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.