Golf it is

So Milton has been showing an interest in Golf. "Why not" I thought. So I started to look into lessons and oh my goodness...So NOT affordable when there is no income for the most part. So what to do???

Well, we already had two golf clubs given to us in Page that are kid sized. Lucky there. We were at Walmart looking for something and I ran across their golf section. $3.00 red plastic golf balls to practice driving. $3.00 golf tees. Then we looked up golf grip and how to drive the ball basics on YouTube. Perfect!

Milton was outside working on his swing.

Today I was in the Thrift store looking for a desk I could use for sewing and what did I find? A putt and return putting green. Complete with water and sand hazard. Boy did the boys have fun with that.

I will be checking out a DVD from the public library once it gets here. A kids instructional video on golfing. I cant wait and Milton is excited. Now we just have to find a mentor who would be willing to stop by now and then and give him some tips.

A new school year

So a new school year is about to be under way but it is starting with a bang. We just moved cross country from Arizona to Ohio for my husband to start his PHD in Music Education. We have been unpacking for a while but are enjoying all of the wonderful things to do so much we keep going out for most of the day and having to much fun. We are facing a few years of full time student life with our new family of 5 and figuring that all out. And then to top it off we just found out that Milo has Type 1 Diabetes. Yeah for us! another adventure to begin within our adventure.

This all happened the weekend before my husband started school. Talk about a tornado hitting. Everything hit the fan to say the least. Milo is doing better now and we have been doing this new life for 2 weeks and there are still so many questions but they will be answered as time passes. But hey...life must go on.

I am excited about our new year in learning great things. We are easing into it this year but have already learned some really neat stuff. I love it when I am learning things for the first time with my children. It cracks me up when Quincy asks about people like Archimedes and Pythagoras. Who would have thought.

Check out my oldest holding an Aligator on the Field Trip page. Road trip with his dad to our new home.

Sorry I have not posted in so long. I did have my Baby boy Pierce Thomas on April 10th at 6:04 am. He was 6 lbs and 4 oz, 18 inches long. We are moving and I will continue to post once we are settled into to our new home of Ohio. Till I post again...have a great summer.

Juice Jello

Check out the Save A Penny Page to learn how to make Jello with your favorite Juice.

How a tree grows

So Milton said that he wanted to learn about trees today. I thought I would share some of the resources I found if your child would be interested in the same thing.


Visit How Does A Tree Grow to learn in a more detailed way how a tree grows. You will learn the word Meristems and how these cells effect how a tree grows.


Also check out these You tube videos to lean about how the age of a tree is determined, watch an acorn grow into a tree

Age of a tree

Acorn grows into a tree (time lapse)

The Giving Tree read by Shel Sivertein (1973)

How To Plant A Tree

ENJOY!

Spring Gardening POOP!

POOP! We got our steer manuer and the boys had to get it to the backyard for me. 4 bags were a tough job for the two of them but they did it.

Milton then had to open the bags using a shovle and then dump them out into the boxes.

Milton got a little help from his little brother Quentin. Quentin then decided to treat the poop as a sand box. He did not seem to mind the fact that it came from a cow.

Warmer Days

Its finaly warming up and Milton is out of town with his Dad so Quentin got to enjoy an ice cream sandwhich in the back yard.

Watering Quentin

Quentin wanted to help water plants so gave him 15 minutes to water the grass in the play area. This is what ended up happening.

YEP, that is him standing in a wagon of water shoes, socks, pants and all.

Slimy the Snail

MEET SLIMY THE SNAIL. To day was a beautiful day out and the boys found this tiny little guy in the back yard. They spent an hour or two outside playing with HER, yes her, and building her places to play.  She was a brave little snail. Even with all of the attention she kept her head out of her shell and did not want to miss a second of her adventure. Click here to see a video of Slimy.

Here is Quentin trying to pick Slimy up.

Can you find Slimy in this photo? The boys thought the fire truck would be a good place for Slimy to live. Milton added green weeds to it to make it more like her home and for food for her to eat.

Look at how they are watching over her.

Food Storage Fun

So we had to change out bedroom around to get ready for baby and the boys were in charge of moving the #10 cans of food out into the hall. This is what they came up with. A fort of course!

Starting Tomatos

So our tomato plants are doing well. Milton had noticed the direction the plants were facing so I wanted to show him how plants lean towards the sun. So we turned the tray so the plants were looking into the house.

 Then before he went to bed we looking at them again and they were standing strait up.

By part way through the day they had turned their little heads toward the sun outside of the window.

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.