Rock collection

Well summer seems to be all about studying the sciences for us. I spent $16.00 on our rock collection to day at the Trufant Flea Market. I has provided three hours of entertainment and learning tonight for us. I bought a polished petosky stone $1.00, Fluorite crystals $3.00, Gypsum-Selenite Sand Rose $1.00, Orthocerus fossil $3.00, Michigan Copper slice $5.00 and two bags of polished stones. They counted the polished stones, looked at them under a magnifying glass, sorted by color and finally I printed a classification sheet so they could identify them by name. I love rocks. My kids all pick up rocks for me. My older daughters have even brought me back  souvenir rocks on  their travels. Just find one anywhere and bring home to mom and she's happy for days. I pick up rocks wherever we travel and bring them home to my yard. I rarely buy them but this was well worth it. I keep my best specimens labeled in plastic tackle boxes. Aaron bought me a key chain that is an engraved rock.
Here are some learning websites I have found useful for my ongoing rock unit study.

1.  saltthesandbox  has a nice identifying pages

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School clothes shopping

Yes even homeschoolers need some new clothes for the start of the school year. We took the three littles shopping and picked out whole new wardrobes for each of them. Even Little-man got to pick out his own clothes. He is a toddler not a baby anymore. He had definate likes and dislikes in the style department. At least he still let me help him pick out an orange shirt--easier to spot him! I like to put orange on him when we go on outings. Makes my life easier. Pitty-pat is in pink and black all the way. Tippy-toe went for a more diverse set of clothes shall we say. I should have made each get a neutral for a family photo op--live and learn! So it was a field trip day. Stellaluna on hold till tommorro.

Stella Luna

The kids are each making a Stellaluna Lapbook. We are "rowing" reading this book  every day and studying bats. I can't wait to take them to see some real bats come out at night. I bought a bat box ($5.00 at a garage sale) which my sister hung this spring out at her house. The bats come out at sunset so we will go see them one evening. We also have Bats by Gail Gibbons to read as well. I found the book Stellaluna by Janell Cannon in paperback for sale at a garage sale for 25 cents and the scholastic Bats book was also 25 cents at the same sale. So this unit study cost me $5.50 plus the cost of  4 black file folders from Walmart. Homeschooling doesn't have to cost a lot of money. I got the fillers for the lapbook from homeschoolshare, Kidssoup had some bat math sheets, phonics this week is -at words, Harcourt has a trivia quiz and coloring sheets, enchanted learning has bat worksheets for the science components, and 2 teaching mommies has a bat bingo marker sheet I printed for little-man. I know the kids are going to love this weeks fun learning activities.

What's on my bookshelf?

I am rereading the first book I ever read about Homeschooling. Home Grown Kids by Dr Raymond and Dorothy Moore, I borrowed it from the library. It has a foreword by Dr James Dobson.This is the book that taught me the most about parenting and homeschooling! Now that I am doing this for the second time around I thought I should reread the book.

chick day 3

Today we worked on our ABC's letter review again I drew capital and small letters on bottle caps and they had to match the charts made from coconut abc trees I found here. Pitty pat aced hers, Tippy toe missed three now I know where he needs more work, and Litttle-man needed a partner for the whole game of course. I also made a set for a friend's son who is four. Great file folder game! So much learning fun. I have really come to enjoy this book and unit study. Such good testing and review of the basics.

Hopes, Dreams, Plans

Today Aaron and I discussed our hopes plans and dreams for the three littles. It was interesting to see where we are on the same page and how we differ in our assessment of the kids progress. We both agree it is not in the kids best interest to put them in public school! Tippy-toe will never be able to go to public school. We both know this now. His progress is amazing but emotionally he is still delayed.Even though our goal has been to get them ready for public school. Time to change our goals. I have been invited to a seminal by MSU through my adoption agency. The timing couldn't be more perfect. It is in october so Aaron can't go with me but I still feel I should go alone.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom day 2

Today I gave Pitty-pat the book, magnetic letters, and a plastic coconut then told her she was today's teacher!  No other instructions.What fun watching how they "Played" school. She hates to read but has to read the story to be the teacher LOL! Tricky mom! Tippy-toe said lets spell words from the book with our letters. Now I got my reluctant speller and pre-reader working away all on his own! Tricky mom! I think I am going to find this book making my favorites list rather quickly! Littleman also enjoyed being  a student in Pitty-pat's class.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

We are reading this week Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. We opened a real coconut and tasted it. The kids learned about palm trees. Did you know one tree can produce up to 100 coconuts a year? The kids loved store bought toasted coconut better than the real raw coconut. They got to touch the coconut shell.We have a chicka boom sensory bin for littleman. It has sand, magnetic letters, a sand sieve,wooden coconut trees, a wooden sun,brown buttons, and monkey erasers. I think he'll enjoy sifting the letters out of the sand. It's a good review for the older kids and learning for littleman.

Quote for the day

"Childhood is a journey not a race"

lessons in the mud

We went swimming at the gravel pits. Jon, Lizzi, Xander, and Kinder build a dam--Emily tried to stomp it open. Lots of lessons were learned. Jon learned not to use his angry voice and ask nice. Emily learned not to destroy what others are building and work along. Kinder learned not to hit ask nice and say you are sorry. The Physics of damn building is completely understood and simple at age 9,8,5,4,2 and 2. I enjoyed watching them work it out. So many buckets of rocks, sand and water not to mention all the many scoops out of sand went into the little damn. Everyone just dropped hard to sleep when they got home. Fresh air does a body good all around.
I gathered another handfull of fossils for our rock collection while we were there.