in case you were wondering...

This big walking stick was hanging out on our kitchen window, looking in. We made a little home for her in the living room and plan to study her for the next few weeks. Her name is "Taco".

Art Appreciation at the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum



Gracy and Maggie peering through some glass work at the museum.



The park across the street was a blast!

We finally got around to our art project with the leaves we collected a few weeks ago. Didn't they turn out great?
We have a frog, a mouse, a couple of race cars, an elephant, and a bear!





But we still took some time to play in the leaves outside!

Time for our Think! Challenge again!

This week, the challenge is to sculpt an apple using only your teeth and 4 toothpicks. When you are done, it should look like a person, place, or thing.

We had a tasty blast with this week's challenge. Maggie dug right in. Gracy kept asking me for more detailed directions and got a little frustrated when I just kept reading the directions to her. Eventually she bit off a chunk of apple and got started.







Gracy made a two-faced apple. Comedy & Tragedy perhaps?




Maggie proudly displays her UFO.

While I was doing the research to get away from workbook only homeschool, I found this awesome site by following link after link after link...It's Think! (click to check it out!) We took on this week's challenge to think outside the box. Please remember it's our first time thinking outside the box....


This week's challenge:

Place the following materials on the table:

12 straws
12 inches of tape
scissors (these may not be used in the solution)
an egg (raw or hard-boiled although raw is more fun)

The challenge is to build a structure that will support the egg and keep it at least one inch above the surface of the table. You may not tape anything to the table or the egg. You may not use any materials besides those listed above. Good luck!

I'd like to note that we did in fact stick with the more fun, raw egg.


No one can accuse Mags of being an over-achiever. As soon as her egg perch hit an inch, she was done!


Gracy was struggling. She was a bit confused when her little sister seemed to be beating her in the challenge... I kept asking her what her plan was, she didn't have one...


I love the side rails Maggie put up to protect her egg from falling off. This was an addition after I informed the girls if they broke their eggs, they would clean them up! :)


Take 2! Gracy still doesn't have an idea, but she knows her last non-idea isn't going to work.


The light bulb moment!



Once again...we hit an inch. That's all that is required...that and she ran out of tape.

The girls had so much fun they wanted to do another challenge right away. I told them a new challenge comes out every week. "Why can't we go back and do old ones then???" It's a hit! Can't wait to find out what next week's Think! challenge will be!!!

In one of our more recent weekly meetings I asked each of the girls, "If you could decide how the school day went, how would you do your learning?" Gracy's ideal school day would be her reading books all day. She'd just read novels that happen to have facts woven into them. She'd never look at another worksheet, test, or report again. When I asked her how I would know she learned anything she said, "I'd just tell you the stuff." Maggie's perfect school setup is nothing but field trips. She'd go to a different museum every single day. She doesn't care what she'd have to do to show me she learned things. She'd be fine filling in worksheets, taking tests, writing reports, or whatever. As long as she can go look at things and flip up the "fact flaps" she'd be happy. Both of these are completely opposite from our current workbook style set up.

I asked because I wanted to know, but now we have some changes to make. We're just starting this homeschool thing, and we're going to have to find our style. I want it to be a style the girls enjoy as well as learn from. I don't want to mimic school and teach to the test. I don't want them to learn things only long enough to regurgitate it at the appropriate time only to later be lost forever. Why bother learning it at all if it never sticks?

So what will we do now? I started researching alternative teaching methods, learning styles, and on-and-on....our new plan is a hopefully harmonious blend of both the workbook school and the free flowing school the girls would create.

On the days I work, we're going to stick with the more self-guided workbook learning. I typically add educational games (both online and not) and small projects to these to make them more interesting all ready. These will also be the days they work on their typing class, and get in a little extra reading. They are going to slightly increase the amount of work they do on these days to make up for not doing this work on the days I'm home.

On the days I get to be home with them all day, we're going to change things up a bit. We're going to keep the math and spelling workbooks going on these days, and they will also still have to get in their daily reading. We'll also set aside time to work on things they may be struggling with if extra work is needed. The rest of the day will be more hands-on child-led learning. We're starting with graphic organizers AKA lapbooks.

Gracy has a life long fascination with the ocean, so she's starting a study on starfish. She's checked out every book about starfish from the library, searched a bunch of internet sites and has been taking excellent notes. I can't wait until she starts to put together her visuals, because it sounds like she has some really neat ideas. I was excited to have her giving me fascinating facts she was learning every couple of minutes. She was having so much fun, I had to force her to stop for lunch!

At the beginning of the year, Maggie expressed an interest in learning more about the US Presidents. I figured this was a great starting point for her. We started by talking about mind mapping. Being a visual learner, she jumped at this and started right away. I found some graphics of the presidents to print and she's taking off with it. I think she all ready knows WAY more about the presidents than the average American. Two highlights from her: When she was comparing two pictures of George Washington, she was commenting on which one made him look younger. (Who does that?! I never thought about George Washington looking anything but old!) And then she saw a picture of Chester Arthur without facial hair and she noticed! "Hey! That guy has crazy facial hair in my book!" Yikes. How many people even know he was a president let alone that he had "crazy facial hair"?

The girls have also decided to work on a topic together. They picked dolphins, and I'm sure Maggie got only a little pressure from her sister on that one! But they were having so much fun on their individual topics today they never got around to starting it.

It was field trip Friday once again! This time we went on yet another hike, but in a different location. We also went with a specific artistic purpose. To find leaves. I recently checked out a great book from the library that had all kids of crazy animals made out of pressed leaves. It was more inspirational than the average leaf book because they used lots of little leaves for details (scales on fish, eyes, etc).

So today after our picnic lunch, we hunted for leaves while trying to imagine what the different shapes could be. Maggie and her friend had to be continuously reminded to look for different shapes though, or they would've ended up with nothing but crazy colored maple leaves.






Crayfish! What a pleasant surprise to find crayfish in the water! You might have to click on the top photo to actually see the crayfish hiding in between the rocks. The bottom picture is the smallest crayfish I'd ever seen. Gracy found it under a rock. I think when I was younger I tried NOT to turn over rocks to see what was under them. It made me queasy. I'm glad the girls have more adventure in them!


Then there's the graffiti. The kids found some charred wood and picked up a couple of pieces. Later they used it to tag the area with smiles. The graffiti that washes off. :)




The kids were forbidden from crossing the stream of water here because it was too high to cross and stay dry. So they plotted, planned and schemed. Made it look like they were throwing rocks and suddenly...voila! A rock bridge. Now they could cross and stay dry.

This is what gym class looks like as everyone is leaving. I am always pleasently surprised at the number of kids that come out for gym class. I'm so thankful for the person that pulls this all together! She amazes me. I only helped out in the 6-8th grade soccer area today, and I was ready to throw in the towel. Of course, I don't know anything about soccer...that doesn't help :)

We've recently decided to do a little bit of extra work Monday through Thursday to leave Fridays for fun stuff. If we get a whole weeks worth of work done in four days, we have an extra day to do some of the things we don't have time to do otherwise.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>START RABBIT TRAIL<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
By the way, I can't even belive that we don't find time to do stuff. For some reason, I was worried that I'd run out of ideas and the girls might be disappointed. NOT THE CASE! I'm ditching ideas left and right because I've over planned. I know, I know. I'm a chronic over-planner. I haven't found the support group for it yet. Maybe there isn't one. I could start planning for one...
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>END RABBIT TRAIL<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Anyway, we picked Friday not only because it's at the end of the week and starts with "f" (so we could call them Fabulously Free For Fun Stuff Fridays), but because we all ready have gym every Friday morning for two hours with our homeschool association. After gym class we've been enjoying lunch and art class with our friends, rotating which house we make a mess in.

This week was the third or fourth week they worked on 3-D paper projects, so they started to get a bit bored and off track. We decided to ditch the end of art class and take a field trip that would include lots of walking and fresh air.

Plus, honestly, I think I'm wanting to cram in as many outside activities as we can before it's cold and yucky. And its not like the girls have been complaining about all the outside, hands-on learning time! :)



Even with backs turned, you can pick Maggie (and her fine color matching abilities) out of our small crowd. Gracy was funny when we first got there. She pretended she didn't like the place, but she begs to go all the time! Stinker!



The last few field trips we've taken we've found the famous black and brown fuzzy caterpillar. Every one of them feels the need to poop on whomever is brave enough to hold it. This one was no exception. For some reason the younger girls were surprised its poop was green...I wonder what color they thought digested leaves would be.





I'm sure these flowers looked prettier at some point earlier in the year.



I'm not sure why I didn't photograph the wild grapes we found growing along the trail (and enjoyed munching on). Or the acorn that one of the kids smashed on the ground to taste. Makes me want to borrow a field guide from the library and see what else is hanging around that I don't recognize!

The girls have been enjoying morning recess. I tell them it's 15 minutes, but sometimes I let them play outside for 25-30, especially if they are moving around a lot and giggles are plentiful.

Thursday was no exception. I could hear the squeals of delight, so I went out to take some pictures. I was so proud they decided all on their own to play soccer this week. So I started snapping away thinking about how fun it would be to have a recess page in our yearbooks.

Then I discovered they were wearing slippers. Outside.

Now I did just tell them this was a good time of year to bust out the slips and bathrobes, since we're too cheap to turn on the heat yet. I should've clarified they were for indoors. They laughed tossed back some smart remark about it being homeschool and therefore slippers were appropriate recess attire.

At least they're having fun, right?!

The 4 Stages in the Life of a Butterfly by Maggie

Well, it was the first thing she did this morning, but I had to tell Maggie I was a bit disappointed in her effort here. While I do appreciate that she kept the same number of examples throughout her drawing, the ripped paper and the fuzzy looking caterpillars were not exactly what I had in mind. She added color reluctantly after my strong encouragement to do a good job. I told her I really valued quality over speed...







The 3 Body Parts of a Caterpillar by Maggie

...so she took a little more time on this one. I learned something new on this drawing. I had no idea that caterpillars have six eyes! Butterflies, by the way, only have two.

After months of reading about WWII, Gracy's projects are finally complete. She wrote a report complete with outline and bibliography and then had these two projects. Yes, she's still reading books about WWII.

I was a bit disappointed with this diorama. She started out strong and had lots of ideas. She worked really hard for one day and deciding she was tired of working on it called it done. I kept trying to get her to go back, but she was finished. I love the train car complete with mini marshmallow wheels. I also tried not to giggle when she used mini marshmallows for the German soldiers but left the Jews to be wire or toothpick people "because they were starving". I guess she pictured the German soldiers to have pot bellies. She made the fence out of an unusual combination of wire and hot glue. I was a bit disturbed by the toothpick Jewish person throwing himself into the electric fence to end it all. "What?! It really happened, Mom!"


And then there's the propaganda poster I requested. Try to make one up yourself I said. Try not to copy one that all ready exists. What would you have said to people in a poster back then? The result? "What?! I changed it. On the original the Uncle Sam is pointing at people." Ugh. It's a start. Baby steps... She did a great job making him look friendly...

Field Trip!

With Maggie off to her dad's house today, Gracy and I grabbed the neighbor and took her with us the botanical gardens for a field trip. It was the perfect day for it. The weather was not too hot, and not cool enough to need a sweatshirt. The sun was shinning part of the day, then lit up the cloud cover in the afternoon. And the best part - FREE! Family Day at the botanical gardens!

We went late enough in the afternoon that they had shut down the craft section and the food section, (in other words, Gracy slept until 11 and then we decided it would be less crowded toward the end of the day anyhow) but we still had a good 3 hours to wander the gardens. We had a great time and took a billion photos. It was hard to narrow down which ones to post!

We were amazed at this tree. It had these greenish-brown pods with bright orange berries just popping out of them. We were equally surprised to find out it was a type of magnolia. Bright and shiny, just like our little Magnolia. It's official name: Encore Loebner Magnolia.


I love this! If I get to plant a garden next year, I want to grow something (peas, beans, flowers, whatever) on a tee pee made of branches! I figure the victorian style is too complicated. But this! I can do cute, rustic, and whimsical! :)

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Along that same note, I told Gracy we should try to do this for the boarder of our next garden. How fun!



I love this picture. I had to stand on my tiptoes and reach the camera way up and over to get this flower. I couldn't even see what it looked like. I was happily surprised to see a ladybug resting on the flower!


Gracy and I were geeking out about how cool it would be to have this at home. They actually grew gourds up over our heads! We want to try this out someday.


While walking on the prairie trail we talked about how strange it must have been for the first settlers in our area to come through here in a covered wagon (Laura Ingles Wilder inspired, of course) without any roads.


I couldn't find a tag to tell me what kind of flower this was, but I want to make sure not to ever plant it. There were bees everywhere! Most of the flowers had multiple bees. Good for honey, I suppose...


I told the girls to lean on the door, cross their arms and look tough...Yeah...I don't think they know how to "look tough". I suppose that's a good thing...



This is a worm's view (on the ground looking up).


Oooooo! Pretty!


Oooooo! Prettier!


The girls couldn't resist snuggling up! And yes, they did try to pluck the strings on the violin.


Gracy said she wants "one of these" at home. "You know....viny things growing up all over and making it all dark and then whoosh...maybe we could build one." Maybe she's never seen her mom with a hammer...


This spot freaked me out. Notice the person in the lower right hand corner of the picture? See how tiny? How far away? When the girls first jumped up here I had a mini stroke thinking they'd fall off and die (no drama here, right?!). They, of course, laughed at me. The drop is about 18 inches. And then there's a steep hill.


True confession time here. I took this picture out of pure boredom. The girls stared out this window for 5 minutes (but it felt longer because there was nothing else to look at). I like how it turned out so thought I'd share it.


Gorgeous Gracy!


If Gracy were Rapunzel...


Why is it so hard to resist wooden cut out photo opportunities?! And why did I leave out most of the wooden cut out?!