kittens

Our brown cat, Fudge, had kittens last week, this week she went through an access hole in the sheetrock and hid them in the insulation. So it may be a while until we see them again.

They were so cute!

Smaller than the hamster--

Now why would she hide the poor things from my children :)

This is our older kitten, Rusty.

homeschool--cultural arts D31

Week 31
Topic Poetry

We've been doing poetry every few weeks, and we're almost done.

These two sites have the lessons we've been using:
http://volweb.utk.edu/Schools/bedford/harrisms/spotlight.htm
http://www.msrogers.com/English2/poetry/30_days_of_poetry.htm

This week the focus is lessons 21-27 (from both sites). You can do all or pick and choose.

Also, take the opportunity to read out of some children's collections of poetry together.

online fun

Here are a couple of sites we've been having fun with lately:

www.linerider.com Hit the play now button.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5R8gSgedh4
Some of his other stuff was good, we liked "I don't drink beer," "Parents are People," and some of his stand up comedy.

Li'l frogs

They're itty bitty!

We've tried before to raise tadpoles, but finally we were successful! We learned the secret: boiled lettuce! The little tads love it. We got to watch the whole amazing process (the arms developed under the skin and popped out one day fully grown, while the legs started as stubs and grew larger). What we didn't think ahead to was feeding the frogs. Especially tiny frogs. Lettuce doesn't appeal to the little carnivores, so we have to hunt out teeny little bugs. And I just can't see setting these guys free, they're instant bird food. We got the tadpoles from the waterfall/pond my dad put up at his office, but some unidentified punk kids keep adding soap to it, which has killed off the animal and plant life, so their original home isn't an option either.

Summer Days

Ugh, last week was a long week where hubby stayed home from work and we tried to catch up on all the paperwork. The joys of self-employment. We also got firewood and hay.

The week before was a little better:

I took the kids for a bike ride one evening down on the paved road below the house. We found a wild cherry tree, yummy! Even the youngest had fun sailing along on black asphalt instead of gravel. He rides well now, except he has trouble braking down hill.

Thursday the 10th was our 15th anniversary. We ate Chinese (very good) and rented a video. According to our fortunes hubby should be proud of someone close to him soon, and I should be rich someday. Well, that would make hubby proud :) On the way home we found a bull snake in the road, hubby picked it up and brought it home, we released it in the yard in hopes it will deter/destroy any rattlers.

Friday we all helped with a boy scout service project, replacing wooden benches at the local arena with metal ones.

Saturday we had a Primary activity about pioneers. Hubby helped by turning wheelbarrows into handcarts, we divided the kids into families (all single parent families because our senior primary is so small), we had an ice water crossing (wading pool) and obstacles. When they set up for camp, the "mothers" washed clothes in wash tubs with a bar of soap and river rocks, the "fathers" shot slingshots at animals drawn on brown paper (suspended from string so they could flip over when hit), and the "kids" gathered rocks and wood for the camp fire (my four yo neighbor even took two sticks and pretended to start the fire, every little while he would pretend it had gone out and he had to relight it). They ate biscuits and jerkey, had stories and songs, then played games like three legged race and handcart race.



Sunday, on the way home from church, I saw smoke coming down the road toward us. As we got closer we saw flames leap up from behind a guy's pickup cab. The 1/2 ton hay bale in the bed had been too close to the exhaust pipes and caught on fire. I swerved into the turning lane and frantically waved out the window for him to look behind him and we could see him look in his mirror and jump as he caught sight of the growing inferno. He turned off the highway and unhooked the trailer full of more hay. Other cars with extinguishers stopped to help. We called 911 but had no other way to help. The moral I learned, carry a Large extinguisher in the car.

homeschool--science D29

Week D29

Topic Mammals



This is an easy unit to find books and magazines on, and to do field trips (farm, zoo).



Here are some sites:

http://nature.ca/notebooks/englIsh/mammpg.htm

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/mammals/Groups.shtml

Misc.

a garden visitor

High flying kites. He's actually flying the one that looks like a dot up toward the top of the picture.

Ds and I fixing the flat on my bike. Yeah, he's a goofball.

One of several small visitors this week, eating watermelon.

Restarting one of the motorcycles on our trail ride. The scenery was beautiful.

Happy Fourth of July!

Well, a simple fourth turned out a little bigger than expected. The night before, I got a call from my friend that she was going into labor so I went and picked up her three kids and they stayed the night. In the morning hubby worked, so I took all the kids down to the 4th of July breakfast at the church. Told our next door neighbors we weren’t really doing anything, so they could come down for the evening. Went home and crashed for a while, then cleaned house and prepped food which included the last steaks in the freezer, then hubby came home and invited the other neighbors, then my friend called and her labor was not progressing and they were coming to get the kids so they were invited of course, suddenly as I cut them smaller and smaller the steaks didn’t seem like they were going to go far enough. But turned out there was plenty of good food, kids swam, we did firecrackers and smoke bombs and had fun. Saved most of the fireworks for New Years, and we should have plenty this year since I bought a couple big packs but forgot to tell hubby, so he came home with a couple of even bigger ones.

Went to see the town's firework program at the city park. After the fireworks we had my friend’s kids again because she was having contractions again. We also had four other children staying because their parents were doing something, but they brought up some fireworks so oldest son and I set those off when we got home (hubby went to bed).

Saturday we were supposed to get up early, pack up the motorcycles (actually, hubby ignored my suggestion that we do that the day before), drop off some of the extra kids, and go see hubby’s parents where they are working in the woods 3 hours away. Didn’t work out that way, though. Slept in, then hubby spent literally hours trying to get all the mc’s running, flats fixed etc. Fate was against him, twice he popped one new tube he was changing. Meanwhile, I was stressing for my friend who was still in labor with the midwife at her house. Once on the phone I could hear her in pain in the background. They said they thought it might be twins, finally after she pushes forever with no luck and is screaming in pain, they take her to the hospital (twenty minutes away driving normally) and she finally delivers one big boy (9 lbs, 2 oz). (That's what God invented the epidural for)

So we didn’t make it out to hubby’s parents, it just got too late to justify the drive, but we did end up going on a couple hour mc ride around our own mountain. The neighbor girl came down and watched my youngest and my friend’s kids while we rode. Then dinner, a dip in the pool, and we relaxed with our annual viewing of my all time favorite dumb movie—Dumb and Dumber, even more funny for us because I have a brother who looks and can act just like Jim Carrey.

homeschool--cultural geography D28

Week D28
Unit Topic: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar

http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_saudiarabia.html
Start here then follow the links to the other two countries.

For those students who have learned several countries, these online games are a fun way to review:
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Geography.htm