Butterfly Love

We love butterflies :-) In our household, if one is seen you can guarantee several children will squeal with delight and go running outside. In our own backyard, we have some lovelies that frequent us...painted ladies, cabbage whites, and some yellow one that resembles a monarch. Such amazing beauty contained in such a small being.

For science this year, Brenna has been using Apologia's Zoology 1, which focuses on flying creatures. The last lesson of the year is on order Lepodoptera (butterflies, moths, and skippers-also referred to as Leps). So for this lesson we bought a little butterfly home and ordered some Painted Lady caterpillars to raise and watch change.

What fun! The metamorphosis that Leps go through is such an amazing example of God's perfect design in creation. Truly awesome! We enjoyed watching our caterpillars eat and quadruple in size and then change to their chrysalises. The most difficult thing to actually catch in action was the butterflies coming out of their chrysalises. They do it so quickly!

(Liam looking at one of our painted ladies)

After enjoying and studying our little friends for a few days, we decided to free them. We had six butterflies(all survived, though one had fallen while in the middle of its final change to chrysalis) and so we enjoyed each one leaving in its own time. Four flew out within a few minutes of us opening our house, but two took their time. Both of these stayed in our yard for most of the afternoon and both allowed us to hold them :-) Now that was awesome!

(Brenna and Liam holding a butterfly)

The only one that didn't hold our friends was Rowan...I'm thinking she might have been a bit too enthusiastic in her affections ;-) So she watched everyone else hold them and was tickled to see them flutter above her head as they left. There is nothing like watching a two year old's wonder :-)

(Rowan in awe watching Fiona hold a butterfly)

(Brenna's patience paid off, such a happy little student!)

(Resting spot for our little Lep friend~the pomegranate tree)

I have a feeling that this little project may have bred a love of studying butterflies, moths, and skippers. Could there be a future Lepidopterist in our family? Who knows :-) But I will encourage their love of these beautiful creatures. Truly amazing to watch them start from a caterpillar and become something that looks completely different! I highly recommend doing this little project (homeschooler or not). Your kids(and you!) will love it :-)

I look forward to doing this again in the future!

May you have a blessed day and feel the wonder of God's magnificent creation!

Blessings,

Sommer

A Win For California Homeschoolers!

I was so excited to read that the decision made earlier this year in a California court has been reversed! What a blessing! Thanks to all the homeschool supporters, legal teams like HSLDA, Gov. Schwarzeneggar and a many others, we Californian parents will not be required to have teaching credentials to teach our own children. This is a wonderful renewal of our parental rights to make decisions in our children's lives.

I hope that you will rejoice with me in this reversal and continue to pray for those folks in other countries that do not have the same freedoms we have(especially Germany).

Blessings,
Sommer

What We've Been Doing...

Now that we've finished up the school year, we are taking a brief break. I don't homeschool year round, but we do have a short summer break. I like to start early so that if anything comes up, we can afford to take time off:-)

We've been on "break" for almost two weeks now. So what have we been doing? What has kept me away? Well, last week we were kept quite busy with VBS and the girls really loved that. They did well and had a blast. Only bad thing was the added stress of making sure Fiona and Brenna were kept safe from possible allergens. Fiona is allergic to peanuts and nuts and we have not yet tested Brenna. For Brenna we follow the same precautions...checking labels obsessively, warning people to not provide items with nuts of any sort and such. Of course at VBS they provide snacks and I had to talk with the snack staff to keep them from making anything that might, well, kill my kids! That is very stressful..you feel like your nagging, and yet you would do it to save the life of your child...it is just that bad. Well, on Friday they had a program with singing and a special treat for the winning team(memory verse stuff). Fiona's team won...ice cream sandwiches...with nuts! She was devastated, for one...she couldn't eat the hard earned treat and she couldn't eat with her friends. It was awful. I felt horrible..but what could I do? Well, there was a dear lady in our church that always thinks of my girls and she had made special cookies/brownies with no nuts. Bless her heart! It didn't fully make up for the stigma of not being with your friends, but it did soothe her soul a bit.

We've also been doing some other fun things...I hope you enjoy the picture tour of our doings:




Sunday afternoon playing mancala. Liam has mastered the little chairs and really wanted to join Brenna in the game. Fiona was playing with little animals quietly.

Liam is learning to be an elephant rider. A career in his future? :-)

I'm working with Brenna to learn sewing. She is doing wonderfully and is very neat with her stitches. Look at that sweet concentration.

Here is her finished rectangle. The stitches were very neat and straight and now she is working on her name and a heart. She says it shall be a pillow!

And finally, Fiona is learning to play the piano. Her lovely daddy is teaching her with a Christian piano curriculum from Davidson Music. So far both are pleased:-)

So this was just a quick catch up, but I do hope to be more regular with my posting again. I hope all of you are well and having a splendid summer!

Blessings,

Sommer

How We Do Nature Study in the City

Nature Study can be challenging when you live in the middle of town or the city. I know...I live there:-) Sure there are state and county parks, small parks and such, but sometimes funds are limited and gas is too pricey and time is of the essence and, well...the countryside is often too far to go. So what do you do? Well, we explore our own "backyard". Okay...we don't have a backyard. We live in a small apartment with a courtyard/carport that is shared between two 4-plexes. But, it does have some flowers, trees, grass and birds..lots of birds. So on Wednesday, we decided to do a little Nature Study:-)


Here the girls have found some ants to observe. Thankfully the ants are outside...not in my apartment! A little while later Fiona decided to try the theory out if an ant can swim...it can!

This is a lovely burst of pretty in our rather concrete and drab grounds. She is a burst of color and fire in an otherwise bare spot. Look closely and you can see the fire within. Isn't she beautiful?

Aaaaah, Brenna...the snail whisperer. When most little girls would be getting creeped out by the sliminess of our snail friend here, Brenna is wooing it:-) She loves snails and looks for them every time she comes outside to play. She gladly showed her friend to me(I have some lovely pics of it, but blogger wouldn't let me upload as many as I would have liked...perhaps another day). I was informed by my hubby yesterday, that while I was out with my Mom for Mother' Day, Brenna placed a snail on her face...hmmm, a touch icky, but I'm glad she is not fearful.

Here is a picture of one of our many birds. We have two nests in this carport. They've been here every year since we began living here and I love watching them. This is Papa House Sparrow watching bravely over his little ones(the nest is in the upper right corner). I can hear them, but not see them...rats! He is a good Papa...he swoops if we get too close.

And lastly, Liam just couldn't be left out of the fun! He was walking back and forth between the patches of flowers and bird area. He would go see what his big sisters were checking out, then go back and look at some flowers, pointing and babbling. When he saw the Papa go flying out from his nest, well, he got quite excited:-) Aaaah, homeschooling...it can never start too young!

I hope you've enjoyed our little Nature Study tour. I certainly had fun sharing:-) Next week, we will be heading up to Yosemite for a very brief stay. It will be mine and the kids first time. I plan on making it a big Nature Study adventure. I will take lots of pics and share when we get back.

Have a blessed weekend!

Sommer

Homeschoolers Coming Together

Last week I posted about the current legal situation in California that could very well make homeschooling illegal here. If you missed that post, I encourage you to read it and if you feel led and haven't done so yet, please sign the petition.

So, far the situation is still up in the air and we await the results of several legal avenues being taken to keep homeschooling legal here. Please keep praying and consider some options for making known how you stand, listed here.

Crystal and her husband Jesse have taken up the banner in encouraging homeschoolers all across our country to stand for parent's rights and what they believe is their right and duty as Christians. Please join in doing what you can. I believe prayer is the strongest weapon we have...what can man do? May God work in this situation and cause the foolishness of the judges to be seen and cause the men and women working to keep our freedoms to have wisdom and right words! If you can do more and are willing, please do! Thank you to all those joining in this fight.

Blessings,
Sommer

Hittin' the Books

After three weeks of Christmas holiday and a week of nasty coughs, we have gotten back to lessons:-) Yes, it has been four weeks since we cracked a book or added and subtracted.

I had meant to get started again last week, but all three kiddos came down with a really icky cough and then Dan and I got it:-0 I just didn't feel up to dealing with it.

So, now we are all feeling a little bit better and I thought we best get to it yesterday. In some ways, I could tell it had been awhile, but in others things just carried on as usual. Fiona is still reading like a pro and enjoying science and health. Brenna has not forgotten any of her phonics...so we are on the road to reading.

Daddy assumes the role of teaching the Catechism and reading their pleasure book. We have Bible time together as a family too, before he must leave for work. So far the routine works...although Liam likes to cause a large amount of distraction for me:-) I really can't figure out how to get him satisfied in much for long while we try to do some things. I know...he is only 11months old, I can't really expect much, but boy would it be nice if he would like playing with his blocks a little longer!

I have a bit of a sewing list to get to as well. I'm not quite sure when I will make the time , but I will be trying to get to more of it soon and doing it more often:-) My dear friend Tilly gifted me with some great fabrics that I hope to make a dress or two for me out of and other goodies. I will also use some to make the girls some things. Thanks again dear Tilly:-)

Well, it is just about time to put dinner on and Liam is getting a bit fussy, so I will talk a little bit later. Perhaps tomorrow I will be able to share some of the fabric I have to work with and what I'd like to make with it...that would be fun:-)

Have a great night everyone!

Blessings,

Sommer