The Homeschool Mother's Journal: July 2-8

In My Life This Week

I recovered from my sinus and ear infections and have regained my equilibrium. Somewhat. (Can I still blame my lack of coordination on middle ear fluid? LOL) It's been a while since I've felt SO down-and-out! 

Our Flowering Elderberry

A constructed a new, bigger brooder for the chicks out of cardboard boxes. They now have more space and 2 roosting sticks. It was moved into the porch as a transition to the outside in a couple of weeks...And because they're kicking up A TON of dust from their bedding and food that covers a room! Ick! The lil' chicks also got to explore outside for the first time.

In the evenings we watched movies at home: "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", "Ant Bully", and "Narnia: The Dawn Treader". 

I just picked up The Power of a Positive Mom by Karol Ladd from the library and am anxious to get start reading it...but I already have a book I need to finish first. (I just can't read more than one at a time! LOL)  Guess what I'm doing this afternoon?!

In Our Homeschool This Week

Books! J is TOTALLY into the Honor Harrington Sci Fi series by David Weber and has been reading for hours and hours...C has decided that she LOVES my Mom's Kindle and is reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain on it as well as a TRADITIONAL BOOK, Harry Potter at the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling. And S continues to read his Hooked on Phonics books (a bit less enthusiastically than the others though). J has already met his library summer reading program goals!

Have you seen the picture book Hot Diggity Dog: The History of the Hot Dog by Adrienne Sylver?  What a GREAT book for learning about the history of the hot dog! We also watched a video on-line about this year's Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest mentioned in the book. A woman won this year, eating 62 hot dogs in 10 minutes! It was NOT a pretty video to watch, but something a 6-year-old boy found hilarious! ;)  And of course after we read the book, we grilled dogs for dinner!

J and his buddy T learned about lawn care. They used the PUSH MOWER to "tame the grass" and a weed whacker around the garden beds and house. They should go into business! LOL

 What's Working/Not Working For Us 

Coming and going as we please! Accept for S and A's baseball game, we didn't HAVE to do anything all week...but of course we did! LOL

Places We're Going and People We're Seeing

• C continued to visit with my family, picnicking, swimming, playing with her little cousin, and making homemade donuts
• S and A went to a minor league baseball game on Saturday
• J and S went to the Rec Center for gym games (like basketball and dodgeball), ate bagged lunches and put together puzzles Tuesday through Friday with old and new friends, and then most of us headed down to the public beach for swimming for an hour or so
• J's friend C stayed overnight on Tuesday and T stayed over Thursday
• J started volunteering at our library on Wednesday

My Favorite Things This Week Were

• Having Cheeper follow me around outside, helping to "clean up" the veggie garden and lawn of bugs 
• Eating our first batch of pea pods from the garden (and no we couldn't wait until there were big, juicy peas inside first LOL)
• Seeing S's creativity and problem-solving skills while he made a homemade timer by poking a hole with a nail in the cap of a water bottle filled with sand and then taping a 2nd bottle to the top 
• Reading Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Debby MacDonald to C over the phone before bed

Questions/Thoughts I have

Do we convert the old shed out back into a coop? Or do we buy an assembled coop?

 

A Photo, Video, Link, or Quote to Share

Here's a short video of the little chicks with Cheeper going outside for the first time. They weren't as anxious as Cheeper was the first time, but then there ARE 9 of them, 10 with Cheeper, instead of just one! LOL

I'm linking up to Forever, For Always, No Matter What, The Homeschool Mother's Journal, Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, Science Sunday, Fun Tuesday Hop, No Ordinary Blog Hop, and Hip Homeschool Hop. Head over to read more homeschool happenings!