I was ready for them this time. Impress your kids had a great slime recipe that I was ready to try out (and I happened to have all the ingredients right on hand!  OK, not really, I went and picked them all up for just this occasion.  But they were here at my house.  And I was so grateful)

I divided the kids up into 3 teams and let them get started.  2 bottles of 4 oz glue poured into the bowl.

We added food coloring and mixed it all up.

Next, we added a cup of water to the glue, then in a measuring cup mixed 1 1/3 cups of water with 4 tablespoons of borax.  Borax is a laundry booster and will start dissolving in the warm water.  We mixed that together for a moment, and then added the 2 combinations together.  As soon as the 2 liquids combine, they start to form a solid.

And the more you mix, the more they solidify.  (There will be a small amount of water left in the bottom of the bowl that you can dump out).

And the kids played…and played…and played.

To me – that is the sign of a successful concoction!

So when I looked out my window and saw a rather large brown “thing” in the leaves, I got a little excited.

We went outside and discovered this:

We had the opportunity to watch him fill his wings with fluid and gain his strength to begin his journey into the world.

But then…
A bump to the branch knocked him off of his safe spot in the tree and he landed on the ground.
He immediately started climbing on the grass and trying to get out of the position that he was in.

I put my hand out and let him climb onto my hand (I was very careful not to touch his wings.)

The children loved this opportunity to see him up close and personal.  They checked out his wing markings, his body and legs, and his leaf shaped antennae.    They were so detailed and amazing!

He didn’t sit peacefully on my hand.  He walked and climbed and  walked some more all the way up my arm until he sat on my shoulder.  At that point I had my Butterfly-girl put her hand underneath him and let him crawl onto her.  She was pretty thrilled to have that opportunity!

We put him back into the tree where he sat for awhile.  We had to leave our post of watching him (although we had really hoped to see him fly away) and when we came back he was gone.  It was a really great opportunity to get to see him up close and (very) personal!

Here’s what we discovered about our new friend:

He is a Polyphemus Moth
This giant silkmoth gets its name from the large eyespots on its hindwings, referring to Polyphemus, the Cyclops of Greek mythology, who captured (and was eventually blinded by) Odysseus in Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey.
When the eggs hatch, small yellow caterpillars emerge. As the caterpillars age, they molt 5 times. Each instar is slightly different, but on their sixth and final instar they become a bright green color, with silver spots on their side. They feed heavily on their host plant and can grow up to 3-4 inches long. They then spin cocoons of brown silk, usually wrapped in leaves of the host plant. There are generally two broods throughout the United States, one that hatches in early spring and one that hatches in late summer. The moths eclose and then must pump their wings with fluid (hemolymph) to extend them. The females emit pheromones, which the male can detect through its large, plumose antennae. Males can fly for miles in order to reach a female. After the moths mate, the female spends the majority of the remainder of her life laying eggs, while the male may mate several more times. Adults of this family of moths have vestigal mouths, meaning their mouthparts have been reduced. Because of this, they do not eat and only live as adults for less than one week.” — from Wikipedia

Give it a try – snuggle up, and use your imaginations as a classic is read to you.

Books Should Be Free

However, for my little ones still working on memorizing their sections – studying our verses just got easier!

Jolanthe, at Homeschool Creations, has created word puzzles to make learning Awanas verses easier.  She has finished all the Cubbies verses and the Sparks verses.  I have it on good authority that the Truth in Training verses are coming soon.  If your household crams as you’re driving to the church to learn verses to say that night busily learns verses all week, check these out.  I am a huge fan of anything that makes me more organized – and this definitely does the trick!

And the day that my little Ladybug starts kindergarten.

Any my Lion reaches 3rd grade.

And my Butterfly {gulp} starts middle school.

Have I mentioned recently how very thankful I am to be a homeschooling family?  Today would be such a rough one otherwise.  Instead, I get to be here, leading, guiding, instructing as my little ones grow and learn.  What an incredible blessing.

Today Heart of the Matter has started the blog hop  ”Student Photo Week”.  What better time to share my (not so) little ones’ pictures?

Butterfly, 10 years old, 6th grade

Lion, 8 years old, 3rd grade

Ladybug, 5 years old, Kindergarten

Bear, 2 years old, tots school

Photos by The Birdsnest Photography

Hop over to Heart of the Matter and check out other student photos!

Butterfly is starting a new life in middle school this year.  It is a world I haven’t ventured into and we are eager to take the journey together.  Actually, her goal this year is to be able to be an independent student this year.  And since Bear is still…well a bear(!) and Ladybug is starting Kindergarten this year, I am all for it!  We will be refining what that looks like as we go along, but for now it will consist of all of her group subjects being done as a group and her alone subjects will be given to her at the beginning of the week to complete more as she sees fit.  We’ll see how that works!

Math:  Teaching Textbooks
Grammar:  Shurley English
Vocabulary:  Wordly Wise 3000  Book 6
Spelling:  All About Spelling
Bible:  Awanas
Handwriting:  A Reason For Writing
Reading:  She will be working through a biography a month.  I will choose different Heroes of the Faith or historical figures and have her read those.  I will also post a list of these after I work out which book we are reading when.  She will also be participating in a program called The Battle of the Books.

Lion is entering the 3rd grade and is ready to take on the challenges that it brings.  As he puts it, “Let’s hurry up and get started.  The quicker we start, the sooner we can finish.”  Well then.

Math:  Horizon 3
Grammar:  Shurley English
Spelling:  All About Spelling
Bible:  Awanas
Handwriting:  A Reason for Writing
Reading:  Lion has become a wonderful reader.  Last week he picked up Moby Dick and hardly put it down before he was finished.  My plan with him is to keep feeding him books that he will be enraptured by and then continue to talk about them for comprehension.
Phonics:  Explode the Code

Ladybug excited and ready to be heading into Kindergarten this year.

Reading/Phonics:  Ladybug will be doing a mishmash of things for her reading this year.  She will be continuing in Explode the Code and will start Hooked on Phonics (K).  We will also continue reading Scholastic’s Bob Books
Math:  Horizon (K)
Bible:  Awanas
Handwriting:  A Reason for Writing

As a group we will be working through:

Science:  Apologia Zoology 2 – Sea Creatures of the 5th Day
History:  The Truth and the Trumpet as well as Drive Through History
Geography:  We will be working through US Geography using The Man in the Map and Cantering the Country
Art:  Draw Write Now

There is our selection for this year.  What curriculum are you going to be using?

Our project this summer has been to redo our school room.  After 2 years of homeschooling in this house, we now start in our 3rd space.  I am so hopeful that this will remain a functional, useful space that we will enjoy.  I have found that I spend so much of my day in the schoolroom with the kids – it should be a place that we all feel good about, right?

So…here it is.  Although not completely finished yet, I LOVE it!

In these bins I have learning activities and toys that I don’t mind the little Bear getting to.  One bin is full of dinosaurs.  Another is packed with math manipulatives.  Yet another has our playdough and still another is filled with foam blocks (foam hurts less when he throws them across the room).  On top of the bins are the baskets that hold each child’s workboxes.  I have color coded everything this year, so when we see a ruler sitting on the ground, we know by the color who it belongs to.  The same goes for baskets.  Butterfly is blue, Lion is green, and Ladybug is red.

Our bookcases are filled with…books!  Each of those bin (which look pretty messy in this picture, but not so much in real life) is filled with a different subject.  One is leveled readers.  Another has sea life, another dinosaurs, another animals and yet another has springtime themed books.

This cabinet is my favorite.  In the past, I have had all of my supplemental teaching supplies in a drawer, and I never remembered that I had the teaching tool when I needed it.  Later I would find it and be so frustrated that I didn’t use said object.  NOT THIS YEAR!!  Each of these bins are filled with a different subject.  When I am teaching geography, I pull out the geography bin and have everything I need right there to be able to use.  Science tools are in their bin and math supplements are in their bin.  And it is all easily grabbable and organized so that I am not frustrated and am using my tools to their most potential.

Our white board (made out of shower backing.  Love this!

The closet has a shelf unit that hold all of our craft supplies.  That is also where all of the posters are being stored right now.

And last picture is the chapter book bookcase.  On top of this bookcase each child has a toolbox filled with markers, pencils, crayons, erasers, ruler, and other tools that they will need throughout their day.

Like I said, it is a work in process.  Decorations still need to be hung, the art line needs a place, the table still needs to be cleared off (notice it was left out of pictures – that is because it is not completely emptied of everything that needs a home yet!), and we need a few children in there to make it a happening place.

I hope you liked it!

Go check out more school rooms at the Not Back to School Blog Hop!!

In May 1776, Massachusetts and Virginia voted for independence.

And yet, the Continental Congress delegates were still divided.

In June 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia formally proposed that Congress declare independence.

John Adams seconded the proposal.

Congress now had to vote on the proposal.  As the delegates from the middle colonies returned to their homes to discuss with their people, Thomas Jefferson began working on the draft for the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America…appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World…do…Publish and declare, that these United Colonies are…Free and Independent States…And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on teh Protection of divine Providence, we…pledge to each other our Lives, Our fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

On June 28, Maryland voted for independence.  New Jersey was sending delegates who would vote yes.

Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted no.

New York did not vote.

Delaware’s 2 delegates were split.

Delaware was the key state.

The 2 Delaware delegates at the convention were split, but there was a third delegate.  Caesar Rodney was at home in Delaware, sick with cancer.

A messenger was sent to get him for the vote in Philadelphia the next day.

Rodney hopped on his horse, gallopping furiously to cover the distance to Philadelphia as quickly as possible.  He rode through the cold rains and fierce winds.

He realized that his vote could make the difference.

He also realized that by taking a stand on this issue, he would destroy any hope he had for curing the cancer raging in his body.  The only doctore who could help him lived in London.

When he arrived in Philadelphia the next day, 2 people carried the exhausted man into the assembly hall.

“My people favor independence,” Rodney declared. “I agree with them.  I vote dor independence.”  Rodney slumped into a chair.

Eleven other colonies joined Jew Jersey and voed in favor of independence.  New York did not vote.

The 13 colonies had now become the United States of America.

Samuel Adams rose to his feet and announced, “We have put God back in His proper place.  He reigns in heaven.  May His Kingdom come.”

The date was July 4, 1776.

As we celebrate our nation’s birthday today, may we remember the cost of becoming a nation and honor the God who made us that nation.

Taken from The Light and the Glory for Children by Peter Marshall and David Manuel.

Several months ago the opportunity arose for Butterfly to sign up to go on a mission trip with her Sunday School class in church. It was going to be a week long trip where she would be able to do yard work, stock food pantry shelves, play with underprivileged kids, visit with the elderly in an assisted living facility…you get the idea.
And of course…my Butterfly jumped at the opportunity. (For the record, I think it may have had just as much to do with a trip sans parents as it did the chance to go on a missions trip!)
After some discussion and time to think about the fund raising aspect of her trip, we all decided that she should work and raise as much as she could. We believe that she would get so much more out of the trip by earning the money herself than by having it donated to her, and that with 4 months of time available, she could get close to her goal. Privately, we knew that anything that she didn’t raise, we would cover, but we wanted to see how close she could get.
And so…she set to work.
She made candy hearts to sell at Valentines Day.
She washed windows.
She cleaned out cabinets.
She scrubbed floors.
She made decorated clipboards and then sold them to friends and family.

My girl worked.

And by the beginning of May, she had earned all $300 dollars required to go on her missions trip.
And honestly, the fun for her began back then, at the beginning of May, in knowing that she had managed to raise that kind of money all by herself (and with the help of the wonderful friends and family who let her work for them and bought what she was selling. Thanks so much for encouraging and supporting Abby!)

It was so fun for her Daddy and I to get to see this side of Butterfly.  She was an entrepreneur!  There was nothing that she wouldn’t do.  Her mind has been (because it still is!) running constantly with other things that she could make and sell.  She has since learned to crochet and has made hair scrunchies, wash cloths, head bands, blankets…all to learn better how to crochet so that she could potentially sell more.

The girl’s gotten a taste of blood (or perhaps money!)

She left yesterday on her trip.  She was bounding and squealing – ready to leave.

I watched her load up in the van, excited to get going and I saw who she was becoming.  It is so easy sometimes to hold your kids in a box.  Keep them at a younger age.  To mire down in the everyday rather than standing back and watching in awe at who they are becoming.

I was given a gift yesterday to see who she is becoming and to fall in love with that girl.

My prayer for her is that in this, her first week away from us, that she will be swept away by her creator.  That she will come to know Him in a different way, and that she will love that.  I pray that she will adore the opportunity to serve other people, those less fortunate than herself, and that she will crave more of that.

I am praying that when she returns, she will see how blessed we are as a family, and that she will be thankful.  I know I am.

Will you join me in praying for her this week?

Africam is a website that links to live streaming wildlife cameras on game reserves in Africa.  We have enjoyed watching elephants, leopards, hippos, baboons, zebras and even lions.  My family gets so excited when we spot an animal.  As big zoo visitors, we always get excited about African animals, but to see them in the wild takes it to a whole new level.  Often when we watch during the day, it is night time in Africa, so we see many animals drinking, and hear them making their sounds.  Once the sun comes up in Africa, the animals are easier to see and more active.

On this site, there are also links to other cams, such as Osprey and Bald Eagle Nest.