January Home School Theme

January is almost here!! December was a short month for us, school wise, thanks to the Winter Break. We enjoyed the theme of Snow last month, but we didn't even get to Penguins! January was supposed to be Presidents and Dental Health...well, plans change and I think Penguins would still be super fun to study. So we shall carry on with Penguins for our monthly study with a President's Day study on the proper day.


Blubber Experiment: http://octopus.gma.org/surfing/antarctica/blubber.html

Watch Mr. Popper's Penguins and Read Aloud


 
Fun Penguin Crafts:http://www.havingfunathome.com/2012/01/preschool-penguin-crafts.html
Cute penguin template for paper, felt, fabric.http://sweetandlovelycrafts.blogspot.ca/2012/11/cute-penguin-craft.html

And of course go to the Audubon Aquarium and visit the penguins!


Watch "March of the Penguins" and adapt this lesson plan from Teach with Movies http://www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/march-of-the-penguins.html




Watch "Happy Feet"
and adapt the lesson plan from: http://www.teachwithmovies.org/talking-and-playing/happy-feet-t-p.html

Do you have any fun penguin activities? 

October Wrap Up

October has been BEAUTIFUL and we've been outside a LOT! 

 Sky gazing on a beautiful clear blue sky day!

 First fall leaf!

 Watering our new yellow mums.

 Climbing trees at the park.

 Pumpkin sight word smash!

 This beauty popped up while we read Charlotte's Web.

 Growing our own lettuce!

 Giving the guinea pigs some outdoors time, which they LOVE!

Yoshi...because he's always fun!

I hope you all had a great October! This is my favorite time of year! Fall, football, cool weather!

~~Amy

Charlotte's Web Fun

We have been working on "Charlotte's Web" for a week or so now and the boys are loving it. It seems now that we're reading it, we are seeing it everywhere. Spiderwebs in our backyard, pig books in plain sight in the library, finding out today is the birthday of the book being published in 1952, and now I see characters everywhere! I know that's the way life is, those things aren't suddenly there, we are just more aware of them because we are learning about them.

The boys love the book and I'm rather surprised some of the words in the book Harrison doesn't know and stops to ask me what they mean. I was always told he was such a great reader while he was in public school and maybe he is, but these are words he should know. Yet another good reason to homeschool, I'd have no idea he didn't know these words if I didn't take these extra steps! I'm continually amazed at how much they are learning, and how well it is working out!

Here are some photographs from our recent fun! We have some more crafts to do for the book, and an activity pack I printed out. We will wrap it up by of course watching the cartoon version of the book, one of my favorites. 

 We created this little farm sensory barn by adding our barn and animals to our lightbox. We added easter grass for grass and swiped some unused timothy hay from our guinea pigs for the hay for the animals! A little strip of blue felt is the ducks' pond!

 We picked up some little animals from Hobby Lobby and of course had to get Wilbur his own food pail!

 This intricate spiderweb was between our swingset and trees. It was beautiful, I wish I could've gotten better up close pics but it kept swaying in the wind.

 

And just a gratuitous photo of Yoshi the guinea pig, isn't he cute?

I haven't read the book in years and it's still a wonderful, easy read for kids, and my boys are enjoying me reading it aloud. Since we will also be going on a field trip next week to a pumpkin patch on a farm, this ties in wonderfully!!




Long Live Wilbur!

~~Amy

Nikon Quality Time

Life has been busy with homeschooling, being out of town and life as usual. But my trusty Nikon is usually not too far away and I have been able to snag a few good shots!

 The sunsets in Gulf Shores, Alabama are AMAZING!

 

 Snapped this one while the hubs drove 45 mph over the bridge...not to shabby!

 

My deep thinker...

 8 years old!

 Our last sunset in Orange Beach!

Then we came home and enjoyed a quiet afternoon at Camp Salmen Nature Center. Beautiful!

 Tree bark.

 Finally snapped some bees working hard!

 Some pretty purple berries. No clue what they were.

 Beautiful yellow flowers perfect for fall!

Like my pics, follow me on Flickr.
Hope you enjoyed some of my little photos!! Happy Fall!
~~amy

Butterflies are grown!

We studied some butterflies earlier this summer. We didn't do a full on study as we will do Insects in September when we start back up to school. But I couldn't resist a deal on a butterfly garden net we found and we loved it.  You can reorder more caterpillars when your first batch goes free so I think we will do that again in September.
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Get your own butterfly garden here:


I was a little worried the little guys wouldn't make it at first because it was SO hot when they arrived.

But they did, crawling all around the cup.

We followed the directions, watched them turn into their cocoons, and when it was time, moved them into their habitat and watched them grow into little butterflies fluttering around! The boys got a big kick out of it and I plan to buy more caterpillars so we can do it again!

I encourage every family to give this one a try, it's super fun and easy!
~Amy

March and April Photo Dump

So I'm late on March's photo dump so I'll merge it with April!! We had a busy March!!!

April was pretty fun too! Global Wildlife, exploring Camp Salmen!

Here's to a super fun summer!
~~Amy

And Then There Were Two...

Artoo the guinea pig has a new friend...his name is Yoshi and he's adorable. So far they're getting along....let's hope they stay buds!

His Name is Artoo....

and he's a piggie. A brown guinea piggie.... and he's new to our house. My son has been begging for one ever since his grandmother took him to a local pet shop and he realized how cheap they were. After I explained to my son that he had to prove he could take on the care of a piggie (with major oversight by me, he is SIX after all...) he was on a mission. Saving his money, checking out books from the library. (parents, there is actually a book called "How to Convince Your Parents You Can Care for a Guinea Pig.") He did his research and when he chose piggie over video game, I figured he was ready.

So Artoo (R2D2 for you non nerds), is now an official family member. He'll be getting a buddy next week when the new babies come in, since we did NOT want to raise a gazillion baby guinea pigs, we have to wait for a male for my younger son to have. He shall be named Yoshi.

I admit, he's stinking cute. That little nose, whiskers and furry body. So cute. He's a baby so he's still getting used to us. Thankfully our dog has yet to figure out he even exists (some bloodhound she is...) He's a quiet piggie, enjoying his lettuce, carrots and oranges and can definitely get into some stuff. He's adorable. I understand the addiction now, you piggie owners....

Seriously look at that face. He's either the cutest thing ever...

or he's plotting our deaths while we sleep...it's hard to tell.

~~Amy