The Homeschool Mother's Journal: changes

 In my life this week...We got baby chicks!  We have had our baby chicks for almost 2 weeks, and it's still so fun to hear their little chirps.  You can see pictures of them here at Our Chicken Journal.  The kids ask to hold the chicks at least daily, but I'm thankful that they aren't over bearing wanting to hold them all day long.  So far having baby chicks has been a wonderful experience for the kids, and we are learning a lot!

In our homeschool this week...I decided to nix the workboxes.  I have been feeling like the workboxes maybe aren't working for us, just creating too much busy work.  But, I love them, and I will miss them.  I keep having these panic attacks when I think about them being gone too.  I feel like one of my best organizational tools for homeschool just up and left.  I'm still trying to find my ground without them.  We'll see.  I can always bring them back.  That's what I keep telling myself, breathe.  I just want to see how we do without them.

In other homeschool this week we started reading The Easter story, doing some activities that go along with each day's reading, and learning some scriptures.  One day we made palm branches out of construction paper, and practiced saying "Hosanna".  The little boys really liked that.  I love those sweet moments!

Places we're going and people we're seeing...we went to the dentist this week.  All 3 older kids got checked out.  They love going to the dentist.  They go to a really neat children's dentist that just has such a fun atmosphere complete with toys, cool rooms with themes, and of course prizes at the end.  It was Aric's first time actually seeing the dentist, and he did great for the cleaning.  Since he was so reluctant, they didn't push anything else.  They all checked out with no cavities, yay!  They love being a part of the "no cavity club".  I don't know how they have such perfect teeth.  Really, they don't brush consistently.  I'm thankful though!

My favorite thing this week was...the drawings and pictures that the kids made of their baby chicks.

What's working/not working for us...the way we currently school is not working for us.  Like I mentioned earlier, the workboxes, and other things.  Getting through the school day seems to be a hit or miss, and that needs to change.  I'm in the middle of re-shaping our homeschool yet again.  I find that I'm doing this often, and it's good I guess.  I just wish I could find a groove and stick with it.  I think we are getting closer though.

Questions/thoughts I have...how do I organize the kids' school work?  I loved that the workboxes were a nice physical place to store the books and papers for each child for each day.  Now I feel like I just have stacks of books and papers that I have to dig through to find what we need to work on next.  I don't like that.  Maybe I'll use some sort of folder system.

I'm reading...a lot of random things.  Books about caring for chickens.  Trying to get back into "The Little House on the Prairie".  And, of course, always reading lots of blogs.

I'm cooking...not much this week

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...





Our salt dough tomb, which was loved and played with a lot by the 3 year old Aric (which is why the round stone is broken).  Aric and April had fun making it, and we even pulled out our nativity characters like she did at Almost unschoolers.  She explains well how the characters from the nativity are also fitting for this story as well.  In the Easter story there is also an angel, Jesus wrapped in cloth, Mary is present in both stories, and the man can represent a lot of other people present at the time of Jesus' death.  Aric plays with it a lot.  He likes to call it his "tomb".  We clearly didn't cook it long enough, I should have read further into the instructions, which is why the round stone broke.  This was a great activity, one I hope to do for many years as a tradition.
This activity was from Almost unschoolers.


Desiree

how they are doing

Just some pictures and an update as to how our little chicks are doing.

They are getting big already.  They just love to get out and explore on the table!  We've had one escape the box, found her out on the floor.  They also like to perch at the top of the box.  We may have to put a net up over the box soon!

As soon as there is a warmer day we may take them out back and let them play in the grass for a bit.  They are getting a bit cramped in the box.



Of course, we now have many pictures being drawn and made of our new chicks.  Aaron drew this one of his Blackbeak.


I helped Aric make this little chick craft, and we colored it to look a little like his Lemonade.


And, this is what I usually see when I look down into the box.  She was just staring at me with her head cocked.  It's so cute.  I think she was wondering if I was going to take her out.


We are still trying to figure out a coop.  Part of me thinks it would be nice to just buy an already made one like the Eglu.  I really like the Eglu, but it's 'spensive.  We only have a few more weekends left before we may need it though. 

We have baby chicks!

Did you catch my mention of baby chicks in my last post?  Well, we do have some little furry friends now living with us.  They are lots of fun, and the kids just love them.  They sure are cute too.  If you want to follow our new adventure in raising chickens come on over to Our Chicken Journal.  This blog is not much, just for us to keep notes about our chicks.  It has been fun so far!

Meet our chickies!

Well, we've had these little chicks for just over a week now, and they are starting to get big already.  These pictures were taken a few days ago, and they are already just a little bit bigger than this.  The kids have all named their chick, and still love to hold them.  It's a lot of fun hearing them chirp all day in our house.  They've also shown some personalities too.  I'll explain a little as I introduce each one.

Black Beak:
Black beak was named by Aaron.  This is a Barred Rock pullet.  She will have black and white stripes when she is full grown.  She's pretty tame, and easy to hold.  She will also fall asleep if you hold her right.



Lemonade:
This is Aric's Golden sex link chick.  We have two of these kind, so sometimes it's hard to tell them apart, but Lemonade is just a tiny bit bigger than the other.  Lemonade is not as easy to hold.  But, if you get her calmed down just right she'll do this, fall asleep.  The chicks just love to be warm, wrapped up in little hands.


Cookie:
This is April's Rhode Island Red.  She is the tamest and tiniest of the 4 we have.  She is so sweet to hold. 


Flapper:
This is, I guess, Alexander's chick.  Since we got 4, it worked out well for kid matching.  But, really he has no idea what these things are except that he'd like to squeeze it and see what happens.  So, April is doing the holding and demonstrating :-)  This is the 2nd of the Golden Sex Links we have.  She is pretty hard to old too, you've got to get her just right or she flaps her wings like crazy.  Hence the name flapper.  So cute and soft too!


It's fun to watch these little things sometimes.  They play this little game sometimes where one of the chicks will pick up a piece of wood shaving and then start running around while the other chicks chase her.  It's quite hilarious to watch.  That is when they make the most noise. 

It has been fun learning about the different chicken types.  We picked these ones because they are said to be good for egg laying, and when they are older their colors are nice.

deconstructing a typewriter

 You know what's really fun?  Taking stuff apart to see how they work!

We had an old typewriter that needed to go somewhere.  It could have went to goodwill, but it had paint spots on it from paint that leaked all over it, and I couldn't find the cover.  So, instead I just let the kids have at it and take it apart.  They LOVED it.

First they had fun taking the keys off with keys, ha ha!  I just realized that as I was typing it.  Under the individual keys there were cool little springs, the kids liked those.


It took some time to really get it apart and get to the inside.  But, once we were in there it was pretty impressive to see the inside workings of a typewriter.

I let the kids each keep a few parts for fun.  As you can see here, Aric has the plate the the keys were originally on.

This part was pretty cool to see.  The letters, symbols, and numbers that were used to make the typing.

We were all amazed at all the pieces and workings of a typewriter! 

Desiree

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm Thankful for...

I'm thankful for the inches of snow on the ground this morning even though it means that spring is not here yet like I want it to be.  I'm thankful for the snow day that my kids can have today.  I am thankful for this lazy snowy morning that we can have.  I am thankful I decided to take a week off this week for spring break, we all needed it.  I'm thankful for the trip we had to the children's museum yesterday, the kids love that place and it's a nice break.  I'm thankful for the sound of baby chicks chirping in our house, and I'm thankful for the joy that they bring to the children.  I'm thankful for the new adventure we are going on in raising chickens, I'm looking forward to fresh eggs, and so thankful for that!  I'm thankful for a husband who is able and willing to build a chicken coop.  We only have about a month before we need to have it ready!  I'm thankful for the new things I learn each day.  I've decided to start a list of things I'm learning, and it's real neat to think about all the things I am still learning.  I am thankful for hopes and dreams that keep me going, moving, toward something greater than myself, all the while following God's lead.  I am thankful for the realization that the workboxes are not working for our homeschool anymore.  I am thankful that I can free up that space, and find new ways to get through our school day.  I am thankful to know that I want to keep my kids home for their schooling as long as I am able to.  I am thankful for family, both Hubby's and mine.  I am thankful we have our first camping trip reserved for May.

Be sure to see what other's are thankful for at  red oak lane.

Today

We are officially on spring break right now, but we had to do something fun for the first day of spring!  I'm pretty excited for spring, especially some more spring-like weather. First, we have some new homeschool pets.  I'm not going to say what they are yet, but give me some guesses!  We have been having fun with these new creatures in our house, and they sure are cute.  The kids have been holding and loving them, and of course they are housed in our dining room/school room right now.  As I was making new space for them I decided to write this on the chalkboard, because it was so spring-like and happy making some space for our new friends.

April loved it.  She loves things like that, so I knew she would.

There's a lot of pink outside right now, so I thought it would be fun to try the apple blossom painting with a soda bottle that I found on pinterest.  Ours certainly didn't turn out as beautiful, but they are truly unique.  Also, I realized that we needed a smaller pop bottle not a 2 liter, to make the blossoms.  Oh well!







That's about all that was lovely and bright on this very dreary and gray rainy day.  Most of the day was spent inside, and I had no desire to go anywhere.  Probably wouldn't have if it wasn't for April's horse lessons!  I also felt pretty tired most of the day, and didn't hardly get any projects done on my long list of spring break projects to get done.  Hoping the 2nd day of spring is a little more exciting!

Desiree

Rocket Launching

 A little back story...

The boys have been asking to launch rockets for sometime now.  I had never really done it before, but I knew Michele had when he was a kid, so I would say to them "Daddy will do it sometime, he's the rocket guy."  Well, time passed and Aaron would pick up rocket kits at the store and ask if he could get them, to no end.  Finally, the opportunity to go watch rockets launch came up, and then the boys were hooked.  They both got a little rocket kit that day they went to watch, and were very excited to make and set those off.  Those would be the 2 little orange ones below.  Then, for valentine's day we got the boys each one other rocket to make.  Now they have 4 rockets!  These things seem to be multiplying now :-) 




A family outing one evening...

With that said, the boys love to go launch their rockets.  Even April thinks it's pretty awesome.  So, one beautiful night a few weeks ago we packed everything up last minute, because it was so nice, to go launch some rockets!   The moon set a nice back drop for our rockets...

They love their rockets, but they can be loud.  In fact, Alex cries everytime.  He's pretty sensitive to most sounds though.  We'll have to put the ear muffs on him next time...

Getting the rockets ready (it was still pretty chilly even though it was clear)...

They don't take very long to set up...

okay, I guess it wasn't completely clear, but it wasn't raining, and the clouds made a beautiful sunset (love these moments with my family)...

It's very short, but here's a video with some of the launches.  Those things shoot high!  We almost couldn't see them until they came down a little.

Another fun hobby we have found to do as a family!

Day 3

Today we did more holding we worked on holding lemonade and flapper (the 2 golden ones).They are getting used to being held.we noticed that they were playing a game one chick will grab a pice of shaving and run around and the others have to try and get it.we clean out the box,water,and feed bin monday wednesday friday and saturday or sunday it doesnt matter.cookie (the brownish one with stripes on its feathers)will go to sleep in your hand she will also stand on your hand.pictures of them soon!

holding day

Day 2:

The kids learned how to hold the chicks today, and they picked names for each of them.  Soon we will have a picture and an introduction!  It sure is fun seeing those little cuties around.  The kids really enjoy holding them, and they are getting more used to being held.

We also cleaned their box out for the first time too.

Spring books

It's book sharing Monday again, so I had a few Spring books that we read recently and an art project to go along with one of them for stART.

The first book is Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert.  Our copy is a big board book so it stands up pretty well :-)  It's about all the different colors of a garden and how they plant "the rainbow" each spring and watch it grow.  It flips through each color and has some examples of flowers that might be found with each different color.

I've been working on the rainbow a little bit with Aric, my 3 year old.  He has loved learning about the colors in the rainbow.  He liked reading this book too.



Then, he made a rainbow with pipe cleaners and playdough for the "clouds".  He liked this.  He also took it apart and did it again. 





The other book I wanted to share is Winnie the Pooh's Easter by Bruce Talkington.  I found this book at Goodwill recently.  It has such a cute story about how they find a giant Easter egg, and in classic Winnie the Pooh style they paint themselves like Easter eggs in hopes that they might be able to make the egg more comfortable.

A quote:

"Piglet resembled a very small, very red apple, while Owl was a sky blue color with a trim of fleecy white clouds.  Gopher was the color of a ripe banana, and Eeyore was decked out in lavender polka dots."

I always love a good Pooh bear story!

I am linking this up to stART, and book sharing Monday.



Linking up also to Hey mom look what I did:




Desiree

New baby chicks!

Today was the day we brought home our first 4 new baby chicks.  We've never raised chickens before, but we are so excited to start.  I've been wanting to do this for years!  I didn't realize we could have chicks until Michele pointed it out that we can have up to 3.  Well, we ended up with 4 because there was going to be only 1 little baby chick left in the bin at the store.  We didn't want to leave it all alone.  So, it came home with us as well!  We'll see what happens later.  Now Michele is trying to figure out what kind of chicken coop to build.  We have a few months before they have to move outside.  So for now they are in a plastic bin in our dining room.  They are so cute!  The kids are pretty excited too!



Desiree

Nature study: pansies

Outdoor Hour Challenge from Handbook of Nature Study...

I think this first picture about sums up how excited my boys were about doing this pansy nature study.  They were so thrilled to be able to go to the garden center and pick out their very own pansy flower.  April was at piano, but she was pretty excited that we picked one for her too.  I put them on a tray so we could have them inside while we study them.  We may get a chance this weekend to plant them, but it has been so wet and rainy.

So, I was very excited about this nature study too because I knew where to find pansies!  And, they are so pretty.  I wanted to learn more about these flowers that we see all the time.   Boy did we learn a lot!

Like I said, this is a pretty excited kid.  This was the night after we bought the flowers.  Our nature study was going to be the next day.

We started with a walk.  I actually hadn't planned a walk because it has been so stormy and rainy.  It even snowed a little this week!  I didn't think the rain would let up, but it did!  And, it was a beautiful walk.  I was so glad that we actually got some outdoor time.

The kids were so excited to see all the beautiful blossoms just popping, and to see them up close.

This white tree had some limbs down low.  The rest of the tree is really high, but the kids found a low limb in the shrubbery.  So neat to see them up close.

They picked some...

I loved how Aric was showing me his 2 little blossoms.

We were on the look out for pansies, but we didn't see a lot.  We saw lots and lots of daffodils though...

When we arrived home we did some more pansy fun.  It was lunch time so I fixed the children lunch, and then while we were eating I read to them parts from the Handbook of Nature Study.  While I read they observed the pansies, and looked for the face.  They all saw the face right away.  Then we pulled one of the flowers apart to see the pansy man.  My kids thought it was funny that the flower had a pansy man.  Aaron was a little confused at first and thought there might be a real little man in there.  It really helped them to see when I took the petals off.

Then each child drew, or colored for the 3 year old, a picture of a pansy.  This is April's journal page.  She didn't think she could draw a pansy at first, but then she was amazed she did it!

Aaron wasn't sure he could do it either, but I told them to just keep trying.  They could certainly do something if they tried.  He set to work, and really wanted to make a nice picture.

This was his result.  He was very proud of himself!  He would check back with his flower to make sure he was drawing the details as correct as his 5 year old self could.  He even put a little black outline because there really was a thin black line all around the flower itself.

I found a purple pansy craft on dltk kids so that is what Aric did for his pansy picture.  He decided to make his blue though, like his flower.

Here is his finished pansy.  I had to help him color the darker parts a bit more.  I think we also got the bottom part of the mouth the wrong color, it was supposed to be dark blue as well.  Oh well.

We did one more little experiment for fun because we learned that pansies are edible.  I didn't want to make them just eat one because I wasn't sure if they'd go for that, so we made pansy ice cubes instead!

I had each child pick a flower off and put pieces in the ice tray, then I put water in it to freeze and try in a glass of water later. 

Time for the taste test.  The ice cubes looked really pretty, but I had a hard time getting a good picture of it.

The results...not bad!  Actually you couldn't really taste anything.  Maybe a little hint of bitter, but it tasted like water!  They all liked drinking pansy ice water though.

This study was so fun, and I'm so grateful to Barb for the inspiration and ideas.  You should check out her blog for some great nature study ideas if you haven't already.  Just click here.