Mommio: A Wednesday In November

This Wednesday was a great day, and one that only happens in November in Texas. We started the day in long pants and jackets and ended it in swimsuits in the river. Just perfect. In between the two we had a blast with our homeschool friends at Weavers Bottom. As you can see from reading the kids posts from today, we learned a lot about birds this week at our homeschool Adventure Club meeting. Go take a look at the pictures from the meeting!

Mason: Birds

What I learned about birds: 1. I learned to find owls you look for bird poop, owl pellets and bones.
2. Owls live in high dark places and holes.
3. I learned that owls eat rodents and it helps farmers.
4. Owls don't eat bones so they barf it in to a pellet.
5. Birds use wind to glide.
6. Baby birds eat yolk, there is something in the yolk that allows it to eat yolk.
7. There is a bald eagle that has no white head.
8. Birds are related to dinosaurs.
9. Ducks run and flap their wings.
10. Birds open their wings to get them cold and close their wings to get warm.

Marney: Birds

Gabe: Birds

We had Adventure Club on Wednesday at Robin's house with the homeschool group. We learned a lot about birds. Mom taught us how to dissect owl pellets, there were lots of bones in mine. The owl pellets were really cool but they were hard like a nut. We had a snack called Pigeon Poop, it had pretzels, cereal, marshmallows and chocolate. We went on a bird hunt with Robin. Robin taught us that she has lots of different kinds of birds at her house. I think we saw a sparrow and it was black. It was very, very, very fun.

Marney: Book Review

Meet Molly
An American Girl
By Valerie Tripp

Meet Molly is so fun to read because it's telling about an American Girl that you guys might want to buy. It's kind of hard to read because it has words like '' Mrs Gilford''. There was one thing at the end of the book called "A Peek In The Past'' that was very hard to read. My favorite part was where she was dressing up for Halloween and when she got outside her brother Ricky sprayed her with water. It was super funny! I think girls who love American Girl dolls should read this book.

Mommio: What We're Reading

Dinnertime Reading- The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman
Lord Of The Flies by William Golding
Max & Jack- whatever books they find around the house
Kennedy- Dick and Jane
storybooks online at Tumblebooks
Marney- Meet Molly: An American Girl by Valerie Tripp
storybooks online at Tumblebooks
storybooks from our collection
Gabe- The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
1000 Facts On Bugs Edited By Barbara Taylor
Thor, Uncanny XMen by Marvel
Avery- Blubber by Judy Blume
1000 Facts On Rocks and Minerals by Chris and Helen Pellant
A History of US: Making Thirteen Colonies 1600-1740 by Joy Hakim
American Girl Magazine
New Mutants, The Uncanny XMen by Marvel
Mason- The Mouse And The Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
Connor- A History Of US: Reconstructing America 1865-1890 by Joy Hakim
Real Science-4-Kids Chemistry Level II by Dr. R.W. Keller
Sea Of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Mad Magazine
Odysseus Escaping Poseidon's Curse graphic novel by Dan Jolley and Thomas Yeates
Order Of The Stick by Rich Burlew
Mommio- The Island Of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
The Physick Book Of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
The Complete Idiot's Guide To Eastern Philosophy by Jay Stevenson
The Lazy Man's Guide To Enlightenment by Thaddeus Golas
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
Daddio- The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Pathfinder #8 by Wes Schneider
Chem C3000 Chemistry Experiment Manual
Rolling Stone Magazine
New Mutants, Thor, The Uncanny XMen by Marvel

Max: Doing Class

Adventure Club today. Go in the car. People coming. Bugs. Me sick. Are we going to yoga? Daddy come to yoga. More blog.

Mommio: School Changes

School has gone really well this week...the kids are all in the groove on each of their particular levels and working very independently. Great job toes! Next week we have another big school transition happening here.
Marney will be joining our school day full time. She has been doing a little math, reading, writing, grammar and phonics in the early mornings for about 30 minutes and then joining the "little kids" at Nana's house while the "big kids" do school work. Well, she is now officially a "big kid" and had her last morning at Nana's house today. I know that Nana and Marney are both a little sad about this change, but I think they are excited too (like I am) that Marney is ready for school. Marney will work on all of the stuff she has already been doing and she will also start Saxon Math 2, Rosetta Stone Spanish and she will be joining us for our Unit Study (Buddhism right now).
Kiki will still be going to Nana's house but she will now be on Marney's old schedule: school work (mostly a little phonics and math) for 30 minutes every morning before she can join Max and Jack across the street. I know she is excited about that since she asks to "do school" every day!
The older kids have also moved up in their math: Connor to Teaching Textbooks Algebra, Avery and Mason to Teaching Textbooks Math 5 and Gabe to Saxon Math 5/4. You guys are amazing!

Marney: What I Did Today

What I did today is I did school like recorder and reading and I played with Gabe and I played with Kiki. I went to yoga and I made up my own pose called the zebra. My mom took a picture of me doing it at the house. And I did picking bananas and oranges. And everybody else showed the teacher their own pose that they made up too. And I did the lion just right now before I started to write this. I learned how to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth.

Mommio: What We Did Today

Today was an exciting day! It was our first time having morning school over at the Weaver's in their new school building. They have been working hard to get the building up and running so that we can now use the space for our classes and for Adventure Club. It's great! We also had our first breakfast book club meeting- about The Midwife's Apprentice. It went really well- we discussed the first two chapters and then had the kids retell the chapters and draw pictures to go with them to make a book later. We got to help feed some farm animals this morning, which was a big thrill for everyone. We learned more about the chickens and the goats. We also learned all about ornamental garlic and then potted 35 plants of garlic that Tony will use later for his business and give the profits to the the school there. It was hot, and it was work..so after ten minutes or so most of the kids weren't that interested but we worked through it and got it all done. We are going to be taking time to do things like that around their property each week, there is so much to learn and we are so lucky that Robin and Tony have opened up their property to us as a living classroom.
And, if that wasn't enough- we also celebrated Elder's 6th birthday today with cupcakes and a pinata. What a morning- check out the slideshow!

Avery: What I Learned Today

Today I learned about Hinduism. I learned four of their beliefs, Dharma, Karma, Samsara, Moksha. Dharma is the balance of life. How you keep up your job, how good you take care of your family, and all sorts of stuff like that. Karma means that if you do something bad something bad will happen to you. Of if you do something good something good will happen to you. Samsara is the circle of life. Which mainly means life after death. So when you have a lot of Karma you keep on being reborn as someone or something until all of the Karma is gone. Moksha is after Samsara. So when all of the Karma is gone you will stop living and be dead. I believe in only Dharma, Karma, and Samsara. I love learning about religions!

Mason: Hinduism

I learned about the three gods of Hinduism. Brahma is the creator. He made the earth, humans plants and birds. Vishnu is the protector. He has many avatars. Prince Rama is one of his avatars. Shiva is the destroyer. She destroys everything when Brahma is asleep. She destroys everything so that Brahma will recreate it.

Jack: Counting

Max: Color Sorting