Glimpses of the last 2 months

September has given way to mid-October and I've finally made it back to my blog. We are as busy as ever.  The photos below capture some of the fun and beauty we've been blessed with these last weeks.

-Family Camp on Labor Day weekend is always enjoyed, but also puts somewhat of a bookend on the summer.  It's always back-to-the-books after a long and fun weekend with friends.

-We needed a family photo for our church's annual prayer card exchange, so we set up the camera on a tripod in the backyard and hoped for the best. Not bad!

-I was surprised that planting carrot seeds in a pot on my deck actually resulted in edible carrots! I planted the seeds in June and by September we had delicious carrots. Amazing!

-We continue to love our weekly Little House on the Prairie co-op. The girls made bread together and each took a small loaf home to bake.

-Family time! It's always wonderful to eat with family and gather around a bonfire to make smores.

-Last week we had the amazing opportunity to spend a day in 1875 in a one-room schoolhouse.

The schoolmaster had them stand for the roll call, sing songs, and practice their penmanship on slate boards. (and much more!) The girls had to sit on one side of the room and the boys on the other. (yes!)

They ate lunch on the steps of the schoolhouse and were able to play with jump ropes, wooden stilts, and other toys they would have had in 1875. It was a wonderful experience.

-The color of fall is all around now. We just had 2+ weeks of warm weather... and now it is cold, windy, and raining. But honestly, I look forward to being tucked into our little house together. I'm not sure it actually slows down the pace of life, but it seems like it does - at least a little.

I hope you're enjoying this season wherever it finds you... may you be able to open your eyes to see what God is doing this very day in your life and may you have the courage to say yes to whatever great thing He has for you to be a part of... His plans are always the best!

With love,

Christine

Owl Pellet Lab

This year our big curriculum decision was to participate in a co-op and go through the Prairie Primer together. The Prairie Primer walks you through all 9 of the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

Our co-op only consists of 5 girls and each of them are in a different grade - 3rd grade through 7th. But it doesn't matter a bit to these girls! They love learning and playing together and the 3 moms in this group - well, we like each other too. ;)

For our first co-op last week we made butter (which is as easy as putting heavy whipping cream in a jar and shaking it until a lump of butter forms) and we talked about owls and dissected owl pellets.  

Do you know what an owl pellet is?  Here's the definition:

A pellet, in ornithology, is the mass of undigested parts of a bird's food that some bird species occasionally regurgitate. The contents of a bird's pellet depend on its diet, but can include the exoskeletons of insects, indigestible plant matter, bones, fur, feathers, bills, claws, and teeth. 

Not very 'girly' to dissect owl pellets, is it?  And they were quite disgusted in the beginning.

Actually, a couple of them were disgusted the entire time, but eventually we heard things like, "This is really gross, but it's cool too!" One of the girls had  bird remains in her owl pellet, evidenced by the feather and the beak that she found. But most of the pellets had rodent bones, which we expected.

Not surprisingly though, our M wasn't the least bit disgusted with this lab. She was fascinated from beginning to end.

  

Here's a simple lab report we used to walk them through the lab. 

And another helpful resource: an owl pellet bone chart
I'm not sure where our owl pellets were purchased, but here's one website that sells them:  Owl Brand Discovery Kits

Don't be scared to try it!  It was easy and I think the girls learned a lot and had fun too! 

Last Day of School 2011

Forgive the poor quality of my photos. Not having auto-focus working on my camera makes it difficult to get crisp photos on indoor shots when it's cloudy. Plus I took zero time to run these through photoshop. That's the end of my disclaimer. :)



The last day of school has come and gone. And we are glad for both.

I decided we would play a game for every subject. But even before breakfast the girls decided on their own to play chess.



And for breakfast we made cinnamon muffins. Great way to start a special day!


For spelling we played Scrabble. But we didn't keep score and we quit when we were tired of it. (They loved the liberty of that!)


For math we played a fun card game practicing place value. I found it here. It was easy for both of them, but I counted it anyway because it's the last day of school!!

For geography we played a huge game of memory with state capitals. We made the cards ourselves. We marked the state cards with red stars and the capitals with blue stars. It's a great way to learn those capitals!


And for writing we played Fortunately, Unfortunately. I don't know where we learned this game. I'll have to ask the girls, but it's a lot of fun and it kills time in the car, at the doctor's office or on your last day of school! :)

Basically one person starts with a simple one sentence plot and you take turns adding 'Fortunately...this happened.' And the next person adds, 'Unfortunately... this happened.' It can get very silly!

I'll leave you with our Fortunately, Unfortunately story from our last day of school! Happy summer everyone!

There was a guy named Bob.
Fortunately, he had a big house.
Unfortunately, his house was painted pink.
F, he had a lot of money, so he got a guy to paint his house.
U, the guy didn't know what color to paint the house, so he painted it green.
F, Bob liked green.
U, he couldn't pay for his house anymore, so he had to move.
F, he won a game show.
U, he only won a big fish.
F, it was a big fish so he could sell it for a lot of money.
U, he got too attached to it and named it Steve.
F, Steve could sing so they started a traveling band.
U, Steve got a cold.
F, when he gets a cold he sneezes and it sounds like a trumpet.
U, Bob doesn't like the trumpet.
F, he got used to it.
U, Steve sneezed when he was doing a headstand and got stuck in the rim of his bowl.
F, he couldn't eat, so after 3 days, he slipped out.
U, Bob's grandma showed up and overfed Steve, so now his bowl is too small.
F, Bob bought Steve a bigger bowl.
U, the bowl prevented them from taking their show on the road.
F, Bob's grandma invited them to stay at her house until they could buy their own.
U, she lived in a tiny little shack that only had 3 rooms.
F, Steve's bowl just fit in the kitchen.
U, Bob's grandma overfed them both.
F, Steve's bowl was big enough for him.
U, Bob's pants were not.
F, Bob's grandma had extra skirts.
U, they were all pink and purple.
F, he was able to sell them and get some pants.
U, Bob's grandma did not like his new pants, so she sent him away.
F, he won another game show, won a $100,000 and bought a mansion and a deluxe fish bowl for Steve.

THE END

Homeschool Talent Show 2011

This week the girls participated in the second annual Homeschool Talent Show. My sis-in-love puts this together at her church just down the road from us. Last year M and C didn't participate in the actual 'show' portion, but had some things displayed, like art and writing.

This year, however, they were happy to join in the show and each played a piece (or 2) on the piano, as well as reciting a portion of Psalm 91 with their cousin. They also displayed some art, embroidery and their science displays from earlier this year. C baked some cookies and had samples for people to try.

The variety of talents shared was wonderful. We had a hand bell choir, a hula hooper, a joke teller, poem recitation, a vocal solo (by my niece -- who sang her solo, as well as her sister's), a Tae Kwon Do demonstration, plus several cute skits.

It was a great success and kudos to my sister for putting it together! The kids loved having the stage to share their gifts and it was sweet to watch them shine. If you live in our area, I would highly recommend joining us next year. If you don't live in my neck of the woods, consider putting one together for your homeschool community. Your kids, as well as their parents and grandparents, will love it!

Lapbooking

Princess Pack has enriched our lives in countless ways. Friendships are the most valuable gift. Some of our closest friends were made because of this precious group. We have learned many things together over the last 6 and a half years!

This week at Princess Pack one of the moms and her daughter brought lapbooking to our group. It is something I've heard much about, but have never taken the extra time to do. And we've discovered that we've been missing out!

The girls put together lapbooks about (you might have guessed) Princess Pack! It was a full evening -- lots of cutting and pasting. My girls (as well as most) were unable to finish at the meeting, which meant we spent much of the day today with scissors, glue, and paper spread all over our table. What a fun mess! They now have a great memory keeper of all they've experienced this year at PP!

Here are a couple resources if you want to learn more about lapbooking:

• homeschoolshare.com has GREAT free printables of everything you might need to make a lapbook (I've added this site to my "Links for Learning". They have more than lapbooking resources.)
  
• I found this flickr photo pool of lapbooks. A wonderful place to get inspiration.

We will definitely be re-visiting this activity again. I love watching them create. They find so much joy and peace in the process. And it was a wonderful warm-up to making their academic fair projects -- which is in two weeks! A display board is much larger than a lapbook and they've already invested 3+ hours into these and they're still not done. It takes time to be creative!

Well, happy weekend, friends! May He fill you with His peace and love as you take time to slow down, spend time with those you love, and maybe even find time to be creative.

Dem Bones Dem Bones, Dem RUBBER Bones!

The rubber bones results are in... vinegar will make a chicken bone bendable!

And it IS gross.

In case you're wondering why, I'll tell you.

Vinegar is considered a mild acid and is strong enough to eat away the calcium in a bone, thus leaving the bone soft and bendable. The instructions said that it would take 2 to 3 days to make the bone soft enough to bend. After 3 days we checked on the bones and found that they were soft in spots, but not bendable. As gross as it was, we decided to give it more time.

In the end, we left the bones in the vinegar for 9 days. I think we left them in so long because we weren't anxious to handle them again, but also because we really wanted to see it work.

Well, it worked. No wonder our mothers told us to drink our milk!

Here's to strong bones! Cheers!

Do Not Drink!

In science today we talked about bones. For an experiment we put some chicken leg bones in vinegar. We'll keep them in there for a few days and when we take them out they'll be like rubber bones!

When we decided to use this glass for the container, C decided we needed to put a 'Do Not Drink' sign on the glass just in case. Hmm... I don't think anyone will be intentionally or accidentally drinking this glass of liquid, do you?

Where did you go, September?!

Can it really be the end of September? School is in full swing and the next season has scooched it's way in. (Not sure that's really a word... spell-check certainly doesn't like it.)

Anyway, we've been busy. But what's new?

Princess Pack, our homeschool girls' group, is back! Our group's size has increased once again and now has a waiting list! We're excited about what we'll be learning together and the new friends we'll gain too.

We've had a field trip with my sis-in-love and kids to a local historical home built in 1896.

It's an amazing house with all the original furnishings. We were fascinated by the countless things to see. Oh how I wish I would have been allowed to take photos on the inside. But the garden is glorious as well and is maintained by the best gardener in town -- John's dad!

The girls and I enjoyed a glorious day at the beach with some dear friends. I didn't take my digital camera, but decided to take my old faithful 35mm. I only had black and white film on hand and haven't developed it yet, so we'll have to wait to see if I was able to capture the beauty of the day.

M complained that I didn't do anything but sit on the blanket all day and talk with Miss Elizabeth. I laughed and asked her, when was the last time I got to sit with my friend and talk for hours?! I think she might have understood a little better after that.... she certainly loves to talk and talk and talk with her closest friends too.

While Elizabeth and I talked, the kids were constantly playing in the sand, in the water, up the beach , down the beach... it was fun to watch them enjoy being together and never running out of games to play together. (Here are Elizabeth's beautiful pictures of the day.)

We are taking part in a science co-op this year for the first time which started last week. We are studying anatomy and physiology and I couldn't be more excited about it! The other mom is a nurse!! so we are in very good hands and we're looking forward to lots of fun together. And I just discovered that another friend is also doing anatomy this year (because she posted about their edible cell!) I'm so excited that they'll be joining the fun this week too!

And this week I was able to go to an overnight church staff retreat up in Michigan. The purpose of the retreat was to reconnect with God and with each other. I know I've gushed about our church's staff before, but I'm always amazed that I get to be a part of such an amazing team. They challenge and love and inspire me. They ask really big questions and push me to go deeper and further with God. Plus, we laughed and cried. We sang and prayed. We played and ate a lot of good food. And I came home really refreshed and ready to jump into my busy schedule again. Funny, because I wasn't originally excited about it -- especially at the idea of spending the night. Mostly because I'm too busy! But as it turns out, it was exactly what I needed. I did miss my husband and girls.... but that's not such a bad thing either, I guess. It makes being back together that much sweeter. I'm so glad God knows my needs and meets them.

Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

in the trunk

When you are homeschooled, doing your schoolwork in the trunk of the van while it's parked in the garage is one option.

It's quiet. It's kind of outside. And your papers won't blow away in the wind.

It's amazing how invigorating new surroundings can be.

writing in braille

Last week we learned about Louis Braille. His story is an amazing one. It's also another example of how God can take a tragedy and use it for something really good.

So after learning about Louis, they made their own messages in braille. I pulled out my embossing stylus and a plastic template that has several different sizes of circles. They used our sliding glass door as a light box and began writing their name and their friends names, followed by silly messages. They had a blast and I couldn't stop smiling at their happy hands busy at work.

Finding Beauty

School started up again today. Our 2nd trimester. The 1 month break was perfect. It seemed to all of us that it had been a very long time since we had done any schoolwork.

They came out of their bedroom dressed and ready for breakfast. That's not an everyday occurrence.
The first assignment this morning: Create a visual journal.
Inspired by Ann Voskamp, we have begun a new way to record our thoughts, our prayers, our inspirations.

Old magazines found new purpose and O how they loved them and then ripped them to shreds. I had to make them stop and clean up too soon--it was only the first assignment of the day after all.
I loved watching their excitement over found treasure. They discovered beauty were I had not seen it before.

They teach me how to see.

Princess Pack Christmas Tea 2009

Time for a break

Tomorrow we complete our first 60 days of school. The first trimester is nearly finished. We're ready for the break. Today's picture is of M typing up her writing assignment. I couldn't be happier in how she is coming along in her studies. She's almost smarter than me. In some cases, she already is.

Completed!

Remember when we started this? The directions told us that it would take about a week to dry completely and be ready for paint. Umm...No. Try 6 weeks! It was so hard for my little artists to wait!