MFW: I is for Insect!

We are cruising through MFW

I is for insect!

The tagline: I am a wise child, so I work hard.

 {Remembering the ant hill and all the tunnels the ants dug!}

 We read some insect books...

{The Bee Tree is really lovely!}

 Plugging along in math, counting by 10s

via abacus and matching numbers to it...

 Using the 100s chart to count by 5s...

the clear pebbles show the pattern visually...

 Counting with tally sticks

(I don't know why this is so important for MCPS

but b/c they are doing it, just wanted to make sure she gets it.)

 Extension work for the knobless cylinders...

Eliz really enjoys doing this.

 H is for horse!

Sandpaper letters for Eliz.

We are working our way through the alphabet.

 Journal entry about girl chicks liking boy chicks (sigh).

Emilie already likes a boy (2 years older, I might add)

at church.  She wakes up in the morning and tells me

she dreams about him!  :/

Noooooo!!!  It's too soon!

And lastly, a vintage game -- MY game I played with as a 5 year old!

It was musty but nothing a little bleach couldn't handle.

Eliz loves stacking up the pieces.

What memories it brings back to see this game again!

Chicks!!

The chicks hatched!

 There are 5 in each bin...

 Sweetie pie was the first to hatch...

They are soo cute!!

The girls are going crazy over them.

More pics to come later!

And more chick books to read up on soon!

Spring is here!

Spring is here!

 I only took this pic in front of the "spEEd limit" sign

because it was a great practical life example

of the "ee" phonogram.  So we 

reviewed bEE, sEE, and other EE words at home.

 Reviewing evens and odds with our counters and cards...

 Even/odds...

 Moveable alphabet arrived last week!

Found this unpainted wooden set for $9 on ebay.  Love.

 Em sounding out little objects with the letters...

 Love spending time with Daddy!

 And of course, Em loves the little gym!

Pretty girls in pretty dresses!

Thank you Valerie for them!  :-)

O is for Octopus

I am behind on blogging, yet again!

So here's a quick recap of the past few weeks.

We finished our O is for Octopus unit,

Even the Octopus praises the Lord!

 We learned these 8 armed-creatures live at the bottom 

of the salty sea...

they squirt out black ink to ward off predators

and swim backwards (!) to escape!

So we made some octopus creatures...

 Worked on the letter O...

 Read books on the ocean and painted watercolor

paintings of sealife and water...

 It was neat using my old watercolors

from college (the colors were still vibrant!)..

 Painting jellyfish and the ocean...

 Some of the lovely sea books we read...

It was a fun unit!

 Last week at LEAP, the kids studied cows...

and made cow puppets, read cow books,

and actually MADE butter from cow's milk!

Em is "churning" the butter.

And I must say, the butter tasted GOOD!!

 At home Em loves helping out in the kitchen...

shucking corn for mamma.  :-)

 

 Eliz practicing her scissor skills making her octopus...

 Emilie writing words...

And practicing her sight words!

Misc pics from last week

Ok, trying to get caught up on blogging!

Here are some misc pics from last week,

in no particular order.

 We've been doing a lot of patterning with blocks lately.

 And a lot of drawing!

Here's a solar system!

 God made me wonderful!

 Emilie made a girl spider (lol).

 And they danced around outside on the porch

when the weather was nice.  :)

 Emilie finished sewing her first bag!

(With a lot of help from momma).

 And we hit the playgrounds when it was nice outside..

 And got to hear this one-man-band

play silly tunes at Rio!

It was a good week.

Dr. Luther and the eggs

Before I went to the retreat, we went to a farm not too far from our house.

Dr. Luther is an amazing farmer!  He's a retired government worker

who farms over 100 acres of land by himself.

He has polio, so he gets around all those acres on a little golf-cart type car.

And he took us ALL around his farm in that golf cart!

It was sooo fun... our personal tour of a real farm!

We saw the cows grazing in the fields (and one was giving birth!!!)..

the baby lambs...the cows...the pigs...the horses...

And then we to the hen house where he loaned us 2 dozen eggs

to incubate in our borrowed incubator at home.

 I couldn't help but think of that verse when I saw all the animals..

"The cattle on a thousand hills are mine."

The whole earth, and everything in it,

belongs to the Lord.

 These hens are the "dalmations" of chickens.

Aren't they pretty?

 Although the henhouse itself was NOT so pretty.

Nor did it smell nice.  :/

 So he marked all the different breeds and gave them to us...

(Did you know there were 6,000 types of chickens in existence??)

About 2,000 live in the US.

 And here they are!

Incubating at 99-100 degrees.

I have to turn them every 2-4 hours while awake.

In 21 days, they will hatch, if all goes well!!

We'll keep them for 2-4 weeks and then 

return the chicks to Dr. Luther's farm.

Out of this 2 dozen, only 12 will likely hatch, per Dr. Luther.

My friend only got 8 to hatch.

I think I will be happy with 5.  :)

 

The girls are SOOO excited!

They can't wait to hold and play with the chicks!

And neither can I.  :)