February into March 2013

Once again I fall behind. Good thing for Facebook and my posting of pictures there or I would never update my blog.

February brought us Valentine's Day fun with 2 parties with different homeschool groups. When I was in grade school Valentine boxes were so much fun. There were always contests to see who could make the most creative boxes. My dad always had the best ideas. We had a record player, a guitar, and a mailbox. (those were my favorites). I am proud to say I have carried on the tradition with Nico and Luca. Nico has liked to come up with his own ideas since he was little. For the last two years he has come up with his idea and made them himself with a little help from mom. Luca is still learning the whole concept and Valentines.

Luca with his tank Valentine box

Nico's Star Wars Cantina. It is complete with music and working floor lights and overhead lights.



February also brought the addition of Nico's chickens for 4-H. He chose to do show birds and selected Polish Crested. Not the easiest to match for show, but beautiful chickens anyway! We ordered 15 chicks to come through the mail from a town 3 hours away. Of course what happened the day after they shipped out....SNOW, and lots of it. It took the chicks 2 days to get to our post office. The poor things, out of 16 sent only 6 survived. The others got too cold on their journey and sadly didn't make it. The hatchery backed their guarantee and replaced the ones we lost. However, this time I drove to the hatchery to get them to ensure safe delivery to our home. We ended up with 17 Polish Crested chickens. (2 silver, 4 blue, 4 white crested black, 7 gold). We are not sure how many roosters or hens we have but hoping for some that are the same so we can breed them and hatch more of our own.

Here are three of the first 6 we got. These guys are 13 days old.

As if adding 17 chickens to our flock of 20 isn't enough, we added 115+a couple more broiler chickens. They hatched on March 9. We headed over and picked them up right away. They are so adorable when they are little. It's a good thing they don't stay so cute or I could never process them for dinner.

Here they are, all 115+ . They won't all fit together for long.

 So with adding all these chickens we have created quite a bit of work for ourselves. We are now deciding what coop to build for Nico's chickens as we want them separate from our other laying hens. The show chickens will take more TLC to keep them pretty and ready for show. Not that my other layers don't get plenty of TLC. We don't want any extra pecking to occur as they would be introduced into an already established pecking order. This way they have their own already. I have scored about 35 wooden pallets so far of which I am planning on using a lot of the wood for coops, tractors, and gardening.



We have a couple of books we are looking through for ideas. It think we will be combining a couple as we want to be sure it is big enough to put a brooding area and for a growing flock.

We have also had to make new brooders as it is still pretty cold outside here (the snow finally melted this week). Right now all the chickens are inside in tubs under heat lamps.





Here are a couple of the brooders. Simply made from totes. I repurposed our Monkey Balls game racks to make the brooder light holders. The holders sell on the internet for about $35 . It was a lot cheaper to repurpose the game since the golf balls all melted in the plastic bag in the car a couple of years ago.



March brought Nico's first competitive dance competition. He had his first solo performance. I was so nervous for him, but he did fantastic! He took home several awards including Diamond Elite Top First, 1st place Novice division, 1st place Hip Hop division (ages 11-12) and Top Starz. I am so over the moon proud of him and his hard work. Nico is a perfectionist and would not let me see his routine all together until a week before competition. He has such skill and his heart is totally in his dancing. Besides his solo, he dances with his team, OZONE. They did very well too. They took 10th place in the intermediate division for ages 11-12 year old and earned an Elite Top First.

He is on his head a lot! I absolutely love this photo. They snapped it at the perfect time.

This boy loves to dance and be on stage!

Team OZONE. Such a great group of kids. They are so much more a team this year. This is their second year dancing together.

Kara, a fellow hip hop dancer, also from the team, performed a solo as well. They both did awesome! I am very proud of these kids.

So besides all of that we had our regular school days and regular activities. We are definitely ready for spring to get here and get our projects going! The tomatoe and pepper seeds are already sprouting in the house.

January 2013

Wow, January flew by! It is exiting with a powerful cold front. Tonight it is 12F and getting colder. I have no idea what the windchill is, but it is quite frigid! Our poor outdoor heater is working it's wood burning butt off to keep that water hot. (and I get to keep going out to stoke it up...I think I will stay up late tonight to be sure it lasts all night).

Anyway, it was a good month and getting back into the groove of school was pretty pleasant after the holidays. I changed Luca's math curriculum from MUS to McRuffy Press. Within the week I saw major improvements! Yay for homeschooling and being able to easily modify the curriculum to fit my child's learning style.

We started out January with a fun night to the rodeo. Here is a photo of the end of the night where the last bull decided to give us some excitement and gave the rodeo clown a ride.

The kids had a couple of New Year's activity sheets to fill in on our first day back. I wish I would have had Nico do a little more reflecting on 2012....next year that will be an assignment. I found these activity sheets on Pinterest...my new addiction!

I have been using WinterPromise Kindergarten Science with Luca. It's all about nature and animals. We have moved from woodlands to swamps. Woodlands was great as we are surrounded by woods. The swamps are a bit harder. We do have lots of ponds and lakes so are filling in a lot of material with those. Luca had an experiment to see how the moss can look dry but really be holding a lot of water. We used sponges to simulate the moss. We had a beautiful spring like day (just a couple of days before this bitter cold) when we went to the park to see what observations we could make. The boys preferred playing on the playground and statues.

I started a geography unit with Luca. I had started one earlier in our school year, but things just weren't clicking then. He is doing so much better I decided to try it again. Thanks to Pinterest and the internet I have found some fun crafts for him in this subject.

At least twice a month I try to squeeze in Meet the Masters. I need to get it done as it expires in May...yikes! This is one of Nico's projects. We really enjoy this program but I am so bad about putting the fine arts in our curriculum and sticking with it. It always seems like we are rushed to get the important things completed so I brush this off. Nico loves art and does take watercolor class with an art teacher outside the home. Luca loves music and was taking a music class which was canceled. I have bought a music and movement curriculum to start with him.

I also realized that we have not done a lot of field trips and my goal for the upcoming months is to join in on more field trips and hanging out with friends.

January, 2013

OK, so I am failing at posting weekly. I just can't find the time to sit at the computer at home and add my pictures. I don't like to add posts without pictures. I think I am going to try to post a weekly blurb about what we have been doing based on the Homeschool Mother's Journal and then at the end of the month post pictures.

Homeschool Mother’s Journal: January 23, 2013

In my life this week…

My husband is back from a week long trip to Florida without us. I am so glad he is back. I am looking forward to snuggling up and watching our favorite tv show “Nashville” on Wednesday night. Our work schedules are crazy. I look forward to every moment we can get.

In our homeschool this week…

Luca’s theme this week is mittens. We will be reading books about mittens and doing some worksheets and activities revolved around the theme.

I changed up Luca’s math curriculum last week. We switched from MUS to McRuffy’s Press Kindergarten. I have seen such an improvement in one week I am excited to see what this week brings!

Continuing to work with Luca on reading. He has about 20 words he can now read on sight. Every day I add another one. Pretty soon I expect him to take off on his own.

Nico is moving along in math at a steady pace now. He will be finishing up reading “The Call of the Wild”. He has really enjoyed this, so much, that we are going to read “White Fang”. We are going to do a mini unit study on the Alaskan Gold Rush and Alaska. I have a kit ordered to pan for gold. My husband worked in Skagway, Alaska for 6 months flying helicopter tours. I visited once a month and collected a lot of pictures and information from there. We have a movie about the town of Skagway. It should be a fun little addition for him. I have been bad this year about just plugging away and not adding that variety.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

Don’t be afraid to change something if it is not working.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

Nothing in our near future at this time.

My favorite thing this week was…

Luca’s development in math and the excitement on his face when he gets his reading words correct. Nico’s joy of reading a book.

My kiddo’s favorite thing this week was…

Luca bought a nerf hatchet so he could compete with Nico. They love their nerf toys.

Things I’m working on…

Scrapbooking our school year 2011-2012.

Here are the boys enjoying a beautiful 60F day. The following day the temps dropped to 14F. Oh come back spring!

Happy New Year, 2013

Here it is another year gone. My husband and I are spending our New Year's Eve at our jobs. Super exciting right?! Someone has to do it. My boys are at their aunt's house getting to stay up to bring in the New Year with family. I am okay with it as I have the next 4 days off work! We start back to school on January 2.

I have enjoyed our break so much! I sure hope we jump right back into the swing of things though. To make our first day back go a little smoother we are going to start out with some 2013 activities. I have been scouring Pinterst and the web for some fun ideas.

For Luca we are going to start working on some calendar skills. I thought the first project we would do is to start making a calendar. We will do each month as it comes along. I found this idea on Pinterst, My Handprint Calendar. They are the cutest handprint calendars ever! Luca had a lot of fun making the handprint Christmas tree (in my last post) that I think he will really enjoy this (and I will have a keepsake).

Nico will be doing some writing activities for 2013. I found this Poster Freebie on TeachersPayTeachers. He really enjoyed the "If I Were Santa, Elf Application, and Reindeer Application" so hoping this one will be fun too.

We had some snow fall today, New Year's Eve so tomorrow should be fun for our last day off. We will do some sledding and ATV riding.

I have two minutes until midnight, so I am out of here to call my husband and kids!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Art

I have totally become hooked on viewing things on Pinterest. I have actually even completed some of the projects I pinned. I use many of the recipes. I love how organized it keeps my things.

This holiday season we are working on some of the holiday crafts. Here is one the boys did yesterday. I love the way they turned out. I plan to keep them and hang them up each of the following years. I also have many of Nico's previous Christmas art work framed. They get hung up during the season.

Setting up the paint

Green hand prints

Nico had free range to do what he wanted. I loved listening to him tell me how Ms. Flavia, the art teacher, taught him how to place the colors.

Luca may not like to draw with crayons but he sure loves a paint brush!

Adding details

Finished Product

Luca adding details

Another beautiful project.

Elf On The Shelf

Our little Elf is named Christopher. He arrived for his first time last year. Christopher is getting braveer and having more fun with the boys this year. Here are some of his shinanigans and spy missions.

Christopher arrived this year in the Aloe plant.

He was fishing in Nico's fish tank.

Playing spy games in Luca's room.

 

 

Hanging out with some "Angry" friends.

 

Taking a ride on the Hot Wheels track.

He left some Elf Kisses to encourage good behavior.

 

 

He delivers weekly Elf Reports.

I have a few more but for some reason the blog is not liking them to load. He has TP'd the Christmas tree which Luca thought was "AWESOME". He was using marshmallows to build a snowman and has been seen hiding out in the plants throughout the house. Just a few more days left for Christopher to send back full reports to Santa!

 

EEK! Where Does The Time Go!

Wow, I haven't blogged in quite a while. So much for keeping up! Life gets busy.

We have been trying to keep on track with lessons. The year is flying by and it seems we are behind. We decided since the weather is turning cooler we will be spending more time at home doing lessons and less time hanging with friends. We still have co-op and the holiday parties coming up.

Luca is doing well with his reading. We are advancing on our letters and he is getting excited about remembering them. Numbers are coming along as well. He actually told me today he likes Math. I decided that I needed to take smaller steps with him and do his lessons in smaller segments. He seems to grasp it better. Luca is loving hip hop dance and still takes jazz, ballet, tap, and gymnastics.

Nico is also doing great. He has finished Delta MUS and moving onto Epsilon. He absolutely loved roman numberals and I actually learned how to read them while teaching them to him. Onto fractions! I just bought Muggins Math game and am looking forward to incorporating that into our school days to break up math and get his multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction skills sharpened up. We started reading "Cricket In Times Square" (a book I have never read) for reading. I am enjoying reading the classics with him as we are both learning together! Who would have thought!? Gosh I love homeschooling.

Nico is preparing for his solo in hip hop and will also be performing with his team, OZONE. He has his solo video taped so he can practice it, but has asked that I don't watch it or him until his first performance. He knows I love surprises, but this is killing me! I know he wants it to be perfect before I see it. I love the talent my children have!

I had Brian home with us for about 5 days. We had a 50th anniversary party for my mom and dad and made sure he attended. He then stayed with us so he could vote in his first election! It was nice to have him home for a while. I miss him, but he is still not ready to conform to my rules at the house. He prefers to live with friends not working and hoping he gets a meal. I did go to GoodWill with him and bought him some warm clothes. We also made a stop by SAM's to stock up on some healthy food for him. In 5 months he will be 21! I just don't know where the time has gone.





Halloween with friends. Luca is the creepy Zombie on the right and Nico is Scream. Halloween is my favorite holiday and to me...the scarier and bloodier the better. Both boys picked out their own costumes this year. I was surprised Luca wanted to be so creepy...but I loved it!

Nico's artwork. This photo does not do it justice. Nico is so artistic. He does take art lessons from someone other than me. She is amazing! This year the focus is water colors.

The guys dancing at mom and dad's 50th wedding anniversary party. This is Mike, Brian, my brothers, Vern and Vince, brother in law off to the side and Nico in front. I loved how they were not shy at all getting up there dancing the YMCA together!

Nico and I love watching So You Think You Can Dance. This year I made it a point to buy tickets to see them on tour! We had a great time having a mom and son night out. The show was amazing. I am so inspired by these dancers and their passion for dance. We were really hoping we could meet some of them in person, but it didn't happen.