Sarah Books (Review)

I love to read!  A well written book can take me away from my current surroundings and drop me slap dab in the middle of another time and place.   Author Jim Baumgardner of Sarah Books is that kind of writer.  Although his stories are considered "Christian fiction"  Mr. Baumgardener prefers to describe his books as Young Adult Fiction, written by a Christian author. As a 62 year old grandfather of nine, Mr. Baumgardner writes his books for his grandchildren, and his faith in God is portrayed beautifully throughout his writings.

In Sarah's Wish, young Sarah is suddenly orphaned, and holds the key to a hidden secret that she and her mother shared.   Despite her tender age, and broken heart, Sarah exudes a strength and confidence well beyond her years.  As the story unfolds, young Sarah learns to trust others as she makes sure the "packages" make it safely to their next station.    Even at the risk of great personal loss, Sarah stands honorably for what she believes in.  If only today's young generation could take hold of  Sarah's resolve!

In this 123 page novel, the author gently introduces the not so gentle topics of slavery, the underground railroad and orphan trains of yester-year.  Mr. Baumgardner does an excellent job of opening these topics in a way that younger children can ask questions, learn and understand.  In the front of the book is a Glossary of Terms to help the reader better grasp the subject matter.  

On the website for Sarah Books you'll find fun facts about history; interesting photos of the author and his family and  information on signing up for the free newsletter.   Mr. Baumgardner autographs each book sold through his site, and a portion of the proceeds go to the Maude Carpenter Chidren's Home in Wichita, Kansas.  The Maude Carpenter home has been helping orphans like Sarah and children with special needs for over sixty years.

Sarah's Wish sells for $9.99, with free shipping.  You can also purchase book bundles of the series, as well as audio books on CD.

To read more TOS  Crew reviews of Sarah's Wish click here.

Disclosure: This product was provided to our family for free as members of the 2009-2010 Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew. Reviews and opinions expressed in this blog are our own.

Pennsylvania Week 1

Before I move on to telling you about our Pennsylvania studies, I'd like to tell you about our Delaware meal that we made on Saturday.   The recipes came from the book "Eat Your Way Through the USA" by Loree Petitt.   The menu looked harmless enough:

Peppered Beef Tip Roast
Broccoli-Cauliflower Casserole
Peach Crisp

The casserole was yummie, the peach crisp was DELISH.  The beef roast almost burnt my lips off my face!!  The recipe called for various things, including 2 tsp. of cracked black pepper and 1/2 tsp. ground red pepper.  Thus the name, PEPPERED Beef Tip Roast.  I did as the recipe instructed, mixed all the ingredients together to make a rub, then spread the rub evenly over the surface of the roast, bake and serve.  Simple enough.

Yeah well....here is a direct quote from my husband about 2 bites into the roast...."I  think it's good, but I can no longer feel my tongue."   Beads of sweat were popping out all over his forehead and his eyes started to water (seriously).    Olivia who LOVES beef roast of any kind dutifully ate her portion.....and drank several FULL glasses of juice.  Several times she commented, LOUDLY, while sweating "this is whipping hot mom"!     Lindsey, the wise one, said "no thank you mom, may I have butter bread instead?" 

So, moving on to a new state...with damaged taste buds.     This week we labeled our map of Pennsylvania, showing adjacent states, bodies of water and state capital.  We learned to locate the state on our U.S. map and we also labeled and colored the state flag.   Since the G-20 summit is taking place in Philadelphia, we're also clipping articles about the summit and making our own world events section for this part of our State Notebooks.

On Tuesday, our local library hosted a seminar entitled "Monitoring Monarchs" and all four of us were able to attend.   The speaker did a wonderful job of educating us on the lifecycle of the monarch butterfly.  We were also allowed to tag and release about 20 butterflies.   You can read my full post about it by going here.   However, I'll show you this one photo...just to tease you into reading the full post.

While we were at the library, I figured it was a good time to have Olivia get her own library card.   She was thrilled that she gets to "buy"  her own books now.   She was quick to "pay" when we were ready to leave (with 23 books in tow).    The photo reminds me, she lost another tooth last week, and I forgot to tell you all!

We're really enjoying the Song School Latin program.  I'm pretty certain I said that last week, but it's true.  Olivia is really picking it up nicely, and we're trying to incorporate it into our daily conversations where applicable.  This week we finished lesson four, which was a review lesson.  I'm really thinking about offering to teach this next year at co-op for the kindergarten kids.

Awana started back up on Wednesday night, so that will be our Bible curriculum until the end of May.  Lindsey is in her 2nd year of Cubbies, and will have the 1 memory verse per week.   Olivia is in her 2nd year of Sparks and will have at least 2 or more memory verses each week.  A bonus, is that one of her co-op classes is currently memorizing the Old Testament Books, which happens to be a requirement for Sparks.  

I decided to stick with the Abeka K-4 for Lindsey after all.   I think the biggest issue for her is that I spend a majority of my time focusing on Olivia's work and don't necessarily give Lindsey the time and attention needed in her studies.   I've been letting her listen in to Olivia's math work a lot more, and she's picking things up really quickly just from the exposure; and again is giving Olivia the answers to some of her questions.

We finished up our 2nd grading period this week.  I'm pretty happy with our progress and am looking forward to getting a couple of extra field trips scheduled, now that we have such a huge time buffer!

I think that is about all for the week.  Tomorrow is co-op, and then on to ballet and then to baseball.   Head on over to the Weekly Wrap Up to see how everyone else managed for the week!

Guardian Angel Publishing (Review)

The folks at Guardian Angel Publishing were gracious enough to send me several of their e-books to review recently.   I'm technically not a fan of the e-book craze, just because I like to be able to read in bed, on the couch with the kids, in the yard...you know, NOT in front of the computer.   But not to worry, if you aren't a big ebook fan either, you can order all of their books in printed form!  So don't let the phrase "e-book" send you into a tail spin.

Andy and Spirit Go to the Fair by Mary Jean Kelso is a wonderful story about a courageous youngster named Andy and his desire to win a blue ribbon at the fair.  The book is wonderfully illustrated with vibrant colors.  This story teaches a valuable lesson to children and adults alike, about having courage to try things, regardless of our limitations.   My favorite quote from this book is “Don’t worry, Spirit. You can’t help it if your eyes are pink. There’s something wrong with everybody. Just not all of it shows.”

At the end of the book, there is information on how wild horses are managed here in the United States, as well as information on how to go about adopting wild horses.

Earthquake! by Susan J. Berger explains what causes earthquakes in terms that children can understand.    There are factoids throughout the book give glimpses into various earthquakes of the past.   The book also offers a section on being prepared for an earthquake, as well as what to expect and do (and not do) during and after an earthquake.  Very helpful information, on a child's level with simple and colorful drawings.   Highly recommended for those living in earthquake prone areas.

Hamster Holidays by Cynthia Reeg is a cute and colorful way for your child to learn the parts of speech.  All nouns are printed in blue; adjectives are red.   The illustrations by Kit Grady are fun, full of life and exploding with color.  The storyline itself isn't overly involved, but it does offer a fun way to learn about nouns and adjectives.  There are word searches and activities to help secure the information into young brains.

No Bones About it! The Sum of our Body Parts by Bill Kirk is a fun way to learn about bones, their names and where they are located.  Factoids throughout the book give more in depth information, in bite size chunks.  Just a heads up though, some of the drawings of the skull are enough to "creep me out" if you're a four year old, or at least if you're MY four year old.

E-books are priced at $5.00 each, or if you're like me and prefer a printed copy, the pricing is as follows:

Prices (before shipping)
Printed Books $10.95
PDF Ebook Download $5.00
Ebook CD $9.95
Some are even available as a DVD Book Video $9.95

Purchasing Guide: Guardian Angel Publishing books are rated for children of all ages (0-12)

Zip on over to the Crew Blog to read what others are saying about Guardian Angel Publishing.

Disclosure: This product was provided to our family for free as members of the 2009-2010 Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew. Reviews and opinions expressed in this blog are our own.

Monitoring Monarchs

Our local library had a class today about monarch butterflies.  The guest speaker owns a monarch farm.  It never occurred to me that people raise butterflies as a career!   There were only a handful of folks there, several apparent homeschool families (I'm guessing since the event was at 1:30 in the afternoon).   After the PowerPoint presentation, we went outside and tagged and released about 15 butterflies.

I learned a great deal myself.  I had always been told that if you touched a butterfly that the wings would be damaged and it could no longer fly.  Wrong...as you're about to see touching them is not a problem!  Also, the lady explained that she keeps the monarchs refrigerated for a couple of days at a time so that they are less active prior to the releasing programs.   We learned how to tell the difference between male and female butterflies.  The females have darker/thicker veins in their wings and are brighter colored.  The males have a scent sack on each wing.

To hold a butterfly properly, you hold its wings together close to the top, as shown in this photo.

Can you tell Olivia was just a BIT excited???

In this next photo, you can actually see Lindsey and the butterfly farmer (her name escapes me at the moment) placing a tag onto the butterfly.

Here are a couple of photos of butterflies after their release.  Some were more anxious to leave than others.

You can see the tags on the last two photos above, if you look closely to the underneath side of the butterfly.

This is the lovely garden area where all of the butterflies were set free.   The water bubbling in the  lovely fountain in the middle was such a welcoming sound.   Sadly, I had never noticed this little garden area at our library before. 

The monarch farmer (I even asked her name a 2nd time, and still forgot....grrr) will submit all the tracking information at the end of migrating season.  If our butterfly is found and reported, she'll be contacted, and then she'll contact us.  Although, the chances of that happening out of MILLIONS of butterflies are slim to none.   But it sounded so thrilling to the kids at the time!

Bright Ideas Press (Review)

This year (and probably next as well) we're studying the 50 states in depth.  (Thus my many posts about Delaware the last couple of weeks.)     Since our main topic is geography, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to review Hands on Geography and the Student History Notebook of America both by Bright Ideas Press.    

Hands on Geography offers 142 pages of activities, maps and fun resources to enhance your geography studies, regardless of whether you are studying local, state or world geography.  You'll find information on how to create your own books and games, as well as outline maps and timeline resources.   This product costs $14.95, and is worth every cent as it gives new life to your geographical studies.    We have already implemented several of the activities into our study of Delaware, including making our own jigsaw puzzle!   Hands on learning is the way to my kids hearts (and thinking caps). 

The Student History Notebook of America sells for $12.95, and is not a "curriculum", rather it is a tool to use along with your studies to help students to create their own notebook of American history.  There are various pages for recording specific information, such as:

Reports/Essays
Assignments
Drawings/Diagrams
Vocabulary
10 Outline Maps
Timeline
Projects
States and Capitals
Presidents
Pledge of Allegiance
Field Trips and  much more!

Along with the forms listed above, there are tips, ideas and samples throughout the book to help the student to get the most out of this valuable resource.

With the current ages of my children, this particular product will be one we'll hold onto until a later time when they are both writing faster (and smaller) in order to get all of the important facts and information into the area provided.   We'll be using both of these books  later when we study American history as the kids get older.

To read more reviews of Bright Ideas Press, click here.

Disclosure: This product was provided to our family for free as members of the 2009-2010 Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew. Reviews and opinions expressed in this blog are our own.

Finishing Up

This ended up being a week of finishing projects.   Both girls have been working on an ABC book for the last few weeks.   Lindsey's is a Bible ABC book that we printed from Preschool Post.    She's a HUGE fan of David and Goliath (no pun intended).  So she was thrilled when she got to her "G" page!

We used the apple we made way back when to decorate the front of her book.  The purple thing on the left was supposed to be a butterfly for the "B" page....but she insists it's a bunny with chickenpox...  And for the record, that is a doll baby laying on the floor behind her, lest anyone should get any crazy ideas.

Olivia's ABC book has been a bit more involved.  Media Angels offered a free download of their Creation Science and Geology ABC booklets some time ago.   Olivia's been working on 1 booklet per day (or so), and it ended up being much bulkier than I'd anticipated.

And YES....all of the alphabet are there...you just can see part of it because of the way we did the lapbook.  Here are the letters you can't see in the above photo.

We've also completed our study of Delaware.   To wrap things up, we used the maps and brochures that were mailed to us to make collages for each girls 50 states notebook.   I realize now that I did not photograph this activity, sigh.  We also did a state report, listing all the important things like population, square mileage within the state, state symbols, date of statehood etc.   We completed a biography report on Vice President Joe Biden.   Although halfway through we discovered he was born in Pennsylvania, not Delaware, although he moved there in his early childhood.  So no harm, no foul I guess.   Both girls completed their Delaware state coloring pages in their  United States Coloring Book by Rod and Staff.

Tomorrow we'll be having our official "Delaware meal".  On the menu is peppered beef tip roast, broccoli-cauliflower casserole and a peach crisp for dessert.   I'm really looking forward to this part of the study. 

We also completed lesson 3 in Song School Latin.  Olivia is really doing great with this!  We're able to have brief conversations in Latin without her needing to stop and think about what I've said, or what her response is to be.  I'm very impressed with her progress in this area.   Lindsey is still plugging along, although I'm not sure how much of it she's retaining.

I'm finally starting to see some improvement in Lindsey's phonics program.   I'm not sure it it's a lack of discipline on her part that has been the problem, or if she just hadn't gotten the concept yet.  However this week she started reading blends pretty easily.   I'm seriously considering stopping with the Abeka K-4 and moving her to "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons".  If any of you have first hand experience with this method, please comment below or send me an email.  I'd like to get some input.

The leaves have started to change color and fall already.   We ended up having an impromptu nature study/art project this week.   While I was harvesting flower seeds, Olivia and Lindsey collected colorful leaves and announced they were going to make something.  It didn't really matter, what it was, apparently.  I pulled the backing off of 2 12X18 packs of construction paper and dumped a pile of glue on top, and the kids made a collage of leaves.   They'll be adding some pinecones and other leaves later in the fall to cover up more of the blank areas.

Besides our weekly co-op, we attend a monthly activity day as well.  Yesterday was the first meeting of the month.   Olivia was happy to have an "art class"...and she gets to wear a smock, so she's thrilled.   Lindsey's class does...stuff...typical 3 and 4 year old stuff; crafts, songs etc.   I'm teaching a class on Native Americans for 9-12 year olds.  I'm hoping to post photos from that class starting next month, but I forgot to ask the parents permission to post photos of their kids, so I left the camera home. 

Oh, Olivia's science teacher at co-op is doing a study on butterflies.  I was THRILLED to find out that each child gets their own butterfly net and caterpillars.   I just stuck them in the net tonight since we were so busy all day.  One has already migrated to the top of the net.

Ballet started this week as well.  Lindsey's class is only 30 minutes long.  Olivia's class is 30 minutes tap and 30 minutes of ballet.  She seemed to really enjoy it.  Although, going straight from co-op, to ballet, to baseball wore her out.  Thankfully, baseball will be over in another week and a half!

I hope everyone else had a great week.  Quite honestly, I'm exhausted!!  Check out the Weekly Wrap Up at  Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see how everyone else's week went!. 

The Time Has Come

One of the most frustrating parts of our year thus far has been the large quantity of seatwork that goes with this year's phonics/writing and math choices.   Initially, I thought I'd just cut most of it out, but to be honest I just couldn't bring myself to waste that much of the workbooks we'd paid for.   So last week as I was blog hopping, I came across an idea (maybe it was Kris at WUHS?)...using a timer and only allowing certain amounts of time for each item.

As luck would have it, I stumbled across this lovely timer, at Walmart on clearance for $2!  It just happens to be my favorite color, which is an added bonus.

It really is amazing what a difference this has made!  Olivia is very performance driven.  So the thought of not finishing before the timer goes off is just completely unacceptable to her.  We've cut out seatwork time down by several hours (seriously she would drag it out FOREVER).

Nature Friend Magazine (Review)

You know you have something good in the mail when both kids and your husband are wrestling to look at it all at the same time!   As a matter of fact, it took several days before the August 2009 edition of Nature Friend Magazine made it's way into my possession.  (I mean really folks, it has MY name on the mailing label, does it not??)

In defense of my family, there was a valid reason for their hoarding keeping it for such a long time.  The magazine arrived the day after the girls found their first Cicada shell, and we had no clue what the creepy thing was.  But, as luck would have it, there on page 6 was a wonderful article and incredible photos of our dear friend the Cicada.  This of course is what started our current collection (39 shells, 2 dead adult cicadas and 1 shell shedding sighting).   

Nature Friend Magazine, now in its 27th year of publication, offers a variety  of opportunities for the reader to become involved.   Each month there is an art lesson called "You Can Draw".  After completing the lesson, your child can submit their drawing to hopefully be included in a later edition.  "Creation Close-Ups" is always looking for your nature photos.  "Nature Trails" is a feature allowing readers to submit stories and photos about activities they've enjoyed doing.  Each year there is a "Readers Issue" where the material cover-to-cover is submitted by readers.   "Pictures and Poems" welcomes nature-related poems and artwork. 

In edition to offering the readers opportunities to contribute, the magazine offers a wealth of information each month.  The science related "Learning by Doing" feature gives children the opportunity to do an experiment and/or activity to reinforce what they have learned from the magazine.  What kid doesn't love that???

My absolute favorite feature, besides its Creation viewpoint,  is the Study Guide that you can purchase along with your subscription.  This 8-12 page guide is mailed inside the center portion of the Nature Friends Magazine.  Included in the study guide are crossword puzzles; fill in the blanks; acrostic; true and false; photo critique and themed articles that can easily become your monthly or weekly nature study.   There are also "For You To Research" questions that challenges the student to study even deeper into the subject.   The study guide costs an additional $2 per month and is only available with a current subscription.

The website also offers a Homeschoolers Guide to Nature Friend; sample issues and lots of resources to further your studies.  You may also check out sample issues on the site.

The cost of Nature Friend Magazine is $36.00 per year (12 issues); with an additional $2 per issue for the Study Guide.   Readers signing up for a new subscription can save $3 off by entering the coupon code BLOG93 when ordering.

To learn more from the other Crew Mates, check out the Crew Blog!

Disclosure: This product was provided to our family for free as members of the 2009-2010 Old Schoolhouse Magazine Homeschool Crew. Reviews and opinions expressed in this blog are our own.

I’m Four….I CAN DO IT!!

Lindsey turned 4 last Friday.   I wish I had a dollar for every time she's said "I'm four now, I can do it myself."  Yeah....so how's that REACHING thing working out for ya pal??    Poor dear, she is petite (takes after her father's side of the family you know).   So on Tuesday we went to the pediatrician for the 4 year check up.  I remember it being a lot more involved for Olivia's 4 year.  They pricked her finger, made her pee in a cup and did a vision and hearing test.   Not so with Lindsey.   They weighed her (34 pounds, I was surprised she was that heavy); measured her height (40 inches); poked her belly; checked her ears and nose and sent us on our way.   I was happy to find that she finally hit the 50% percentile on height and weight.  However, she's still 6 pounds away from moving into a booster seat, sigh.

I've been super stressed this week.  Not sure why (hormones perhaps?).  It's been one of those weeks where I just feel like a hamster on a wheel with no way to hop off.  I think the stress comes from an overbooked schedule for this month.  Olivia is playing fall baseball, and that is averaging 3 nights a week.  This week we start co-op. Next week we'll add ballet on Monday and Friday evenings.  The following week we'll add Awana on Wednesday nights as well.  After September 30, ball will be over and we'll be back to a normal schedule of Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening activities.

Since we were off for Labor Day and co-op starts tomorrow, we only had a 3 day school week.  So what did we accomplish this week?   

Olivia's math comprehension has jumped ahead considerably.  We've added several new skills this week and she's done nicely.  I did start using a timer during her seat work to help her keep from drawing things out forever.  That has been a great incentive for her.   I guess she feels she's racing the clock now.   Her goal is to be able to turn it off before the timer rings.  My goal is to get through the day!  Her reading has improved a great deal in the last little while and she's actually getting books off of the shelves and reading them of her own choice!

I'm finding that Lindsey is very good at math, and even though her curriculum has her only counting up to number 7 (now in lesson 38, sigh) she's retaining a lot of what Olivia is learning.  She knows a good many of the addition facts and  was having a great deal of fun measuring things with the ruler and yardstick this week.   I'm trying to decide if I should just accelerate her math program A LOT or just let her take it slow and easy.

For Latin this week, I decided to stay on the same lesson we did last week.  Our schedule was really rushed and I didn't feel like we'd given it a fair amount of work.   I could tell a really big improvement in Lindsey's pronunciation this week (although I KNOW she is still saying something about a squid).  Olivia was a bit tweaked that we didn't move on, but it didn't harm her any to spend a little extra practice either.

In our study of Delaware, we learned about the state flower, the peach blossom; and the state bird, the blue hen chick; and we colored pictures of each and labeled them.   We also studied the state map and labled nature reserves and beaches.

Today was the first day of co-op.  The girls were VERY excited about it.  Lindsey got up at 6am....I was NOT amused when she woke me up to ask if she could get dressed.   Olivia even woke up on her own, got dressed, made her bed AND ate real food all without being asked to do so.   The classes seemed ok and the kids had fun.  Co-op runs from 9am until 2:45, both girls were exhausted and fell asleep before I pulled out of the parking lot.

Olivia had another ball game tonight.   Not only did she hit the ball all three times she batted, but she drove in two home runs!!    It was a pretty exciting game.  Oh, and now that the season is half way completed, the uniforms finally arrive.

That is my Weekly Wrap Up...such as it is.  

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Nutrition 101: Choose Life (Review)

Nutrition 101: Choose Life! is a three-in-one family nutrition and health program for all ages that presents the major body systems, how they function, their common health issues, the benefits of good food and the consequences of bad food. This book by Growing Healthy Homes boasts 448 pages broken into the following six study units:

1) The Brain and Nervous System;
2) Digestion and Elimination;
3) Respiration and Olfactory;
4) Muscular and Skeletal Systems;
5) Cardiovascular and Immune Systems;
6) Endocrine System and Emotions.
This Biblically based curriculum is  packed with hands-on activities, science and art projects and nearly 80 family-friendly recipes.  Nutrition 101: Choose Life! contains a complete reference guide filled with nutrition facts, charts, practical tips and an exhaustive index.

The cost of a CD ROM is $79.95
Printed book is $99.95
Combo price of CD and printed book $129.95

As part of the Crew, we received this product in E-book format.  For the sake of my printer (and ink supply)  I did not print out all 448 pages.   I did however print out the table of contents, the lessons I chose to do for our family during the review process and various appendices (there are 31 in total) to go along with those lessons.

We spent our time studying the unit on the brain and nervous system.   The girls loved the diagrams of the brain, and even asked to cut someone's head open to see it better.  We opted AGAINST this activity...they were not amused by this executive decision on my part, but being the mom has its perks.

As part of each chapter, there is a recipe to try, and various activities to go along with what has been read and studied.  We made homemade guacamole, which turned out lovely.   However, it received four thumbs down in the taste testing department.    In defense of the recipe, neither my husband nor I care for guacamole, but thought the homemade version would be worth a shot.

Another activity that was suggested was to use the seeds from the avocado's to start your own plants.  The girls were much more agreeable to this part of the lesson.    Here is our day 1 photos.   According to my research these little guys should be starting to sprout soon.

Nutrition 101:  Choose Life!  is a wonderful resource for those wanting to learn more about God's wonderful design of our bodies; and for those wanting to make significant changes to their eating habits.   I highly recommend that you purchase the printed book or cd/book combo; to avoid the cumbersome task of being tied to the computer for the entire 448pages.  The information included in this fact filled book easily lend itself to lapbooking and notebooking activities.

Please stop by the Crew Blog to read more reviews of this product.

Puppets, Ladybugs and Flowers

We're wrapping our week up early.  Tomorrow is Lindsey's 4th birthday, and birthday's are no school days at our house.  

In our Delaware study this week, we moved on to the state bug, the Ladybug!  The girls have thoroughly enjoyed this study, and I didn't mind it so much myself.  These bugs aren't as creepy as most of the ones that Olivia brings home!

Books we read:

A Ladybug's Life by John Himmelman
Face-to-Face with The Ladybug by Valerie Tracqui (lots of GREAT photos of the life stages)
Ladybugology by Michael Elsohn Ross  (great activities included)
The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

Using this list of books, we made a ladybug life cycle drawing, and labeled a ladybug's body parts.  We searched (unsuccessfully) for ladybugs in the flower gardens.   We discovered that there are over 400 varieties of ladybugs!

Our local library has a lot of book/puppet packages that you can check out.  So this week we took advantage of this resource and added some puppetry to our day.  "The Grouchy Ladybug" came with a ladybug puppet, so it was used a LOT during the week.

We also checked out a package with a book called "If At First You Do Not See" by Ruth Brown.   It's a fun book with a caterpillar who works his way around various items that are not as they first appear.  The girls had a great time with this book as they tried to guess what each picture would turn out to be.  It came with a huge caterpillar puppet that Olivia is in love with!

Our last puppet/book combo was "I Wish I Were a Butterfly" by James Howe.  I loved the storyline, as it showed the poor "ugly" cricket that he was just a pretty as a butterfly...in the sight of those who loved him.  I think the girls got the point too!

Latin is going well.  This week we worked on the simple phrase "Quid est tuum praenomen?" (what is your name?)  and "Meum praenomen est_____". (my name is____).  This went well except my almost 4 year old's pronunciation leaves a BIT to be desired.  Somehow when she says it, it comes out sounding like "Squid eat the brain of mom."  Which quite honestly is how I feel some days, but still!  

My favorite part of the school week was our outdoor art class as the girls worked on details, colors and shapes.   You can read my post from earlier in the week here.   However, I still thought I'd share a photo from the class...

If by chance you've been following the ongoing saga of Olivia's bug collection; be sure to read the post from earlier in the week about our Tragedy in the Bug--o-sphere!

I hope everyone's week has been productive as we wrap up and head into a holiday weekend!  Don't forget to visit Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for the Weekly Wrap Up.

Outdoor Art Class

The weather this week has been incredible!!   Mid 70's, no humidity, gentle breezes.  It feels like fall, although I'm sure the temps will soar again before it's all said and done.

I've been wanting to do an outdoor art class with the girls, so this week was perfect!  I have a lovely flower garden beside our sunporch that was our focal point.  Granted, had we done this last week, some of the zinnia's would have been a bit perkier.  However, I just didn't have the heart to sit the kids out in the direct sun in 100 degree weather to work on this project.

What I asked them to do specifically, was pay attention to detail, color and shapes.  If you'll notice below, Olivia drew several bees in the middle of her large focal point flower, although I'm not certain where the green and blue petals came from..   I also like that she added a smaller flower at the top of her page that shows the colors variations in some of the sunflowers.

Lindsey focused more on the zinnia's than the sunflowers.  She added lots of colorful flowers, and little details as well.

They both worked for over an hour on their drawings, so even though they didn't cover the entire page as I'd hoped, they still did ok.  Here are their finished projects.

Tragedy in the Bug-o-sphere!

Today was a lovely day, mild temperatures, slight breeze and a happy Queen Esther (the praying mantis).   My husband took the bug-o-sphere outside to clean it, and find some new vittles er, um....cricket hatchlings,  for Queen Esther to nosh on.  She was moved from her home into a small container while the old leaves, sticks and bug debris were removed.  She was tweaked, but compliant.

Thomas and the girls began their search for the juiciest bugs in the yard, while Queen Esther watched them from the top of the picnic table.   It was around this time when a stiffer gust of wind blew the container off the table onto the brick patio below.  (I guess for a bug it would be the equivialent of a 4 story drop).   They  retrieved her container, she looked ok and so she was left sitting on the patio while they continued their search.   I noticed  through the kitchen window a bit later that Queen Esther was laying down.flat.not moving.still in the container.  So I went out to check....(PEOPLE MAKE SURE THE AIR HOLES ARE ON THE TOP WHERE AIR CAN GET IN, NOT ON THE BOTTOM WHERE AIR CAN'T GET IN BECAUSE BUGS NEED AIR).   So either the fall killed her, or she suffocated, not sure what the cause of death was (although it would have been fun to do an autopsy, but it WAS a pet and my husband wouldn't allow me to slice and dice her).

I called the spouse and kids out of the yard, the girls prayed....but Queen Esther was gone.   The girls asked if they could bury her by the big tree in the back yard (Donna, stop laughing, I KNOW they get this from me).  She had a lovely funeral.   Seriously....

The kids did a grand job of mourning the deceased.

I explained that normally at a funeral, someone always says a few words about the deceased (no not DISEASED SHE WASN'T SICK OLIVIA! YA'LL SUFFOCATED HER).  After that side trip to vocabulary-ville, Lindsey decided she had something to say.   In her sweet, sensitive manner she said

"YEP SHE'S DEAD ALRIGHT!"

Seriously, it's the only funeral where I've laughed so hard I thought I'd pee on myself.