Nature Study Club Post 5

On Friday we had our fifth nature study club, inside our house!! That was the morning we discovered our Monarch butterfly had come out of her chrysalis! The day before the chrysalis looked like this....As you can see, the chrysalis is now looking clear and we can see the butterfly's wings through it! We knew it wouldn't be long before she would be coming out... we had no idea just how fast that was going to happened.

Early the next morning she was out.. DH did not notice anything unusual so this must have happened between 7 - 8 am. I was up at 8 but did not go into the living room, where we had the habitat, A8 on the other hand went straight to it and that's when she saw this...We spent the WHOLE morning just looking at her... taking lots of pics! A8 was convinced she was a girl ( we later found out she was not!) so she called her Crissy!

She was so beautiful! She had no problems letting us hold her. She did not fly or eat at anytime. Later in the day she started to flex her wingsThat's when we noticed she was actually a he.. ha ha!!! Yep, those two black dots at the end of the wings means Crissy is a male butterfly.. so he is Chris after all...

After he started to flex his wings we knew it was time to let him go... we have birds in our house and we were concerned that he would fly right into the cage and the birds, not knowing any better would have him for a snack :)

We went outside when it was nice and warm. He flew into a bush and came right back to A8's hair.. A8 took it as a sign that he wanted to come back to us.. noooo... I told her, he just needs more practice.. the second time he flew even higher to one of the trees in the backyard... from there he kept going into the nursery. He got better and better at it.

From what we've learned about Monarch butterflies, he will be migrating to Mexico and then come back in the spring to mate and then die.Thank you Chris caterpillar and Chris butterfly for sharing your complete metamorphosis with us! Thank you Zoology 1 lesson 14 for all the info we needed... We cannot wait to see Toni the caterpillar as a beautiful Toni butterfly in the spring, since it's pretty obvious she will be overwintering.... You are next!

Apologia Science

This is our first year using Apologia Science. We are using Exploring Creation with Zoology: Flying Creature of the Fifth Day.

This curriculum is for K to 6th grade. It is not dumbed down in any way, but it's also very fun to read a loud to the kids. The plan was to include X6, however Lesson 1 was a bit long and wordy and X6 had no interest in it. He did all the projects and the Try This! sections and he will still work on his Junior notebook journal. Lesson 9 was better but there is still a lot of reading and its hard for him to stick around for the whole thing...

I was going to do two days a week of science but it really is better to keep the flow going since there is so much reading involved. We are now at 5 days a week of science and believe it or not A8 really enjoys it!

Because we live in the Northeast and winter is coming we skipped to lesson 9... insects. Lessons 9 through 14 are all bug related which makes more sense to do now than later. Lessons 2 -8 are bird related which we can do at any time of the year because we always have birds in our backyard... in the colder months we have some beautiful birds who visit our feeders!!

Here's a few pics of the projects we've been doing from the book!

Gliders... which one can go the farthest?

Chrysalis... which one will come out first??!!

We have also drowned a grasshopper and watched it come back to life with a little salt and put a bug in the fridge just to see it slow down... I wanted to put it in the freezer... but it doesn't say to do that.. ha ha!!

Can't wait for what's next!

We are really enjoying science and I am learning a lot! Hopefully the kids are too!! :)

School Week 7 2010

This week we are rowing the book The Pumpkin Runner.

X6 is reading A Little Prairie House and we have a cool project to go with that story!

On Friday we have no COOP so we are thinking about going to the Pumpkin Patch for a field day!

I will post pics later in the week!

School Week 6 2010

This week A8 is rowing the book Angelo and Michelangelo (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists).

X5 is rowing the book Lentil.

We had a very busy week last week... let's see what this week is going to bring!

X6 is doing great with Reading Made Easy!! I don't see us going back to the Code books anytime soon... A8 is going to start Spanish this week hopefully, last week got too busy for us!

This is the art project A8 did after reading Angelo! Don't let the paint fool you, it is so smooth!

A8 did a great job of getting the plaster ready and using her water colors! It looks even better now!

Duet Recital 2010

Today was A8's Piano Duet Recital! She got to learn a non Suzuki song, Polka Dot Polka!
Her partner was Z7, who is her piano lesson buddy every week!

This song was a bit difficult to learn due to the fact that there was no music for her to listen to. All her Suzuki songs she learns by listening, not this one... she needed to look at the notes and somehow figure it out. After three weeks we were going nowhere so we scheduled a meeting with her teacher and I created a "cheat sheet" to help me know which fingers needed to go where.... we found a clip on YouTube of two girls playing the song and that helped a lot!!

Once she had her part down it was time to practice with her duet partner. We had four practices the week before the recital... The kids worked very hard and it shows, there where a couple of mistakes in the beginning but after that they were perfect!!

Here's a few pics of the kids at the recital!

Here is a clip of the performance!

Nature Study Club Post 4 Zoo America

While at Hershey Park A8 and I had our own nature walk when we visited Zoo America! This year we are going though the book Flying Creature of the Fifth Day for science.
We are doing insects right now but eventually we will get to the birds, well... while at Zoo America we got to see some very special birds.... the owls that start in the movie Legend of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole!

Yes, those owls are computer animated, but we got to see the real owls that are represented in the movie!

The Barn Owl.... Soren!

The Great Horned Owl(the bad owl in the movie)

This is one scary owl, it's eyes were HUGE!! We were told not to get too close because he could attack.. after all it is a predator... this is as close as I dared to get... I was pretty close and he just kept looking at me like he wanted to EAT ME.. ha ha!!
A8 got some really cool stuff from the movie.... movie poster, folders, bookmarks, coloring pages, fake tattoos and a free movie t-shirt!! She also won some owls silly bands!!!!

We also got to see the Red Tailed Hawk, and a Bald Eagle who was not very bald at all, I think it was a female. I took no pics because with all the stuff A8 got for free my hands were very full at this point.
We did take a pic of an Otter.. some kids and their Dad were throwing popcorn at the Otter and he kept eating it, not sure that was a wise thing to do... hopefully the Otter will be okay.
Please don't ever throw food at zoo animals, that goes for you too parents, set a good example!!!!
We had a great nature walk through Zoo America!!

Hershey Park 2010

Saturday we went to Hershey Park with A8's piano teacher and other kids who take piano lessons with her. This was a reward for all the days that A8 practiced throughout the year.

Waiting to get into the ride!

Balloon ride!

We're flying!!

A8 and her best bud Z7!

Flying chairs!!

We had a great time!

Nature Study Club Post 3

We had our nature walk on Wednesday because it was suppose to rain on Friday. We got to walk all around the backyard and the nursery when X6 came upon this...a Black Swallowtail caterpillar! or Toni the caterpillar.

The kids really wanted to keep her but we had no idea what it liked to eat... leaves, we know.. but which ones??? We tried milkweed... nope... we tried.. well, that's all we tried :) Turns out another homeschool Mom had a few of these caterpillars and she told us that they love carrot leaves.... so she gave us some... and she was right!! Toni ate nonstop for three days...She really loved those carrot leaves, we kept them in water so they would stay green.

Here is a little video we took of her eating away!

After eating all that food, and pooping every 5 minutes, Toni had enough... she was ready to form her chrysalis. Thanks to our neighbor we were able to put her inside a small habitat container, but not before we were able to find a second caterpillar... a Monarch caterpillar which the kids named Chris. This one hated the carrot leaves, instead she went for the milkweed!!Not knowing much about caterpillars and chrysalis, I really thought it was one size fits all.... not so! While Toni went quietly, (it was like she fell asleep and cobwebs were forming around her) Chris was complete opposite... she was moving and shaking nonstop for like 10 minutes, while doing that she was actually transforming into a chrysalis... it was incredible!!!!!

This is a pic of what their chrysalis looks like, these are not my pics, I found them online.Black Swallowtail Chrysalis

Monarch Chrysalis

Here is another video we took of them in the habitat once they turned.

We will check back in about two weeks and hopefully see a pair of beautiful butterflies!

School Week 5 2010

This week A8 is rowing the Vol 4 book The Raft.



X6 is rowing the book Dandelion.




After 3 weeks of school I'm starting to get a better idea which direction I need to go with each kid. We started science last week which is a lot of reading and doing projects, because of that I made the decision to do science this semester and American history next semester.

Science is 2 times a week for 28 weeks, which means we can do it 4 times a week for 14 weeks... also we are covering birds and flying insects which we have plenty of right NOW...

Like I said before each science lesson has a lot of reading, so I decided to do all FIAR Vol 4 books this semester. A8 has 6 boxes of work everyday, the 1st box has our FIAR book and the last box has science. It works out pretty good that way. Next semester she will have her My America history books, which averages 10 pages per day and we won't have to worry about science, only history!

She is doing her spelling book this semester... next semester she will do her vocabulary book.
The only thing she will have year round is math and language lessons. Speaking of math, she is doing very good with math this year!! I have stopped my obsession with making her do every single problem on the paper... I think that has really helped make it more manageable for her!

X6 has hit a road block when it comes to explode the code... it is not making any sense to me the direction they are taking in the workbook. X6 is having a hard time connecting the pictures with the words... The primer code workbooks were a perfect way for him to learn letter sounds, however it is not working out so well for him putting all the sounds together to make a word... which means it's finally time for Reading Made Easy!!!

I feel X6 is now at a perfect place to start RME, plus the activity sheets look very similar to the ones he's been using with explode the code... only they make more sense... He has the a sound down, all he needs is to learn how the other letters connect together... RME is very good with this!!!

He is doing very well with everything else, although picture study is a bit of a challenge for him... he is not very comfortable making up stories based on a picture... he usually only gives me the facts... "there are 3 cows in the picture and they live in a barn" ha ha!! A8 has no problem making up stories... in fact I have to limit her to 5 minutes, if not she will keep making stuff up!!

As far as science, zoology seems to be a bit advance for him, so I will include him on the projects and some of the lessons but I do not expect him to remember all of the info in the book... it is just too much for a little guy like him... he should be able to work on his journal just fine.. I have a lot of coloring pages and mini books perfect for his level.

School Week 4 2010

This week A8 is rowing the book Albert and X6 is rowing the book Harold and the Purple Crayon.
It was also A8's first day of ballet, she looked so beautiful!!

Tomorrow is the Club Carnival and Friday is the first day of COOP.... busy, busy week.

We also started Apologia Zoology 1 today... with both kids!!

Nature Study Club Post 2

Today we took a walk around our neighborhood to see nature all around us.. and bugs! We found a few interesting critters .... I got to use the flower setting on my camera...awesome pics!!

Praying Mantis about to eat a ladybug...we think!

A beautiful butterfly on a butterfly bush...we have a few of those in our street!

Grasshopper hiding in the grass!

We have a bird nest in one of our bushes!

Nature Study Club Post 1

This Fall nature study is going to be a weekly part of our homeschool... thanks to FIAR for their digital nature study.

The Five in a Row Digital Nature Studies are not just a list of activities of things to do in each season. Rather they are an encouragement for you and your children to begin a life style of becoming more observant about each season, and noticing and learning throughout the year more about the nature around you.

This past Friday we had our first nature study day. I have them schedule for every two weeks till the 1st week of fall, after that every Friday!

We went to Memorial Park, we got to walk around looking for signs of Summer and a few signs that Fall was right around the corner. Since we are learning about flying creatures this year, we paid close attention to birds and insects at the park.

Our Nature Study Club members: X6, A8 and M6!
We found a caterpillar which one day soon will become a butterfly.. or a moth...
We found a cicada... she was very much alive but had no problems letting the kids pick her up.. thanks cicada!! I still think you are creepy...
Not sure this is a flying bug, it had wings... earwig?? NASTY
Acorns!! we saw lots of squirrels after these!!
When they start to bury them it will be a sign of fall!
Another sign fall is around the corner!!
It's just one tree right now but you can see the leaves are starting to change color!

I forgot my camera so I had to take pics with my cell phone, which is why the pics are not as nice as they could've been. This won't happen our next time out! The kids have a nature journal where they get to draw the things they saw at the park, older kids will get to write in it as well.

First Day of School 2010 Part 2

Today is A8's first day of 3rd grade!! Last week she had three days of review, math and copywork, we also had our first Nature Study Friday... more on that on another post.

This week A8 will be rowing the FIAR Vol 4 book Roxaboxen.
It is a story about a treasured place: a child's imaginary town named Roxaboxen.












X5 started school last week, this week will be rowing the book Storm in the Night. A story of a young black boy, his grandfather, and their cat during a fearsome thunder storm.


Summer is over, everybody is starting school today, not just my kids... What a great summer this was... lots of adventures, lots of lazy summer days by the pool or in the backyard... I am going to miss them. I'm also looking forward to what this school year is going to bring... I'm hoping for more field trips, that is one thing I'm going to be more intentional about this year. Also, a lot more projects... thanks to Apologia science! I will keep you posted!!