Sun, Soil, Water

THE MIGHTY SEED

So my son Quentin learned about plants growing at church this last Sunday. During our Sunday interview about the coming week and what he would like to learn about I asked him is he would like to plant some seeds. It was an instant "YES!" So with things we had left over from last year we collected some pots, soil from last years post and garden boxed and left over organic tomato seeds. The boys were in charge of collecting the dirt (soil) and I put their initial on their pots. The boys picked what kind of tomatoes to plant (I have a lot of fun varieties).

As we planted I talked to Quentin about what plants needed to grow. He shared that water helps plants grow bigger. During lunch I drew a picture of a potted plant and we identified what was needed to grow a plant.

We made our own little castle flag tags to mark the variety of tomatoes that they picked. The boys colored their flags how they wanted to.I also planted some in the smaller plastic containers in the back.

The boys water their plants in the morning using the squirt bottle and I check on then at night. Today is day 2. They are to take 7-10 days to sprout.

LEGOS

My boys love legos, Here is Miltons Stable castle, and more...

Some people don't like the idea of Legos because it does not allow creativity due to the premade sets. We build our Legos one time with the instructions. Its a great lesson in following directions. Then once it is played with for a couple of days it is pulled apart and added to the mass of Legos we have. Now they have to use their own heads to build.

Do your kids like Legos Click here and sign up for a FREE 2 year lego club magazine subscription.

Literature Wednesday

Literature Wednesday

Robin Hood

We are still reading Robin Hood and all of the stories about him. We just got a bunch of larch boxes and we decided that we would build Sherwood Forest and the town of Nottingham.



The church had a little more effort put into it. We made stained glass windows with tissue paper and parchment paper and had a bell in the steeple.

Here is what we did. First I cut the holes in the cardboard box.
Then we collected the following
Liquid Starch
tissue paper
parchment paper (wax also works)
Paint brush (paper can be dipped by hand its just messier)
Container to hold starch

1. fold parchment in half and unfold
2. paint starch onto one side of the paper
3. Place tissue paper onto wet side and paint more starch onto it till wet.
4. Once covered fold the paper in half and press down.
5. I used a heating tool to quick dry it.
6. Trim if needed and tape or hot glue it into place from the inside of the window
7. You or your kids can ad black lines with a Sharpie pen to give an authentic stained glass look.

Here is Quentin next to our finished church. We placed it in front of the window so we could see the colors of the windows. We also made Sherwood Forest the Jail of Nottingham and Prince Johns Castle.

Here is Milton coloring some of the branches for the tree of Sherwood Forest where Robin Hood and his Merry Men lived.

Here is our Jail of Nottingham where the Sheriff had locked up people for not paying taxes or for being part of Robin Hoods Merry Men.

Sock dryer balls

Check out the save a penny page to learn how to make your very own dryer balls from socks and cotton cloth.

Homeschool PE

Homeschool PE

So we took the boys over to the high school track to do a little running and jumping. Milton ran a quarter mile in 2 minutes and 24 seconds (watch it here). Then the boys took turns trying to do the long jump. After Daddy showed Milton how it was done his jump improved a little. Quentin had to try it too. Milton also wants to learn how to do a back flip so we figured a front flip would be the place to start. The boys jumped on the pole vaulting foam mat and Milton tried to imitate Daddies front flip. He is up to an extended arm somersault for now. We were running and jumping for about an hour and they had a lot of fun. Click on the links above to see them in action.

Experiment

Can you see the wind? Well maybe if you live in the high desert and a sand storm kicks up. Milton and I read a little about air currents (Quentin and I happen to see a video about the same thing) and how warm and cool air react to each other.

So we filled a mason jar with ice cold water. The in a small glass bottle we put in hot water. Next we were suppose to all food coloring but I could not find the cheap ones i had. So we added sugar sprinkles instead and let it dissolve.

With a ribbon tied around the little bottle we lowered it into the mason jar. After waiting a couple minutes the green started to slowly come out. This is to demonstrate how hot is lighter than cold. The hot water floats to the surface. We could be how it swirls and how a current works.

Burp Cloth

Check out the Save a Penny page to see how to make your own super soft burp cloths for your baby or great affordable baby gift. I think this may become my baby shower gift staple.

ROCKS!

See what we are going to do with rocks on teh Field Trip page.

Handmade Dryer Sheets

Check out how to make handmade dryer sheets on the Save a Penny page. Get rid of chemicals on your cloths, stop paying for dryer sheets and enjoy the lovely smell of your choice.

Save a Penny Page

So how many of us are not trying to find ways to save money?

I will admit that I am not the best at saving money. My husband would probably say that I do not know how to at all. But I am trying to turn over a new leaf and say "I CAN SAVE MONEY!" How does one save money? Spend less ten you make and get out of debt. June is my goal. Debt free and saving money. Yeah, I can do it.

As you can see above, I have created a page devoted just to that...Saving Money. I will post my projects and ideas there. I want to spend less and practice the 3 R's (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). I hope you will learn right along with me.

Here is my challenge. Not getting to excited and spend a bunch of money to save money. We shall see. Feel free to leave comments and your own ideas especially if it has to do with the 3 R's.

Water Colors

  Today was our home school library group. I lined up a visitor, Jerry Lindsay, our local National Parks artist in resident to come and talk to our group about water color art.




He taught us how to make a sunset/sky and the idea  of using silhouette in ones paintings.
                                                                                 Christine's Quentin and Milton's Library attempts



The children 7 and up enjoyed it. The younger ones painted for a little while and then went off to play in the children's area.

This inspired Milton to want to practice painting later this afternoon so we both sat down to practice our new learned skills. Here is a sampling of our art.

Milton's-Sunrise and Western          

Christine-Scottish Mist                  








Christine-Black Snow at Dawn

New Look

What do you think of this new look?