Posted By Nikki on December 2, 2009

Tomorrow E will be going back to public school! It was truly the hardest decision I have ever had to make and I’m still not ok with it. However I know it’s best for all of us …right now. Please pray her adjustment goes smoothly, she is very nervous yet excited.

And with that I will be closing this blog down soon My prayer is that all of you homeschoolers out there never have to make this difficult decision. Homeschooling has changed my life and I will never forget the wonderful friends I have made online and locally!

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Posted By Nikki on September 15, 2009

Today we started our Nature Study! Daddy took the girls out today to get started and he is planning to “lead” this study once per week on his day off. I think this is a great way for him to get more involved in our homeschooling.

We decided to choose the sunflowers to study today. Pawpaw had some really amazing sunflowers in his garden this summer and here is a photo of one in full bloom a few weeks ago.

They are starting to hang now and the pretty petals have almost all fallen off the centers. Emira and Ainsley were able to see that the small flowers on the center will dry and fall off leaving the seeds that we all love to eat. Pawpaw will cut these down tomorrow and hang them to dry completely. This week we will continue to study our sunflowers and get to know the names/parts of the flower.

If you would like to know more about Nature Study and Nature Journaling, HERE is a great blog to visit! There you will find the link to download the Handbook of Nature Study e-book free. There are also weekly Outdoor Hour Challenges you can do for your studies as well as a wealth of information on how to get started and what Nature Study is exactly, and how it can be a great addition to your homeschool.

We are using the Mead Primary Journal Creative Story Tablets for our Nature Journaling. These are perfect since they have a space on the top half of the page for sketching. We found ours at Staples but they seem to be less expensive if you purchase them online.

If your homeschool participates in Nature Studies and you blog about it, please let us know! We’d love to visit and study along with you.

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Tags: nature journal, sunflowers

Posted By Nikki on September 11, 2009

Last week we found this little guy. Ainsley actually stepped on him but he seems to be ok. We are trying to figure out exactly what he is. We are still researching, but so far all we know is that he is some type of inch worm and that he changes colors so he can blend in with the twigs. We found him under our Wild Cherry tree. Most of the web sites I have used to search him have had no pictures that look just like him. I have found some that resemble twigs but they are skinny and brown. This guy is not skinny and definitely not brown.

Next to my lense cap so you can see his size.

Two days after we found him he spun his cocoon inside of an apple leaf that the girls put in his jar. I suppose he would have been a moth of some sort. Sadly he didn’t survive and we didn’t get to see what he became. I seem to have a knack for the ones who don’t survive

We are still trying to identify this catepillar so if you know what he is or know where I can find info, please let me know. Thanks!

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Posted By Nikki on September 11, 2009

On Thursday, Sept.3, two of our Monarch cocoons were almost completely black and our beautiful butterflies were ready to come out! Sadly our 1st cocoon never matured. How amazing to watch these darken and you can see the colors of the wings through the cocoon.

Here is the first one just out of the cocoon, wings still wet.

Looking through the jar. How amazing are those wings!

The next day, we set them out on the porch to fly away. One of them decided to stay with us a while and perched on my wreath out back for a bit before traveling.

We do this every year, and somehow still, it’s always so amazing!

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Tags: caterpillar, Monarch Butterflies

Posted By Nikki on August 22, 2009

Daddy brought home 2 more caterpillars on Wed and one of the worms was mature already. So he began to hang and spin his chrysalis that night and when we checked him yesterday morning he was finished.

Then today Hermie and Wormie decided to hang from the top or our jar. We went out shopping and were hoping to get home in time to watch them, but only 2 hours later we found them like this. Boy they are fast!

Now we still have one smaller caterpillar who is working up his weight. So we stopped off to grab some fresh milkweed and found these on one of the leaves. Definitely one more baby and looks like 2 of the eggs had hatched as well.

Anyone want to adopt?

Seems as though lots of other homeschoolers are rearing butterflies too! Check out Jolanthe’s post about the birth of their butterflies over at Homeschool Creations. If you have posted about your butterflies, lmk so I can link you up too

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Tags: caterpillar, Monarch Butterflies

Posted By Nikki on August 18, 2009

It’s time for Monarch butterflies!! For the past 3 years we have “raised” a few butterflies and it’s something we enjoy learning about each year. So we were excited to have a go at it again this year. We have been searching for caterpillars for the past couple weeks and haven’t found any. The roadsides where most of our milkweed is found, had been sprayed and now all the plants are dead We did find a few large plants on our side road and had been watching them for the catepillars with no luck.

Thankfully, yesterday Daddy was able to find 2 large caterpillars in another county where he works. They are gorgeous and we are very excited for the opportunity to watch them grow and mature into beautiful butterflies again this year!

Here are Hermie and Wormie – yes we name them this every year lol.

We are keeping them in a glass cookie jar so we can see them better.

This is a great way to teach the life cycle of a butterfly! We will be updating with more pics as our larvae become pupae so check back or subscribe

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Tags: caterpillar, Monarch Butterflies

Posted By Nikki on August 16, 2009

My giveaways for the Curriculum Cleanout are now closed and I am happy to announce the winners!!

Sequential Spelling Giveaway:
#5 – Shawntele

AOP LifePac Science Giveaway:
#14 – HSB Suzanne

A Beka 4 Science Giveaway:
#11 – Tammany

Congratulations, ladies!

Look for an email from me

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Posted By Nikki on August 13, 2009

E and I spent about a half an hour outside tonight watching the Perseids Meteor Shower! We counted about 9 meteors but I think there were more of the smaller ones. Beautiful!! God is such an awesome God!!

*Photo from photobucket*

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Posted By Nikki on August 12, 2009

Are you looking for a few fun ideas for your weekly workboxes? Check out this site!

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Posted By Nikki on August 12, 2009

This year we have jumped on the workbox bandwagon. Really it just makes perfect sense and I know it will be a great organizational tool for our homeschooling. We are using 7 drawer & 3 drawer Sterlite carts for Emira and a 3 drawer cart for Ainsley. Below is our main curriculum however we will be supplementing with lots of fun and learning activities. For Ainsley’s workboxes, we are using the Tot School approach and she will have lots of file folder games and hands on activities.

2009-2010 Curriculum
Emira 9yrs 4th Grade

Bible Positive Action for Christ
Building Life Castles *We still need to purchase this, but I am very excited to see how this works for us!*

Math – Teaching Textbooks 4 *This is working great for us so far! Emira loves being on the computer so she is always excited to get to do math each day!*

Language – A Beka God’s Gift of Language A *This is our 3rd year using A Beka’s Language and we love it!*

Spelling – All About Spelling Levels 1 & 2 *This is new for us this year. Emira has dyslexic trouble with spelling and we were encouraged to try this curriculum.*

Handwriting – HWT Cursive Success *Continuing our cursive practice again this year.*

Health – A Beka Developing Good Health *We will be focusing on good health habits, healthy eating and the skeletal system.*

Science – A Beka Understanding God’s World *We will also be Nature Study Notebooking as well.*

History/Geography – A Beka History of Our United States *We are also using a Geography workbook and learning the state capitals.*

That is a rundown of what we are doing this year. We will be adding in quite a bit more fun and activities of course and you can read about them here on our blog as we do them
Have a great year!

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