Seahorses

Logan has a basket on his table that has a few library books on it, and usually some coloring sheets. He isn't required to do anything with them unless he wants to... but every now and again, he asks to 'do school' and so I try to always have something 'schoollike' for him to do when the kids and I are working.

This month the basket theme is Sea Horses. He LOVES Sea Horses. One of the books I have in the basket right now is Eric Carle's Mister Seahorse, and I have read that book to him about 10 times already.

I figured that a trip to the zoo's Sea Horse exhibit was in order. He is never required to remember anything from this stuff... but he loves having a little bit of the education focus turned to him.

This picture and the one above are 'Quarter Horses'. They are TINY. Probably smaller than a dime. I love watching those little guys get around. They are so neat to see!

This one was playing with Alex. Not sure what he thought it was, but he would follow Alex's finger along the glass.

This is the king of the Sea Horses.

We finished off the learning part of the zoo trip at the touch tanks. Logan asked all kinds of questions about the Sea Cucumber, which he loved to pet. We even got to see a Brittle Star flip it self back over from it's back... which was actually complicated and really cool!

Then we met friends for lunch and played for the rest of the afternoon.

Spring Concert

This past Sunday afternoon Tanner & Dalton had a spring concert. Dalton plays trombone(blue shirt on end) & drums. Tanner sings in the choir and in the Keynote singers. This Wednesday they have a contest in New Ulm. Both band and choir are looking for a sliver rating. Tabor is anxiously waiting for the Dr to give him the OK to go back to sports. Baseball starts on Monday.

Homeschool room mini makeover

This week we have been working on making the space we spend time in each day perfect. The kids and I had a few things to adjust to make things move more smoothly and we found ourselves able to address those issues pretty easily. First, was the tables. We had two full sized tables in this room because the kids really need their own space to work. That took up the entire room! So when at Ikea, we found these smaller tables that could be pushed together, or separated, and were a great 'over sized' desk size.

They work amazingly well. :)

Another step into the workbox system. I made them 'check in' and 'check out' pockets. I thought that this was a little silly... but they love them. Like a lot. Who knew? Sue Patrick says the visual idea of 'going to work' is really important several times in the book.... But I didn't honestly believe it, until I saw my kids get their work done in half the time because they were mentally ready to work and had 'checked in'. It was pretty fantastic. :)

We have some pretty big lighting issues in the homeschool room. One side of the room is bathed in harsh sunlight, and the other side is dark. Really dark. So I softened the light on the door side with out taking a lot from the rest of the room with these thrifted curtains (that just so happen to be the same color as the wall!) mounted on sticks over the sliding glass door.

Our workboxes. Alex has 12 and Cyan has 6. It will not be long before she has 12 as well. I bought them... now to figure out where they go. ;)

Because the new tables use much less space in the room than the old tables, I was able to bring my Papisan in from the garage to create a reading nook for silent reading during our school day. The kids (and the kitties) love this spot! Cyan sat in it the last two mornings, snuggling with her kitten and reading her newest thrifted adventure book.

All in all, the new changes are working out well. And look really beautiful too!

Book pick ~ I'd Really Like to Eat a Child

My newest Goodwill book find! This book is adorable! About a tiny alligator named Achilles and his trials with not liking what he has for dinner and always wanting 'to eat a child', this book is very well done. It has very gentle morals about eating your breakfast to grow big and strong, but is mostly for entertainment.

The setting is the Nile River, so adding this book in when reading about ancient Egypt, or even current Egyptian culture, would be a cute and funny break from the more serious social topics.

I am very glad I bought it... we have read it many times already in our bedtime book rotation.

Wordless Wednesday

Good Greif!

For the last 5 days we have had 40* plus weather and some heavy rain. So naturally the weight of the snow caused our big shed to collapse. What a big mess! Luckily we had not shut the door yet and were able to get the tractor & snow blower out. The Electrician has been out to cut the power to the shed. We are waiting for a contractor to come secure the rest of the roof so we can get a few things out. Everything that was on the east side of the shed is a lost. Gardening supplies, all my patio furniture,4wheeler,mower, tools and more.

Mini Ecosystems

I thought a good finishing project for the last day working with the Story of Creation would be making our own mini ecosystems.

A how-to on my other blog. :)