A Sunset Walk on the Beach

We started school bright and early so that we would be done in time for our friends to come over for a play date.

• Hershey started off with his counting bears right away. He sorted the colors into their cups and then counted how many cups there were. I was super impressed. This was the first time he used rational counting and did not just count by rote. 
• Twizzler learned how to make a cursive G. We had to practice the capital G several times to get it right. I was very particular about this letter because it is the first letter of his real name. 
• In science we researched the things that grey squirrels eat. I had no idea they had such a varied diet. They don't just eat nuts and seeds. They eat bugs, frogs, eggs, and even each other! (Shudder)
• Skittles whizzed through his school work today. 
• We spent the afternoon at the pool with friends. Then Skittles and Twizzler went to their house to play. 
• We went for a sunset walk on the beach. We measured tracks in the sand. They took turns running and then walking and saw the difference in the distance between the footprints. 
  
         We also looked at bird tracks. 
  
           We also looked at the beautiful waves that the water makes in the sand. It felt funny to walk on. 
  

There is nothing more relaxing than ending the day with a sunset walk on the beach with my 3 favorite guys. 

Out of This World

We got to go to Embry Riddle Aeronautical University last night to check out their new telescope and Astronomy building. First we went on a tour of a scale model of our solar system. We started off at the sun which was about the size of a soccer ball. Then we walked about 50 yards to the scale model of mercury. It was the size of a pin head. It was a long walk all the way to Uranus, let me tell you.

Then we got to go on the rooftop and look through some telescopes at the moon, Jupiter, and Mars. My favorite part of the night was seeing Jupiter. It was really beautiful. We could see 4 of its glistening moons lined up in orbit. 

Then we got to see the BIG telescope. ERAU has the largest university based research telescope. It was very impressive. 

After looking at the new telescope, we went into the red room. They showed us some images from space on a giant screen. They used a free website called Stellarium. I am downloading it tonight. I can't wait to use it next year when we study the constellations. 

Twizzler was bored with looking at the universe so we went downstairs and played space bingo. It was just a little group of homeschoolers and an astrological engineering student. The questions were really hard. It was not meant for little kids but I was impressed with how much they actually knew. Skittles has not studied outer space since first grade and Twizzler has not studied space at all. Poor Skittles knew the answers to most of the questions but he did not have the answers on his bingo card. If it had been just a trivia game, he would have won. 

Before we went home, we went to the Wright brothers statue. We are going to be studying them in the next couple of weeks. Skittles is so excited. He has been dying to read the book ever since we received our box full of curriculum last summer.

Water Testing

Today we went on a field trip to Lake Ashby to test the water quality.

It was a cold but beautiful day. 

The kids experimented with water.

We came home and journaled about our experiments.

Hershey did not want to be left out so he scribbled on a scrap of paper. 

We learned about being a tinker and made tin lanterns out of old pie tins. The boys drew out what they wanted to design and then hammered nails through to get the lantern. 

We liked the pattern that it made on the wall. Skittles wants to make more and use them to make constellations in his bedroom. 

1. Hershey counted to 3 all by himself today. He counted six fish in the tank at church too but that was with a little help from Mommy. 
2. Twizzler was excited to practice his math facts playing Monkey Math on his new tablet. 
3. Skittles informed me that he read a book that described Japan as an isolated country. "That does not mean that it is covered in ice," he explained, "It means that their communication with the outside world was frozen." 

Nature Study

Today we went to the beach because it was 85 degrees. Yes I know it is January that is why I posted a bunch of pictures on my FB page to taunt my family and friends up north.
Any way, we made some great discoveries.
First the beach was covered in Cannonball Jellies. When I say covered, I mean, they were about 1-4 feet apart. They do have a mild toxin in their mucus. So I moved them out of the way so that the kids could play without any worries.

Twizzler begged to get in the water but it was ice cold and there was a big ole Jelly tumbling in the waves. 

Running along side the Jelly was a Spider crab. 

I had fun taking pictures of all the animals around us. I should have gotten some pictures of the birds. There were so many and I absolutely LOVE sea birds. But my favorite thing to take pictures of was my kids. We had so much fun together. I feel very blessed to live in Florida. I do not miss spending all winter cooped up in the house. 

Conquering Fears

To celebrate Skittles turning 10, I took him to Busch Gardens. We all woke up at 6 am so that I could drop off Hershey with Nana. Twizzler also stayed despite me spending the past month trying to convince him to come with us. He is terrified of roller coasters right now.

The great thing about homeschooling is that we can go to the theme parks during the week when they are half price and there are no lines. Skittles and I rode every single roller coaster working our way up from the little Air Grover, to the terrifying ShieKra.

Before I had kids I was stupid fearless. I went on every roller coaster and any other crazy ride that I came across. Then I had kids and fears crept up in me. I became afraid of heights and big roller coasters and scary movies. When we started out today, we were both apprehensive about the big coasters. We walked past them, looked up at them and decided not to ride. Skittles talked me into following him through a tree top adventure. It freaked me out a bit. We were walking on ropes and looking through nets at the ground below. It is amazing that the fears I have had since Skittles was born are the same fears that I conquered today along side of him.

When he asked me to go on the first big coaster, it was one I rode 16 years ago so I did not blink. I was not afraid of it. Once he had braved the Kumba, he was ready to take on any coaster in the park... except the SheiKra, which we both decided was never going to happen. We walked the entire park 2 times and ran about halfway through it chasing the elusive train once. We walked from Egypt to the Congo and back again. I feel like I have actually traversed Africa by foot. Every time we would stop at the bottom of SheiKra and say, "Not going to happen! Why would ANYONE want to ride that thing?"

Thirty minutes before closing, Skittles had just conquered his fear of the suspended, looping, Montu. He looked up at me and said, "Mom, I am going to be a fighter pilot one day. I need to face my fear of the SheiKra. I want to ride it." So we walked ALL THE WAY BACK across the continent of Africa!!! I stood in line praying for the Lord to keep us safe. The SheiKra is only 3 rows long but it is 8 seats wide. We sat in the middle seats, middle row. It took us up and up and up. It felt like forever. When we got to the top, it took this slow turn around so that we got a beautiful view of all of Tampa and possibly all of central Florida. Then it inched us towards the edge and stopped. It just hung us there on the edge. I knew it would because we had watched it soooo many times today. We hung and hung and hanging there we could not see the track. It just looked like we were hanging in mid-air. I had a DEATH grip on Skittles hand. I was praying, "God PLEASE don't let these bars fly open!" Then WOOSH! We dropped out of the sky, face first into the ground and there, finally was the track. We went right back up and into a few loops. Right back up again and what do they do??? They decide that just in case the first direct drop was not enough, they are going to do it again. This time straight down into a tower. SERIOUSLY?!?! We survived. It was time to go home. I told Skittles that I had to get a picture of him in front of the coaster that he conquered... we conquered. It just so happens that there is a small pond that the coaster "dips" down into, actually it is a sensor thing that when the coaster goes by, it shoots up a spray at passersby... I had him stand there while the coaster passed once, twice, and, "Hold on. Just one more smile." Third pass and the coaster splashed him!!! IT  WAS AWESOME! That is what you get for dragging your mom through a theme park the size of a continent all day and then taking her on the scariest coaster of her adult life.

We had a great time though. I hope that when Twizzler turns 10, he will be ready to conquer his fears and drag me all over some giant theme park from coaster to coaster.

1. As we were walking through the park, Skittles pointed out examples of simple and compound leaves. 
2. When we walked through the animal habitats, Skittles told me everything he knew about each animal.
   
   He really knows a lot about African animals from reading, Lions at Lunch Time, in co-op. 
3. On the way home I called the other boys. Twizzler told me that he typed me a message on Facebook. Then he asked to talk to Skittles. I love how much they love each other. 
4. Hershey told me all about his day but all I could make out was, "Mama, Nana, boo boo" and a bunch of phrases that sounded like, "I love you" and "I don't know." It was precious. 
5. We had to drive past Disney to go home. As we approached the began their fireworks display and it just so happened that we had a great view of it from beginning to end as we drove past. It felt like God was saying, "Hey, How awesome was this day that I created for you."
6. All the way home Skittles talked my ear off about all the rides today, our family, and his fears. I told him he did a good job facing his fears. He said, "I did not just face my fears. I chased my fears." Oh boy, I have created a monster. LOL. 
7. On the way home from Nana's I asked the boys, "Who had a good day?" Skittles yelled, "ME!" Twizzler yelled, "ME ME ME!" and Hershey yelled, "ME ME ME." 

Day 19 She Sell Seashells...

• Today we classified mollusks into either bilateral or unilateral. Luckily I have a TON of seashells so we got to actually dig through actual shells instead of just classifying them based on pictures in a book. 

• I began a women's bible study this morning. I am looking forward to studying the book of Hebrews over the next 12 weeks. I am also looking forward to the fellowship with other Godly women. 
• Twizzler is learning about lines and line segments in Math. He said it was his favorite thing today. 
• When we do our English lesson, Hershey climbs up in his high chair. He loves to do school with his big brothers. 
• In history, we learned about Pocahontas. She is my favorite Disney princess because she is the only one who actually lived. She led quite an amazing life. 
• Skittles wrote a book report about Sitting Bull. 

Beach Buttons

We had such a full day today. We went to church and then we met some friends at the beach this afternoon. I am pretty tired so here are my happy moments real fast. 

1. Skittles and Twizzler got ready for church on their own and I did not have to send them back to change their clothes. Since most Sundays involve a few wardrobe changes, this was a victory.
2. We were not late for church. :D 
3. Hershey went into the church nursery with no tears. 
4. Skittles and Twizzler pointed out several things at the beach that we have been studying this week. We found the strandline, played in the intertidal zone, and watched a piping plover run around the waves. 
5. Skittles and Twizzler surfed the waves on their boogie boards with their friends. 
6. We discovered a "jellyfish." A blue button jellyfish. There were dozens washing on shore. The kids were playing with them. They are very beautiful creatures and seemed harmless enough until someone got stung. Nothing to serious from what I understand though. 
7. I got to hang out with other grown-ups. :D 
8. Tonight at bath time Hersey said his first sentence, "Mama, I sit." He even said it twice to be sure that I knew what was he was saying. After the bath he felt very chatty. I think I heard, "Mama, I dance," which was followed by a little 2 step. Then he started bringing me things and asking, "Mama, was dat?" 
9. Hershey and I got to Skype with Grammy after the big boys went to bed. 
10. Oh and Tiny was found. We think she may have tumbled off the plant and climbed back up. She looks a little worse for wear but she is safe. 

Day 5 Butterflies in the Making

Some friends of ours called this week and told us that they had some monarch caterpillars in their garden. They offered to give us a few. We picked up some milkweed for them. They are very pretty. We can't wait to watch them build their chrysalis. We named them Fatso, Muncher, and Tiny.

1. Both boys were able to recite their entire bible verse from memory on the first try. 
2. Twizzler helped me read the story of "The Blind Men and the Elephant."  
3. Hershey is talking more and more. It is mostly gibberish but he says it to us like it is very serious stuff. 
4. While running errands, Skittles used his time in the car to read his pocket bible. 

We did not have very much schoolwork today which is a blessing because starting in September, Fridays will be spent at co-op. I am very happy with our curriculum and how it is going so far this year. 

Another Nature Study BOTCHED

I really am just FAILING at Nature studies and it is really showing me how desperately I need to learn more about nature! So last week on our way out of church, right outside the door, we saw THIS...

I HATE spiders!!! But even I have to admit this is a beautiful creature! It really is the prettiest spider I have ever seen! It is also close to the largest EVER! It is certainly the largest I have ever seen in the wild. I have seen bird spiders and tarantulas at zoos and museums but this was a big as a doorknob. I had the boys come over and watch it for a while and I happened to have my camera so I took some pictures. I wish I could have gotten closer and less blurry but I have a terrible camera. 

I thought this spider would be easy to find in the field guide. While we were studying it, a crowd gathered. Everyone around me seemed to agree it was a Banana Spider. When I got home I tried to find "Banana Spider" in our field guide. No luck! I Googled "Banana Spider". I got a bunch of articles with no pictures. Finally I went to Google Images and typed in "Florida Banana Spider". Here is what I got. There it was, mixed in the mess of pictures. I had found it. So, I clicked on the pictures that looked like our spider to see if there was one that matched. Most of them where blogs and other amateur sites. Then I found this. There are 2 spiders on there that look almost the same. I looked at the first one and scrolled down no farther. It said, Golden Silk Spider or Banana Spider. I thought I had my bug, er, arachnid. My son made a beautiful page in his nature notebook about it. 

The next morning, I heard my 7yo showing off his work to my brother in law. My BIL said, "That is not a banana spider. That is just a common garden spider." I hurried out to the living room to show him he was wrong. I mean what does he know? He is from Missouri. He doesn't know our Florida spiders. I mean look at that spider! There is NOTHING common about it! I got out the Field Guide again. I was going to look up "Garden Spider" so I could show him a picture of some boring looking brown spider or whatever looked more common. Guess what I saw that I had not seen when I was looking for "Banana Spider"????

YUP!!!!!! I botched ANOTHER nature study!!!!! FAIL! But what can I say for myself. My BIL was homeschooled, I went to public school...