Our little beans are growing

Oh, not those kind of beans, I meant the kid kind ;0) Well, while we've got them up here, yes, this was our attempt at time-lapse photography to see the development of bean seeds. It got a little gross and alien-looking, so I planted them. Our square foot garden is ramping up again. I'm waiting until the first week of April to get in the summer veggies (hopefully after our fear of final frosts).
How does homeschooling look in a family of elementary/pre-school age children? This has taken me a long time to adjust to. Both my husband and I had traditional schooling experiences and it has taken me many years to be comfortable with the fact that our house is not a classroom of 33 children. And it never will be. But that doesn't mean that learning can't be happening just because the environment is different. So, I thought I'd take a few snapshots of what can be happening on any given morning at our homeschool.

Philip might be found practicing roller-blading on any carpeted surface.
Simeon is fishing for sharks with a pretzel dipped in peanut butter at the kitchen table. Boys seem to be always ready for a snack.
Lydia is practicing the piano.
Abigail is working away at penmanship--and maybe chewing gum at the same time ;0) She was probably just marking off a day on her calendar counting down the days to our trip to Florida!

Oh yeah, and there's mom's work--getting some laundry done and waiting for the ironing to do itself!

And there she is, the old lady herself--who actually never made it out of my morning walking clothes for the entire day! But at least I took a shower before I made it to bed. Better late than never.

Down but not Out

Here we are the middle of March and 2/3 of our family is on antibiotics, four weeks into a strep event. It's been a little demoralizing for Kevin and me as we are both on our second rounds of antibiotic for a stubborn strep-A bacteria. Both boys have strep on the other ends of their bodies. If you want to know details, email me and I'll give you the heads up on detecting an often-misdiagnosed condition.

Despite feeling generally cruddy and lethargic, and visiting the doctor 4 of the 4 days of this week, we have pressed on with school and actually had an "aha!" moment. Yesterday Lydia was studying a familiar Aesop's Fable and we were reviewing the biographical information on Aesop. Did you know that in 564BC he was tossed off a cliff by the kind folks at Delphi for having delivered them some perhaps "too close to home" morals in his fables? Anyway, he was. I noted that this happened 100 years before Nehemiah was working at rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem (what we're studying in Bible right now). We figured out that Aesop was around at about the time of Daniel. Both girls looked at me and said, "Oh, wow! So you mean...so the Bible...so Aesop...all at the same time?!" "YES!" The realization that while we study one segment of history, it didn't happen in isolation, was just amazing! I know that that's what my curriculum is supposed to be getting them to understand, but you know how it is--sometimes you hear something but it didn't make any sense until you were ready to hear it. I was in, oh, about 10th grade before I realized that literature happened at the same time as history--so I feel like some progress is being made in this next generation!

Happy St. David's Day

March 1st is St. David's Day. He's the patron saint of Wales, and true to my prediction, my parents appeared last Tuesday adorned in daffodils and leeks. I, unfortunately, was sick in bed (for 2 days) with strep throat and had to miss out on the history lesson. My parents brought a traditional Welsh costume and the children had fun dressing up and being patriotic to their historical roots.

Later in the day my mom conducted a science/home ec. experiment of making butter. The children were each given some heavy whipping cream in a baby jar along with a marble. They then shook the sealed jar for approximately 15 minutes until the cream turned into butter. They strained off the liquid, added a little salt and then enjoyed a tasty treat on some crackers.

Do I need to tell that I'm thankful for my mom and dad?