Wordless Wednesday - Photo Effects

(Original photo above)
I can't believe how angelic my little man still looks at 19 months old (especially considering the horrific sounds that can come from his mouth when he's told "No!" - lol!). Those eyes just melt my heart!





A special thanks to Darcy (my photography and Photoshop hero) at Life with My 3 Boybarians for recommending picnik.com (free software) for photo editing. I haven't the talent to invest in Photoshop but didn't have enough options with Picassa and Paint. It was fun giving him blue eyes and trying all kinds of other strange effects on this photo (while I should have been doing *insert.any.daily. motherly.task.here*)!

For more Wordless Wednesday, see 5 minutes for Mom.

Baby Chicks - Fun project!

I love the little things that God brings to our home school experience to make it more interesting and exciting for the kids (and me too)! At the end of our hs co-op, we got an email from a hs acquaintance asking if anyone wanted to try incubating some chicken eggs. Sounds interesting but I didn't think I had time to figure out how to make an incubator.

Thankfully someone at co-op offered to lend us one! Awesome! I mean - how hard could it be to turn some eggs a couple times every day, right?

So the kids helped me to label the eggs so that we could remember to turn them and then they learned that we needed to keep the incubator between 98 and 103 degrees while keeping water in it to maintain humidity. Someone also told us to keep the eggs slanted with the big end slightly upward - haven't figured out if that was needed but we did it.

The egg part was easy (although it has taken us a huge part of my kitchen counter space for 3 weeks) but I worried about them getting turned when Jefferson and I went to Phoenix for a week. But dh turned out to be a good egg turner - even with 3 kids, 2 hermit crabs, a garden/flowers, and a fish to take care of also!

Jefferson and I got back from Phoenix just in time for them to start hatching - 21 days exactly! They waited until evening to do it so I had to video much of it for the kids (and you!) to see. It took each chick about an hour to get itself our and start flopping around. I stayed up late to wait for them to dry before I moved them over to our brooder. We somehow managed to throw it together last minute (typical of me!) with one of our heated lamps, a box and aluminum foil.

Hatching Chickens from DNAC on Vimeo.

We hadn't been looking at the calender closely enough and weren't ready for them to hatch. So we had to wait until the next day to run to a friend's farm to get feed for them. It has been harder to keep the temp in the brooder steady for them since it is an open box but using aluminum foil on top helps.

The baby chicks are very cute and fluffy! They peep and peck and hop and then spontaneously sleep. The kids love to watch them in their box and keep asking me to keep them. It stresses them to be handled but it is hard to resist doing so. Unfortunately, we let some little friends hold them and one got dropped! I was hoping with would be okay but it seems not to be using it's right leg. :-( Future reference for anyone else - chicks ARE breakable!

Here are some cute pics! Glad to have been able to do this project but now that they are smelling up my kitchen, I'm ready to get them back to the farmer - lol! Don't think my neighborhood association would care for any livestock in our backyard (not that I wouldn't mind the healthy, soy-free eggs!)......

Wordless Wednesday

This is what happens when a little girl is stuck with 3 brothers:

...the mouths of babes!

I was torturing Reagan by brushing her knotty hair this morning. I was amazed at how awful it was and she was brought to tears by the pain.

Reagan (6): If my hair is dead, then why does it hurt so much Mommy?!

(Nice to know that she's listened in science - human body discussions last year. Poor girl - I had to tell her that the skin part, where the hair's attached it still quite alive and full of nerves!)

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And this week it was my dh that had me laughing!

Yesterday, I was lamenting and complaining to dh about how much time it takes just to do daily tasks for the kids, such as feeding and dressing and diapers. I was just looking for some empathy from dh more than complaining really because I was tired and facing dinner unprepared again. I said, "It never ending with these kids."

DH: Well, there're just so many of them!

(It just sounded so funny coming out of his mouth so bluntly - as if we have 10 children running amuck or something!)

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For more Tiny Talk Tuesday (from real tiny talkers, not hubby) visit Mary at Not Before 7!

How does that garden grow?

I've been a bit bummed about how we've only covered half of our planned science lessons this year for Jefferson (and Reagan too - although not officially in her K program). It just seems to me that when the weather gets warm, one MUST be outside showing and teaching them the wonders of God's living creation while it blooms instead, right?

So I'm thankful that I've had the time to start our small garden this year as well as add some houseplants to our lives. And I'm super excited about flowers too! It gives me such great joy to watch the kids learn to observe and appreciate the vast varieties as well as the needs of all these plants.

Over the past few weeks (we are in a 3 week break right now - these were our last weeks of the past term) we've watched the garden boxes grow by leaps and bounds under the influence of bountiful rain. Here is ours before (4 weeks after planting):

And here is our most recent (2 weeks ago):

We have discovered that the lettuce varieties we planted, Romaine and Summertime Lettuce, are fast growing, hardy, and NOT bitter. ALL four of my kids will eat an entire bowl full of salad with these leaves! They love to pull and wash the spring onions so we can have them chopped up on top (I've been told to thin out my onions and use some early so that the others will have room to grow nice and large).

One of Jefferson's strawberry plants has 4 berries on it, after showing him some pretty white flowers (I forgot to have him sketch them) and he is hopeful his other one will bloom soon. These were his request and his responsibility and so, will be his harvest as well (albeit, a very small harvest!). And our sweet peas have flowers all over so we are anxious for some produce soon.

The plants we choose to start from seeds, heirloom tomato and sage, are teaching us a lot as well! I have no good indoor lights so we've had them under our kitchen counter lights for the past couple months. They seem to be taking a long, long time to grow. *sigh* I want tomato plants already! Jefferson and I replanted them into larger pots to put outside but only used the plain inert topsoil I had. At Mrs. Weaver's farm today, she told us that we needed to mix that topsoil with some of our manure (well duh? Where did I think this poor little stalk would get it's food? I should've figured that much out myself, but am thankful once again for her help!) and use some Epsom salt at the roots, as well as using fish fertilizer about weekly. She also told us not to put more than one in the pot (I guess I have no good eye for how big this thing is really gonna get!). Jefferson said, "Well maybe it won't look so sad and droopy if we do what she said, Mommy? Her garden looks good...." Thanks, J - I know that you are 7 and you know all about gardens too already.... :-)

But while the poor "droopy" things were still inside, I had Jefferson and Reagan draw both the tomato and the sage seedlings (and their seeds). Reagan (1st drawing) took note of the difference in the shape of the leaves as well as the shape of the main branches while Jefferson was more concerned with learning how to draw the little planter pots in 3-D. Aren't they nice drawings for a 2nd grader and Kindergartner? I was pleased with how much they enjoy this type of work though and need to make sure to incorporate it more often in our weekly assignments (especially since J complains about how hard it is to make them look real!).

Our final sketch (just last week) was of our new Wandering Jew (didn't get them scanned :-(). We were given some clippings from a friend and it was fun to see how fast they grew! Jefferson and Reagan both like how unique this purple, hairy plant is but they each drew different aspects of it - Reagan the purple leaves and Jefferson, the angular branches. Reagan loves how it looks like "God put glitter in the leaves" when we look at them closely in the light and Jefferson just likes the hairs all over it.

All in all, I'd say that I'm learning as much as the kids are and we are totally enjoying this spring! I'm so glad that Lincoln is old enough for me to have time to expose them all to more of God's beautiful springtime this year (even if it doesn't fit the plan I had for science this year!).

Wordless Wednesday - Reagan's 1st haircut

SIX years of growth, finally cut off! Reagan as a baby was bald for almost 2 years before I could even put a barrett into her hair and it seemed to take forever for her to grow long hair. It was long with blonde and curls on the ends.

But no more.

She's tired of the painful brushing every day and she can't wash it well enough on her own. So I promised her that if she wore it down for her 6yo photos (a difficult request for her due to her over-sensitivity to the feel of it on her neck), we would finally get it cut (much to my shagrin).

So here are the before and afters. I think it's cute even if it does remind me that my only little girl is growing up!

...the mouths of babes!

The kids are cracking me up as usual with their simple, literal, and innocent observations.

Jefferson (7.5): What do they call that thing we ate if it's just a big chunk of cookie shaped like a triangle?

Me: A scone, honey.

Jefferson: But it's like a cookie?

Me: Yes, but they call it a scone....

(He's right though - the ones from Walmart are a sweet and textured just like a cookie. I hadn't thought that the kids would like them. Still don't think he remembers the word 'scone' since he asks for a the 'triangle cookie'!)

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Jefferson (while really enjoying his dinner): I could eat this meat 24/7!

(Don't think he knows what that means - just that he's heard it somewhere before)

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Reagan (6) (While coloring in a tomato for her garden book): I'm making the back darker so it's looks like a shadow!

Me:What do you mean? What made you know to do that? (Surprised at her understanding of coloring shadows to make something appear more 3-D)

Reagan: I saw them do it on Bob the Tomato. You know - the part at the end where they showed us how to draw Larry?

(Apparently the special features to a Veggie movie has instructions on drawing the characters. She must have been intrigued by this enough to remember how to shade her tomato! Her memory always surprises me!)

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Jefferson: How do you like my pot, Mommy? (As he shoves a sand bucket full of super packed dirt into my face)

Me: Uh... what do you mean?

Jefferson: I planted a seed! Do you think it will be ok? Will it grow?

(I love his enthusiasm and his belief that any seed put in soil WILL grow!)

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Reagan (while observing closely the new growth on our Wandering Jew & with utter amazement): It looks just like God put glitter in the leaves, Mommy!

Jefferson: Yeah! And they're hairy too!

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For more Tiny Talk Tuesday head over to Mary's at Not Before 7!

Our last couple of terms...

Holy guacamole, am I glad that we made it to break! I could tell in this last week especially that we all need some time out of the normal routine and into the sunshine (although the clouds aren't lettin' much of that through yet).


Every time we get to a break, I can't believe how much we accomplished and how much we learned! So I've got to break it down so I can have a reminder (and encouragement for the next time I need a break, huh?) but it won't be too interesting for anyone else - sorry.

Jefferson

Math - He is slowly but surely learning how to turn his skip counting into multiplication, enjoying working with shapes and symmetry, becoming quicker and quicker with his mental addition and subtraction. His favorite activity over the last terms, however, was learning to use his T-square and 30-60-90 triangle to draw interesting geometric shapes. He still loves the card games too, of course. I am trying to continue to strengthen his ability to put his thought process into words, however, so that I can tell whether he fully understands a concept or not. This also helps him to see math as more than just numbers, but something that is part of life. I can see that he still struggles with this, as word problems still slow him down.


Phonics - This year we have been slowly working through Christ Centered Curriculum, the program we used with him in Kindergarten and half of 1st grade. It's a very thorough and is doing a good job of broadening his vocabulary, strengthening his spelling and reviewing the grammar he's already learned from FLL. However, this is his least favorite subject since it almost always involves having to sit through 2 fussy younger brothers, 1 on-the-verge-of-tired mommy, and a grumbly tummy before lunch. Also, just as I did when we used this program in K, I still find the lessons to be too long and hard for me to shorten. I have to remind myself to keep them light so he doesn't hate them too much.


Grammar - Jefferson is finally getting the idea behind this subject and looks forward to showing me that he can diagram a sentence without my help. As always here - repetition and more repetition. But - he is enjoying it more now that he is more confident (and it helps that I'm working harder to keep the lessons shorter). We are on track to finish FLL but I am learning that I will not be using this book with Reagan.


Spelling - We cover this in our phonics lessons and review weekly.


Reading - What fun I am having this year to see Jefferson read, read and read! I can hardly keep up with the books for him. He always gets his required 45 minutes finished before breakfast. But in January, dh and I found something else vying for his attention - computer games. Since dh makes his living with computers, there's no outlawing them from the house - lol! So we decided that he could earn up to 2 hours of computer time (to be spent only on weekends) by reading 3 minutes for 1 minute of game time. This cut out all badgering and begging during the schooldays as well as any whining when game time was over. And the added benefit is the way he is constantly using addition and multiplication to figure out his minutes. All in all, he's reading at least 1.5 hours each day (minimum) and loving it. He tells me his favorites are the "Millers" series from Rod & Staff and our read alouds - the missionary stories of Nate Saint, Rachel Saint, and Amy Charmichael. He finished "The Tale of Desperaux" and "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh" each in one day (not that the motivation of a movie didn't help). He is writing one narration sheet each week, but I need to work on getting him to narrate to me more often than I currently do. This skill needs more polishing but often gets skipped in the chaos around here.


Spanish - Such inconsistency here! Half the time Jefferson goes to do his computer lesson, dh has done something to the computer that makes the headset not work. And this is the lesson that always gets skipped if we run out of time. So I've asked him to spend some extra time on the foundational lessons and review as he needs to. I need to spend some time catching up with his in the lessons so I can incorporate some of the language around the house.....


History - SOTW2 is dragging on for us this year. I just am not diggin' it and I don't really think it's holding Jefferson's attention either. I just think that we aren't using enough living books or activities to dig deeper - I just don't have enough time. We are only on chpater 27 of 42. But I'm trying not to get to perturbed about it since we are at least learning something each week.


Science - We are STILL not finished with our Astronomy book! Again, this is what gets skipped if we just can't fit it into the afternoon. Jefferson does enjoy learning about outer space and seems to retain the info very well because of this. He likes the little projects and has made some nice narration/illustration sheets for each planet. He was able to do a small lapbook at homeschool co-op as well. But just these past couple of weeks, astronomy has again been set aside for us to concentrate on learning about gardening and he and Reagan are REALLY enjoying it. Photos are posted in our last gardening posts..... Maybe we will get to geology and weather sometime this year?? :-/

Reagan

Phonics - We have finally gotten into a groove with the CCC program. Reagan is more than used to it and is confident that she is doing well. She is VERY perfectionistic about her penmanship and I often have to push her to keep moving instead of getting upset over minor mistakes. She was excited to complete her first copywork sheet and I often find her trying to write something on her own on her other papers. However, we have forgone these lessons for the last month as I started using Phonics Pathways to get her reading (I never felt like CCC got Jefferson reading when he was ready but slowed him down with other tedious work instead). She is able to read short sentences and has finally started her little readers. I can tell that she is getting excited about what she's learning since she is always trying to sound out words that she sees around her! I can't wait until she can start reading short books!


Math - Reagan really enjoys math but I'm finding that it's easier for me to fit in her phonics or reading lesson into our daily chaos. We are behind in this subject, but she is confident is what she's learning (partitioning 10, counting to 100, learning to group, looking for patterns, copying shapes, writing her numbers) and is enjoying it so I am happy.


So over this break, I hope to prepare for the coming homeschool convention as well as the next term. Don't know where there will be time to rest, but hopefully the sun will come out and we'll all get some much needed fresh air! The kids have been enjoying some nice pre-Easter activities at home church and are looking forward to heading to church next weekend for Easter.

Painting my thumb green

So anyone who knows me know that I have a LOT of learning to do to be considered a 'green thumb' - lol! But really I'm just glad to be learning anything at all!

Wednesday I had the opportunity to attend a meeting at an Amish farm about gardening. The scheduled speaker did not show up to answer my millions of questions (didn't he know that I was going to be there??). So the group moved into more of a question/answer discussion mode. This worked out so well for me! I soaked in the info and varied processes of these experienced women and tried to write it all down so that I wouldn't forget it all the instant I stepped foot back into the chaos that I call 'home with four kids.'

One of things I figured out is that the white 'lime' type powder my farmer friend, Mrs. W., had me use was Aregonite and is used to add calcium to the soil and lower the acidity of the soil. I sewed this in with the seeds and not into the entire beds.

I will admit that one of the things which overwhelms me is the topic of soil composition or acidity. So far, I have no idea how to tell whether my soil is balanced with the minerals and nutrients that our veggies need or not. But from listening to these women, I am feeling better about looking at this as a learning process. Something is bound to grow, huh? I just hope that I can start to get a better feel for what it is that I need to add to the soil over time to improve it for improved food results (or lower bug results).

While all the women use some type of fertilizer (I will be using fish fertilizer - peeeeeuuuwww), some use compost and some do not. Some use the dead and dying leftovers from the garden and till them back into the bed to decompose while others use composted grass or leaves. All of them recommended that manure be let sit for at least a year before use (don't think I did this!) so that it will compost also. Epsom salts and kelp were also recommended to nourish the soil but I will stick to the guidance of Mrs. W for this season or until I know better what I need.

We discussed organic bug repellers (I've made a note to look up something called Bullseye) and beneficial attractors - a.k.a. "good smelly plants." I heard the word "Tansy" enough to know that I will be planting a ton of it to attract lady bugs (aphid eaters) and that I should plant a diverse selection of herbs for other good bugs. Marigolds will keep slugs away (although I don't know why they'd invite themselves to my garden in the first place?) and are edible as well.

I will be attempting to grow two heirloom (50 years or older) varieties this year - tomatoes and green beans. I know that they have better nutritional value and draw all their nutrients from the soil (rather that relying on plant food) but heard many times in the discussion that the soil must be very good for them to produce well. They will not look nice and pretty (like grocery store produce) but should taste wonderful, even if I don't get many this year. This weekend is when I'll get a moment to start the tomato seeds (inside) and sunflower seeds (another request from Jefferson).

I would like to say the Jefferson sat on the edge of his seat with excitement upon learning so much from this discussion. But at only 7 years old, and with the beautiful spring weather calling him, he only made it to lunchtime before running out to muck around with the baby pigs and the chickens and the Amish children, whom he couldn't understand. All in all, he would say he had a great time, but at the end of the day couldn't tell me why it's important that we feed our soil good things. *SIGH* Hopefully, he'll pick up the bug for gardening with me and will soon be painting his thumb as well? He's sure to learn something from his gardening unit eventually!

In the meantime, he and Reagan continued their science lesson this week by working on copywork for their gardening notebooks and making these cute garden dioramas. They always love the hands-on projects! Jefferson had wanted to use the veggies on stick as puppets but was pleased with his finished box instead. We still need to hang our butterflies from the top and glue soil on the bottom (it's been too wet to gather dirt). They did a good job reminding and helping me with watering the garden and helping me weed around the house as well.

We are on our way....getting greener every day! I've never been so anxious for the warmer weather to arrive!

Excited about Gardening!

I love to work out in the dirt and sunshine. Pulling weeds makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something. I love plants and nature.

But I don't have a green thumb nor do I know much about gardening or planting flowers. So when dh built me a little (and I do mean 'little') box garden in which I can grow vegetables for us this year, I was both excited and nervous.

Every year I feel like I have time to get my planting/seeds figured out and then - BOOM! - it's May and I've got nothing planted once again. So this year I prayed specifically that God would give me the guidance and time that I needed to fill our new vegetable boxes since March is halfway over and I hadn't even planned anything.

And I'm excited to say that He very specifically answered me! Last week my good friend, Joyful Mama, gave me a call and told me to get in touch with our farming friend who would be willing to help us both with our gardens this year. And when I called her, she was gracious enough to talk me through planning and timing for my boxes. But the most wonderful part is that she went with me to the nursery to get the seeds and supplies I would need AS WELL AS coming over to my house to plant it ALL with me (in the cold drizzly rain while her husband watched her 6 kids)!! I don't know if she realized what kind of gift this was to me. I never learned anything about gardening growing up and tend to be slow at learning from books. So to have her SHOW me was worth far much more than anything else she could have done!

What a blessing and answer to prayer! I couldn't believe how much I learned and got done in just one day!

(Don't know the name of this, just that it is the same as lime for the soil)

The other exciting part about our garden is turning it into a fun unit for the kids. Jefferson and Reagan went to the store with us and helps with the soil prep. Jefferson has requested strawberries and got to plant his own planter box with them. He helped me sow the peas, lettuce, carrots, and spinach while Rae helped with the onions and carrots and watering.

(Jefferson with his two strawberry plants)

(Jefferson's garden diagram with labels)

It was exciting for them to be doing something different than their lessons and reminded me that I need to throw interesting unit studies into our curriculum more often than I do. Jefferson soaked up all the info on the back of the seed packets and is now continually reminding me of when each item should be appearing while Reagan is already thinking about the food our efforts will produce (hopefully - lol!). This was all accomplished on Thurs instead of heading to our homeschool co-op (after all, she knew the right timing for the season and weather and I would give up anything in our schedule for her help!).

(Reagan's coloring sheet)

On Friday, instead of our history, Spanish, or astronomy lessons, we spent the afternoon starting a gardening notebook for each of us (myself included so that I can keep track of what works for us, what materials I need to have on hand, which veggies I like, etc., etc.). They both drew out a plan of the boxes with the veggies we planted labeled and worked on a cover sheet for their books. Through this I have discovered that Reagan is ready for short copywork and was excited to put her own title on. Jefferson kept reminding me of how much fun they were having (thus also reminding me again that we need a break from our regular studies).

(2 boxes of sweet peas, 1 box of lettuce, onion, and carrots)

(Edging my tiger lily bed so the grass doesn't grow into it)

And looking at the forecast for the week, I'm glad we skipped our planned break (2 weeks ago) so we can use this week for some great outdoors time and garden note booking! We are all just so glad for the arrival of spring!