting craftsmen for the National Harvest Festivaland the regular craftsmen too.  Definitely some fun stuff! I would love to hear your stories from Homeschool Weekend!