Old McMickey's Farm

Today we took the kids on a field trip with our CC group (and even invited another local CC community along, which was fun) to Old McMickey's Farm in Odessa.  It was a wonderful morning with overcast skies and even a cool breeze.  The weather was perfect.

I think this is their Wild Kratt's "Creature Power" pose.

We had to split up into two groups, so our community friends were not all with us the entire time (but we did have lunch together).

The kids got to touch a lot of animals and help do some farm work as well.

The first stop was at the cow milking station. After learning basic cow anatomy, each child got a chance to milk the cow.

Tonight at dinner Nicole said, "Daddy, did you know that when the milk comes out of the cow, it's not cold yet!"

They all did a great job (although, I was having a hard time watching...)

No, I did not milk the cow, although I'm sure they would have let me if I would have asked.

Click on this picture, and you'll be able to see the milk coming out.

The kids learned a little about pot belly pigs and why they are good pets.

Each child also got to go on a little pony ride.  This was the favorite event of the day.

I even got Nate and Hannah both to say "Yeeee- Haw!"

The children had a chance to pet some cute bunnies.

Check out the size of this bunny rabbit!

Then, all of the kids had a blast in the chicken coop area.  Those poor chickens were running for their lives!

But, most were captured for a quick picture.

Even Nate got in on the action.

He kept saying "Man, dees, tings are so fast!".

He was so cute to watch running around.

Nicole and Hannah had a blast chasing these chickens and holding them.

We had such a fun morning with our friends.

Old McMickey had a farm...E-I-E-I-O...

CC Fun Friday

We had our first Fun Friday today with our Classical Conversations group.  I invited the community over to our house for a messy project.  We had 5 families come out today, which was just perfect.

Mrs. Ana helping Claire and Hannah work on their water cycle bag.

We started the day by making a water cycle bag, like this one we did earlier this summer.  I hope the kids put it up in their windows and see the water cycle happen before their eyes.

Katrina, Nicole, and Carly's finished product

Then, we talked about Coat of Arms, and why they were necessary during the middle ages.  I used this book as my jumping off point.  After I spent a few minutes talking with the kids about the need and importance of these coat of arm, I let them dig in and design their own.  I think that most of them "got it".  They understood that it was to represent them.  They used poster boards, construction paper, markers, etc.

Diving into the messy project- making a coat of arms on a shield

Little girls, designing their coat

Mrs. Yvette, working with her children on their Coat of Arms

I LOVE this picture!  This is what it's about.  Children talking, laughing, and learning together.  Nicole, Rocco, and Carly

This is the group with their finished project.

Woot woot!

Close of details of their swords

I love their faces in this one.  Great detail on their sword

Some even decided to design swords as well and had a sword fight.  It was fun.

This was intense, but friendly sword fight.

Although the messy projects are the idea behind getting everyone together...what I love the most is the play/fellowship time afterward.  The kids had plenty of time to play together.  They played baseball in the yard, caught frogs, lizards, and anything else they could get their hands on, and even asked if they could play chess.  I LOVED IT!  I loved watching these sweet children play together and get to know one another.

Love this picture too...boys playing baseball in the backyard.  Nothing better!

Lizard and frog catching.  Even little Nate got in on the action.

I am so thankful for the way the Lord brought this community together.  The girls all have very similar "adventuring" interests, the boys seem to all enjoy being with one another, and the moms (and grandma;) are all SO SWEET!  I enjoyed sitting and chatting.  Listening to them share homeschool stores, schedules, diets, budgets, and just about anything else.

My prayer is that these "Fun Fridays" are more than just fun, more than just mess.  My prayer is that they will be a place where community grows.  Families get to know one another.  Friendships are built and strengthened.  This was a great start!

Crystal Springs Preserve- Part 1

We have joined a really cool, monthly science class at Crystal Springs Preserve (Zephryhills water is bottled here, you can see the pipeline in the spring)

Nicole is going to LOVE this class!  And, I just found out that Hannah and Nate can be involved too, which is very cool.

You can see Nicole's head, sort of in the back, watching the teacher demonstrate something.

They learned about water at our first class.  The students had three types of liquid, but had to determine which was water by conducting several tests include: smell, water droplet, pH, and dissolving salt.

"Looking through the grass/dirt" down into the ground to see the limestone

Then, the kids went outside for a walk around the spring and a crash course in aquifors, limestone and even a random grasshopper (which of course the girls held).

Checking out another area where water is coming out of the spring

They played several games that helped them understand the water cycle better (very fitting since we are talking about the water cycle in CC this week), and also a game to learn about how pollution effects the environment.

This is the water pollution game.  The kids with red hats on are pollution, chasing the baby insects around.  If they tag you, you have to freeze because you "died".

Nate and Nicole got tagged:)

Hannah, being pollution....she's the cutest piece of trash I've ever seen ;)

Nicole also got a pollution hat, now it's on to the tagging.

Next class, they will head into the Hillsborough river to take some water quality samples and testing.  Some weeks, they'll end up back in the woods, or learning about predators, and even survival skills.  It's a cool class!

Homeschooling Fun!

We are well into our school year.  Well, I never know when we really start or when we really stop, but I do know that we learn a lot, we read a lot, and we play a lot!

The kids love to "pretend" when we have school time.  In a weird way, it is exhausting to pretend to be their teacher.  I try to play along as much as I can though.

Getting ready for geography

Nate even gets involved and tries to answer questions.

Every day, we have to have presentations.  I don't think they understand that this is one reason we go to CC every week.  But, it's fun for them, so we roll with it.

We are listening to a history series called Story of the World.  We have three of the books, and only one set of audio CDs.  The audio CDs work the best.  We listen while we are in the car.  Nicole is an auditory learner, so she really enjoys listening.  I have learned more history in the past 6 months that I believe I learned in all of my years of school.  None of it made much sense until I've started to learn it chronologically.  Amazing!

A non-homeschooling friend of mine asked me the other day "how do you do it?"  She is finding her 5 year old daughter to be highly unmotivated in kindergarten.  I have the opposite problem (but it's not a problem).  My kids love to learn, and it is exciting watching them.  I told my friend that they don't really know any different.  I can turn anything into a learning experience.  My kids love to read nonfiction, educational books, even when they are playing, they are usually playing pretend school, or adventuring, which means reading books written for adults.

Yep, that's Nicole, with a whole table full of books about crocodiles and alligators. She brings them out before breakfast and sits and reads them.  Some are children's books, others are naturalist books written for someone on a trail or with a keen interest in animals or plants.  Up until this summer, she was not interested in reading at all, now, she reads all the time.

I love that Nicole is reading to Hannah.

She'll occasionally pick up a fictional book (right now she is slowly making her way through Black Beauty and a couple of others), but she mostly wants to read about animals.  That's fine with me...either way she is reading!

We built a castle a few weeks ago out of boxes.  That was a fun project.  Of course, the kids slept in there that night (and Nicole has a flashlight so she can read!)

We have enjoyed our first 4 weeks with a Classical Conversations group.  I feel like the families are getting to know one another.  I am still praying there will be a strong bond formed where these families can come together and support one another.

Lunch with part of our group

Oh, and this was a food chain diagram they drew last week.

Nicole's food chain.  Starts with trees.  Giraffe eats the leaves, lion eats the giraffe, bacteria decompose the dead lion.