The House of Pink

Here are the rules… my list starts after the rules.

The 100-Species Challenge

1. Participants should include a copy of these rules and a link to this entry in their initial blog post about the challenge.

2. Participants should keep a list of all plant species they can name, either by common or scientific name, that are living within walking distance of the participant’s home. The list should be numbered, and should appear in every blog entry about the challenge, or in a sidebar.

3. Participants are encouraged to give detailed information about the plants they can name in the first post in which that plant appears.

4. Participants are encouraged to make it possible for visitors to their blog to find easily all 100-Species-Challenge blog posts.

5. Participants may post pictures of plants they are unable to identify, or are unable to identify with precision. They should not include these plants in the numbered list until they are able to identify it with relative precision. Each participant shall determine the level of precision that is acceptable to her; however, being able to distinguish between plants that have different common names should be a bare minimum.

6. Different varieties of the same species shall not count as different entries (e.g., Celebrity Tomato and Roma Tomato should not be separate entries); however, different species which share a common name be separate if the participant is able to distinguish between them (e.g., camillia japonica and camillia sassanqua if the participant can distinguish the two–"camillia" if not).

7. Participants may take as long as they like to complete the challenge.

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Sounds fun, yes?  I think there’s just one thing around here.  Sagebrush.  Fortunately, the reality isn’t so bad.

1. Sagebrush    Okay, I lied.  It’s not sage, but it is tumbleweed, which is commonly associated with sagebrush.  We do have sagebrush, too, but I’ll save that for another post.  This particular tumbleweed is Kochia, thanks to this website.
2. Flowering Cherry- I’m not certain beyond this.  They don’t produce fruit, mostly white, and as yet are not drooping.
3. Aspen- populus tremuloides, one would assume
4. Sunflower- ours are voluntaries, and prolific.  This is a good case of a weed being only what you don’t want to grow.  We let our weeds go wild, and we’re enjoying every bit of it!
5. Lilac- we have several lilac bushes, but I have no idea what variety.  Not one I like very much.  Mostly purple, but I believe one is white.
6. Snapdragon- also voluntary weeds.  Mostly red.
7. Clematis- We chose these!    Ours are a purple variety.
8. Maple tree
9. Snowball tree, aka swamp elder

There are two types of cactus in the field I would like to identify.  It will have to wait for a cooler day and better health.  I also saw a rose of sharon recently, but I’m not sure how close it was to our house.

Today, Danielle made her first unpromted unguided letters.  H and a little i.  And Os, but she’s had practice making circles. 

Well, I had this nice post all prepared, but found that Melissa Wiley has said it better.

Recently, I’ve had a couple of conversations with friends about our homeschooling journey.

The common thread has been that homeschool parents must be highly educated because it’s just not possible to homeschool effectively without it.

In one particular conversation, my friend mentioned that my husband and I are both certified teachers, so it’s okay.

We’re not certified.    I started my certification, my husband taught as a grad school TA, but no, neither of us have that oh-so-important piece of paper.

But, you know?  This friend knows us quite well, and he knows that we’ll do a good job teaching our children.  So maybe, just maybe, we made a difference in one person’s perspective of  homeschooling.  I can only hope it will ripple to even more people.  Homeschooling is not something to be afraid of celebrating.

Danielle has received a preliminary diagnosis of JRA.  She has also seen an eye doctor, who diagnosed her with uveitis.  She needs eye drops every four hours, and her mobility is slightly impaired.

I thank God that he’s lead us down this path, because we have the ability to meet her needs, give her meds, and miss school for doctor appointments without an IEP or a doctor’s note or any other red tape.

How much school is she doing, anyway?  Well… she’s showing those pre-reading skills- pretending to read, recognizing letters, learning sight words.  How exciting!

Back in the fall, I printed out music from G Major music theory for Rachel.  Hmm, it must have been around Christmas, because I remember going there looking for Jingle Bells.  She has since subjected treated us to plinking out the music by ear, not by reading the music!  It has been SO frustrating for me, but I let it go.
She did practice, a bit, now and then, but she always preferred to play by ear.
This week, she’s been pestering me for more music.  I told her she couldn’t have more until I heard her play the ones she had using the right fingerings, etc.

She did it!  She struggled just a little on things in the last two songs that would have been easy to correct, if I had known she was practicing the music.  So, she has six more songs to practice, this time with two hands.