Filled With Joy: Birds, Goldfish, & More

This week did not bring nearly as much excitement as last week. However, it is never dull at our house. I don't think we'll have a "dull" moment until all the little birdies leave their nest.

Muffy's Sketch Tuesday--Something that Hums

Speaking of birds, Thornton Burgess has made a bird lover out of Muffy. You can find her with a camera set to zoom in her free time. She read about several varieties of blackbirds and the ruby-throated hummingbird. We are all working through some nature lessons from Handbook of Nature Study, so she was excited to find out the blackbird likes to sit upon mullein, the weed we learned about last week. Another homeschool mom over at the blog Satori Smiles has links set up for every chapter of the Burgess Bird Book, including photos, more information, and coloring pages to which the little miss takes advantage. She has the audio linked for each chapter as well, but for now Muffy is reading it since we own the book. For "Sketch Tuesday" she drew a hummingbird and submitted it to the slideshow over at harmonyartmom.blogspot.com. I also introduced Muffy to the world of Shakespeare with Bruce Colville's beautifully illustrated picture book, A Winter's Tale, which she loved.

Cupcake and the Fish

Cupcake had a themed lesson to go with the Dr. Seuss book, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. We graphed goldfish crackers according to color, as well as counted groups of goldfish. We began our Hooked-On-Phonics program, learning the letters "m", "n", and "p". It is so simple and cheesy, but she likes it. She was thrilled I located her battery-operated Thomas the Tank Engine. He's been missing for a few days. Sometimes she drives them into the kitchen. Apparently, Thomas was hiding from Sir Topham in the box of clean garbage bags in the island. He wasn't alone though. Oliver was keeping him company.

S-- has hit another milestone. He's outgrown his 3/4 violin! So, today we got a rental with the intent to purchase in a few months. The owner of the violin shop was out of the usual rentals in full size, so he rented him one of the more expensive ones. My eyes about popped out of my head when he told me the price value for it. Needless to say, he will be taking extra good care of it, but it won't be the one we purchase. It sure has a rich beautiful sound. He might need to get a job!

Both boys are working at their Ambleside Pre-7 lists, essentially prerequisites for next year to begin Ambleside Online House of Education (middle and high school years). So, this week they are both reading various books from The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. E-- had already read a couple of them this past summer, but they are new for S--.

Another AO Pre-7 book is the unabridged Pilgrim's Progress. S-- and I began it yesterday. The dictionary sits very close as we take it slowly. The language of it is amazing.

S-- also began Algebra this week. He's completely independent with it and so far he's doing fine.

E-- continues his interest in geology, paleontology, etc. I never have to ask him to do his science. He likes to listen to the audio version of the textbook on his Ipad. He's spent some time this week daredevil climbing outside and reading the latest Our State magazine.

In history, we finished up Ahknaton (aka Amenhotep IV) and Queen Nefertiti. He believed there was only one true god, but unfortunately did not know the ONE TRUE GOD. Writing assignments this week focused on history. S-- chose Amenhotep IV, Egyptian king; E-- chose Thutmose IV, Egyptian king; and Muffy chose Howard Carter, Egyptologist.

In Bible, Elijah showed God's power against the prophets of Baal. Our workbook had an interesting map lesson to review the main points of Elijah's life and ministry.

We finally finished our missionary biography of David Livingstone to coordinate with our geography studies of Africa. We also came to the end of Lois Lenski's Prairie School, our for fun read-a-loud over the winter months. The story line, although fiction, takes place during extreme blizzards of the 50's in a town quite close to where Matt grew up in South Dakota. Lenski did quite a bit of research and interviews to write the book. She's also known for her more popular book Strawberry Girl.

I've gotten to 40% on the Charlotte Mason's volume one, mainly so far about nature study and habits. Oh habit training would be so much easier if instilled from itty bitty!! As for my just for fun book, An Old-Fashioned Girl, I'm only at 14%.

Matt put up a whole wall of cabinets to replace the shelf that fell last week and yes, most of them are full already. He has been careful to wear only his clothes this week. Plans are in the works to help the girls (and maybe the boys) build some birdhouses.