Paddel to The Sea

We finished up this part of our Geography Unit today. It is a part of a unit study based on the Hollings C Hollings books. This story focused on a toy indian that a boy carved and placed into the lake hopping he would travel through the Great Lakes and make it to the sea. It was a fun way to learn the Great Lakes and lots of information about the states around them. We had a lot of fun making our maps, and coloring the routes, we studied Iron Ore- which is mined in the lakes - and Copper also mined off little island in Lake Superior. Learned the States ad the major cities along the way.

Next we start a Tree In The Trail and its about Native Americans. Should be fun.

I love using living books to study with a story that can be used for learning and make the learning fun. I have bee following Charlotte Masons style of learning for a while and each year try to embrace more of it, this year we are doing almost nothing but living books what a treat they are. We read a biography of Helen Keller and Noah Webster, and are beginning one on Abraham Lincoln. Such great characters to know what great christian influences to look up to. Louis Pasture is next and his hunt for microbes:-) Should be interesting.

puppies at the shelter

did I mention there are 4 puppies at the shelter beagle/dalmatian mix-the thought of that makes me laugh-. Of course the girls are all in love with them, of course I tell them, they volunteer and play with them so they can be ready for a new home their furever home. I just know they want another do very badly, I don;t know that Bandit would be very happy with that idea. I also tell them when the time for us to adopt another is right God will bring the right one to us.

Anyhow here are pictures of Missy, Nippy,Rocky, and Joy , They are at The Harford County Humane Society:-) And need good homes:-)

our science unit - is Botany

we are doing a Botany unit this year, which sounds really good when your five and eight year olds tell people they are learning Botany at home:-)Anyhow we are using the Apologia- -Creation Using Botany- program we have done other by them- Astrology was a favorite. So I know we will like this one. We already have tons of seeds sprouting everywhere- pine trees in the kitchen window, banana trees too, sunflowers, blacked eyed Susan's- Doug's Favorite-, and a couple other flowers on my freezer, lettuce, tomatoes, squash and peppers in the loft in our room- so this seems like the time to do this.

We are also doing the experiment where you put white carnations water with food color and the flower changes color- it shows how water moves up the flower- our carnation is now a pretty blue. Oh and we have carrot tops rooting in our window too., and the girls are growing a container of grasses for the cat.

So this unit should take us to the next level.

We also have a fun game The Garden Game to play which everyone can join in and have fun with. The kids will also be designing a pizza garden- peppers ,onions , tomatoes etc. And we will also be updating our butterfly garden. So lots of fun and learning and growing going on here.

monster jam

Adam loves this and is going Sunday with Daddy and he has really good seats too. Should be a very loud very fun time.

who we met today at the shelter

a new history study

we began to use The Mystery Of History ,Volume 1 today and it seemed to go well. the first Volume covers Creation -Resurrection, and theres tons of info and fun stuff in between, we will be studying the lineage from Adam-Christ, keeping a timeline- I love doing these alot- .

It is always fun to see when peole lived and what was going on in the world at the same time, such as When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, Mulan - who was a real person- was a live and the Huns where invading China. When Johnna went to Nineveh, the Greeks where holding the first Olympics.

This seems to be a pretty through study, lots of Egyptian,- which Madeline just loves- Greek, Roman, Asian history, is covered, along with a brief touch on the Natives in the Americas and what was going on here. Theres a lesson Hannibal's march over the Swiss Alps with Elephants to attack the Roman Empire , and alot of other material I have found left out of other studies - and that I never had in public school-. The best part it is something for all of us to do together, theres research projects for Madeline and coloring pages for Adam, . I love being able to learn together, and not have to be in separate rooms or in different places.

February thoughts and Ramblings

this actually is one of my favorite months- I know I am a bit odd- but I love winter wish we actually got snow here, our area either gets nothing or gets icy slushy icky yuck no fun at all. I like the fact that it brings us in and causes us to be together more often, we play games, read by the fire, dress-up, paint, draw, color, cook and bake wonderful things , we get lots of school done. And we have amazing conversations we watch movies and laugh we had movie marathon on Friday when everyone was sick we watched both Narnia movies, they are favorites. We also love to have tea on chilly afternoons, we have a huge selection of flavors so it is always new

. We make treats for the birds and watch all our visitors and keep track of who we see, we always get someone new each year we have not seen before. Of course we always get the neighborhood squirrels, I swear we see so many I think they come from other areas, just to raid our feeders:-)But that's OK too, it keeps the dog busy chasing them all day. The kids love taking the old bread around to the water and feeding the ducks and seagulls they are so fun to watch Shawn laughs so hard at the loud noise they make.

Of course we do go outside- we are the family who will run around singing in the rain after all-. We spend many afternoons/evenings at our nature center hiking and doing classes, last week we did a night hike that was so fun we saw three shooting stars and several constellations, it was such a clear pretty night.

And this weekend we started our seeds for spring, so out house is a growing blooming place inside and out:-)

Grace's letter to the White House

we had been discussing some serious issues lately-abortion, because we saw protesters on our way to a movie the other day and there really is no way to sugar coat that topic. It is what it is, a death of a baby. we discussed why someone would do this and how there really is not a good reason for it,- and how in Gods eyes its a life once it is conceived, not just a mass of cells floating around,- there are many other options, like letting a family who would love it have it.- Well my kids are really concerned about this, and Grace decided to write a letter to the President,telling him how wrong this is and for him to not support legislation to make it easier to have them and not pay for them in other parts of the world either. I am quite proud of her, after all if you do nothing you cannot complain. And standing up for the most innocent of us, is what Jesus calls us to do. I know he is smiling down on her today, she has the courage of a lion :-)

It always amazes me where the Lord will place things in our lives, I actually would not of noticed the protesters, had a truck not stopped to back up in front of and taken a long time to do it. So it was something for some reason he wanted us to see and discuss- and those posters where very graphic, not what I was prepared for .But I just set and calmly answered questions and let them lead the conversation, It was amazing to me that even 4 year old Adam understood this.

It certainly was a health lesson from the one true teacher of us all.

volunteering

the girls started volunterring today at the animal shelter they walked two dogs, Molly-pictured-, and Maggie and played with the cats and hugged a couple of bunnies, then they got to go to Quizonos for lunch.

The boys and I played outside all morning so they had a great time too.

sweet Irish girls

These always make me smile and think of my own sweet girls:-)

happy Presidents Day

great job

Congratulations Matt Kenseth

on winning the Daytona 500!

some extra valentines love

Daytona 500

is today hurray:-) I am so happy racing season is back:-) It also means spring is close at hand- spring training begins this week too.

yay 33days till spring:-) And counting

Happy Valentines

aquarium field trip

we had a field trip with one of our homeschooling groups to the aquarium today. I t was fun as always. Lots of school groups today however and Shawn was a bit cranky so we did not see the dolphin show,but we did watch them in their tank from the under ground windows, they are so pretty to watch.

We are thinking of asking pop for a membership for Easter instead of a bunch of stuff for each kid a membership would be the same cost of all the stuff combined and we would use it.

haircuts today

Shawn had his first haircut today at Hair Cuttery he did very well, he actually started dozing off while they where clipping him the razor must have a soothing vibration:-)

Adam got a trim as well and he looks very handsome.

loved this picture and wish I could go there someday

this just was so pretty it made me smile, at gods creatons how wonderful they ar.

brothers

the boys wore the same shirts and looked so cute I just had to take pictures of them

Bubble wrap Appreciation day

never knew there was such a thing yep its January 26Th- we missed it-, but look at the fun pics I found of stuff people made with it- never knew it came in color either. I hope this makes you smile I know it did me:-) now I need to get some of this stuff and see what we can make. How about you what can you make?

a planting day

we spent yesterday planting all kinds of seeds and plants, we have a banana tree seed started- it says it can get to be 15 feet tall-yikes, have to keep that thing trimmed-. We transplanted our Australian pine seedlings which are doing really nicely, they grow a bit slower then the bananas and will eventually go outside someday. We also planted an amaryllis bulb and some nasturtium seeds should brighten up the place through the cold/icky wet dampish days ahead. Pretty soon we can bring in some forsythia and force it into bloom in a vase of warm water, that is so pretty and very springy.