The Homeschool Mother's Journal: June 18-24

In My Life This Week

We had FEW scheduled activities this week! I can't remember a week THIS YEAR that we didn't have an activity, usually a bunch EVERY DAY, to run too! Of course we weren't "couch potatoes" all week (even though I was tempted), but it was WONDERFUL to come-and-go as we pleased. 

In Our Homeschool This Week

Did you see that our new baby chicks hatched? The kids were SUPER DUPER excited! They even got to see one pop out of its shell! 4 mostly browns, 3 mostly blacks and 2 mostly yellow chicks joined us. 3 eggs were not fertile which made our hatch rate 100%! I believe we have 5 hens and 4 cockerels, so we'll be finding homes for the roosters. And the kids PROBABLY have us talked into keeping the hens. So, where to get a coop?

Some of Our Little Cheepers

C and S spent some time drawing.

S's Cartoon Alien

Isn't C's Shark Awesome?

S put together a 100 piece Scooby Doo puzzle. Puzzles are VERY difficult for him because of his visual tracking difficulties, but he stuck with it with a little help and encouragement.

The kids are off to a roaring start with their library Summer Reading Program goals! They spent A LOT of time sitting in the mottled shade under the evergreens inside Cheeper's wire run while Cheeper dug and searched for bugs to her content.

C Reading Sounder With Cheeper Digging and Exploring in the Wire Run

Seeds, Seeds, Seeds by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace inspired seed exploration by S. I'd HIGHLY recommend it for preschoolers through Grade 1 for Botany, Garden or plant studies. There's activities right in the reading to bring the information alive. S created his own labelled seed collection just like the Buddy in the story!

S's Seed Collection Poster

We had some "serious" trivia game competitions with Brain Quest: America. Even I'm learning some facts that I didn't know! (Shhh! C spends time reading the questions and answers so that she'll be better prepared between games!)

 

 Places We're Going and People We're Seeing

• C had her Softball Championship game on Saturday. Unfortunately they lost, but their season ended with a record of 7-3 and that's GREAT! On Monday we - PARENTS - played against the girls to celebrate. Guess who won?
• We went to my ILs to celebrate Father's Day Saturday night. FIL is the grill-master, grilling turkey for us! And the chocolate fondue MIL made with C wasn't so bad either!
• We spent an afternoon swimming at the lake.
• S finished up T-ball on Wednesday, getting his participation trophy and popsicles.
• The kids spent Thursday afternoon playing at their friends' house.
• At the library the kids each got their own small zen garden, complete with sand, rocks and a mini rake! We also go LOTS of books, a couple videos and a book-on-CD for our road trip this weekend.
• I dropped S off with my ILs for the weekend to play with his 5-year-old cousin. They have LOTS of fun things planned that he's excited about. And I picked up J's friend T who will be staying with us for the week.

My Favorite Thing This Week Was

Watching the kids play with the new chicks and seeing how excited they are were my favorite things this week. Their calm, caring manners with the animals are wonderful!

J Rubbing Cheeper II As it Sleeps in his Hands

J Rubbing Another Chick to Sleep

I Call This One Ewok! LOL

What's Working/Not Working For Us

I don't know why and I'm not going to question it, but having a Chore Competition gets my kids rollin' with cleaning! The kid who properly completes the most chores from the list gets $2.00, but to encourage ALL the kids, 2nd place gets $1.00 and 3rd place .50 cents. It's TOTALLY worth the $3.50 for me! (What's $3.50 for getting 35 chores completed in a couple of days, freeing up our days for taking the kids to the lake?)

 

Questions/Thoughts I have

Have we turned into a crazy CHICKEN family?! LOL The kids can't get enough of this new experience! I'm sure it'll wear off over time, right?

 

A Photo, Video, Link, or Quote to Share

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