Purr-fect Pictures!

I love this photo that I caught of Degen. He took the IPad and climbed right into the cat bed with Lilah to enjoy a few moments with her. So sweet!

Bentley is not always lovey-dovey, but he can be super-duper cuddly when the mood strikes. Here he is hanging out with Kyrie.

Our Lilah! Everybody loves our tiny, gray girl!

Our old boy Brutus enjoying a few moment's peace! 

If I fits, I sits! Big boy Bentley squeezed himself into this small toy bin for a nap during lessons one day!

Kyrie sharing a moment with her kitty Lilah! These two have an amazing bond! 

Homeschool: Oceans

A great unit for the summer! This unit leads us nicely into our Summer Fun unit! My kids are fascinated by the ocean. Kyrie really took an interest in the light depths of the ocean (eg. sunlight, twilight, etc.) and deep-sea creatures. She asked me to help her find information to make a folder about the ocean depths similar to the one she made about the rainforest layers. We had lots of fun books and extra activities, including some tasty snacks (most of which are not pictured).

Degen working on his unit folder. 

Degen's folder

Kyrie working on her unit folder.

Kyrie's folder. We couldn't find many stickers with animals that leave in the midnight zone of the ocean, so Kyrie drew in some of her favorites, including the angler fish.

The kids thought these were a fun treat!

The kids' interest in certain activities ebbs & flows (much like the ocean tide- ha!), but this unit the were really into puzzles. They had some great teamwork going on when they completed the floor puzzle below! 

Though I only got a picture of the final product, the kids headed back into the kitchen to make this cool ocean cake. They mixed the batter and added food coloring to make the cake blue. I put on the blue frosting and the kids added sprinkles shaped like ocean rock, sea stars and fish to make an edible ocean scene. They were very excited about this yummy project. 

Blurry photo, but my cutie crab!

A sticker pic that Degen did during his free time. I always love seeing my kids in the 'quiet' room during their free time.

 I am always on the look-out for educational and/or creative toys. We were wandering one of the kid resale shops and found a great ocean-themed gear set at a great price. Later the same day, the kids opened the box and had a great time putting together the different ocean scenes. They were pretty excited to see how their simple machines worked... and when they got frustrated, we talked about ways to troubleshoot or improve upon the given designs. 

Frogs In the Family

Well, we had this little habitat that you see above that had been sitting in the garage forever. So, we decided to go get some frogs for the kids to put into the habitat. We chose some fire-bellied toads (which are actually frogs) and the kids had fun watching them and feeding them and filling up their pool with water because it mysteriously fell into the bottom of the terrarium. I checked for leaks and couldn't find anything, so we decided that we would go ahead and move the frogs to an aquarium. Isn't this just how it goes?! 

So, I got everything we needed to make our own terrarium in a new aquarium: pools, rocks, moss and plants. And since the photo above was taken, we have added a cave & more plants for the frogs (named by the kids: Tad & Paul). The kids like to feed the frogs their live mealworms. They are disappointed that they can't hold them (the frogs' skin is slightly toxic and our skin is not good for them either), but they enjoy watching them. The cats REALLY enjoy watching them, especially Samson. I think that they are interesting to watch & feed. They also make a chirping sound that is fairly pleasant. 

Kyrie grabbing a mealworm.

Welcome to the family, frogs!

Homeschool: Rainforest & the Zoo

Kyrie's folder was a look at the layers of the rain forest, which she spent time studying during this unit. 

The summer is speeding by and I am just finding time to post about this unit though now it seems so very long ago. Though sometimes our summer units take a bit more time to get through because we are taking time out to have playdates with our friends or do fun things like VBS or day camps. In fact, this unit happened so long ago, that it synced up perfectly with our African safari trek that was part of our Camp Kilimanjaro VBS experience. 

Degen's unit folder.

This unit is always a fun one because we learn about the jungle/rainforest habitat and all the animals that live there. We also talk about the animals that we might find in the zoo. There are a lot of fun and easy "extras" for this unit like stickers and puzzles and activity books. The local dollar store is a great place to find these extras that keep the kids motivated and having fun. 

A craft that Kyrie made during VBS. 

Extra activities

We had quite a few books to explore this unit. I use this unit to cover animals in general, and it gives the kids a chance to share what they already know from some of our past units. 

Kyrie working on an elephant mosaic.

The kids are always excited for a cooking project, so this unit, I decided that we would make some monkey cookies. The kids helped measure & mix ingredients for sugar cookies. Then we cut out out circles (big & small) to make monkey faces. I frosted the cookies with chocolate icing, and the kids helped add the decorations to make the faces. These were easy to put together and yum!

Some of our zoo/jungle snacks. Whenever I can find a way to tie our experiences back to what we are learning, I do.

Holiday Hugs!

Just a short visit to Nanny & Pop-pop's house this trip, and I was so busy enjoying our time together that I didn't get the camera out until we were leaving. I feel lucky to have gotten these great pics. We always love spending time with Nanny & Pop-pop and are grateful for our time together. 

Treasure Hunting

We took a quick trip to enjoy Dude's favorite hobby: antiques! The kids loved this unique antique shop in an old barn. They loved exploring and both left with a few treasures: Degen found an old running medal and Kyrie found a Mardi Gras coin and a cap gun.