Field Trip to the Farm Supply Store

Today the kids and I went on a field trip to the farm supply store. We really only went to buy bird food for the Great Backyard Bird Count, but when you homeschool, all random outings become field trips. :)

My children have fallen in love with the baby chicks and spent most of their time playing with them.

This visit they begged me to bring a bunny home. I rather prefer the idea of visiting them at the store. :)The nicest surprise of all was the ferrets. One of the employees opened the cage and let them hold of few of them.

Christopher had a great time riding the John Deere and running into customers. :)

Catching Up

Wow, can you believe another year is coming to a close?? I thank God for being able to see it. My camera has been acting a bit strange lately and so I haven't been posting much. I think I'm going to have to buy a new one. :)

Christopher lost another tooth. I love how cute kids look when they lose their teeth.

We had a great Christmas. It was low stress and I was able to get some much needed rest. For dinner, I made a Nut Loaf (I"ll post the recipe), Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Mixed Vegetables, Rolls and Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake (I substituted Sweet Potato this time) and Ice Cream for dessert.

We made gingerbread men and used them as the decoration for the tree.

I am not one to make resolutions for the New Year, but I do set goals. This year I the children and I have set a goal to memorize 300 scriptures. It sounds like a lot, but when you think of it as less than one a day, it's not so bad.

Another goal is to get our house in order, have a place for everything and keep everything in it's place. Right now I'm working on decluttering the garage so there will actually be room for the things that should be there. :)

One very important goal of mine is to be obedient to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. I hear God speaking, but I struggle with doing what He is saying!! So I pray that as He knits my heart to His, I will be more inclined to obey. :)

How was your Christmas? Do you have any goals o resolutions for the New Year?

Our Trip to Houston

Note: I apologize for the layout of this post. The pictures just seemed to import randomly. I'm not sure if there is an issue with Blogger.

The children and I went to Houston for a few days with the Adventurer Club to visit NASA and the aquarium. What a fun time we had.

We drove up Monday so that we could relax and be refreshed to start early Tuesday morning. Monday evening the kids swam for a little while at the pool.

One of the Moms was kind enough to let Christopher borrow her son's life vest and help him around the pool. He won't put his face under the water, but he seems to be getting more comfortable with it.

Monday night we went out to eat and had a blast. The next morning we headed to NASA and learned a wealth of information about the space program.

There was a nice inside park area the kids enjoyed and other exciting activities like bungee jumping.

After leaving NASA, we headed to Galveston to spend a few minutes on the beach. We met a family who was feeding pretzels to the birds and decided to join in with them. Having so many birds so close to my head was exciting and scary all at the same time. Is there a word for that??

The next and final day of our trip, we headed to the aquarium. I was fascinated by all the different species of underwater life, but most intrigued by the tiger. Who knew we would see a tiger at the aquarium?? I wasn't expecting that one but it was a treat indeed.

Bee Field Trip

One of the Moms in my homeschool group invited us over today to learn how honey is harvested from bees.

This is what the tray looks like when it's pulled out from the bees. And the different colored dots on this one is pollen. Different colored pollen- who knew?? Am I the only one that thought that all pollen is yellow??

We got to watch them scrape the trays (remove the wax so the honey will come out), spin it (centripetal force pulls the honey out) and strain it. Then we bought some to bring home with us. After we saw how they honey is harvested, we out into the backyard to see some of the wonderful goodies she is growing in her garden. This picture is a little fuzzy, but it's the top of a carrot. Then one of the sons pulled it up for us to better see. Stuff like this really makes me want to get my garden going!

What a lovely tomato:

We had a little fun with the chickens and the rabbit too.

Pants vs Shorts

It's getting hot here in Texas and I have been trying to get my son to wear shorts to keep him cool, but for some odd reason he does not like shorts. He says he likes the way that the pants feel. I've tried to accommodate by buying him some lightweight pants because in the middle of summer (when you wake up to 85 degree weather) it will be entirely too hot to wear jeans.

I talked to another Mom and her son has the same issue. Who knew?? Is this common among boys? Now that I think about it, my brothers will only wear shorts if they are long. Hmmmm, I'm going to have to further investigate this.

Beauty Shop

This morning I took Jasmine to get her hair washed and conditioned. I'm hoping that she will fall in love with the texture of her hair and never perm it. I wish I had never permed mine and am trying to build up the courage to grow it out. It's been 6 weeks. Let's see if I can make it to 12!

The first time I took Jasmine to the beauty shop, she got her hair washed and flat ironed. Of course I forgot to take my camera. I had it all ready for today's visit and left it on the counter! So I took some pictures when I got home. I love this little style for her. It's braided in the front and

afro puffs in the back. She loves it!!

Christopher wanted to join in the fun as well.

A Toadally Exciting Morning

I went to the backyard this morning to water my newly sprouting garden vegetables and flowers we planted. I picked up my daughters watering can, went over to the water spout and just as I was lining the can up with the spicket, I noticed a toad inside. I immediately threw the can down and ran. Talk about being caught off guard.

I called for the children, knowing that they would be excited. They came and peeked inside the watering can and then headed straight for the garage to get the small fish aquarium. My daughter asked me if I would take him out of the watering can and put him in the aquarium. Ha! I don't think so. I suggested that she take the watering can and flip it upside down onto the aquarium so he can fall into it.

The toad had flattened himself, something we learned they do when frightened, and was stuck pretty nicely to the side of it. I suggested that she tap the can a few times and sure enough he fell right into the aquarium. She put the top on and put a little water into it through the hole in the top.

I opened the Handbook of Nature Study and asked a few questions about our new friend "Toady". Here are some of the answers the children gave:

What does his back look like?

Striped and bumpy (Jasmine)

He has a line going down his back and then there are lines that go across it. (Christopher)

What do his eyes look like?

His iris is orangish brown and his pupil is black.

His eyes are big and they pop out and they curve like this (using his finger to make an elliptical shape round his eyes)

Do you think he can see in front, above and behind all at the same time?

His eyes are at the top of his head so I believe he can see in front, behind and above at the same time

I think he can see a lot of different ways at the same time.

How does he blink?

He blinks like us

What do his nostrils look like?

They look like little tiny holes.

What do his ears look like?

Little round circles behind his eyes

What does his mouth look like?

A rounded triangle

What do his arms look like?

His arms are short, he has four fingers and he moves in a crouching position. His hind legs are large to help him jump.

As you can see we had a very busy morning. The kids and I learned a lot about toads and are excited about what discoveries lie ahead for this summer. Any new discoveries in your backyard lately?

Pet Sitting

This weekend we pet sat for some friends that went out of town. So far I haven't allowed my children to get a pet, because pets are a lot of responsibility and Mom has enough responsibility! The rule is that if they can do their chores for 3 months without being reminded, then they can get a dog. The honest truth is, if they did it for 30 days I would get one, but I'm not adding a dog to the mix when the answer to "Why didn't you clean your room" is "Well, I didn't really feel like it". Over here I teach that God made us all beings of free will. You don't ever have to do what I tell you, but for every action, there is a reaction. I believe that it's important for children to know that they ALWAYS have a choice, and that EVERY choice has a consequence. Can I get an Amen?

Ok well enough of that, I'm preaching and we're supposed to be talking about the dog. Forgive my stream of consciousness. :)

At any rate, Noah was just what we needed to show the kids that they really are not ready for a dog. The first day he was here, he left a "package" in my daughter's room that I made her clean up and the second day he left two (in spite of the fact that I took him outside several times). He has these little mat things that are for pet training which he did use a few times. I guess he is still learning. After the 3rd "package", my daughter said, "Mom you were right, keeping Noah is hard work!" which I responded to "Yes, I know honey and he's only been here a little over a day!" LOL

He slept in my bathroom (where "package pickup" is not a big deal since the floor is tile). Friday night he went right to sleep. I guess he was tired from all the running outside in the backyard. Saturday night was altogether a different story. I don't think he was too happy that we had been gone to church for several hours and evidently he wanted to play all night to make up for it. When I put him in the bathroom to go to sleep, he whined and whined. I have no idea what time he went to sleep. I just remember hearing him whining again at around 6am at which time I got up and took him outside.

So I guess whenever we are ready for a little canine company, we can just go and pick Noah up for the weekend. I'm so glad we can take him back home. ;-)

REI's Kids Passport to Adventure/Summer Fun

Check out the REI website for great ideas on summer adventurers to keep you outside. There is even a neat little prize that you can send in for after your first adventure and a journal that you can print out or pick up at any REI location.

I'm looking forward to spending more time outside this summer. I just hope it doesn't get too hot. Hmm, I guess that really is an unreasonable expectation considering the fact that I live in Texas!

This year I bought pool passes instead of signing the kids up for swimming lessons. I just couldn't bring myself to pay for a class that my kids may or may not participate in, so we will just hang out at the pool until they are comfortable with going under the water and jumping in. They tend to do much better when there is no pressure.

So what are your plans for the summer? Any fabulous vacations planned? We plan to visit the Houston Aquarium and maybe make a trip to Florida.

Nature Study Blog

I have been thinking of some ways to incorporate more nature study into our days. I find that schooling straight through just does not work for us. We do much better if we do a subject or two and then go outside for a bit; even if it is just for fifteen minutes. I'm not sure how I found this Nature Study Blog, I'm pretty sure that I have even seen this banner on some of the sites of my "blogfriends" but I absolutely love it and plan on getting started this weekend with the first project.

My chidren have been observing more just on their own (noticing sunflowers as we drive, spotting new birds). We went to a garden center once and met a lady that talked about finding caterpillars on milkweed. Ever since then my daughter has been looking for milkweed and caterpillars. We may just soon find one!

Do you spend a lot of time in nature? Can you identify the birds in your backyard? How about flowers?