This Magic Moment...

Sitting in the bathtub.  

Surrounded by the laughter of his siblings.

The very first moment I put paint in front of my 10 month old baby.  

The Magic Moment he created his first work of art.

 I set a sanded wooden egg in his sea of blue.

 I let the paint dry, wiped it down, and gave it a coat of beeswax polish.

 Sol's first painting.  An heirloom to treasure year after year.

magic.

Gratitude Mondays...

What I love today...

~My birthday!!!

(Saturday, it was wonderful)

~Holiday weekends...

(more on that later)

~A little girl who makes fairy princesses out of flowers...

~A little baby who can stand on his own!

~A little boy who can start an impromptu game of 'golf'...

~A partner who makes me chocolate cake (with our babies assistance) for my birthday...

~Vegetarian dolmades...

~Art with my babies...

~Banana cream pie...

We had a really nice Easter... 

You should probably be prepared for a few posts about it.  

I'm ready to start a new week!

X Week Wrap Up....

This week in our school we....

Learned the letter X...
This is the last consonant and the end of Explode the Code Primer series!!!  Next week we'll review X, Q, and Z, and the week after we'll start Explode the Code book 1.  This is very exciting news, let me tell you.

In Poetry we...
Spent another week reading the Song of the Yellow Deadnettle Fairy.  She shares her poem with X.  As this week finished Ava was able to recite our poem of the month, quite a challenge, as it's a bit longer than she is used to.

Our theme for the week...
Was Easter! (of course)  We read the Easter books that we had in our house this week.  The Tale of Peter Rabbit (classic), Peter Rabbit's Happy Easter (clever sequel, different author), Corduroy's Easter Party (sweet), Peter Cottontail's Busy Day (fun), Easter is Here! (simple).  Admittedly, some of our books on the subject are pretty fluffy silly,  however, even my sophisticated Ava enjoys a lift the flap book.  In our home Easter is a time to celebrate the renewal of Spring in all her glory, so time spent outside enjoying the warm before it turns to (unbearable) hot is VERY important.   The options with an Easter theme are endless.  Like most things on my to do list this season we skipped my structured ideas, and opted instead to explore our outdoor spaces.  (reason #78 why homeschool is so great)  We checked out the local homeschool group that meets at the park once a week.  This was a very important step for our family.  I think its great for Ava to see that there are other families out there, making choices like ours!

In Science we...
Expanded our awareness of the concepts of energy.  We had an activity that lead us to understand the terms kinetic energy, and potential energy.  Ava asked me "are you sure this is science, because I am pretty sure this is just playing games!"  Perfect.

In Math we..
~Started working the concept of the commutative property, that order does not matter for adding
~Started to count by 5s
~ Reviewed 1s and 10s
~Used commutative property for adding 1+ a number
~Added to our graph, started last week

In Art Study we...

Explored The Oddie Children, by Sir William Beechey.  Ava really liked this painting.  She summarized that the girl with the blue ribbon is "watching the Spring grow, and I like to watch the Spring grow, and the sun set."





This was a great week.  Its nice to be in our garden again, and everyday there is something new to see.  We are really loving popsicle season!  I highly recommend this book, for some original, healthy ideas. Would you believe that I honestly didn't know that Easter is this weekend?  I thought it was next weekend, and I had all the time in the world.  Yup.  So... I'm off to decorate some eggs now.  More on that later!

Earth Week...

We had let a lot of our garden go over the last season.   Now that we plan to stay in our home for another season we needed to get out there and get to work.  Each child did their share.  They planted flowers, than helped to prepare our future watermelon patch.  Oh I love hoses.

In celebration of Earth Week we've pretty much kept on doing the things we do best.  Love being out, and love the earth.   It's all about the joy of getting your hands dirty, while keeping our planet green. 

Beautiful Terrifying...

Otherwise known as a walk down the midway of the Maricopa County Fair.  This marks the first year we've taken our children to a fair.  Ava has dreamed of going to the fair since she first fell in love with Charlotte's Web.  I'm not so sure this is exactly what E.B. White had in mind, but my babies find magic everywhere they go.

My babies looked so small....

Getting on to this....

And they were beyond thrilled.  They got to ride a ferris wheel, just like Fern.

Chamomile..

We have harvested our chamomile and have it drying in our kitchen.  the smell is sweet, and warm, like honey in the summer.  We plan to make a tea to use in popsicles, and maybe chamomile jelly. 

I wish you could smell my kitchen right now...

Gratitude Mondays...

What I am loving today...

~picking up things here and there in preparation for our big trip this summer...

~Indian food takeout...
(and Mexican, and Italian, and Mediterranean)

~A baby who holds his arms high for "Sooo Biiig!"
(and follows his performance with a spastic arm waving in delight)

~A little girl who remembers EVERYTHING she hears...
(I've got to remember that)

~A little boy who's imaginary friends are Catcher, Patcher, and Batter...
(It took me Way too long to translate that Patcher was 'Pitcher')

~A partner who skips everything just to come home...
(nothing is more important to me)

~Getting postcards from out of state in the mail...
(they are going in our continent boxes)

~Getting new plants for our garden...
(more on that later)

A trip to the county fair..
(more on that later)

Finding new local restaurants..



I adore my little family.

Q Week Wrap Up....

This week in our school we....

Learned the letter Q...

In Poetry...
Ava started to say the poem of the month with me, I think she'll have it memorized by next week.  We both really enjoyed the poem of the week, The Song of the Queen Meadow Fairy, she is really beautiful.

Our theme for the week...
Was Earth Day!  I wanted to have a lot of time to talk about Earth Day, so we started this week talking about different aspects of the earth.  Monday I gave them each an Earth Day gift, used books!  Big Momma Makes the World, by Phillis Root (for Ava) a very sweet creation story.  This gave us an opportunity to talk about why people use creation stories, and their importance in our culture's history.   Earth, by Dana Meachen Rau (for Cyrus) a non fiction look at the attributes of our planet, and how we fit into the solar system.  A Pig is Big, by Douglas Florian (for Sol) a simple story about size getting larger and larger 'till the whole universe.  To demonstrate the vastness of the earth's cultures we read Hello World Greeting in 42 Languages Around the Globe (I really want to own a copy of this!!!) by Manya Stojic and Where in the World?  Around the Globe in 13 Works of Art by Bob Raczka.  Specifically on the topic of Earth Day we read three non fictions, Let's Reuse, by Sara E. Nelson, Recycling, by Rhonda Lucas Donald, and Earth Day by Trudi Strain Trueit.  We are still experiencing the kind of weather that keeps everyone out side, so that's were we spent all of our free time.  Next week to celebrate Earth Day we have some special songs to learn, a garbage in our neighborhood walk, and some planting to do!

In Math we learned...
~ To count objects by 2s
~ To add 1 to 2-digit numbers
~ To construct a graph showing colors
~ To add 2 to 2-digit numbers

In Science we...
Covered two lessons concurrently.  Air is a substance, and Gravity; The earth's gravity, horizontal and vertical.  These two lessons were chalk full of hands on experimenting.  We also talked about how in science we don't make decisions based on votes, or opinions.  We look at the evidence derived from investigations.  Having the activities allowed these rather advanced concepts become first hand observations, putting them at her level.  Plus it was just really fun, or as Ava said "science is so cool!".

In Art Study we...

Explored Manuel Osorio Manrique de  Zunega, by Francisco de Goya Y Lucientes.  There seems to be a lot of cruelty in this painting.  When asked if she would like to dress like him, Ava let me know that he looks uncomfortable, and his outfit looks like pajamas with a plastic bow.  That about sums it up.


We were able to get a lot done this week, which was a surprise to me.  The weather isn't going to hold, it's going to get HOT.  Soon.  I don't mind arranging our day around playing in the backyard.  I'm pretty sure that they are learning more outside on their own than any lesson I could put before them!

Just Ladybugs...

We've had an amazing ladybug season so far.  Not only have we been blessed to have many hands on opportunities, we've been able to capture some 'just' moments on camera....

Just hatched~

Thanks to Ava and her keen eyesight we were able to see this little guy, who is teeny tiny.   He must be new to the larva stage.  He'll continue to grow and eat (a lot) for about 20ish days.

Just pupated ~

This scene was witnessed in our "ladybug home".  It was fascinating to watch the pupa push-ups this guy was engaged in.  (if anyone know what or why they do that, let us know)  Within an average of about 5 hours he will complete his metamorphose into pupa and be a dark orange- red color with spots, and stay in his pupa stage for about a week.  Something like this guy from last year...

Just emerged...

She was found just after she became an adult ladybug.  Isn't she striking?  (Does anyone know why they stay with their pupa shell for so long? )  In about 49 minutes you could see her spots start to appear...

  

Just flying...

Here I was lucky enough to catch one of our little friends just as she lifted her shell to open her wings.  Stunning.

I'm so grateful for our experiences.  We've all learned more this year than we knew last year.  We plan to enjoy the time we have left with our ladybugs this season,  just a few more weeks.