Botanical Gardens and Butterflies

October 2015

Our field trip this month was to our local botanical gardens. It was a lovely day that was not too hot which is a blessing in the desert. 

They had an amazing nature Lego exhibit going on with giant Lego sculptures of birds, butterflies and other wildlife. Unfortunately for my children their mother was in charge of taking the photos and the Lego's were not what I took pictures of.

I took pictures of nature. My favorite part of the entire trip were the butterflies. They have a special section at the garden which is a tropical butterfly habitat. In one portion you get the chance to see different butterflies emerge from their chrysalis and in an portion you can walk through and admire the lovely tropical plants and actually see the butterflies they have up close. We spent quite a bit of time in this portion of the garden and poor Jeremiah freaked out when he even thought a butterfly might be getting remotely close to him. However, the one that landed on his brother was just fine to laugh about and look at.

The rest of our walking through the gardens was at least as eventful, because of the girls decided that one of the small cactus looked soft and fuzzy so she was going to pet it. I bet that you can guess how well that went. Her father and I spent at least 15 minutes if not longer careful picking out all the teeny tiny stickers. It was at that moment I decided that every mom needs to carry a roll of packing tape or duct tape in her purse at all times, because if I had had a roll we could have taped her hand and pulled out all the offending spines quite easily. Trust as a someone who grew up in the desert, this works on tiny cactus stickers, I know from personal experience.

The kids also got a kick out of the chickens we found in a pen in the back corner of the garden. Apparently they are kept to help keep mosquito's down and to help fertilize all the plants.

We ended the day with some very tired kids and a botched family photo. Poor Clarissa wanted nothing whatsoever to do with smiling for the camera. The expression on her face shows sheer torture and you would think we had been punishing her greatly by asking her to sit for five minutes and smile for the camera. Oh well I am sure that at some future time we will all get a kick out of the fact that she refused to smile right?

Our final stop was the gift shop where we bought each of the kids a t-shirt to remember to day. My personal favorite when it comes to things to buy because: hey it's clothes, they will wear them out, the shirt won't break in two seconds, and the designs are usually unique. We also bought a wooden art project for them. Each of the older three kids got a 3D wooden puzzle butterfly for paint or color and put together for art the next day and they didn't cost me any more then if I ordered them from Amazon so I was very pleased.

Over all a lovely trip and some beautiful pictures. I think I might just have to start a nature book of some kind to keep a record of all the fun animals and plants I find on our field trips.

A Spooky Cooking Club Delight

October 8, 2015

Well, we made it through the girl's first cooking club project. Even got both the girls treats done on time. The kitchen was a disaster and we were all covered in frosting and cheese but we made it. HAHA! Thought I would share the results. Green-eyed monster cupcakes and a Cheesenstein Cheese Ball.

The recipes came from a Taste of Home Holiday Magazine and the girls had a blast making them.  I admit it was a bit more stressful then fun for me.  But we divided and conquered.  While I helped Seriah with her cupcakes, her father helped Clarissa with her cheeseball.


And it was after this that I swore decorative holiday themed food belonged only in a test kitchen.  Baking like this is definitely not one of my talents.

Mummified Apples Teach History & Science

September 2015

We have completed our first science experiment this month.  Our science book: Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology gave us a fun project as our first one.  We learned about the history of anatomy and physiology.  Then we learned about the ancient Egyptians and mummification.  After that we experiments with different mixtures and kinds of salts and baking sodas to see which ones would work best to mummify an apple slice.  And after sitting buried for a week in our coffin cups.  Here are our results.

Definitely a fun project and one I won't mind doing again when Jeremiah and Kyrilene get to that age and are ready to learn anatomy themselves.  What a great way to start science.

They Sweetly Wrench Your Heart

September 1, 2015

So Jeremiah asked me so sweetly this morning "Can I stay home with you guys?" I must admit it kind of wrenched my heart a little that he can tell something is going on here at home and he is feeling a little left out. He even told me he would do work with me and learn his letters and numbers and words. It definitely makes me question whether keeping him in public school this year is the right thing. Even though I was so sure it was when school started a month ago. I guess its time to pray about it some more.

My son Jeremiah has a condition call Koolen DeVries Syndrome that creates a bunch of medical problems and a wide range of learning challenges and mental disabilities.  This first year homeschooling I really wanted to start slow and focus on the girls and getting their gabs and struggles filled in and caught up before considering whether bringing Jeremiah home from public school would be the right thing.  As of right now he is getting OT, PT, Speech and other educational services through the school district and we both feel like this is what he needs at the moment.  Even if his questions wrench my heart.  It is a mother's job to make the hard decisions and do what is best for each one of her children isn't it?  And each one of those children might need something that is a little different from the others.

Schoolwork Doesn't Compete With Your Favorite Uncle

August 6, 2015

So I know it's probably crazy to even think of trying this but we tried it. School in Arizona started for us this last Monday the 3rd. My son is going to public school for kindergarten and we are homeschooling the older kids.

Well with a recent death in the family I packed up all our stuff to start and figured oh we will do it in the car, or there is time before and after the funeral we can get it done. As a brand new homeschooler I have learned something everyone else probably already knew. Math can not compete with wrestling your favorite uncle so don't even try. And don't bother with handwriting of any kind in the car or you will have carsick kids. Or at least we did.

So much for my first official week of homeschool this year. We are giving up and going to the aquarium tomorrow and then starting over next week. Hopefully it will be less exciting. I just wanted to share our little experience to bring a smile to all those who can relate and know the feeling.

Another School Year About to Begin

July 30, 2015

One more Meet and Greet for school finished. I think I melted into soup on the walk to and from the school. It is so hot today. Poor Jeremiah didn't want to go and after we got there he didn't want to leave. I sure wish I knew how to help him handle change better.

I can't believe school is starting again so soon. I am so not ready to end the summer yet. It's going to be an interesting year with him in public school and all my other kids homeschooling.  I am just not sure I am ready to bring home a special needs kid with lots of learning challenges while I am learning how to teach in general so he goes to school this year and we live and learn.

Our End of the Year Book Lists

Well, it is the end of our first couple of months homeschooling.  And time to check out how many books we read and enjoyed in the short time since we have started this adventure called homeschool.  Because we pulled the kids out before the end of the year, I wanted them to be doing something for school, but I wasn't prepared with our full curriculum to just dive in so I let them choose books off our shelves that they haven't read yet.

Seriah 5th Grade:

1. New Testament Stories
2. Ruby the Red Fairy
3. Amber the Orange Fairy
4. Sunny the Yellow Fairy
5. The Storybook of Legends
6. Fern the Green Fairy
7. Sky the Blue Fairy
8. Inky the Indigo Fairy
9. Heather the Violet Fairy
10. The Care & Keeping of You
11. Cinderella
12. I Survived the Destruction of Pompeii

Clarissa 4th Grade:

1. New Testament Stories
2. Sounder
3. Shiloh
4. Charlie's Monument
5. Tales From Hans Christian Andersen
6. The Care & Keeping of You
7. Cinderella
8. I Survived the Destruction of Pompeii

Treysen 1st Grade:

1. New Testament Stories
2. Spyro vs. Mega Monsters
3. Frog and Toad All Year
4. The Berenstain Bears: The Bears' Vacation
5. Woolbur
6. Somewhere in the Ocean
7. Mooncake
8. Don't Give This Book a Bowl of Milk!
9. Crocodaddy
10. The Berenstain Bears: Bears in the Night
11. The Berenstain Bears: Spooky Old Tree
12. One Duck Stuck
13. On the Day You Were Born
14. The Best Nest
15. Library Lion
16. Harry the Dirty Dog
17. I Survived the Destruction of Pompeii

Not a bad overall list for letting the kids choose their own stories and only working on having started in April.  This coming year with a full school year to read and lessons planned properly I am sure that our reading list will not only improve in quality but also in quantity.  I am so excited for the books to get here and for us to get started.