An Egg-citing School Day

Yesterday, we did the usual reading , writing, and arithmetic and added history into the mix. I am using the History for Little Pilgrims by Christian Liberty Press. We talked about how everyone has a history and a future. How that God decides when we will begin our journey on earth and when our journey in this world ends. Lillie started constructing a family tree. We added aunts, uncles and cousins. Thursday we will finish up with grandparents and great-grandparents. Here is a picture of Lillie with her Family Tree so far...

Today, we continued learning the first five books of the Old Testament and question three from our catechism. Did some reading and a writing worksheet and Lillie successfully counted to 50 by herself with no help, so instead of spending the rest of the week on it, we'll go ahead and begin skip counting.

Wednesday is our science experiment day. Since we studied alligators on Monday, I decided to do the floating egg experiment to show density and to tie in with the fact that alligators live in fresh water and the differences between fresh and salt water. I got this experiment from Ms. Lee's Kindergarten Experiments. It's very simple. Drop and egg in a glass of tap water. It should sink. This is because the egg is denser than the water.

Next, drop an egg in another glass of tap water. Add table salt until it floats to the surface. Now the water is denser than the egg.

I talked a little with her about what's so unusual about the Dead Sea and then had her drink some tap water...

Then some salt water...

The verdict: Salt water is "shoo nasty".

Starting "Tendergarden"...

Before you judge me inept to educate my children from the gross misspelling of my title, I am quoting my daughter Lillie Anna. She woke up Monday morning and said, "Mom, do I start tendergarden today?" Thus with that, our tendergarden adventure began. I got my ducks all lined up, thanks to my ever clever sister and her idea to use index cards instead of a planner. Hopefully she'll blog the nuts and bolts of this concept soon as it has been an amazing help for my planning. I decided to school year round, which I feel gives us more flexibility. We'll go 10 weeks on (the 10th week being used for review and testing) and 1 to 2 weeks off as needed and dictated by our busy schedule. I really would like to take Thanksgiving through New Years off to focus on the holiday, not to mention relieve some of the stress of the holiday season. So, five days a week we will do reading, writing, rithmetic, and bible. Mondays and Wednesdays will add science and nature study into the mix with Friday being our day to go on nature walks. Tuesday and Thursday we'll do history. Friday will also be an elective day where the kids can do crafts, paint, sew, music (and I use that term loosely) whatever they want as long as it's not illegal and is beneficial.
So, yesterday Lillie did reading from McGuffey's Primer, a dandy little book. I write her new words on index cards and we do what Karen Andreola called a "3 Period Lesson". Writing was a worksheet from The Learning Page.

Math was learning to count from 0-50 (which, unknown to me, Lillie could already do.)using a printable hundreds chart.
I decided to start helping Lillie memorize the books of the Bible. We have started with the Old Testament. I made some nifty little flashcards shaped like leather bound books using my Printshop program. We used the 3 Period Lesson strategy here as well. I started out with the first five books of the Law and (call me cruel) I just got a kick out of Lillie trying to say Leviticus and Deuteronomy. I ordered the First Catechism from Christian Liberty Press and we covered question number one.
For science, I read a segment from the Christian Liberty Nature Reader Book K called "A is for Alligator". We learned that baby alligators are about 8 inches long and come out of a 3 inch egg. And that alligators lay their eggs on land and cover them with grass to incubate them. The mother's often can be seen carrying their babies in their mouths if they become a target of some hungry animal. We took our tape measure outside to see just how long alligators could get. I didn't realize that alligators can't stick out their tongue and can grow to be 16 FEET LONG! You don't really think about how long 16 feet is.
I found a neat little sewing project for Lillie off of Family Fun. It was an alligator sewing kit made out of felt. This is what it was supposed to look like...

I cut my ovals too small , so ours ended up looking like a frog with teeth...oh well...Lillie thought it was a puppet anyway.



I read the first chapter from Felix Salten's version of "Bambi" off the Rosetta Project at bedtime , so all our work was completed. Here's some cute pictures of Lillie playing beauty salon with a very patient Chloe...

Pretty successful school day. Even got my bathrooms cleaned...whoo hoo!

Oh Deer!!!!

Had a wonderful time yesterday! Lillie spent a few days with her aunt Shanna and new uncle Paul on their deer farm. I had never been out to their farm before, so I was looking forward to seeing all the different animals they had, not to mention sneaking in a little school time (FIELD TRIP). I don't think I will ever get my mind around that my sister-in-law has taken to farm life as she has, but she really enjoys it. She's a natural. If you don't believe me, here's some pictures of her feeding the deer. She does all that and still looks good! I got alot of pictures, but some animals I didn't get a picture of. One was called a muntjac, which is the world's smallest deer. They are very skittish around people as I learned from Paul and they were literally bouncing off the walls of the barn they were in. Here's a stock photo that will give you an idea of what they look like. The other animal I didn't snap a picture of was the Egyptian geese. I thought they were very neat and unique. I really enjoyed watching the deer run in herds to the feed and watching the bucks actually fight over the food. They had one deer named Babe that was bottled fed, so she would come up to you and let you pet her and she'd eat right out of your hand. I dropped my camera unknowingly in Shanna and Paul's driveway, so I didn't get pictures of Babe and the kids. Here's a great picture. One of these things is not like the other... A hint: That really big deer is not a deer at all... That is Larry the Llama, who had no problem telling those bucks to get out of his way. I was told he even spits on them. Here are some donkeys posing with Larry. Here are some pictures of the deer... Here is Jack running from the deer... I'm not done yet, there were alot of animals... Goats, ducks, geese, turkeys, chickens... Here is a video of some cavies...



They had a new colt which the kids freaked out and would not pet, even though poor Paul wrestled it to get it over to the fence.


Paul made Jackson's millenium...

These are white foxes which look pettable, but are not...

We rode the four-wheelers out to see the pigs, which were my least favorite because they are flat nasty. They were very large pigs...couldn't help but picturing how much bacon would come off one of those things. Chloe liked riding the four wheeler, almost falling asleep a couple of times.

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Thanks to Paul and Shanna for showing us around.

Spring Has Sprung...

I apologize to all my readers that I have not posted more. We've had alot going on in our family and that along with taking a break to get my school ducks in a row have afforded little time for blogging. We'll be on a year round schedule , so I figured I'd start back May the 1st. That's when Jody is scheduled to go back to school, seemed like a logical jumping off point. Well, last week the weather was glorious. We all stayed outside most of the week. Saturday it was so nice, then Sunday, it snowed. This weather is freaking me out. I was so looking forward to the ceremonial burning of the knee high socks and the purchase of the first new flip-flops of the season. Glad I didn't burn my socks last week...
Here's a quick rundown with pictures of the going ons since last I posted. Better be prepared to sit a bit...
Jody , for our 6 year anniversary (May 30th)bought me a six string banjo. I have wanted one for a very long time because, though I love the sound of a banjo, my mind cannot learn another instrument. Going from the guitar to the mandolin back and forth makes my brain short circuit. Here's a picture of the little beauty which sounds exactly like a banjo, but can be played like a guitar.
On Monday of last week, we had my nephew Tanner spend a couple days with us. I love that kid. He makes me laugh. Jack really struggled with sharing however. They bickered back and forth like old ladies the whole time. But they had fun. And it was a good learning experience for Jack. Here's a pic of the crew I snapped...
Lets see, what else...Chloe is a full fledged crawler and is having to struggle with the concept of "no". Lillie actually likes to wash dishes...
Literally throwing herself into it...

Lillie likes to sew as well. I might just have a domestic diva on my hand.

I have decided that Jack's future will not be in medicine or pro wrestling (thankfully), but in corn eating, to which he has perfected a technique. They have hot dog eating competitions that ESPN actually covers. These people are serious...I wonder if there might be a future corn eating champion staring right at me at the dinner table...
Look at the poise, the stance, the technique...it's awe inspiring (not to mention a little messy)
Coming down the home stretch...
It's so good to be the champion...
Makes a Momma so proud...