Spring Homeschooling days...Salamander Races!

What a wonderful Monday we had homeschooling. We went outside to take advantage of the warming weather and my son asked if he could look for salamanders. I said, "sure". He ended up finding about 7 salamanders! When it was time to come inside for more school work and lunch what were we to do with all the salamanders? Why not have a salamander race?!

My son grabbed some chalk and wrote START on the pavement. Those wiggly little creatures didn't really want to comply with the rules however,  and they began to wriggle in the wrong direction!

What a fun way to wrap up our homeschooling morning! Later, we did a science experiment outdoors on evaporation. We poured water on the pavement and drew a line around the wet puddle. In an hour we were to come back and check on our evaporating puddle-and it was gone! I love seeing my kids get excited about learning. We're nearly done with Language Arts seatwork for 2nd grade so we are having fun diving into more science experiments that had been put on the back burner through the winter months.
It's nice to have this extra time with my kids and I realize I am giving them not just the gift of time with mom and dad but the gift of time with their siblings.

I told my husband that it's days like this when I feel like I was robbed. Robbed of many special moments with my kids we could have spent, when we were all in different places during the day. He agreed and thought we were doing the best thing for our family. We have difficult days when we lose sight of God's plan and stop focusing on heart issues and the whys of why we homeschool our kids, but we have many, many great days. Lots of "aha!" moments that I cherish.
I'm looking forward to the next salamander race! What are you looking forward to?!

And The Winner Is...

And the winner of my drawing for a free book, "Ethan Finds A Frog" is...drum roll please....Sabrina! Congratulations Sabrina! May you have many wonderful moments with your boys reading this cute little book!
Thank you to all for checking out my blog and participating in my fun drawing! I look forward to doing more give aways in the future as we walk this journey of homeschooling and LIFE! Have a blessed day!
Jen

Back Yard Adventuring Give Away!

A warm Spring breeze blew across our frozen back yard a day or so ago and it got me itching for all the fun things we enjoy doing outside when the snow is gone. Like the hours upon hours my boys have enjoyed swimming at "Dobsee" or my youngest son and his cousin going frog catchin'!

So that is why I am giving away a copy of  Ethan Finds A Frog, by Guy Melcher Coffin. He is a creative artist from Portland, Maine and I was given two copies of this book by his mother a few months ago. We have so enjoyed this beautiful hardcover book! It has nicely rhyming text that tells a cute story about a boy who finds a frog and wants to keep him. I was very impressed by the writing. So many children's books these days have no rhyme to their writing and seem as though they were scribbled out in order to get to the printer. This book has heart and a great message and is also by a local Maine artist! Just leave a post below and your name will be entered into a drawing to receive this book for free! I know you and your child will enjoy this book as much as we have! Good luck!

Only One Way

My son was finishing up his maze from Diana Waring's Ancient Civilizations Elementary Pack and explained, "I did it, Mom. See, there's only one way to finish the maze. Just like to God, there's only one way to Heaven-thru Jesus." I love this kid! I love how he weaves real life examples into his spiritual life.

 "Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6

Valentine's With Hieroglyphics!

We have really enjoyed our study of Egypt particularly since so much of the news lately has been about Egypt's current revolution. I love studying history along side current events. It makes learning so much more relevant. So today I decided we would take our art class and finish up our study of hieroglyphics and make Valentine cards, hieroglyphic style!
We started with a basic recipe from Diana Waring's, Ancient Civilizations, book.

One cup of flour, 1/2 cup of salt, 1 TB oil, 2 tsp. cream of tartar, 1 cup of dark tea water or use food coloring with water to color. Combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan and cook over medium heat until thick. Form this mixture into a ball, caution, the dough will be very hot. Kneed for several minutes to make a uniform consistency, then roll into rectangles of 1/4 inch thickness. We used toothpicks to make the hieroglyphic symbols!

How could you not love a Valentine like this one?! This is my third son with his hieroglyphic letter. It says, "Hug me". How sweet!

Here are the rest of the Valentine's cards. Two say "I love you", one says, "Hug me", and another wasn't really a Valentine but more of a fun word-"Basketball", my son's current sport!
 We also studied God's great love for His people as He brought them up out of Egypt and finally into the Promised Land. Being that this was a holiday for "Love" it was a great way to emphasize that we only love because God first loved us. God's love is so merciful and patient, and we talked about how we can show these same qualities with our family and friends.
"You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." Exodus 19:4-6

We had a great time making these. I hope the kids won't forget this Valentine, bringing history and holiday together!

Pyramids!

So the kids and I have been kind of cooped up with the winter weather we've been having, plus having little ones, it's hard to get them outside. However, today I couldn't stand it, I took the kids out and decided we should build a pyramid out of snow!

These are the two children that actually help build the pyramid. The other boys only agreed to have their picture taken after they saw that it looked pretty cool!

Here is a great guide my friend gave me to enhance our ancient civilizations studies.

Breaking in the ice shack-2011!

DH took the boys out two days in a row ice fishing. Here they are all crammed into the ice house with our friends the Greens! They went out yesterday in a blinding blizzard of a snowstorm-our biggest storm so far this season. Today they went out again and caught quite a few fish, brought home six massive bass!

                Here are the fish!

                        "Super C"-And one proud fisherman!

Here is my oldest son, filleting the fish so I could make a fish chowder. It turned out sooo good!

I'm pretty sure the kids won't be too happy to get back to their regular routine of school work tomorrow! We are so greatful to have this extra time with their Dad on his days off. Homeschooling really brings us all closer together. The kids will be grown and gone before long and it's so nice to capture these moments of "life learning" thanks to homeschooling. Our oldest can now fillet the fish-PTL! As well as DH said that our 8 year-old can set his own traps now and has even been able to catch his own fish! Way to go "Number One" and "Super C"!