The Homeschool Mother's Journal: June 11-17

 

In My Life This Week

Our baby chicks are starting to hatch! We have 4 pipped eggs! "Pipped" means that the chick has made a small crack or hole in the shell for air. They will rest after pipping and then begin chipping around the entire shell and finally push their way out. This process takes approximately 6-24 hours. Check back in a few days to see how many of our 12 incubating eggs hatch! The kids are SO excited! There are NO plans for sleeping tonight! LOL

 

C and I went on a nice walk one evening together. It's WONDERFUL to bond over nature! I snapped a bunch of photos for her project while we strolled along. 

A Bumble Bee on a Red Clover

C's Favorite Wild Flower - Daisy

An Inch Worm on a Leaf

The Beautiful Red Ladyslipper

C, S and I created a new, bigger brooder for Cheeper, using a cardboard box. We even added a roosting stick to the corner, which she LOVES.

Cheepers New Brooder (Missing: Wire Top and Reflector Light)

Cheeper (3 Weeks Old) on Roosting Stick

In Our Homeschool This Week

C decided on her 4H poster theme: Backyard Botany. We talked about what she would include on her poster - local plants, flowers and trees, a diagram of flower parts, types of leaves, and evergreens vs. deciduous trees - and how she would put it together over the summer. What will the boys do?

C found a dragonfly stuck in the garden netting and brought it inside. She and Sam spent a while looking it over with a magnifying glass and trying to determine what species it was. They were fascinated with its compound eyes!

Dragonfly - Species Unknown (for now)

S continues to draw pictures and copy words into his Do-it-Yourself Diary of a Wimpy Kid journal. It's exciting to hear him sounding out words, although I have to say the first 4-letter word he Spelled correctly was a BIG surprise. ((sigh)) But he IS spelling!

The First 4 Letter Word that S Spelled - The A is backwards

Did you know that a frog's skin needs to be kept wet or it can not get enough oxygen despite having lungs AND gills? I didn't! We spent some time learning about frogs this week in anticipation of getting to the Audubon center and catching frogs in their pond (which they encourage). We also made origami jumping frogs from Enchanted Learning.

Places We're Going and People We're Seeing

• J spent the weekend camping at the lake with Boy Scouts
• C, S and I had a picnic dinner at the lake and then the kids swam - BRRR! - and played in the sand 
• S had T-ball (in the rain) 
• C had softball practice and a play-off game (win!)
• We joined a LARGE group of homeschoolers at the state park to swim, play, and toss around ideas for a new EARTH SCHOOLING co-op in the fall 
• We went swimming with friends at 2 different public swimming beaches 
• We visited the library to sign up for the Summer Reading Program and get new movies and videos

The Lake on a Cloudy Early Evening

S Swimming with his Board

C Getting "Waved"

And a Mallard With Her 10 Ducklings at the Lake

  My Favorite Thing This Week

J and I drove to the bowling alley for our first Kids Bowl Free games! It was nice to go out with my "big kid", chatting and exploring the town, leisurely playing a couple of strings (and joking about our terribly low scores), visiting the library nearby, and "hanging out".

 

 What's Working/Not Working For Us

Don't get me wrong - we DO love our activities - but sports and weekly Girl and Boy Scout meetings ended this week until September and it's WONDERFUL to have more time for other things. THERE IS NOTHING ON THE SCHEDULE NEXT WEEK UNTIL THE WEEKEND!

 

 Questions/Thoughts I Have

What will we do while visiting my family the last week of June? And will Cheeper come with us to live with Mom or is it coop buying time?

 A Photo, Video, Link, or Quote to Share 

A quick, sneak peak! You can hear Cheeper in the background at the end, cheeping at the little ones. She's not sure what to think of them! LOL

I'm linking up with Forever, For Always, No Matter What, Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, Fun Tuesday Hop, Hip Homeschool Hop, and Science Sunday. Click on the sidebar buttons and see what other homeschool families are doing!