Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Ahh, summer science!! Look at our fun! We have gotten into the routine of going outside after dinner, it is cool and pleasant, and I water the garden.I have to keep on top of these or they tend to disappear!! So they usually get picked before they are overly red, for the fear that I will not see any and my patch will get tromped! The kids are so amazed at the food we are growing, these are the first fruits this summer.
Dan made the boys bug boxes, and Riley found a bug today to put in it! Although he would not touch it, so I had to pick it up for him and put it in his box. He is so proud, but sad the caterpillar has to live outside! :)
He is a bit fizzy, but not like the big fuzzy black ones we always had growing up. Too bad, those were so cool!
So there is our science for the day! :)

Friday, May 25, 2007

I have been a slacker on both of my blogs this week, oh well! :)

The new LDSHEA newsletter came out today with #4 reason LDS parents should homeschool! So go here to read the entire thing!

Yea so I am here at home on the 25th, not in Virginia. :( Dan's trip got moved and it was getting "too hard" to make it work to go to the homeschool conference. I am bummed, but the weight off my shoulders is good. I made Dan promise to buy me the CD's when they are available!! :) So I will report on it then! :)

I have been furiously working on the Hook Family Curriculum for next year, and now am trying to design a planner of sorts to keep school stuff organized, I am looking at FIAR's planner, and using the free Donna Young site. Along with my trusty word program with tables!! :) I do not have a way to post them on here, but if you really want to see any of it, email me and I will send it! :)

I just read the Leadership Training proceedings in the June Ensign, it is also available to watch on the church website. It was good to read, I got alot out of it for my calling at church, but also about teaching at home. It might be easier to follow watching it, I might go do that, alot of it is dialogue, so unless you are seasoned at reading from scrip style form, you might want to watch it!! :)

Monday, May 14, 2007

Just some cool sites I have been perusing!

FIAR forums -it is amazing what you can learn from other mamas!!

Simply Charlotte Mason - neat curriculum (free) ideas, and the planner looks interesting.

Donna Young - she has amazing forms, they are all free and even if I do not use hers it gives me a jumping off point to making my own! :)


And some books I am "hankering" for! (Sorry we watched the new Veggie Tales Movie last night "Moe and the Big Exit" and instead of "coveting" they use "hankering" and I thought it was great! :)

Crinkleroot Books

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare

Lets Read and Find-out Science Books

I will probably have at least the second one and a couple of the third one for school next fall, the Crinkleroot books I can find at the library occasionally! :)

I have been looking into what we need and what we have and what we are doing for the fall, and having fun outside! It just is so hard to do sit down work when it is finally so pretty outside!! :) But Riley and I buckled down today do do a little, Fern and Jake are asleep, which helps A TON!!!!!

Saturday, May 05, 2007

I have loved Shakespeare for a long time, it all started my freshman year in high school in Drama 1 with Mr. Scott. Most of the year was devoted to Shakespeare, we had to memorize a monologue to preform in class, and then translate it into modern day jargon and preform that. What this did for my understanding of the scriptures is in measurable! Well I always thought I would have to wait until high school to enjoy the Barb with my children, tis not so I learned today! Even with the FIAR I am planning to do next year with Riley, this WILL be one of the other great things we will work on! I hope my library has these books so that I can read them before I decide if they should be apart of our library. We are going to have to add on to the house just to house all these book I want and have!!
So here is the plan on the blog, Higher Up and Further In. I thoroughly enjoy reading this mama's blog! Enjoy!!

Thursday, May 03, 2007

You have to LOVE environmental science! Hands on makes it 10X better!! Here is one of the bird feeders we put out today, not only are we learning about birds, but we are recycling too! This morning we saw an American Robin (there are alot of them around it is CT.'s state bird), and we saw a female Hairy Woodpecker!
This picture does no justice to this earthworm!! This thing was ENORMOUS!!!! Think James and the Giant Peach big! It was close to 5 inch. long and as big around as my little finger!! Dan dubbed it the Granddaddy of earth worms and then when Jake and Fern turned away welcomed it into the "Earthworm Relocation Program". Jake LOVES earthworms, but unfortunately does not quite understand about holding too tightly! So Granddaddy now has a new home in our garden plot.
Here are our veggie beds, we planted everything today except the tomato plants, we will see what comes up! That pile of rocks in the middle are SOME of the rocks that came from the 4 new areas. We completely understand now about pioneers moving west with the promise of fewer rocks to dig out of fields!! It is crazy!
Now along with my daffodils the previous owners tulips have popped up! They are a beautiful red, and they look great next to the bright yellow! Just since last night there are actual leaves on our trees! It is great to have the green coming back! :)