Friends + Wildlife = Fun

Many of the animals at the Maine Wildlife Park were brought here because they were injured or orphaned, or because they were human dependent - raised, sometimes illegally, in captivity. The Park serves as a permanent home for wildlife that cannot survive in the Wild. All kinds of animals are here for their protection and healing. And they're here for you to enjoy and learn more about. Maine Wildlife Park

My kids and I spent a wonderful afternoon at the park with another family. The park is perfect for a nice, meandering walk to enjoy special friends and interesting native wildlife. We didn't let a few sprinkles slow us down!

Our young navigators' poured over their maps and came up with a plan on what direction we should meander through the park. (Sam knew not to trust MY directional abilities...) Eventually both gave up on the map reading for animal viewing and an occasional game of tag.

I know that porcupine's aren't the cutest, sweetest things around, but how can you not just love this little guy "standing up" and looking at us through the wire? He had a strange gait so perhaps it's healing from leg injuries.

We saw lots of different bird species including owls, falcons, vultures, quail, and even eagles, but peacocks have to be the most beautiful...with some of the LOUDEST, most ANNOYING calls ever. Have you ever heard them?

The kids especially seemed to enjoy the bears. There were two of these - one smaller, black and anther larger, brown, both shedding out their coats and a bit shaggy looking. It was interesting to see a lone chipmunk snagging some of the vending feed visitors can toss into the bear enclosure. It looked WELL fed!

And just past the coyotes, behind the "not on exhibit" mountain lion, and the lynx and bobcats enclosures are the moose. We couldn't miss the moose!

But look! We found some "monkeys" in a tree near the parking lot after our visit ended. (Why yes, that kid is mine!)

A Peak at Our Week: Session 4 Week 3 - With the Flow

In My Life This Week

A slow, go-with-the-flow week! I REALLY needed one. I'm finding that I'm exhausted at the end of most days because I'm trying to fit so much into every hour - homeschooling, general housework, scratch cooking, outside work, household repairs, errands, finances, pets, shoveling, and an entire household declutter - that I'm needing some DOWN TIME. So, this week was about staying home and relaxing more. SORT OF.

Homeschool High School

Have I mentioned how hard and focused White Pine works? Well, most days. ::wink:: He REALLY does seem way beyond his 14 years when it comes to meeting his ambitious school goals. His days are long, but he delves right in and never complains. 

Homeschool Elementary

Not much CORE WORK got accomplished this week. It doesn't mean that we "vegged" (although I'm thinking some "veggin'" isn't such a bad idea this weekend), but LIFE HAPPENS and you just FLOW WITH IT. 

On Tuesday our buddies A__ (14) and J__ (8) spent the day with us while their Mom was running ragged from one stressful appointment to another. There was a lot of video game playing and all over kid chaos, but since THEIR FAMILY is going through what MY FAMILY is going through, well, it's nice for us to connect.

Did you celebrate Pi Day on Thursday? I've never planned a special March 14th with the saplings so I figured WHY NOT. We read learned about Pi from a Education.com worksheet, watched History of Pi, listened to a catchy tune, made Pi circle models, and whipped up a minty "Lucky You" pie for Pi Day AND St. Patrick's Day.

And then we spent the Friday morning learning about St. Patrick. Not so much the holiday or Irish traditions but about St. Patrick himself. My favorite book for learning about St. Patrick is Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie dePaola. (Love dePaola!) We watched videos on The History Channel.  And we made Irish Soda Bread for breakfast, but my saplings did not like it. ::sigh:: (It's a good thing we aren't Irish because they've liked NO Irish foods we've made.)

Today is also Sugar Maple's 11th birthday! She's getting way too close to those TEEN YEARS. ::sigh:: She wanted an ice cream cake with Neopalitan ice cream sandwiches, strawberry syrup and jelly beans to celebrate. I know. ::laugh::

As you can probably guess only Monday and Wednesday resembled anything like a typical school day BUT THAT'S OK. We've got 61 more school days to meet my goals!

Places We Went, People We Saw

♣ T__ Family ♣ Basketball (SM) ♣ Scouts (All) ♣ Educational Farm (BF) ♣ Lacrosse (WP) ♣ Clarinet/Band (SM) ♣ Birthday Party with Friends (All) ♣

Something to Share

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Weekly Wrap: Days 92-96

And it's a win! J's basketball team won their first game of the season: 27-25. Their win-loss record: 1-1.

J Defending the Basket

S had his 2nd Basketball Skills and Drills on Saturday. He sat out the last 10 minutes or so, frustrated that he wasn't making more baskets. His dribbling and passing is already improving as he didn't have to chase down as many "loose balls". But! the biggest accomplishment is that he's able to focus and follow instructions even with all the noise and movement bombarding his sensory system...and if you've been to our new Rec Center gym, well, you know, it's CRAZY noisy in there! (Go, Occupational Therapy!)

S Making a Shot

Boing! Bump! While J and A were at the Museum of Science in Boston, MA with the Boy Scouts on Sunday, C, S and I went to the Bounce Zone. Have you seen those inflated "jumpers"? Well, the Bounce Zone takes it up a notch and adds in ball pits, jousting arenas, mazes, and side-by-side racing slides. Crash! Bounce! A perfect place for a kid with sensory-seeking SPD! S LOVED it! And C had a blast too!

C Down the Slide

S Down the Slide

C Exhausted!

On a beautiful, sunny, but CHILLY Monday, we completed a full day of assignments. With J doing more and more of his work on the computer, I decided to was time to ditch the "hen peck" typing and learn keyboard skills. He started doing lessons at Dance Mat Typing. I already have SpongeBob SquarePants Typing - I know, I know! Spongebob?! But, it just might keep him interested in improving his typing with video games - and Jump Start Typing for additional practice.

The fine, dry snow turned to slippery freezing rain on Tuesday afternoon so S's OT, C's basketball practice and J's Boy Scout meeting were all canceled. Another day at home! C finished up Lesson 7: Rodentia and the Rest in Apologia Zoology III by Mapping It! Our world map is getting QUITE populated with animals from her studies! Her notebooking pages were a mixture of short summaries, pictures and drawings for this lesson.

Mapping It! Thumbnails of Where Animals Studied Live

Flying Squirrel, Beaver and Squirrel

Hedgehog, Shrew and  Hare

Colugo, Platypus and Echidna

Sloth, Anteater and Armadillo

Fortunately it was warmer in Wednesday and we were able to finish up our daily assignments and head outside for a Winter Wednesday walk. Click here to check out our Winter Wednesday nature walk photos and notebook pages! 

C and S continue to work on their unit studies. C completed 3-out-of-8 North American tribes in her History Pockets: Native Americans study. She'll be studying the Maidu next. And S finished up his Winter lapbook! He'll be taking some time off from lapbooking to do some Lakeshore File Folder Science Games and his US Geography Sticker Book. You can see their unit study accomplishments here!

S has been diligently working on his Hooked on Phonics: Learn to Read short A words and readers. Next week, he starts short i! 

S's Short A Copywork

Due to continuing slippery weather, J's Not Math Math was canceled on Thursday, but the kid's friends came over after class for an afternoon of imaginative play, Snap Circuits Electronics, Marble Run, making home videos, Arts and Crafts, building with cardboard boxes, playing in the snow, and video games.

S Making a Closed Circuit for the Speaker

S's Adjusting the Light Bulb so it'll Work

And activity cancellations continued on Friday with yet ANOTHER snowstorm this week. A WHOLE school week with NO activities?! Huh?! J woke up not feeling well anyway. We finished our week up with warm cinnamon muffins and movies.

Check out other fun Weekly Wrap-ups at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and join up with the Friday Blog Hop and Hip Homeschool Hop by clicking on the buttons on my sidebar!