Learning about Ants

To start off our Science this year we are studying Insects. Along with our studies, I thought it would be really fun to have an ant farm. I found one at Toys R Us. You have to send a couple of dollars with a coupon that comes with the kit to get your ants. While you wait for them to come in the mail you prepare their habitat. You pour in the sand they provide with water and then insert a rod to make a tunnel. And then you wait...

We waited about a week and a half. Today our ants came in the mail! The kids were beyond excited!

They come in a tube that you need to put in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to slow them down. Then you take the rod out.

And carefully pour in the ants.

Then after watching them for awhile, they dropped a very small piece of carrot in there and wrote about their observations in their journals.

I just had to show a picture of Naomi's journal because it is so cute and surprisingly accurate!

Learning to make models

Our friend, Mr. Steve, has loved models since he was a young boy. While Darrick is gone over the next year he has pledged to meet with the boys and teach them about models. He came over on Saturday with a few models, all the supplies needed and an extra measure of patience!

Micah and Jacob were very excited. Naomi had a play date so I had a few hours by myself to clean out the car and clean the house.

They did really well for their first time and only knocked over the glue bottle a few times! The boys can't wait for the next time he comes!

Nature in our backyard

The squirrel that lives in our backyard, Jumpy, has been very busy collecting nuts and corn and hiding it all over the place. It is fun to watch him. The other day, the food was getting low and he looked so funny going upside down to reach the food!

For the past year, I have been waiting to see a Pileated Woodpecker. They are the largest woodpeckers in North America. They are about the size of a crow.

The other day the boys were playing in the backyard and came running in the house to tell me that there was a woodpecker in the woods behind our house. I thought it was one of the little ones and it was raining so I really didn't want to go out but I am so glad I did! It was pecking a dead tree like crazy and had a huge pile of wood chips under it. He was not there very long so I am so glad that I finally got to see one!

Images from Darrick

I have collected a few pictures that Darrick has sent me and he said it is ok to post them to our blog, I just can't say where they were taken.

The first two were taken during his training.
Rattlesnake

The rest are from where he is now.

Iguana

View of ocean from base

His bed for the next month

Banana Rat

This country is so dear to our hearts...

Never Neverland Trailer from Liquid Worldwide on Vimeo.

Learning about Ponds

The first unit in Jacob's studies so far this year is a pond theme. And in science Micah is learning about observing. I saw on the weather report that rain is forcasted for the rest of the week so I thought we should take a field trip.

There are two ponds in our area that I know of. The first one is at Jennings Memorial Park. We observed it for afar then got close.

The kids filled up jars with water from the pond and examined them for life. In the pond they saw frogs, snails, dragonflies and a few fish. There was a ton of algae and plants only on the edges. They sketched drawings of the pond and then we went to pond #2.

Unfortunately the battery in my camera died so no pictures from this pond. It is just a city park by our house. We saw tons of cool things: a blue heron, butterflies, grasshoppers, caterpillars, and pacific tree frogs. The pond had plants growing in it and around it and no algae. We also saw cattails.

But I think the highlight for the kids was that they caught 3 more frogs to join Yoda in our aquarium at home. They each caught one, yes, even Naomi. She was off looking at things and came running over and said she caught a frog. We didn't really believe her because they are hard to catch but sure enough she had one in her hands. She was so proud of herself and the boys were pretty impressed.

We sketched this pond too and then discussed the similarities and differences. It was a great afternoon!

First Day of School

Today we started our first day of school and my second year as a homeschooling mom! We are about 3/4 into our total schedule because classes at Home School Alternative start next week. I am glad we have this week to kind of figure out our new curriculum and what schedule works best. We are using A Beka this year.

Here is a glimpse into our day:

6:30 am: Mom up, shower, make bed
7:00 am: wake kids up, Micah and Mom read Bibles, Jake and Naomi trying to wake up
7:15-8:15 am: Breakfast, clean up breakfast, brush teeth, wash faces, comb hair, get dressed, kids do morning chores, mom pack Naomi's snack...out the door and in the car
8:35 am: Drop Naomi off at Preschool
9:00 am: Back in house, start boys on homeschooling
11:30 am: leave to pick Naomi up from Preschool
11:45 am: Naomi gets out of class
12:00 pm: Home again and time for lunch
12:30 pm: Jacob and Naomi play together, mom homeschools Micah more
2:00 pm: Micah done, boys watch movie
2:15 pm: Mom gets on treadmill for 30 minutes, Naomi plays where mom is
2:45 pm: Mom plays in backyard with Naomi
3:30 pm: Come in, work in classroom to prepare for next day, all 3 kids are playing in the classroom
4:45 pm: we all drive to pick up pizza for dinner...mom is too tired to cook
6:00 pm: dinner is done, teach Bible lesson for the day
6:15 pm: kids finish up chores for the day, mom finishes up 3 loads of laundry and puts it away
6:30 pm: bring out basket of evening activities, boys do experiments with magnets together, Naomi does a puzzle then pretends she is hosting a potluck at church and cuts up paper as food
7:30 pm: Mom gets Naomi ready for bed and reads stories to her, boys clean up evening activities, get ready for bed, then read til mom is done with Naomi
8:00 pm: Read a chapter of "Ginger Pye" to boys, then read them their night devotional, tuck them in
9:00 pm: Everyone is asleep and mom takes a shower

*Note this schedule is not completely accurate...fights, meltdowns, tantrums and general misbehaving were left out for the sake of space*

It really was a busy but great day! Jacob was very excited to start cursive today!

And Micah had fun doing math on our new marker board!

I am looking forward to a great year of homeschooling!

Picking up the pieces

My parents leaving today, hit us all harder then I thought it would. We have almost 5 weeks down without Darrick and I thought we were healing quite nicely but I think my parents leaving reopened the wound.

Out of nowhere I started crying when I had to say goodbye, and not just a few tears, but crying. I didn't want them to go...

Jacob and Naomi went right in the house after saying bye and started fighting and screaming. I was still crying and just wanted to crawl in my bed and hide. When Naomi and Jacob are having strong emotions, that they don't know how to deal with, they act out physically. During the course of the afternoon, Naomi spit on me, ripped a paper I was working on, Jacob scratched Naomi's arms and threw a cup at me and they both cried for Daddy.

After dinner I thought maybe it would help if I spent some one on one time with Jacob. I found some learning games and asked Micah to play them with Naomi. He did so great with her. Jake and I cuddled in my bed and read a book about a toad and talked about it and then we made up our own story. I think it really helped him.

At bedtime tonight Micah said, "Mom, can you ask Nana to come in and say goodnight to us?" He paused a minute (I think remembering they were gone) and started bawling. He said he didn't want them to go and asked if they were coming back next week. He said he felt safer when Daddy or Papa and Nana were here. Then he cried about Daddy.

Man, I am drained tonight.

Then to top it all off, Oliver has been sick all day. He woke up this morning limping on his paw. He slept almost all day. He didn't eat and he wouldn't drink water. But then around dinner he seemed a bit better and ate and drank and walked on his paw a bit. Hopefully that is nothing.

The battery in Darrick's van died. I'm trying to get ready to start homeschooling on Monday. We have a pet frog I need to catch flies for...I think I should just go to bed.

Papa and Nana

This morning my parents left to drive back to California. They were here for 2 weeks and it was awesome. We did not do a lot of things out and about in Washington but it was so nice having them here to hang out with. The house did not seem so lonely and it was great to have help with the kids.

Thanks mom and dad for coming! It means so much to us to have your love and support during Darrick's deployment. We love you!

Our carrot crop

I know it is small, but we are very excited! They are finger carrots so they are supposed to be short. These are the second things we get to eat from our garden, the first were the strawberries.

Our Classroom is ready

Last night I finally finished our classroom. It was a huge undertaking and I could not had done it without my parents here. The first thing we did was take everything out of the classroom so I could start from square one.

Then we cleaned. We vacuumed, did the windows, wiped down every surface, and scraped sticky stuff off the table. Once that was done I could start moving stuff back in. But I didn't just bring it back in, I went through everything and reorganized and sorted through it all. I also have some new items that my parents brought me: a marker board, framed poster of the United States and a bulletin board. It took me a few days but I am so pleased with the results.
Walking into the classroom

This is my storage closet where I keep all my supplies and curriculum.

And this year I am trying something new with Naomi. She will be in preschool 3 of the days but on the days she is here I set up her own work area with a big variety of activities for her to do.

Naomi starts Preschool

Originally we did not plan on sending Naomi to preschool. But when we found out about Darrick's deployment things changed. We thought it would be good for her to have something really special this year to help the time pass and to give me a bit of a break. We knew right away we would send her to Everett Christian School because a lot of the kids from our church go there and so does her teacher.

She was so excited to buy her own school supplies, her own backpack and pencil box!

Today was orientation and she got to bring me along. It's so nice that my parents are here so they could stay with the boys. She could hardly wait to get dressed in her preschool clothes and go!

Time for a picture by the school sign!

Her classroom door and her teacher, Mrs. Vandenbosch.

She did great and played a lot with the play dough. Then they heard a story, had snack time, learned how to line up, had a tour of the school and got to play on the playground.

She will be going on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8:45-11:45. I think she will have a great year!