A Beautiful (Almost) Spring Day

Today is February 23, 2012. It's supposed to be winter, at least according to the calendar. But here in the Deep South, the weather has been looking more and more like spring! I cannot tell you how THRILLED I am about that fact! Spring is my favorite season. Thankfully, this winter hasn't been as cold and wet and yucky as most, but we have instead had lots of really pleasant days in which to get outside. Today is one of those days.

We worked on school for a little while this morning, but the outside was just calling us. So around 10:30, I sent everyone outside to get some sunshine. I did bring a little of our school work outside with us, but mostly, I just let nature be their teacher today. And what did they learn from nature? Well....

Britches has been working nearly every day outside with Little Man's magnifying glass. She has been trying so hard to get a fire going with just the magnifying glass and the sun. She's had quite a few good flames going, too, but they go out pretty quickly. So today, she grabbed the magnifying glass and decided on a new experiment. She decided she was going to boil water in an acorn top. Why? I have no idea. It just seemed to her like a great thing to do.

I really thought it was quite funny that she was even attempting this. She had been sitting there for awhile letting it "boil" and decided to check it. Yep, she said it was getting hot. She sat there a little while longer holding the magnifying glass over the water, and then she asked if I wanted to see how hot it was. Sure, why not. I stuck my finger in it, and - OUCH!! That was HOT! She didn't tell me it was THAT hot! Or maybe she did and I just figured she was exaggerating. But it was piping hot! She even got little bubbles to form at the bottom of the acorn top and you could hear it sizzling. She was so excited. Yep, that's the kind of thing that excites her. Then she got another brilliant idea.

She decided that, if she could boil water, maybe she could make a grape turn into a raisin. She took off into the kitchen to find a grape. Well, she didn't exactly turn it into a raisin. I told her that raisins are slow dried so as not to BURN! But she sat there finding great excitement in cooking/burning that grape! (And I just have to say, burnt grapes STINK!)

And what were the others doing during all this "excitement"? Well, they weren't doing any scientific experimenting. But they were doing some clever engineering. AND they were working TOGETHER without even fighting! YAY for that! They went and found some rope and a skateboard and, well... take a look. 

Yep, they made themselves a swing. Never mind the fact that we have THREE swings on our jungle gym! Of course THOSE are no fun! It's WAY more fun to build your own! So they found some rope and a latch thingy, and they engineered themselves a swing. Those two played for the longest time, taking turns and sharing and doing it together and, oh my goodness it was GREAT! They had a blast! 

Our (almost) spring day has turned out really great! And the day isn't even over yet. I've done some planting of seeds and just enjoyed the beautiful day of SUNSHINE! I'm so thankful today that it isn't cloudy or rainy or cold. I tell Brient regularly that I'd really prefer to never move up north, because I would go absolutely CRAZY with such long, cold, dreary winters. I'm not that crazy about snow. So for today, I am enjoying what God has given us. And we are enjoying it while it lasts, because, in the Deep South, it can change in a moments notice. 

Do you ever head outside with your homeschool? What do you enjoy most about it? How do you allow God to teach your kids through nature? If you don't ever find yourself enjoying the great outdoors, give it a try. Head outside and enjoy God's creation!

LEGO School - Code breaker

 At the beginning of this school year, I decided that the "theme" of our year would be LEGO's. My son LOVES LEGO's, so this was mainly for him. But my girls enjoy playing with them just as much as he. We started off the year well, but the last few months have been lacking a little in the area of our LEGO fun. I have just had quite a bit going on and it really hasn't even crossed my mind to include it in our day. But today, I put it on our school day schedule, and the kids were THRILLED! So we brought everything to the table, and they were ready for the challenge of the day.

I started out by telling them that, for today, they were spies. The enemy had cracked all their codes, and they needed a new way to communicate. Their mission: To create a new code using LEGO bricks, and then to write a secret message with their LEGO's. They were thrilled at the challenge ahead of them! They are all really into spy stuff anyway, so this was right up their alley! Here is what they came up with.

Little Sister wanted to know if she was going to do school with the older ones. Well of course she was!! This was definitely something she could get in on. No, she didn't have to make a whole code or write something with LEGO's. She is just starting to read, so that would not have been fun for her. But, I did tell her I wanted her to take each kind of LEGO, place it on her page, draw a picture of it with her crayon, and then label it with one letter of the alphabet. I wrote all the letters on a separate sheet of paper for her to look at, so she would remember all of them. Yes, she knows all her letters, but when you're trying to remember them for something like that, sometimes little ones tend to forget some. She did exactly what I told her, and this is what she ended up with. She got about half way through the alphabet before getting tired of it. So she worked on writing her letters, matching bricks to letters, and following directions.

Little Man went for more of a graph form, so he could more easily see what bricks were to be which letter. This is his code.

I sneaked a peak at Britches while she was working. She is my more detail oriented kid, and everything has to be just right with her. She found her ruler, and before I realized it, she had a really detailed grid with all of her colors neatly labeled. She even went so far as to include capital AND lowercase letters in her code. She always goes above and beyond what I ask of her. 

So that was our LEGO school for the day - code making and code breaking. Can you figure out their code words? 

Have you done any really cool LEGO challenges with your kids? If so, tell me about them. I'd love to try out YOUR ideas! And if you have never done "LEGO school" with your kids, I encourage you to give it a try. You will be amazed at the things your kids will learn from a simple "toy" such as LEGO bricks!

Little Sister's School Day

There are days - many days - that I question whether or not I am doing enough with my five year old. She's the third of four, and, though I try really hard to avoid this, I find myself gearing my time toward teaching my oldest two. They are, after all, the ones "in school", right? Not really, but that's how many of my days end up. So on days when Little Sister really shows out, I am completely thrilled. 

On this particular day, I was doing school with the older two, and had sent her to play. She came to me and asked if she could have the markers to write on my white board. My husband mounted it low enough where she and Baby Girl could reach it and draw on it. (I'm still waiting on the day when the marker "accidentally" gets all over my wall!) I handed her the markers, told her to keep it on the white board, and left her to herself while I went back to the "real school" with the others. When we finished what we were working on, I turned around to see how she was doing (and to make sure I didn't have marker all over my wall!), and this is what she showed me. 

She put all the markers together to make a pointer stick, so she could teach me what she had drawn. She said, "The red is all the blood in my body, and these black things are viruses that make you sick."

Then she went to the picture she drew of her whole body and began to tell me about it. "These are all the muscles in my body. They are all over, even in my legs."

Wow! I was impressed! I have to tell you at this point, I have no idea where she learned that. No clue! I know I didn't teach it to her. But she had certainly learned enough about the human body to know those things, to be able to draw them, and then to be able to teach me what she knew. So where did she learn that? Hmmm...

One thing I have always made certain to do in our homeschooling is to be sure my kids are watching QUALITY television. My kids don't watch useless cartoons that have no point or meaning. Most of their video games and computer games revolve around some form of teaching. So where did she learn about the human body? My guess is that she learned it from PBS Kids. Our TV pretty much stays on PBS, and it is amazing the amount of learning they get from that quality programing. And when she wants to get on the computer to play games, she goes to PBS Kids to play and learn.

After she "taught" me what she knew, I decided it was time for some fun with Mrs. Frizzle! I LOVE The Magic Schoolbus! LOVE IT! So we went to the library and checked out the DVD that had all three human body episodes on it. She came home and watched them, and she learned about the heart and circulatory system, the digestive system, and the muscular system.

After all her "learning", she told me, "Mama, now I can be a doctor, because I know all about the body." Pretty cool!

So if you, too, are wondering if you are doing enough with your kids, younger or older, I would say to you - relax. If you are facilitating an environment that promotes learning at all time, including their free play time, your kids are learning plenty. They are learning way more than you realize.

Have a suggestion for some creative learning? Something that your kids do that doesn't scream "SCHOOL" to them? Something they find fun and is still educational at the same time? Share your ideas! I would love to hear how you make life your school.

LEGO School Days

There are some days that I seriously have good intentions where school is concerned. But sometimes my good intentions just don't turn out quite like I planned. Most of the time, things start heading south because "stuff" happens. "Stuff" being things like my phone won't stop ringing off the hook, or the baby is very cranky because of those huge molars coming in and wants to be held, or an unexpected visitor drops by and stays for awhile, or just the fact that I am so exhausted after doing other "stuff" that we take a much needed day off. But not this day!

On this school day, the reason my good intentions were not carried out was simply because my kids were teaching themselves. Yep. They all went in the school room after breakfast and sat down with some LEGO's. Since they were all being quiet, I wasn't about to disturb them!! I figured I'd call them a little later for school. But as I peeked my head in the room to check on them, I saw they were deep in thought building some really creative things.

Britches was busy trying to make a tower that had several gears inside that would turn a wheel and make the tower roll across the table. And Little Man was working out the details on a robot design that would do all my chores around the house! YAY for me! I am so thankful to have a son who thinks about things like that. Now if he will just really create a REAL ONE, well, I would really be happy about that!!

Alas, I am a terrible mother and forgot to take pictures of Britches' moving tower. GASP! I know! I know! I will do better in the future! BUT, I did remember to take pictures of Little Man's robot design - mainly because he wouldn't stop pestering me until I did! So here it is. The robot that will one day take over all my house cleaning duties.

This is the robot from different angles. 

 This is the dishwasher portion. The LEGO's in the white boxes represent my never ending load of dishes, and the two arms are what washes them. And the bottom picture shows the side view of the counter space where it will stack the clean dishes.

These are the laundry hands that will fold my laundry.

This is the trash arm that picks up trash around the house. You tie it onto the bars and it will throw it into the dumpster for you. 

This is the broom that can sweep my house! Since I have a house with no carpet, this is a GREAT invention! 

And for the few rugs I have in my house, there is a vacuum arm attachment.

And of course you need access to the control panel for programming your robot for specific tasks. 

This robot has hoovering devices attached to the bottom.

And this is my little engineer with his invention. 

Most days, we are very good about getting our normal schooling done, such as spelling and math. But some days, delight directed learning takes over and I step out of the way. And you know what? That's OK! 

~For more information on delight directed learning, go check out Homeschool Oasis!

Santa and the Reindeer - by Britches

Britches had a writing assignment today. Being that it is near Christmas, her project was to write a short story about something lighthearted with a Christmas theme. That is actually quite a challenge for her, because, since she is so detail oriented, her stories usually end up being several pages long! But today, she did exactly what I asked. Here is her story.

Santa and the Reindeer

by Britches

Once upon a time, there lived a jolly old fellow with rosy red cheeks and a belly like jelly. His name was Santa Clause. This jolly old fellow lived in Greece, a land far from the North Pole.

Santa gave out presents every year to all the good girls and boys at exactly 9:00PM on December 24. On Christmas morning, all the children woke up to find presents under their Christmas tree. 

But as the years went by, Santa decided he was getting too old to walk to every house in Greece. So he designed a sort of animal Olympics, and he invited every animal on the planet to join in. He designed the games to help himself pick the best animal to help deliver presents.

After the games, he tallied up the points. In third place, there was a horse. In second place, there was a moose. And in first place, there was a reindeer named Dasher. 

But when Santa asked Dasher to help him, Dasher said, "It's too hot here!"

So that's how Santa started in Greece, and ended up in the North pole with a sleigh team made up of reindeer. 

The End

Gingerbread Houses

Last year, a few days after Christmas, I was in Wal-Mart and saw they had their gingerbread houses on sale for A DOLLAR!! So of course I bought two of them! One pack had five miniature houses included, and the other had one house with a Santa sleigh. My plan was to pull them out one day this summer when we were bored. But that never happened. So there they sat for months.

Ever since Thanksgiving had passed, the kids had all remembered those gingerbread houses sitting in the cabinet, and they had been begging me to pull them down and put them together. So today was the day! After the older kids finished up their school work, we cleared off the table and pulled those boxes down. The house was just filled with excitement and anticipation!

Each of the kids picked which house they wanted, we divided up the candies, and the fun began. I was in charge of the icing, because, well, that goes without saying. I did give Britches the other bag of icing, because I trust her. But I wouldn't trust the other three as far as I could throw them. After "gluing" them together, everybody had such fun decorating their own house! Even Baby Girl got in on the fun! I was quite shocked and glad that she didn't try to eat any of the house or candies, because those things smelled like they had been on the shelf for, well, the last year!

Here are the pictures of our fun and our finished projects!

This is my sweet Baby Girl decorating her triangle house and showing it off. She specifically wanted the "triangle". And when she saw me break out the camera, she said, "Mommy, take picture of me and my house!" She had so much fun doing this!

 Little Sister had a great time decorating her house.

Little Man was very particular about his house, and even added sprinkle snow on the roof and a sprinkle sidewalk. The marshmallows around the house are snow. 

And here is my Britches with her meticulously crafted house. She took the green leaf gumdrops and cut them into strips, so she could make the wreath above the door and icicles around the house. She is so patient to do that! 

And here are all of our finished houses displayed on my hutch. Who needs the little miniature breakable houses when you've got such a fine array of gingerbread houses with which to decorate?

I hope you'll make some time this holiday season to do something FUN with your kids! Take a break from shopping and cooking and wrapping and whatever, and pull out a gingerbread house of your own or make some homemade ornaments or craft your own gifts for those you love. Christmas is more than just the act of opening presents on Christmas day. It's all the little things that you do leading up to the big day that are creating memories for you to cherish for a lifetime! Now go grab your kids and make some memories!

Ecuadorian Cooking Day!

This week in our homeschool, the kids and I have been visiting Ecuador! I know some of you are probably thinking, "I thought you were doing that MONTHS ago." Yes, it was in the plan to do this unit over the summer, but, well - welcome to my homeschool. Something ALWAYS happens, and things ALWAYS get pushed back. And this summer was no different. There were so many "things" that happened, I just didn't get to studying this country with the kids. But, here we are at last! And let me tell you, this country is AMAZING!

We learned so many things about Ecuador. The kids loved the videos we watched about the Galapagos Islands, and they did a great job sketching some of the animals on the islands. We talked about the government system in Ecuador, which is a democracy like ours. And then we talked about the many different governments all over the world. The kids decided that a democracy was the best way to go. We watched a soccer match on YouTube, because soccer is their main sport. The kids filled in a map of South America and also colored a picture of the flag of the country. But the thing we all loved was making bread babies!

Bread babies are nothing more than homemade bread shaped into the form of a baby. But it is something that these people use to celebrate one of their major holidays, El Dia de los Difuntos - The Ecuadorian Day of the Ancestors. This is a day where they remember family members who have gone on before them. And to celebrate, families take a meal out to the grave yard to eat on top of the grave of their family member. Bread babies are one of the foods they take.

So of course, the kids and I HAD to make bread babies! We just LOVE cooking day when we are studying a new country! Here is the recipe:

1 Pkg. active dry yeast
3/4 C warm milk (115 degrees F)
1 Tbsp. sugar
3 C flour
1 tsp. salt
2 lg. eggs
1/2 C butter melted
Mix together the yeast, milk, and sugar and let stand for 10 min. until it is nice and bubbly. Add the salt, eggs, and melted butter and mix well. Add the flour, mix well, and knead in the bowl a few times. Lift the dough, pour a little oil in the bowl, and then roll the dough around to get it coated well in the oil. This keeps it from sticking to the bowl while rising. Let rise for about an hour or until double in size.
Once the dough is ready, punch it down. Divide it equally among your kiddos so no one's bread baby is bigger than the others and no one fights over the dough. Let everyone have fun shaping it into the shape of a baby. Encourage them to be CREATIVE with their babies! You can even tint some of the dough, if you like, to use for decorations on your baby. Also, you can add cream cheese, jelly, or jam in your dough for a treat when you eat it. All you do for that is flatten the dough, put your filling in the middle, and pull the dough up around it.
When everyone has their babies like they want them, preheat your oven to 375 degrees and bake them for about 15 min. or until golden brown. Once they are cooked, you can add more decorations with icing if you like.

Here is our fun day!

My gang getting their dough shaped.

My sweet Britches made her baby have pigtails in her hair. She added raisins for the eyes and buttons, and she put cream cheese and jelly in the body.

Little Man added raisins on the body of his, and put in cream cheese and jelly for the filling.

Little Sister decided to make an Angel baby, so hers has wings. She added jelly inside of each wing, and put raisins for the eyes, nose, and mouth. She had a blast with the sticky dough. She is my "messy" girl.

Even Baby Girl got to get in on this fun. She stuck raisins all in her dough and rolled it up in a ball. Of course, then she picked it up off the baking stone and reshaped and reshaped and reshaped it. She just had fun shaping it. 

These are the finished Bread Babies. The ball on top of Little Sister's Angel is the halo. She said she needed that round circle thing on top of her head. We sat the babies aside to rise for about an hour.

While we waited on the finished babies, Baby Girl finished off her raisins. 

This smelled sooooo good while it was baking. And when we pulled them out of the oven, this is what they looked like. Everybody got their own baby to eat, and that was lunch. Yes, that was all we had for lunch. But it was really delicious! 

I have to say, after spending a week in Ecuador via the Internet, I really want to go visit that country. I want to walk through the Amazon Rainforest and see all the fabulous green everywhere. I wouldn't even care about the rain every day. I just want to GO! But then, at this point in my life, I'm ready to go anywhere and everywhere! And now that you know what Bread Babies are, go try them for yourself. Have some fun making these with your own kids. And then come back here and tell me all about the experience. You will love it, I promise!