Friday, May 27, 2011

The Homeschool Mother's Journal: May 22-27


  In My Life This Week
  
Did you see?! Our chicks arrived over the weekend! Unfortunately 2 of our eggs were not fertile and 1 chick died, but we have one yellow, fuzzy, CHEEPING chick! And the kids are asking to do this ALL OVER AGAIN!
C Holding Cheeper at 3 Days Old
We had a Pizza and Movie Night. The kids LOVE making individual pizzas! We watched "Diary of a Wimpy Kid", "The Water horse" and "Megamind", all borrowed from the library.

I steam-cleaned the livingroom carpet, but I don't think my steamer is working well...And we got the yard tidied up and mowed.

Sun and fun on Thursday! We hit a high of 77 degrees! We headed to the state park, having our first picnic of the season! And the kids went swimming! Brrrr!

In Our Homeschool This Week

Our school year is complete! Portfolio reviews were on Sunday and everything went well. And now onto YEAR 8 and SUMMER VACATION! Not that ALL the learning ends! LOL

J and C continued to try out Timberdoodle's How to Draw the Life and Times of Grover Cleveland for our review. To see our final thoughts and drawings, click here.

We did a simple science experiment to test what white vinegar (acid) does to the calcite in limestone. We were supposed to get some cool looking "stalagmites" growing up from the rocks, but maybe our rocks (found in the neighbor's gravel driveway) weren't LIMESTONE...The vinegar IS doing something though as there is a chalky-white layer under the rocks now.

C and I made Fruit and Nut Granola Bars from The Cookbook for Kids: Great Recipes for Kids Who Love to Cook. Yum! Want the recipe? Check out this post! And I read aloud Cook-a-doodle-doo! and J made Strawberry Shortcake from some of the last berries we picked last season.

We started our Master Boardgame Player competition this week for the summer. Currently, J and C are tied for the leader! And somehow I'm in last place! How did THAT happen? LOL
So Cute! S WAS Paying Attention! See the heart? Circle with Petal (Ovary)? Tube Where Eggs Form? The Chicken Reproductive System! And Nannie is to the Right, Pulling a Bell to get the Hen to Lay.
Places We're Going and People We're Seeing

C had a softball practice on Monday (and a Brownie meeting) and a game on Wednesday. S LOVES going to C's games because he gets to "hang out" with his new friend J!  J's friend T biked down for a quick visit on Wednesday. And then there was the lake on Thursday and PJ Storytime at the library that night. Activities are winding down here! We'll soon have more time to spend at the lake!

My Favorite Thing This Week Was
What can top seeing the kids enjoy their new little chick?! They're SO excited to have gone through the process of incubating, watching it hatch and seeing it grow over the week.
Cheeper - 4 Days Old
And C scored the winning hit at her softball game! She had a solid hit to 2nd base and even made it to first base. The winning run scored and the inning was over! Such a proud moment!
What's Working / Not Working for Us

Lack of a schedule, even one that's "loose", combined with MANY days of rainy weather has made for some difficult behavior due to boredom.  We'll be following a SUMMER SCHEDULE from here on out - meals scheduled, activities in the afternoons, a reading (QUIET) hour, daily walks or swims (when it FINALLY warms up), and chore time.

Quiet Time IS working! Most afternoons, sometime between mid-afternoon snack, activities and dinner, we've been having 30-60 minutes of Quiet Time. J and C read. J is currently reading In Enemy Hands by David Weber and C is reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling. S works on his Hooked on Phonics: Learn to Read with me for a 10-15 minutes, Handwriting Without Tears: Letter and Numbers for Me, and then quietly builds with Legos, Magnetix or wooden blocks. Everyone reads though, so I grab my book after that! ((contented sigh))

Homeschool Questions / Thoughts I Have

It's looking like we ALREADY have a VERY busy summer planned! What happened to the "lazy days of summer"? And time for camping? 

A Photo, Video, Link, or Quote to Share
I'm linking up to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, Hip Homeschool Hop and the Homeschool Mother's Journal this week. Check out other homeschool happenings by clicking on my sidebar buttons for these GREAT hops!

12 comments:

  1. Thanks for stopping by my blog. Your Cheeper is adorable! We're supposed to get chicks but I keep thinking it would be more fun to incubate them. Did you make your own incubator or what? I'm adding a link to your blog on my list of homeschoolers so I can check back in. We used to visit Maine for summer vacations, Old Orchard Beach. Loved it there. I keep saying I'm going to take my kids, just haven't been... Have a wonderful holiday weekend.

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  2. We're waiting for it to warm up too. This week it was warm and lovely a couple days, but it's been cold and rainy the last 4 days. *sigh* Momma wants SUN!

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  3. Thanks for stopping by to visit us!! Your chicks are the cutest ever!! My kiddos have been asking for some for a long while but we haven't taken the leap.... yet!! :)

    Have a great Memorial Day weekend!!

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  4. Thank you for swinging by my blog & sharing your yearly schedule. Your comment reiterated to my husband why we don't live in Maine, even though I've always wanted to! His California bones couldn't handle it :)

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  5. Fantastic ideas shared this week. I'm new to this link and LOVE all the great blogs I am finding, and the inspiration is fantastic too. Thank you!!

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  6. Looking at your little chick makes me want to hatch some again, but I am going to resist (at least until next year:)) our weather has been funky too- I just did a post on card games we have been playing. It is becoming such a common passtime that hubby said he was dreaming about them. We did go swimming in the rain today. The kids just could not wait one. more. minute. to swim. Thanks for sharing your week.

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  7. I've read your post about a balmy 77 degrees, and all the comments waiting for it to warm up and I'm jealous. Really I am! We somehow missed spring down here- today it was 98 degrees at 5:30 in the afternoon!! We went for about our 100th swimming expedition of this funky spring/summer!

    I've had dozens of chickens, and the chickens have had chickens but Ive never actually incubated eggs to get to the chickens before. It sounds like it would be an awesome adventure!

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  8. I so love to read your weekly Journals. You combine various activities so well. There is a little bit of all sorts of areas...social, physical, mental, sweet things like the chicks and even chores seem fun. I love a glimpse of your life.

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  9. Nice post. I'll have to check out that cookbook for the new cookbook series we are doing.

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  10. Happy HHH! Looks like you guys are crazy busy! We have baby chicks at our house too!

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