chicks hatching, free play

The chicks started hatching a couple days ahead of schedule. Layla and Penelope are beyond themselves with excitement. Penelope (18mos) points, squeals, bounces, and just loves these eggs that just popped open with something alive! The older kids are of course having fun too. We also just had one of our cats give birth. She had 5 kitties (want one?). Penelope squealed about those too. Spring is in the air!


The kids played from sun up until sundown yesterday. I kept waiting for a good time to pull them away for worksheets (or lunch) but they never let up with their fun and games. They actually choose to skip lunch which is just a shocker! They had so much fun and there wasn't one bicker or fight. It was a welcome surprise. Lately they have been playing a lot, but bickering incessantly. To top it off Penelope took a 3 hour nap by herself. So it was a good day!


The other day the older 3 played for 3 hours straight with balloons on the trampoline. Before that they had made kites from balloons and shared them with their younger sisters. I so long for those endless days of childhood when such simple activities provide literally hours of imaginative play. What happens to our adult brains that we forget. I love having kids because it keeps me young at heart. It's like reliving childhood, but through the eyes of an adult so it can be appreciated.

Today is sports program, and then soccer practice. I better get moving or I'm never going to get out of here.

The First Post: Science, Math, Life

We have two dozen chicken eggs in our incubator. I hadn't planned on us hatching again this year but we had a horrible dog attack on our chickens two weeks ago and we need to replenish our chicken/ egg supply. It was a real disappointment because these chickens were the eggs we hatched last spring, and they had just been laying really, really well for the past few months. They were great big hens. Now we start over. We used a flashlight to see the chicken embryos and we can see them really well! Renewing life is exciting. Spring is in the air for sure. Between a cat ready to drop kittens at any moment, baby chicks due in 13 days, and my swelling belly, everyone in our house is getting excited! We will be doing butterflies this Spring too. I haven't decided when we should send our live caterpillar certificate in though. I think we should wait until the chicks are hatched.

I started yet another new approach at homeschool organization (it's never ending and ever changing). I bought the kids all their own set of 5 colored folders, one for each day of the week. (Sage-blue, Ethan-green, Charlotte-purple, Layla-pink) I am trying to keep all their routine work and worksheets (math, spelling, reading, whatever) for the week updated in each of them. That way they can get their work on their own and they can do it throughout the day as time permits. Most days we have a 'plan' but we wing it for the most part. I am constantly pulling worksheets for one kid while others are waiting their turn, so this helps with that.

Yesterday we had a group art lesson and did a worksheet on a Monet painting. The kids' observations and ideas about the piece were great! We also did worksheet stuff but nothing overly exciting. The kids experimented on their own outside with water, some big plastic jugs, and knitting yarn. The boys came in and told me they were seeing how long it took water to soak up into a strand of yarn. GREAT! Science. Half the time they school themselves, honest to goodness!

This is the type of stuff I want to log about here because so much discovery and learning goes on when my back is turned. Today we have a "chemistry" set full of activities we are going to do.

We just started a math program called MathUSee and I love it. We all love it. I hate math, HATE it (and fear it). And I hide that fact from the kids. Well this program is awesome. So slow paced and perfect. Charlotte (11) and I are both doing the boys' lessons to relearn concepts and so that we can get the programs strategy for the higher maths.