We Have Chicks!!!!!

Today we noticed that the Kildeer chicks have hatched. I had to run and get my camera. Boy are they cute. Mama Bird and I have this understanding. I just talk real nice to her and she lets me take pictures of her babies. My "babies" were outside running wild but they didn't seem to bother her.

Isn't he just the cutest little thing!!!!!

There are three of them that have hatched so far. 2 are pretty advanced but one must have just been hatched because he couldn't walk well and his feathers weren't as nice yet. There is still one egg left. I fully expect it to hatch by tomorrow.

It is amazing that God created these little birds to be ready to go within hours of hatching. They look like little adult birds only cuter. I would love to have picked one up and petted it. However, I have seen Mama and Daddy bird's beaks and I didn't want to push.

Mama bird just sits there on her little ones keeping them warm. They take turns poking their heads out. Once all three got out and were running crazy. She had to call in daddy bird as reinforcement. She managed to get them all back under her. They are such obedient little birds. When I was taking pictures of the babies, Daddy bird got a bit worried. Never mind that I had been sitting there talking with mama bird for a good 20 minutes. He started squaking and squaking. I told mama bird to tell him it was ok. Well, she let out 2 or 3 little peeps to him and he quit. I can't wait until tomorrow to see them all running crazy all over the yard. I hope I catch them before they are gone.

Resurrection Day Fun

Today was a pretty good day, except for the rain and the cooler temperature. It could have been worse, though. We started the day with church. Everyone got dressed up in their Sunday best.
Then off to Sunday school. I teach 3rd grade girl and we have been working on a Ressurrection lapbook for the past 5 weeks. I hoped to finish it today, but due to circumstances, we will finish next week. Then off to church service. My brother joined us today. That was a blessing. After church we were off to have lunch with my parents and my aunt and uncle. We ate out, as did many other people. It was fun, but I would have rather had my homemade soup back home in the fridge. Yum.
Next was a special treat. We went to see my grandmother. She is in her 80s and in a nursing home. I was shocked that she remembered who I was. It has been a while since we have been there, and her mind isn't what it used to be. Of course, I took my camera. There were 4 generations present.From left to right are my daughter, Bobbi, me, Grandma, my dad and Tyler, my son.

We didn't stay long. Grandma had been to a church service and probably lunch and she was tired. My mom and Bobbi smiling for the camera.

The kids decided to mess with their Uncle Randy (my brother) while we waited. They think he is just the coolest.

He really is just one of them.LOLLast, but not least, the driver for the day was my wonderful hubby. Thanks, sweetie.

Burning Down the House

We had a scary moment this morning. No, our house did not burn down, but...

We were having school upstairs this morning and Bobbi asked if she could bake her clay creations in the toaster oven. I don't know what I was thinking, but I said sure. She did everything just right. She set the timer to what she usually sets it to, but then she left it and no one thought about it again. The timer did its thing and the oven went off. However, later (much later), I passed near the stairs and smelled something. It was not a wood burning smell, but more of an electrical smoke smell. I followed my nose. I felt just like our cat. Upon arriving downstairs and in the kitchen I knew for sure something was burning, but I couldn't quite figure out what it was. I sniffed my way around. The whole house had smoke in it by now. For a split second I thought I might have to call 911. Maybe the attic was on fire and the smoke was seeping into the house. I thought about running back to the attic when I turned to see the toaster oven billowing smoke from the front. I knew what it was. The creations were crispy critters. I saw them before they went in. They were quite lovely. One was a Christmas tree. Another was a candy cane. There was a bell and a small football also. The others I can't remember. I opened every door we have to help the smoke exit. It was very smokey. I turned on fans. Then I put the creations on the porch. I think it is safe to say they won't be bothered. It has been a few hours since the incident and the house still smells of this horrible smoke. Lysol doesn't even cut it. I'll leave the windows open and see if that helps. I don't know what went wrong. Maybe the clay was too thin to be cooked for that long. I don't know. We will watch the creations cook from now on.

Bee All You Can Bee!!!!

Science says that a honeybee can't fly. It's wings are too small and its body is to heavy. However, the bee doesn't know that, so it just does what God wants it to do and flies from flower to flower. We should be like the bee. We shouldn't worry about what others(or ourselves) say and just do whatever God designed us to do.

This week we visited Peace Bee Farm in Proctor. It was an awesome trip. I love insects! Bees are fascinating to me. They are one of God's wonderful creatures that make life better and possible for us. They pollinate flowers which results in the fruit we eat and they make yummy honey for us to eat. If you love honey, you might not want to learn exactly what it is and how the bees make it. Just let that be a secret of the bees.

On our field trip, our homeschool group met with beekeeper Richard Underhill. He is a bee expert. The kids, and adults, asked lots of questions and he answered all of them. We got to see the "hives" or boxes where the bees live. It was cold that day, but the bees were out. Mr. Underhill said that bees only fly when it is about 50 degrees out, so he knew the temperature by the actions of the bees. There was a large group of bees on the ground. They aren't usually on the ground so they might have found this particular soil full of nutrients they needed. Next, we looked at a display bee box. It was way to cold to open up a real box. Bees are cold natured and they keep the hive at 95 degrees year round. Opening the box would have cooled the hive. The display box was very interesting and had pictures in it that looked like what you'd see if you opened a real box. The kids took turns trying on beekeeper equipment. They all looked so cute in their beekeepers hat.

Then we went into the processing building. There we were showed how they uncap the honey and get it out of the frames. The wax is saved and melted into candles. The honey is bottled and sold. Each child was given a straw with honey in it to try. They loved this. Finally, Mr. Underhill took us to some special bee boxes that are used to raise new queen bees. Everyone had a good time and many took home bottles of honey and candles as well. We all know so much more about bees now. We will build upon that knowledge when we discuss bees again in our summer Botany coop.

A Royal Race Winner

Tyler participated in his first Royal Ambassadors (RA) Royal Racer race. Our church starts RAs at first grade and this was Tyler's first race. He participated in a glider race earlier this year, but he didn't win. It was our first time and we didn't know much about it. This time, though, we did our research. Tyler painted his car and weights were put in to help increase the speed. The cars can weigh up to 5 ounces. His weighed 4.6. That is pretty close using the crude measuring device we had. There were lots of boys at this race. Races were run according to grade, then the winner of each grade race raced again to determing the overall winner. Tyler placed 2nd in his grade level. The boy who beat him won the overall. It was a super fast car. Tyler was so excited to get his red ribbon. We were pretty proud of him. This year was a learning year for us, so watch out next year.

Awesome God!! Look what He gave us today

Every year for umpteen years we have had Kildeer nests in our back yard. It doesn't matter where we live, the birds are always there.

They are migratory birds. I'm not sure when they leave our area, but I know they return in January. Early in the morning until late at night these "party birds" are out there squaking and running around. If you haven't heard one, they have a high pitched almost whistle voice that is very annoying when you are trying to sleep. They are actually beautiful birds with some awesome markings.

God knew exactly what these birds needed when he gave them their color. They make nexts on the ground usually by moving in some small pebbles and stones to camoflague the next. Their eggs are light brown with dark brown flecks all over.

If you come anywhere near a Kildeer nest, these birds go into action. First, they start squaking and fan thier wings and tail feathers out so they appear to be hurt.

To an unsuspecting predator, the bird seems easy prey, so they will follow with mouth watering. When the predator is far enough away the bird is miraculously healed and flys away laughing. The predator is at a loss for the bird or the eggs. If you see such a bird and try to find it's nest, you will probably not be lucky. Those eggs blend in so well they are almost impossible to see. Even if you have been to the nest before and know exactly where it is, you may still have trouble relocating it.

Well, yesterday it was beautiful weather so the kids and I went outside to work in the garden. We have a mammoth playset area with dark brown rubber mulch in it. There are some patches of over grown Bermuda grass that is still dormant. My daughter was about to enter the play area when Mama bird let out a screech. Both bird and girl were frightened. (Probably more girl than bird) I knew where the nest was now. I had caught her before she could fly. I looked and couldn't find it. Later, I had forgotten all about Mama bird when I found her nest. She wasn't happy to see me at all. I backed off after I saw she had already laid 4 little eggs. How sweet. Now if the cat doesn't get them before they hatch. I'll keep you informed on the babies if/when they get here. They are the cutest little things. The come out looking like minature adults, but much cuter. See the long pointy beak and those glaring red eyes. I couldn't help wondering what kind of damage that beak could do to a skull. She was very gracious to let me get so close to her to get her pix. Maybe she thought she was going to be asstar, and, well, she is (at least on my blog).

Kim

I Did It

It finally happened!!! Tyler read his first book all by himself and he did it pretty fluently. OK, it didn't just happen. He worked hard to get to this point. Reading has yet to be his strong point. I owe this progress to our new curriculum, Spell to Write and Read. You may have heard about it if you read one of my previous blogs. Tyler had to first learn cursive in order to write in his log book. His printing was awful, but the cursive is pretty good. We started that in July and by somewhere near October he could write in his log book in cursive. It took a long time because he is only 6 and a boy and those 2 factors alone should say enough. While he was learning to write, he was also learning his phonograms. There are 77 in all to learn. They are like magic cards that unlock spelling first with almost no exceptions to the rules. That in turn unlocks the reading. So far he has learned 120 words and we are spending the last few weeks of school reviewing the few that he had trouble with. I have also been having him read from the log book lists and timing him. The words were marked with the spelling markings that SWR uses. That is so helpful to see the phonograms. For example we would underline /oy/ in the word boy because it is a multi letter phonogram and /sh/ in the word ship for the same reason. That way when he sees it he will know to say /sh/ instead of /s/h/ individually. He has also learned the 5 reasons words have silent final E. Do you know them? I sure didn't. When he sees one marked he knows how to read it. We did it that way for a while, but then I took the markings away and wrote sentences with the words. He did well seeing the phonograms and sounding them out. Each time he read them he got faster. Today I pulled out the book No! No! Word Bird. It had words in it with the same patterns that he has been working with. I was shocked when he read the entire 31 pages. He was so proud and so was I. Not only can he spell the words and knows why they are spelled the way they are, but he can read the words. We will continue to read our lists and sentences I make from them. In a few weeks I will have him attempt another more difficult book written by Wanda Sanseri, the writer of SWR. It uses all 120 words he has learned so far and a few more. I really think he will be able to do it. It won't be long until he can read anything he wants

New Elementary Anatomy/Physiology Course

For those of you looking for the absolute best elementary science courses, Apologia has them. They are the Young Explorer series written by Jeannie Fulbright. We have gone through 2 of them so far and will start our 3rd in May. They are just awesome and teach science in a way that is exciting and easy to do. Jeannie has written each book prayerfully and each one is from a young earth creationist point of view. Recently Jeannie announced that a new book would be out soon, Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology. Below is her description of the course as posted on the Elementary Apologia Yahoo group. I also recently posted a story about the beginnings of this book. If you haven't read it, here is the link: http://ghomeschool.blogspot.com/search/label/anatomy

God created humans in His image, and endowed us with a desire to learn about Him, about our world, and about ourselves. Studying God’s most marvelous and chief creation with Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology will give you and your students insight into God’s nature, imparting a greater appreciation of His amazing and miraculous handiwork. Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology is the sixth bookin the Young Explorer Series. Using the Charlotte Mason methodology, this elementary-level science curriculum gives students an introduction to the fascinating design of the human body. After briefly reviewing the history of the man’s attempts to understand the human body, students are taught about the highly complex, all-important cell. The book then discusses the main systems of the human body, discussing in detail the Skeletal, Muscular, Digestive, Respiratory, and Circulatory Systems as well as several others. The book culminates by tying it all together with the study ofGrowth and Development. Procreation is addressed in terms of DNA and genes.Throughout the book, students will have a wonderful time as they explore and learn with activities, projects and demonstrations that illustrate the concepts learned. They will dissect a chicken wing to learn about bones and ligaments, create a camera box to learn about vision, find their own arteries, veins and capillaries, build a stethoscope, investigate the genetics of inheritance, test their muscle strength, explore the five senses and much, much more.Throughout the course, students will enjoy adding illustrations of organs to their human body poster. They will also complete engaging and fun notebooking assignments to reinforce what they’ve learned.Throughout this fascinating field of study, you and your students will know that we are indeed, “Fearfully and wonderfully made,”

Jeannie