These are two crafts DD made during the bird unit. Here is a neat bird flag book we made. Directions are available free at Homeschoolshare.

One side shows the picture of the bird.

The other side tells about the bird.

Here are some pictures of our week studying birds. Bird Beak Activity -You use different tools that would represent the different kinds of beaks birds have. We used chopsticks, tweezers, tongs, pliers, a straw, a strainer.

We practiced picking up things like seeds, marbles, rice in water. sucking nectar (lemonade) from a bottle. Catching marshmallows in the air. (like birds catch insects in the air.)

We had some gummies in peanut butter to represent insects in the mud.

Birds are much more coordinated than we are.

We talked about how amazing God is in His creation.

He knew just what the birds would need to live in this world.

I just couldn't resist. DD and I came across this adorable comforter set and it was on SALE! So we brought it home. It is thicker than her quilt so it will be great through the winter months.

My friend Michele, shared a neat idea that she found and I loved it!

Our school table was forever full of buckets of crayons and pencil boxes etc.

And we could never find what we needed.

So this neat double turntable offers a neat, organized solution.

You can't really tell it but I covered the tops with ABC paper.

The cans are soup and bean cans that I covered with scrapbook paper.

Dd thought it would be neat to add these foam stickers.

I knew saving those cans would come in handy. And so did the paper and school

themed stickers my friend gave me.

The only thing we didn't add was the candy treats.

We have a dog, and he can climb and he LOVES candy. So we have to keep it put away.

I have to admit, it is making our day much more productive.

Here is Danci trying to get in the fridge

.

Ooohhh she made it.

Going for a String Cheese. (like her best friend DD.)

Heading out with the goods.

Stopping to say grace.

Eating with Chopsticks left over from the Japanese Habachi Grill

Now it's time for a nap.

DD made all these scenes up and took pictures. Then she showed them to dad and I. She thought it was sooo funny! And I thought it was pretty creative too!

DD has been wanting a Build A Bear ever since her friend got one for Valentines Day.

Her dad told her that she needed to quit asking and bugging him or she would never get it.

He finally decided it was time and she could get one.

We went to the mall and and as we walked past the shop she stopped. (You could see the "oh I want one" in her eyes. She looked at her dad and we walked in the shop. Then her dad asked her which one she liked. She said "Oh no, I know how this works, we just need to leave because I don't need to look if you aren't going to buy me one." So dad said she could have one. She was elated.

Here are some pictures.

Here is what she picked out.   Stuffing it 

It looks pretty full!

Blowing it off in the bath.

Finding the perfect outfit.

She's ready.

She named her Danci -She also has a back pack, really cool glasses and Sketchers.

So now she wants to start saving to get her a robe and slippers, and more clothes and friends.

Last week we went to Fun Expedition. It was great to take an afternoon off for play.

They also have go-carts that we got to ride and we played Air Hockey quite a few times.

Today we did a very light day of school. DD had a quiz in LA. She scored 100%. Ds had a Quiz in Spelling and a test in Bible. (SOS) He scored 100% on both.

I am spending much of the day printing lapbook components, ordering books and planning the month.

Here are our plans for September.

Week 1

Finish up our viking study. (Vikings Ships at Sunrise-MTH) We have finished reading Leif the Lucky.

Continue our bird study and lapbook. (Learning amazing facts about birds.) We will be reading When Agnes Caws (HSS) and doing some activities associated with it. Do a bird craft and Bird Beak activity.

Reading Crow Boy (This unit and lapbook components are available FREE on HSS.) This unit will tie in with our bird unit. Ds recently took up Karate-so I thought doing a study on Karate and preparing a lapbook on it would be a great special project for him. As he learns more each month he can add to it. So this will be an ongoing study for a few months.

Week 2

Begin Columbus Study (BFB) Read Encounter by Jane Yolen as a go along.

Continue our bird study and read Two Scarlett Song Birds. Do an Egg Experiment.

Climbing Kansas Mountain (FIAR Unit Study) free stuff at HSS.

Also Begin Wizard of Oz -we will read the book and make a lapbook. (Also at HSS.)

Week 3

Continue Columbus Study.

Continue Bird study with FIAR's Angelo, make a lapbook and play "for the birds game".

Continue Wizards of Oz study.

Continue Karate study.

Read Twisters on Tuesday (MTH) Having to do with Kansas.

Week 4

Hopefully Finish Bird Unit. Make Edible Owl Pellets.

Finish up Columbus Unit, Wizard of Oz and MTH books.

Continue Karate Study read JoJo's Flying Kick.

So does anyone else do more than one unit study at a time? It just seems there is never time to just do one at a time. We would never get through the BF Early American History section if we didn't.

And I had a great Bird unit study given to me by LiveNLearn Press. (So I had to include that study in this year too.)

A taxpayer voting for Obama.....

is like a Chicken voting for Colonel Sanders.

One thing I am really enjoying is that in Co-Op this semester I am getting to take a Crocheting and Knitting Class. It was open to everyone, but most of the people in the class are moms.

One of the ladies is a great crocheter and another is a great knitter.  I am still learning how to begin knitting. Pretty much I can cast on. After that it gets a little hazy for me and I seem to drop alot of stitches.

Anyway, I wanted to do something else and started out trying to make dd a poncho. (I decided to crochet it., because I don't need as much help and I can only get knitting help in class.

But the first rectangle turned out to be very small. (But might have made a good doll poncho.)

Anyway I turned it into this purse. Dd really seems to like it. 

Yesterday we spent the day with some friends at Dollywood.

The day was great until I decided to ride the Lemon Twist. That one did me in. You spin and spin and spin and spin.....Ugh, I was dizzy and sick to my stomach all day. Luckily a good nights sleep fixed it.

I remember loving that ride in my younger days...All I can figure is that growing older has effected my ability to handle spinning rides.

The kids had a blast too! Since school is in session now in most places, the park was fairly empty. I don't think we waited longer than 15 minutes for any ride.

We got together with some good friends and went to Wonder Works. They have teacher days. So teachers can come with 3 guests and check it out.

We had a great time and got to see some really cool things.

Here are a few pictures. We were so busy having fun, we did not get as many as we should have!

We started this human body study last year. I thought we could manage to squeeze it in every Friday, but we ended up taking many field trips instead. So this year I decided our first Science Unit would be to finish this. It is amazing how much you can get done, if you actually do one body part a day! We finished in just 2 weeks this year!

I am so glad to be finished. The kids learned alot and had fun making the bodies. We traced them with butcher paper and then added the parts. They drew in their own faces.

We will actually finish up the unit tomorrow by watching the Magic School Bus Human Body video.

When I was in Texas, my friend Debbie introduced me to these 12X12

scrapbook frames. She sent me home with one.  The other day I picked up another

one and decided to make these for their current year pictures.

Here is another picture of the hermit crabs. I placed a quarter beside them to show how big they are.

The green one moved out of his smaller shell into this one. His name was Sharkey because his old shell had a shark painted on it. I still call him Sharkey, but I am told his name is now Greeney. Can you guess why?  The pink one "Pink Baseball" can't seem to find another shell to suit her even though we have put 6 many other shells in the habitat for her to try.  Picky, Picky, I guess. She looks like she is getting too large for her shell. So we will see what happens. 

Here dd is holding Sharkey..I mean Greeney...

Well this week we officially started back home schooling full time. We eased into it over the past 2 weeks. Getting us all in the habit of waking a bit earlier etc. Doing our devotions daily and some reading.

Ds-is in 3rd grade and he is using SOS for Language Arts and Bible  

I have got to tell you how much I love this program. One reason is because HE loves this program too! He is excited to do it every day and I love the fact that this part of learning is no longer a chore. Another thing is it is soooo easy to use by the student and the teacher.

You can program in the dates of your school year, exclude co-op days, breaks, field trips,etc. It will pace the lessons out over the school year and give him daily assignments. So some days he does not have a Bible lesson assigned.

It keeps track of all his grades, how long he spent on each subject that day. It tells me what games he played. (Games reinforce the material.) There are spelling bee games, etc.

He has only scored below 100% once. And he started SOS 3 weeks ago. Another great feature is that it calls out spelling words for him on tests.

He is also learning to type better. In the SOS program I can type him a message and send it to him, and he can send one back to me. Without actually having an internet connection.

In fact when he was in 1st grade the primary reason I chose AOP was because of SOS. I believed it would be something that would be a good fit for us down the road and I was right.

A couple reasons I did not choose to do more SOS subjects this year with him are because-
1. someone had given me Lifepacs for Science and History and

2. I was afraid that sitting my child behind a computer for hours a day might not be good. (Which now I think was a wrong way to look at it.) Many people say that and think that, but it really isn't like that.

He usually spends between 30-45 minutes a day on SOS. Which is less than the LifePacs would require. It also helps give him more independent time to work, so I can work with DD who is just now in 1st grade and really needs more personal attention so she can learn to read well this year. He also gets use to seeing a daily schedule and assignment list. So it requires more responsibility on his part. The program offers highlighters in different colors for the students, so they can highlight things they feel might be important to review etc. (Which also helps aid in good study habits.)

The program also includes a journal. So I can give him other (extra) assignments and he can type them up and print them. Such as a book report.

Another reason I like SOS  is because I really love to add in learning through literature.  So I see SOS as a way to knock out the nuts and bolts of the basic subjects that I sometimes fear my children might be missing. As we are learning about the US this year in Lifepac History. We are using HSS and FIAR literature books to read stories about the states. We usually make a Lap a note for the different books or states. (And then studying American History with Beautiful Feet, as mentioned in a previous post.)

So SOS gives us more time to explore and expand upon things through literature and hands on activities.

So all in all-we have had a really great week!  Much less stress beginning this year, and much more harmony in our home! Thanks to SOS.