Lazy School Dayz...

Well, we've only got two weeks of "official" school left this year then we start back "unofficial" schooling. We never stop learning, so to say the "school year is over", that's not entirely truthful. "Official" at my house means lesson plans and grade keeping and attendance forms etc. "Unofficial" is my favorite...no more teaching , no more "official" books, no more sleep deprived, sugar hyped students dirty looks (mostly around reading lesson time). This last "official" month of school this year has been very laid back...almost "Unofficial" in nature. I have abandoned all plans and we've just gone with the flow and had alot of fun doing it. Topics are all across the map, no obvious tie-ins...just whatever looks neat at the library. I found a great series of books on the lives of African animals, so we've been reading those and using our story journals again. I have figured out how to print directly on index cards and so life is good. I was printing, cutting and pasting the fact cards for their story journals, so now this particular means of "notebooking" has been made easier. If you're not familiar with our story journals, it is merely a composition book with pockets on each page. EVerytime we read a book, we write the date, author, title and illustrator and then I give the kids fact cards to go in the pockets. So, they can look through their journals and remember the book and learn some great and interesting things pertaining to the subject matter of the book.

Jack's cards are pre-printed, but Lillie's are trivia, fill in the blank type cards she writes in by herself. As much as I love lapbooking, this is alot easier on me and serves the exact same purpose. Lapbooking will be alot more fun when the kids are old enough to read and write and be trusted with sharp objects and glue. We made paper bag puppets of the animals we've studied and the kids put on a puppet show for me which mainly consisted of the animals arguing about who was prettiest. It was quite amusing, but I wouldn't nominate it for an Academy Award for best screenplay anytime soon.

You'll thank me for not having audio on this one...


After we study an animal, we add them to our animal classification chart...

I did not know this, but no two zebra's stripe pattern is the same. See how educational homeschooling has been to me? This reminded me of this activity on fingerprints that I had been looking for an excuse to use. The activity quickly went from scientific to artistic as the kids started going nuts with the ink pads and making fingerprint pictures.

Everyone's fingerprints, though different ,will fall into one (or in my case, more than one) catergory: Loopy, Whirly, or Archy (those are my technical terms for it). Low and behold, everyone in the house is Loopy except for me...funny, I always thought it was the other way around. I had a little of all of the patterns.Well, I found a neat book at the library about being a nature detective and it was focused on animal tracks, so we read that one and plan on making some plaster casts of tracks next time we go to dad's on a nature walk. We've had alot of storms and rain recently, so the other morning we read a book about lightning and thunder, a book about how animals sense the weather, and one of our fave books "Thunder Cake" by Patricia Pollacco. It's a really great book and you should check it out if you haven't already. There is a recipe for Thunder Cake in the back you could make during your next storm!

Played outside alot this week as the weather has been very pleasant. Planted a truckload of hostas the other night and the yard is shaping up. I love my front yard when it's in bloom and the grass is mowed and the bird's are swarming the feeders...especially early morning when it's quiet.

Been some cookin' goin on as well...Jackson: Pancake Flipper Extroidinaire

On a side note, if you don't mind...say a prayer for my sis-in-law Cassie as she should be in the hospital and ready to welcome her second baby, a boy. We can't wait to see Gavin Lane!!!!

Have a Blessed Day!!!!