Extra Curriculars

A few photos from daddy's phone this week:

2 Pirates playing dress-up greeted Daddy when he came home from work

Big sister A made a beautiful glittery lizard at drawing and clay class.

Brother M loves his soccer class. He comes home and tells me about all the things he is learning how to do. I never played soccer, so sometimes I don't know what he is talking about. Then he gives me demonstrations. 

Chickens Week 7: Building a Chicken Coop

 I planned that our chicken coop would be a tractor style - meaning it would be wheeled so that we could move it around the yard. The benefits of this are that it spreads the manure, pest control, and aeration effects of chickens on the grass all around the yard.  

The inspiration photo that I gave my brilliant husband was this one from Green Chicken Coop through William Sonoma.

Here are a series of pictures showing the progress of building the coop over 3 Saturdays:

Carved handles for moving the coop

Nesting boxes at the back

We did a little time capsule and let the kiddos draw on the coop floor

Vinyl tiles on the floor should make it easier to clean.
We will also white wash the interior with lime for sanitation.

Sides and roof are up. 

Family Schooling Summary

Family friends (Nancy and Valerie) visited last week and gave me some new homeschooling ideas for the future. As I was looking into their suggestions I discovered that a well known LDS school (the American Heritage School) has been working on creating a homeschooling curriculum for grades k-8. 

I have been reviewing the sample lessons for each topic area and their are a lot of appealing things about it:

1. The one room school house approach - means that I can teach all the kids together on these core subjects. 
2. It is similar to BYU - a serious curriculum, but with gospel references intermixed
3. I think geography and art lessons are seriously lacking in public schools - so I am glad to see those given equal representation. 
4. There is a network of other LDS homeschoolers (organized by state) that we could tap into. 

My concern is that math and foreign languages have to be added separately (because it is age specific) -- so we would have to divide into groups for that and buy separate materials. 

Also I am not sure whether it makes the most sense to start this in September? or further along in daughter A's studies. 

 Musical learning about the Banjo is already underway with daddy to serenade and assist. 

The cousins visited us and had a sleepover this week.  Everyone wanted to help with the smoothie making. 

 While I worked in the garden the children played (and ate) sand.

They also chased the chickens around and held them on their laps.

 Reading Magic School Bus Beginning readers is a great way to get science and reading in one lesson. We have a 5 pack of those that I got from the Scholastic Reading club. We have been alternating every other sentence with our little reader. She gets frustrated otherwise.

We have also been using these Get Ready for First Grade workbooks to make sure that we have covered everything for Kindergarten and can start first grade materials in September. 

Chicks Week 5 and 6

We have been taking the girls outside every other day or so depending on the weather. They are still not scratching up the turf much, but seem to really enjoy pecking around the weeds.

They are very tame and well socialized (though I say so myself).

Some new arrangements are in place now in the chicken condo. We have continued to raise the light each Monday. The chickens loved jumping on both their food and water containers and were constantly knocking them over as a result. This week we switched over to the adult waterer and feeder. I was worried because it takes up some of the room in their house, but they seem to be fine with it.  The adult waterer is just a 5 gallon feed bucket that we put poultry nipples in the bottom of.  

Ducky is more curious than scared of the kids at this point. She is looking for any bugs that they might drop her way.   The chickens figured out their new waterer in less than 5 minutes. They are curious girls and came over to peck at the nipples right away. At first, they just gave them a quick wack and  ran the other way, and then finally stepped right up to get a good drink.

Having the waterer and feeder hanging side by side seemed to take up all the room in the other box, so I decided to set the feeder up on bricks in the corner of the second box. That way they cannot perch on it or kick the food out. They still managed to tip it over once already, so I might have to secure it some other way. It will be another 4-5 weeks before the coop is ready for them to move outside.

 Sheba, our Australorp, has been the slowest to get her feathers and still has quite a bit of her white baby fuzz. She is calm and easy going and we all love holding her.

Recommended Reading: I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

I loved this book. It is written in the first person, which can be annoying or amazing depending on whether the plot is balanced with the intimacy of the narrator writing about their feelings and perceptions. And who hasn't wanted to live in a castle? This is a beautiful story about the castle, the English countryside, and family relationships.
The story seemed so real, I kept wondering about the author and where her ideas came from. Had she ever slept in a four poster bed in a drafty castle? According to Wikipedia she did grow up in an old house in England and she wrote I Capture the Castle during WWII while living in Pennsylvania and feeling homesick for England.

I remember watching a movie about this book about a decade ago, but I had forgotten most of it. I just remember it being quirky and a bit foreign. But now that I have read the book I am so anxious to watch it again. If for no other reason than the scenery!

Home Schooling Summary

Since I failed to summarize last week's family/educational adventures -- you get a double dose today. 

Daddy celebrated his birthday with brownies and peach cobbler.  I could not find any rhubarb for his favorite pie.

Baby S says "chee" now for "cheese" it is so cute

 Big sister A is getting pretty skilled at embroidery and did this little "Dad" number mostly on her own. I put it in the hoop and threaded the needle.

Picnicking at the nature center playground. I got this cute pouting face from baby S.

Baby S is also saying "guck" now for duck and was very excited to go visit the wooden models at the nature center. He likes our chickens too,  but these stayed nice and still.

They had a class about humming birds and made a neat little humming bird feeder with a recycled plastic soda bottle. It was not our usual teacher and brother M had a little trouble staying on topic.

We dumped all the old sand and got 2 new bags of good clean kid sand from Toys R Us. Now I can get some things done in the garden and they are entertained.

At a different local nature center we visited a model Eastern Native American hut and hollowed out canoe.

The kids favorite part were all the live animals that they had.  We were there taking a class about owls, but they also had an eagle, a turkey vulture, snakes, toads and a a box turtle.

Building projects were a daily affair this week -- mostly forts, all in the living room of course.

I went in to pick up baby S from his crib today and he was laying on his belly reading this book. As soon as he saw me with the camera he started to stand up. It was so cute.

We ordered some new books this week from our Scholastic Reading Club. Mostly beginning readers for big sister A to enjoy and also a couple workbooks to make sure that we are ready for 1st grade materials in September.