Seaworld: Sea Turtles, Sting Ray, Whale, Starfish

Exploring, discovering, watching, loving......

Fun and Learning

Happy Birthday my 8 year old!

Really his birthday is the 23rd, but his due date being the 17th and my daddy's birthday being the 17th, we spent a quiet day with grandparents, a few presents to enjoy each other. 

Family is the most important thing in the world. I cherish I have such a strong wonderful close relationship with my parents and appreciate them that they were such good mentors, mom and dad to look up to that I may be just as great of a mother to my own children.

Jordan is 8! Nearly...every year seems to go by faster than the last and I want to grab hold and pause or at least slow it down slightly. With each year I enjoy the new moments and cherish so greatly the past times. Jordan is extraordinary. A love of math and science he continually tells me he wants to be a Robotic Engineer or some kind of Engineer or wants to blow things up when he grows up. Either way, it goes right along with his love of figuring things out, putting things together and just the way his mind works. He's a fun boy, loves wearing his boots, playing in dirt, getting dirty, making tree forts in the yard and loves his chickens with a passion! He looks up to his sister like no other and is slightly growing out of his momma's boy stage..enjoying fixing things and being with his daddy more and more. I'm so very proud to be his momma and teach him, learn with him, guide him, be with him.

Enjoy each year, each month, each day and each moment with your child...they grow so very fast.

Spring...Ducks hatching Eggs, Duck Prayers

As I read through several of my favorite blogs and see everywhere that Spring is sprouting all around us it brings joy as we see our sleepy tree's awakening from winter with little green buds on their branches, flowers coming up in the yard, more sun and warmth throughout the days and more wild life and babies scurrying about.

Yesterday afternoon our son came in to exclaim the ducks have eggs!! Everyone in the house ran out in a hurry shooting off questions, really?, how many?, where?. Quietly sneaking near their enclosure we saw her slowly move off the eggs for a brief moment as we caught a glimpse of 3 small eggs in a several inch deep nest in the straw bedding they have. She went and got a drink and went right back to her nest, settling in, nearly disappearing in the hole herself. Her mate, staying in the opposite corner of the enclosure if on guard. We got close and he just stayed in his spot and watched us. How exciting, the possibility of babies.

Now we wait like patient new parents, all of us, await to see if babies will really appear. The children so thrilled, marked the 'due' date on their calendars. And we had a little sit down that we will hope and pray that she will hatch babies, healthy babies but that we have to also understand that nothing may come of the eggs and they may not hatch. Both children understood but are still filled with hope and excitement. After the first glimpse of the eggs they went outside to take a quiet peek nearly 20 times before bedtime!

Bedtime prayers included one to help keep momma duck strong, calm while she does hard work sitting on her eggs, and prayers for the possibility of life inside those little eggs. Cherishing my children who are so thrilled and sending animals prayers up to the heavens.

Shark Week

As the weekend comes to a close and the new week begins tomorrow we grow more and more excited for our trip out of town to see family on Friday. Excited to celebrate 'Grandpa's' birthday, excited to see family and friends, excited to celebrate my son turning 8! And my daughter and I excited about the surprise my son doesn't know about...a trip to Seaworld! Finishing our penguin study both of the kids wanted  to dive into a new sea animal..and choose Sharks. I love when their interests over lap and they are on the same page even for a moment, to study together, get excited together, learn and share together, it is truly so fun.

4 days this week until our trip, so we'll be able to barely get into sharks before then but it still will give us several days to pursue the interest then come back home and hopefully the wonderful trip will spark more learning excitement and give us even more direction on what we'd like to learn next.

Shark Week

Since the children loved the Seaworld packet we previously printed out and used, we've decided to check out the one they have for 4th-8th grade on Sharks as well here:

Seaworld Teacher's Guide on Sharks 4-8th Grade

They really loved the Penguin packet, with information, species cards, science and math experiments then we filled in with tons of books and a few video's too.
To supplement our Seaworld packet we'll use these books:

Here are the books our son, 7yrs will be using this week:

 And the Shark book our daughter, 12yrs will read (pictured along with her American History book), Our daughter enjoys History so we try :

We will also be learning about the USS Indianapolis, 1945 shark attack:

Reading together the article here: Sinking of the USS Indianapolis, 1945

Watching an interview with a survivor here: Interview With Survivor of Shark Attack of 1945

As well as watching on Netflix, Shark Week has an episode now, "Ocean of Fear: Worst Shark Attack Ever": After the USS Indianapolis sand in the Pacific Ocean during World War II battle, the ship's crew faced horrifying shark attacks.

Which may work well moving us into WWII study....

Its wonderful how homeschooling can direct you where ever your interests lead, the kids soak the knowledge up, have fun, and dive deep into education because they want to and are not 'made' to or 'told' to.

Mapping, Skate Park, Guinea Pig Play

As the weather took a turn from sunny and warm, wearing tank tops and shorts to cool, windy and eventually rainy, we got in some mapping, skate park time and outdoor guinea pig play time just before the down pour came! Then it was snuggle on the couch time, warm under blankets with a movie- Indiana Jones- so fun, the kids both enjoy the series!

Maps, Mapping, Geography

We began learning about maps with our Penguin study and marking where they lived on our big wall map, talking about hemisphere's and the North and South poles. We actually looked at maps earlier on when we marked where we lived vs. where Egypt is when we studied Egypt, Mummies and the Pyramids. Our son especially loves maps. A few books we checked out at the library we read out loud together then we set off to make our own map- this one is of the neighborhood. He came up with his own 'key' of symbols and we started from our home and walked our neighborhood as he drew. Next he plans to make a treasure map and hide things in the yard then give someone a map and see if they can find his hidden treasure! Great plan! Our daughter even 'taught' him about maps, showing him an easy way to remember North, South, East West and talking about oceans and continents.

 His Neighborhood map:

While he and I walked the neighborhood Terynity worked on her computer math for a bit then is working on a self-portrait she is planning on mailing to American Girl Magazine to hopefully get a chance at being featured! She is so creative and artistic, its coming along nicely.

Skate Park Scootering

She then had Ballet class this week and decided to stay longer for a Strength and Conditioning class as well. It worked her muscles so hard after she had been sick for over a week that she stayed only half the time and we left early. But during part of the class, my son and I got away for a few minutes to the skate park....

Guinea Pig Play and Outdoors

With the nice weather a few days, we cleaned animal cages and let everyone -rabbits and guinea pigs have some fresh air outdoors, running about and playing...the kids enjoyed the time with their animals too. With sunny skies and warm air who wouldn't want to soak it up? I moved a chair out and we all just hung out for an hour before starting our studies that day...it was so relaxing to ease into our day with some play time first.

Enjoy the sunshine, fresh air, warmth when you can and cuddle up in doors when the weather turns bad.

Gardening...Buying Seeds! & Sewing for Boys

Gardening

Thoughts of gardening sparks so much excitement...you want to run to the store and purchase those seed packs or sproutlings with not any real plan but this time...we planned! So many steps to get 'ready' to garden. Finally we had the 'fun' trip this week. The kids were truly excited to finally go and pick out what we wanted to grow. Of course ahead of time, each member of the family wrote their list with what they wanted. We agree'd this year being our first year would be a small start and each year we would add on more. List in hand we ventured to Home Depot, Walmart, Lowe's.....I think we are nearly ready...We also found a fun kit to use indoors for science with the kids!

 Some of the items on our list:
Strawberries, Carrots, Artichokes, Zucchini, Squash, Snap Pea's, Lettuce, Spinach, Corn, Watermelon, Cantaloupe! and several more I'm forgetting! Strawberries we got in hanging baskets and the spreading vine plants like the watermelon and squash are going in the back field to spread out as for the rest, into the container gardens they go! It seems to be coming together, our well also finally got fixed today, so the gardens can now be watered and irrigated properly.

The kids were very intrigued by some unique flowers, plants and vegetables they found! Which has lead us to our plant studies, soil, sun, cactus's for our son, and moving into butterflies and insects as well...books and a wooden puzzle insect project....

Sewing

Last year my daughter and I showed my son how to sew by hand. He sewed a little pouch for his beloved guinea pig as his first sewing project. Our daughter has always loved to sew...whether it be doll clothes, sock animals, her own clothing, anything really. Our 4 H was to have a 'Green' meeting for St. Patrick's day so she went to work, sewing her own dress which sparked our son to inquire about the use of the sewing machine, a few tries and he was a master and had sewn a bag and several pouches for several different toys in a matter of minutes! Now he claims he wants his own sewing machine for his birthday so he doesn't have to share hers! Happy that he loved this, boys need to have those skills too!

 The green dress she sewed and put together from a long women's robe. She has several friends and family saving her old clothing and material for re-fashion's and sewing projects! And our little guy working away!

Spring/Easter Mantel, Zoo, Studies

Our daughter seemed to get worse this week with her cold, sneezing and coughing, so rest we did. But the end of the week brought her feeling a bit better so we painted, crafted and started on our Spring, St. Patrick's Day and Easter decorating/crafting.

Spring / Easter Mantel

Zoo

Last weekend we went for a quick 3 day trip out of town to visit family. We enjoyed their company, relaxed, visited and went to the Zoo for a few hours before departing back home. No matter how many times we visit, we always see new things, new area's to explore and have a lot of fun.

Studies This Week

A few things we worked on this week...

Our daughter read most of the week from the comfort of the couch- reading a Natural and Man Made Disasters Book and taking notes, starting 'Legends of the Ghost Dog' for some fun light reading and listening to me read out loud to Jordan about the North and South Poles and more penguins then we watched Shark Week and an ocean documentary.

 Jordan picked out some 'Biscuit' the dog easy readers to read out loud this week and we read his Penguin book together as well as took turns reading from the Magic Treehouse 'Polar Bears Past Bedtime'. We scored a 'Ranger Rick' magazine for 0.10cents at the Library and read about Dolphins in it as well. Jordan used his how to draw shark book to draw and write about sharks too. He worked on practicing carrying numbers in adding and subtracting and we talked about estimation using marbles and other items like popcorn kernels, cereal and toy cars.

 And of course there was lots of sick snuggling with the pup going on as she played a few games online, slept off and on and just rested!

Come visit us next week as we dive into Sharks, Butterflies, Plants & Gardening and continue reading about Disasters in History, learn more about Maps and Geography and practice our math skills too! Its a busy week with 4H, Ballet practice, Gymnastics class and lots of fun fit in too!

Play hard, Learn lots, Have FUN in life and Enjoy every Moment of every Day!