Bat in the House and Other Nature Stories

This has been an exciting week for us. We found two bats in our house on two different days. They were very cute. We caught them with our handy dandy butterfly nets and released them outside, but not before looking at them (not touching!!) and taking a good number of pictures. We are thinking we may have a nest up in the attic, but haven't checked yet. We aren't sure what to do it we do find a nest. I really don't want to have to exterminate them.

Yesterday we found a Brown Snake in the garden. We caught it, brought it inside to watch and study.. and woke up to find it loose in the house...

We purchased a new bird feeder - one of those with a suction cup to stick to your window and within hours we discovered that the Tufted Titmice (which happen to be one of my favorites) love the location of it since it is near our large Rhododendron bush. Now that a few days have past, we have enjoyed hours of watching five Tufted Titmice eat from it daily, we discovered with have Morning Doves that like to eat the seeds that fall from the feeder. We also saw for the first time a small flock of sweet little Carolina Wrens and a Mocking Bird. The Blue Jays and Cardinals have also enjoyed the fallen seeds. Oh, and I almost forgot the Chickadees! They love to fly up to the feeder along with the Titmice. What joy!

We also purchased a hung up our first Humming Bird feeder and bought a second one that I hope to get hung up soon.

The recipe for Humming Bird nectar:

1 part cane sugar
3 parts water

Mix together well so that the sugar dissolves and place in feeder. Clean feeder about once a month with a bottle feeder without using soap - add a small amount of bleach to your water when washing. Do not add red dye to your nectar.

We saw a many selling bird houses on the side of the road for only $3.00 each and bought one for each of the girls. We came home and let them each paint them.

We went berry picking and picked 23 pounds total of blueberries and blackberries! Unfortunately for my daughter Emily there was poison ivy growing in the blueberries and we did not catch it soon enough. Her "picking arm" itches pretty bad.

I have made cobblers and jams and will be finishing up the canning today of not only the berries but peaches and cucumber pickles. Homemade ice cream is on the menu with peach topping...

It has been a really nice week with my girls and the weather has been sooooo spring like. I love it!

Lesson Plan Ideas

In years past I have make detailed weekly lesson plans. Last year for the first time I simply made charts with each textbooks lessons listed:

• Lesson One
• Lesson Two
• Lesson Three
• Test
• Lesson Four

And so on.... Each lesson had a box to check off when the lesson was complete. I also added on the Textbook/ Subjects Page any other assignments I wished for them to complete during the course of the year. For example:

• Animal Report #1
• Animal Report #2
• Animal Report #3

And so on...

This method was much easier and lesson time consuming for me. Perhaps it would work for you.

Food Storage

I have been trying to move away from using so much plastic. I still have a few pieces that I use from time to time. However, my new favorite way to store leftovers, mixes, or anything really is the Mason Jar.

In the photo you can see a variety of foods that I have stored in Mason jars. Homemade jams, applesauce, baking mix, and even leftover soup. At Wal-Mart I purchased regular and wide mouth plastic lids that fit on Mason jars. You can find these lids in the canning section of most grocery/ discount stores.

My other favorite storage containers are a set of glass with green lids containers that I got from Kmart (Martha Stewart Brand). I just love the color - it matches my kitchen well!

I love canning, so I always have an abundance of Mason jars sitting around. If you don't, you could use old mayonnaise jars. We purposely buy spaghetti sauce from companies that use actual mason jars - I like to reuse them in my own canning and these make perfect leftover storage and the lids work well on any Mason jar (see the gold lids above)! If you can't get the label off try using a solution like Goo Gone or immerse the jar into boiling water for about 5 minutes and then as soon as you pull it out use a knife to scrape off the paper and glue.

Using glass jars for food storage is economical, healthier, and good for the environment! For more kitchen tips, visit Tammy's Recipes!

Back to Homeschool 2009 - 2010

It's that time of year again. Time to decide what to learn this year....

I am very excited - I love buying the new books each year and making plans for our studies. I was very pleased with most of our curriculum choices from last year, so I will be using many of the same publishers and resources.

We have been using Math U See. I may use it again this year, but I am considering a new curriculum for math called Teaching Textbooks.

Mystery of History - Vol II

Learning Language Arts through Literature:

Apologia Science - Land Animals of the Sixth Day

Teaching Textbooks

Peterson Field Guide to Mammals of North America: Fourth Edition (Peterson Field Guide Series)

A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America (Peterson Field Guide Series)

Draw Real Animals! (Discover Drawing Series)

Books on My Wishlist...

Draw Write Now, Book 1-8

Handbook of Nature Study

Creating Nature in Watercolor: An Artist's Guide

I also found this resource that I hope to be able to use not only with my own daughters, but with the young girls I work with in our church and community:

Future Christian Homemaker's Handbook - free download!

We will be using Homeschool Share again this year, quite extensively for my youngest children. This is a wonderful resource!

Our love of nature study continues. We are currently raising three Ringneck Snakes (with four eggs waiting to be hatched!), two Fowler's Toads, one Skink Lizard (Red Headed Scorpion), have found two bats in our house this week which we watched and then released, and spend hours every day watching the myriad of birds who dine at our feeders.

I think this is what brings me the most joy. Spending quiet moments wrapped up in the beauty of God's creation enjoying all of the sights and sounds and tastes alongside of my children.

Each of the girls received really nice art sets for their birthdays this year. Each set included an easel, watercolors, acrylics, oils, oil pastels, colored pencils, watercolor paper, and more. We will continue to use these and I hope to spend more time this year on our nature journals. I want to begin using the Outdoor Hour Challenges - you can download these wonderful guides free - look on the sidebar at Harmony Art Mom's blog!

I will also be re-reading Pocketful of Pinecones: Nature Study With the Gentle Art of Learning.

I have handwriting workbooks that were given to me and lots of wonderful Bible Readers from years ago that we will be using. I also want to focus more on Church History and the Martyrs this year. Also, we are about to begin a read aloud of "Blessings" by Jerry D. Thomas, adapted from "Mount of Blessings" by Ellen White's original writing. The book is a commentary of sorts on the Sermon on the Mount. Really good stuff!

Something different I will be trying this year for our record keeping is "Homeschool Journaling." I am going to journal our learning each day rather than plan actual lesson plans for my younger children. My oldest two will still have their lesson sheets that they must complete and mark off.


I will be adding all these links to my sidebar. As I change my plans and such, you can find the updates there.

Are you wondering

where I have been the last couple of weeks? Well, I am alive, if you were worried! The summer days have been filled with family and friends, trips to the park, picnics, church, birthday parties, cleaning the house, lots and lots of gardening... in a word - busy. In another word - lovely.

Anyway, I don't have time tonight to chit chat for tomorrow we are on a journey to You Pick Farms in Tennessee. I am hoping for some really yummy fruit and berries! This is the best way to spend summer. I hope you are enjoying yours!