~Birds of Prey~

What a neat field trip!  The men that spoke at our sportsman's dinner (from Seeing Truth Ministries) have been doing teacher training classes this week as well!  I heard them out in Ohio at the teaching conference and really enjoyed them.  I'm glad so many others from church are able to enjoy their teaching as well.  They teach with puppets, visuals, chalk drawings... they run VBS programs and camps... and Sportmans Dinners.

They also agreed to do a Birds of Prey show for our homeschool kids yesterday. (They have taken their Birds of Prey to the Smithsonian!)

They brought seven birds with them. Five were owls. I REALLY want an owl now ☺

Some fun facts...

• Birds of prey hunt and eat their fresh meal (they don't eat dead decaying animals)
• Owls are extremely quiet
• Owls with black eyes hunt at night, owls with yellow eyes hunt at dawn and dusk
• Hunting with Birds of Prey goes back to the ancient times
• Owls are really soft... the other birds of prey are not... this makes a difference in their flight noise
• If they have feathers on their feet they can live in cold climates
• Owls turn their heads so much to help follow sounds.  One ear is far up on his head and the other ear is low.
• Owls eyes are on the front of there head... a good sign they are predators not prey
• Owls have to turn their heads because they can't move their eyes like we can... but their heads can't turn all the way around.
• One kind of owl really likes to eat skunk... therefore they smell like skunks!

There was so much more I learned (and relearned) but here are the picts...

I forget what this guy is...but he doesn't live around here... he likes warm places

Screech Owls - both had been injured and could not be released back into the wild.  They don't hunt with these two, but they are great for educational trips.

Barred Owl 

Great Horned Owl

Red Tailed Hawk

Barn Owl

Close ups of the Screech owls

 

I love animals, so this was obviously a cool thing for me.  They were within reach, but they are still wild so we had to keep our distance.  Fascinating... truly!

~The Piano~

Kiersten has really taken our family in a direction we didn't forsee (I certainly didn't foresee racing or hunting... but here we are).  She really is drawn to music!

Gregg found a great deal on a keyboard with weighted keys in a piano like structure (just smaller).  

I borrowed an easy lesson book from a friend that loves music (thank you Deidre!), and showed Eric and Nathan how to read it.  They have taught themselves about ten songs now.  They also fight for their time!  You know if I made them practice every day they would fight me about it... I'd much rather them fight each other!

Here is one of Nathan's first songs...

I also borrowed an easy hymn book.  One that I can almost play.  I was able to pick out "Jesus Loves Me" and play it while Nathan and Kiersten sang.  Sweet times!

~Teaching Conference, Road Trip Style~

I enjoyed a teaching conference I went to last November so much that I went again this year... with one sidekick and 5 teen girls in my van.  There was also two men and three teen guys that made the trip in other vehicles.  I was happy to have Jordan on the trip this time!

I have never driven so many hours at one time... that was my most worry some part of the trip.  The trip out went very well.  We stopped a number of times... for coffee in PA,  Cabela's in West Virginia, supper in Ohio and groceries.  I was so thankful for nice weather!  

We stayed at the church that was hosting the conference.  We were in some of the school rooms, so we had to have all our belongings packed up and moved out early each morning.  

Most of the girls had cots or couches to sleep on.  These two guys took the floor.   Jordan and Caleb only slept a few hours so the floor wasn't a problem for them.

We had four hours to fill the first morning before the conference. We enjoyed a trip to Jungle Jim's, we walked around Hobby Lobby (do not play with the big feathers... it angers the workers who got up on the wrong side of the bed) and we took a long early lunch break at Panera Bread... and that was all before 11 am!

Me and my side kick Kristi ♥ in an outhouse in Jungle Jim's.

Some of the gang in Jungle Jim's.

We had a great time at the conference.  Five general sessions, lots and lots of workshops with brain overload, but good stuff.

Many in our group won door prizes.  Caleb and Jordan had to play a game for theirs.  They put an Oreo on their forehead and had to get it to their mouth without touching it!

We enjoyed using the school gym (but not the showers!) and had fun meeting up with some of the missionaries that have visited us through their Bible Assembly program.

I had a great time with the teens and am so glad they could learn how to teach at an early age.  We are all working together to teach Jr Church and I think they will do a fantastic job.

I was most concerned about the trip home... I didn't get much sleep and we had to drive almost straight through.  God certainly was answering my prayers (and the prayers of the moms in the church) by giving me a wonderful trip home.  I got tired of driving but not tired.

I seriously need to let Gregg go next year... and I hope to take a mission trip instead!

~Prairie Primer - Big Woods - Week 1~

I am so excited for this school year!  Jared, Aaron, Eric, Nathan, Kiersten and our friends Luke, Joel and Elijah are reading through all the Little House books this year and doing a bunch of unit studies!

This week we read the first four chapters of Little House in the Big Woods.

We learned about bears, owls, guns, butter, rabies... and a bunch of fun misc things☺

We got our families together this morning to make butter and dissect owl pellets!  What a Hoot!  haha!

Did you know an owl can't move it's eyeballs?  It has to turn its whole head!  These nifty glasses helped us see how annoying that was!

Ma Ingalls had Thursdays set aside for churning.  Mary helped to give Ma a break sometimes, but it was too hard for Laura.  We made butter by shaking cream in glass jars with marbles (warning... some glass jars did break, make sure you use thick glass or forget the marble and shake longer)

Done shaking!  It only took 20 minutes!

This is what it looked like when we drained the buttermilk out.

After we rinsed it well.

We put it in molds just like Ma.  She colored her butter in the winter with carrot juice because it was prettier!   I can't imagine with all the work she did, why she would take more time to color it!   We didn't mind the light color.  We made biscuits for the kids to compare the two butters.  They liked the store bought butter better, but I think that was only because we forgot to add salt.

Next we dissected owl pellets!  They all thought it was gross at first and wore gloves... it wasn't long until it was really cool and they were loving it.  It works much better with fingers and tweezers than gloves! (We thought owl pellets were poop... not so! It  is undigested parts of a bird's food that they regurgitate)

 Aaron's pellet had one big skeleton (pictured).  We think it was a rat!  The other pellets had two or three small skeletons.

Taste testing the butter.

We also taste tested the buttermilk.  In the story Laura loved it...  we all thought it was yucky!  It sure will be good in our pancakes!

The dad's got together with the kids in the evening to do some gun safety and check out a musket... a gun like Pa had.

Jared said it was the best school day ever☺

~Butterflies~

I asked for butterflies... I can't remember now if I got them for my birthday or Christmas, but my guys got me a net and a mail in coupon for 5 caterpillars.

I finally remembered to order them a few weeks ago.  They arrived on Thursday.  I wasn't sure if they were dead or alive!  They don't move very much! 

Friday

I can tell they are eating though! The food at the bottom is certainly being eaten.  Within three days you could tell they had grown too!  I can't wait to watch them!!!

Monday

~Spring Cleaning & School~

The dining room gets a good "spring cleaning" near the beginning of August.  Most of our school stuff is kept in there and I just don't like cleaning it until I can get rid of the old books and get out the new books.

Our race was cancelled on Saturday because of the rain... again.  I spent most of the day working on the dining room.

It looks so much better!  Yay for new supplies!

Our school for this year...

All the boys will be getting their Bible and memory work from their Wednesday night clubs.

All the boys will be using Teaching Textbooks for Math.  Jordan needs to complete Alg 2 and Geometry this year.

Jordan, Jared and Aaron will be using The Grammar Key again this year for grammar, Spelling Power for spelling, and Rosetta Stone for Spanish.

Jordan will be doing electronics for science and Truth Quest for history.  I have not used Truth Quest before but it looks like a good base for learning through literature.

Jared, Aaron, Eric and Nathan will all be using "The Prairie Primer" for school this year.  A friend of ours is going to study along with us and join us in projects and field trips.  I'm really excited about it!  We will be reading through all 9 Little House books and doing studies from there.  In the first two months we will make butter, dissect owl pellets, learn gun safety, butcher a chicken, take a field trip to make cheese, make rabbit stew, take a field trip to a mine, learn about poisonous plants,  how bee stings work, what our blood is made of, make bows and arrows, crack nuts (learning about levers), make maple syrup candy... and the list goes on!

~The Festival~

I had planned to take the boys to a local festival on Friday. Nathan woke up not feeling well but I thought he would snap out of it. We had some fun and I learned a lot! I took most of our picnic lunch and bought some hot dogs, funnel cake and honey sticks!I learned how they make sauerkraut. Did you know it takes 3 months of cabbage and salt just sitting in a crock!?!??!

My favorite part was the glass blowing...


Just amazing! Did you know they can't just let the glass cool. It has to stay heated for awhile and cool very slowly or it will shatter. It also looked orange when it came out of the furnace but it was really green glass.

I enjoyed the paper making too! I am not sure of the years but at this time period (I believe Civil War era) they used fabric to make paper. Wood wasn't used yet! He used a screen to scoop the pulp, flip it onto felt and squeeze out the water. When he took it out, the fabric pulp stuck together! Then he hung it to let it dry.

I didn't get a picture but someone was also painting an oil cloth rug. I got into an interesting conversation with her! The real oil cloths were made from ship sales that ripped. They were covered with linseed oil to make them last longer as a sail.

Something else I don't have a photo of is spinning wool. Did you ever rub wool between your hands??!?! It has lanolin in it. Natural oils! The guy I was talking to about it said that after he works with wool all day, his hands are so oily that he can't open a door... see, I told you I learned a lot!
I loved watching this guy paint. He blacked out glass and painted in the picture. He hung wrinkled foil behind the picture to make it reflect light. They were beautiful!

Of course, there was a blacksmith. I missed him because someone needed to go to the bathroom. The older boys really enjoyed him too.

Do you see this boy peddling the lathe for the craftsman?!?!?
Eric made a rope!


It was an exhausting day for me... I don't normally do these things without Gregg. I thought the older boys would be able to help. They did, but it wasn't the same as Gregg:-)

Anyway, little did I know that Nathan had pneumonia and would be admitted into the hospital that night. Thank you for your prayers... Nathan is now home... fully medicated. Yesterday was a bit of a juggling act, but God always provides.

~One of Each, Please~

I just enjoyed looking through the new Lamplighter catalog! Oh my, what a great collection of books!

This is the collection I have...
I think they have over 135 books now! They have even started producing audio books! Yipee! It is very difficult to pre read books for Jordan...he reads really fast! I would have no problem giving him one of these without even looking at it.

So, as soon as I find a couple thousand dollars lying around...I'll place my order:-) I'd never be able to choose just one!

~Rainy Day Play~

We have had a very wet summer, but not a real nice rainy day...until today. I decided to change around our schedule to suit the mood of the day. Here is what we did...

Ate breakfast, completed chores, played matchbox cars (with the windows open and the sound of the rain in the background!)

Made a black bottom banana cream pie for tonight and banana bread for breakfast on Sunday.

Played puppets...

Made collages...

Got dressed (yes, at 11:30 am!) and headed out for some last minute weekend groceries...

Ate lunch, the boys made funny faces on the magazines we didn't use earlier in the day while I made yogurt...

Watched a movie...

While packaging my tissue gifts...

Took a nap:-)

Woke up feeling like another nap...but ate a peach instead...

Checked on my blog friends and started supper. We will be heading out for special services at our church tonight. I'll drink another mug of honey and lemon and hopefully, get to bed at a good time.

Sometimes, rainy days are wonderful!

Happy Weekend!

~Meteor Shower Tomorrow~

It has been some time since we have gazed into the skies at night. I can't wait for the meteor shower tomorrow! It is still nice and warm out but is getting dark earlier so this one I can comforitably enjoy!

Here is a link to the Homeschool Freebie of the Day...they have links to different places with viewing guides...I'm off to check them out!

~Back to School - Day 5~

Ahhhh, we just finished up our first week of school. It wasn't too bad...


We also fit in a trip to the dentist, a checkup for me, some swimming and a few naps! We did not complete everything on the schedule, but that's ok...we like to start a little slow!


The last thing I wanted to share with you is my brain...hehe.

Last year, I got rid of it...I found I really do need it! Mom's notebook is divided into sections for each boy...one calendar section and one reading list section. I got really behind in this last year. I kept having to fudge Jared's calendar...I knew we accomplished things, just not on what day!

The calender is more of a checkoff sheet. If we do things five days a week, there are five boxes. If we only do them three times, there are only three boxes. There is a box on the bottom for misc info.

I divide the reading lists into...Reading (fun stuff), History, and Science so at the end of the year, I can just put them in the right section of the boys portfolio!

Right now, my binder is just white...I'm hoping to scrapbook a nice cover:-) I also have my own pencil in there...It is pink and has hearts...no one is going to steal it!

I've have some fun updates for you next week...I'm still keeping busy!

Happy weekend to you all!