Things to be thankful for…deer legs and eggs

My son came home with a deer leg the other day. This momma about had a heart attack. He was so proud as he handed over this body part with exposed joint bone and clotted blood. “Can we keep it, mom?” eyes big as saucers he wanted to know as the others crowded around in [...]

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Fall Break ~ Spookables and Other Such Halloweeny Things!

Maybe it is because it is my husband’s favorite holiday. Maybe it is because fall birthday anticipation is ramping up. Maybe it is the irresistible draw of beautiful autumn leaves. But fall and Halloween is almost as big as Christmas around here…almost! The kids have been caterpillar hunting, jumping in leaves, making scarecrows, dressing spoooooooky just for [...]

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Sew Simple Owl Softies and Mommy Time

This week I made the kids a promise. A week of undevoted mommy time. Each kid picked a number and that was their special day with mom. After breakfast and chores they would have my undivided time until lunch to play with them how they chose. They spent the past couple of weeks pouring over [...]

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Fall Break ~ Caterpillars and Remembering 9/11

We’ve been on fall break around here. For me that entails LOTS of extra cleaning and organizing around the house. (Have you noticed it’s been kind of quiet around here?) For the kids it has entailed caterpillars. You may remember our post about our monarch caterpillars? Well, after several died due to Tachinid fly parasites, [...]

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Roommates

Meet our new roommates…. Squirmy and Fred, our monarch caterpillars… and Dooky (don’t ask!), our salt marsh caterpillar. I was so excited to finally find some Monarch caterpillars. So looking forward to the exquisite jade green and gold chrysalis they make. By far my favorite caterpillar to keep and feed! Thank you, God, for the [...]

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Less Screen Time

So I have in my head this great weekly wrap up on the rocks and minerals unit study we are doing right now. (Sorry, you’ll have to check back next week! But instead I spent much more time doing this… and this… and much less time on my computer. Life is good!

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Camp Wrap Up

Yep, I know…you are all very sad that these are the last of the 100′s of camp pictures posted! My turn at camp with Lilah Jane came.  Our time together was sweet, short and long all at the same time. Two days without my baby and I was sore and needing to nurse ever so [...]

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A Week of Camp

My babies went to camp this week. It has been my first real week without them. Sure, they’ve spent the night at gram and pop’s house or their cousins. But one night is not a week! I was a nervous wreck. I tried properly preparing them last week with a training boot camp of learning [...]

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How to File Paperwork if You Are Not a Planner {a.k.a. Unschooling}

That time is upon us once again…. Yep, filing paper work with the state education board. Fun. Fun. This is my yearly quandary… One of the huge advantages of homeschooling is following a MUCH more relaxed schedule. For us that contains a fair amount of unschooling…or child-led interests and rabbit trails. These really can’t be planned [...]

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Entrepreneurial Lemonade

What is a 5 year old boy to do on a hot summer afternoon after returning from the park and discovering the cooler jug of lemonade sitting on the porch? Why make a lemonade stand, of course! But it’s tough to find customers when your house is in the country. After watching him chase down [...]

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Play Learning in the Summer

What do you do with leftover strawberry tops after making strawberry jam? Well, the sensible thing to do would be compost them. That is, unless you have a three and five year old in your home. Then it seems much more sensible to play with them! Pretend gardening anyone? Harvesting with your “tractor”. I see [...]

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A Boy’s Responsibility

What can turn a boy into a man? Responsibility. How do you instill responsibility without being a naggy mom? Allow him his first pet that he buys with his own money. Meet Mike the hamster. And how to weave into our homschool week? A pet project ~ Check out two library books on hamsters. Read [...]

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Writing Organically

While there is always a time and a place for formal writing and learning grammar and techniques, I find my kids make the most progress through a more organic method of learning. By organic I mean naturally occuring…a term I fell in love with while reading this article in Homeschooling Today. I have a five [...]

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Free French and Spanish Lessons for Kids Online!!!

We have been having a bit of a spring break this week. Kids rooms got switched around. Gardening finally got started. New vans were registered. Errands were squeezed in between. There was little time left for any formal schooling so unschooling it was. More often then I can count the kids were immersed in some [...]

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The Official Spring Break Handbook

When I saw Mud Pies and Other Recipes online I fell in love and started having daydreams about what I would have done with a book like this when I was a little girl. Oh how my dolls and I would have played! So I knew it just had to be on my official homeschool [...]

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Music to a Homeschooling Mother’s Ears!

I’ve officially kicked the kids out to the curb this week! Weather has turned a corner and sunshine is pouring in. I’ve scooted all littles out the door for fresh sunshine and free play. Meanwhile hubby and I have been spring cleaning inside…especially the kitchen! Amazing how much more you can accomplish when there aren’t [...]

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ARKive Videos…the new way to view nature

We were sent this amazing link through our homeschooling group. ARKive What is it you say? It is an archive of thousands of videos of animals in thier natural habitat. Get it ARKive!  Not only do you get the video, you get all the classification and habitat information right to the side of your screen. [...]

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The Learning Room ~ of Mice and Men

This week was a productive school week despite our whole crew getting reinfected and having another sick week! Daddy had to go in early all this week and that always allows us to get more schooling done. (Daddy is very distracting for momma in the best sort of ways!) Between bleaching everything, boiling toothbrushes, cleaning [...]

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The Learning Room – Versatility

Versatility is my word of the week. That is how I’ve had to be with all my plans whether they be for school or our homelife or community. We’ve been out house hunting this week on a serendipitous spotting of an open acreage in our area. That has meant rearranging Adam’s days off, getting paperwork [...]

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Nikon D3100 Review and Picture Samples

As some of you may know, my trusty olympus point and shoot finally gave out. And I was having photo withdrawals as I waited patiently for tax refund money to come in to buy a new one. I’ve always dreamed of owning an SLR ever since I was a little girl. Well, my darling husband [...]

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