Tim Hawkins - A Homeschool Family

I found this little gem & just couldn't resist posting it for all of the homeschoolers I know~
;-D You'll get your grins, guaranteed!

Homeschool Math Curriculum Review ~ Life of Fred ~

All right, time for another Blurt Blogger moment!! Shall I give yet another stale excuse for my lack of blurtiness? NAAHHH ~ All yah all who homeschool know that time is precious ~ all yah all who have kids know it too, and all the rest ya all ~~...lol.. well..... ( does ANYONE even READ this blog who doesn't have at least ONE of those things goin' on?) yah all have lives, eh?

ok ~ So this year we were on the verge of craziness about Math in our homeschool, because even though we liked our Creative Thinking, well, we just weren't being Creative enough. Believe it or not ~ there is an even MORE creative way of thinking about Math ~ May I give you

LIFE OF FRED


Can I just say WOW!! I want you to know something ~ We LOOOVVEE Life of Fred! A bit of background ~ My kids are 17, 16, 14, 12, & 11. They are bright, beautiful, intelligent children. They love to read & reason, they excell at strategy, music, & the arts, & they have a firm foundation of faith in God.

BUT.....(And this is a tremendously LARRGGEE BUT...) Math peeps we ain't. Well.... Until now, anyway. Hold onto your seat, because this is a stunner... my kids actually wake up, run downstairs & , get this, ( & I am not lying, or even stretching the truth a teeny bit) actually EXCITEDLY TEAR OPEN the Life of Fred books!!! (without any actual harm to the books, it might be noted.)

Even I enjoy these books and Fred's adventures!!! And more importantly, even I UNDERSTAND them. (And I am a 38 yr old confirmed non-mathmatic, excessively right-brained, creative, crafty, musical and, may I stress it once again ~ VERY non-mathmatic mama.)
I must seriously congratulate Mr. Schmidt on the very best bit of crazy wild, unconventional & yet HIGHLY AWESOME & EFFECTIVE bit of comprehensive tutorial math texts EVER written!!! Because if he can bring MY brain, and my kids' brains to not only understand ( & I mean TRULY GRASP COMPLETELY) but ENJOY math..... well, my friend, he has accomplished a literal miracle.

My Dear Readers, you should know that I have been struggling with what to do with our math for years now. We had been using the Creative Thinking books, & while those are better than the average text book, ( in fact, I think they were the best thing going till we found LOF) they pale so far in comparison to LOF that the difference becomes black & white. May I even say ~STARKLY~ black & white.

So, I was praying to know what to do, because I was so stressed about the math & where the kids were with it, & my own lack of ability ( my husband can't be there to teach it everyday, he was my fallback). I got down that ginormous Rainbow Resource Center book, hoping to be inspired, & quite literally opened it to a long & very humourous description of LOF. I knew it was the answer I had been praying for.

And seeing my kids, with their actual DELIGHT in math now has been yet another blessing as well. Do you know, just today, ( & actually every day since we started the series, which has been about 3 months now) my son was laughing & comparing something in his daily shedule to LOF. I mean actual math concepts, which he now understands to such a degree that he is able to apply the concepts AWAY from the math books. In real, everyday life. They were so thrilled about it, that they wanted to read ahead in LOF, just to find out more of the story & read the humour. But I said "No Fred unless you are doing the math as well." So they sat down, and zipped through 5 lessons in one day. My kids. Who are the biggest math deny-ers ever. And me. WANTING to do math. Honestly, that IS a miracle!

Again, this is an inspired series, it is the right-brained, non-logical person's answer to truly understanding math concepts.

Here is a link to Stanley Schmidt's website ~ http://www.stanleyschmidt.com/FredGauss/index2.html

Here is a link to some sample pages from Life of Fred ~
http://www.stanleyschmidt.com/FredGauss/31samplepages.html

I guarantee you guys will LOVE this one!!!!!

Holy Cow! ~uh~ I mean HOLY CHICKEN COOP! ~

Well, whoaa ~ lol ~ sorry for the severe lack of communication ~ as it happens, my dorky computer had a little run-in with static electricity, and as a result, I am now on an older one, without all of the modern conveniences of my other one ~ eerrgghhh ~ all of my pictures, my word docs, EVERY THING~ AAAaarrgghhh ~ ok ~ frustration overflow there ~ at least they say that the hard drive can be saved, which is good, because all of our business docs are on there, not to mention the bazillion & one pics ( yes, I know I mentioned this already, I just had to re-hash it for ol' times sake ~ ).....I will not obsess ~ I will NOT obsess, I WILL not obsess, I will not OBSESS.....All right... deep breath.. now ~ to answer some of the awesome commentary left on here.... naah, you know what? I will just put this in a new post ~ ~Red

This was supposed to be my answer to the comments, but then I had the brilliant flash of intuition ~ why not make it a whole new POST? waahaa ~

so, here are the comments pertaining to the chicken coop project ~ And the answers will be listed after each comment. (Hain't I cleever?? :-D)



Lawanda said...
Well isn't that a dandy chicken coop! I never heard of a chicken tractor before! Did you do it like that because you'll need to move it?I loved the butt shot! LOLAnd definitely the barn red. Very cool!!
5:28 PM
Mrs. Organic said...
I'll have to send this link to my uncle, he's getting his chickens soon and wants a tractor too.
6:59 PM
redhead83402 said...
hi lawanda!! :-D Yes, we will need to move it, just so that the chickens can get all the grubs in the grass for us, also so that they can poo fertilize patches of lawn, & eat the weeds. Also, I am intending to leave them in about 2 spots during the winter, so that they can tillup the ground for my garden for next year. I only wish they had already been going at it for this years garden.ROFLLL about the butt shot! He won't be happy, lol,lol,lol. But I will laugh.... hehehehehe. :-D~Red
7:02 PM
redhead83402 said...
corrie ~ awesome! I hope this helps ~ if he needs dimensions or material sizes or anything, just ask, Wood Genius can send him an email with any of the particulars.~Red
7:05 PM

Well, as you can see, I already sorta answered back to lawanda & corrie, in fact, they probably think I completely quit blogging and totally left the whole blog-universe forever & ever amen, since I haven't blogged, since... oh about april..... ( I seem to have a nasty little habit of blogging for every day for a month, and then skipping 5 months.... I don't know ~ my strange urges to write, document, and photograph ~ dumb & dumber....)


Pale Ophelia Floats said...
Hey the coop/tractor/thingy looks great! I'm sensing a backyard color theme which is really frightening since I'm the colorblind one, but meh. Looking forward to the meme. heheh
10:40 AM

Lol ~ ok Madame M. ( pale ophelia, floating about, is she in an underground cistern? why is she so pale? you would think floating about, she would at least catch a feww rays.... perhaps it is on a cloud, but here too, she WOULD be catching some serious ozone.....) ~ I know I promised to meme, but, as you can see, ahem... ~ 'twas futile ~
( toying with the idea of answering the meme right here & now... nahh, I think I will at the bottom, since the other commenters likely don't want to have to scroll through my o-so-dull answers ~ lol ~ may as well save as many as possible, right? :-D)


Tammy said...
Carol - that is one fine chicken coop. Wood Genius is correct.You will need to charge the chickens rent, or maybe sell timeshares.You need high rent chickens, for such an awesome coop.love ya sis, Tammy
8:44 PM

Tammy ~ lol ~ those chickens really SHOULD be paying rent ~ & it adds up to an egg a day ~ the little turds ~ but I suppose I should be patient, afterall, it is the 31st of July, which puts those hens at 17 wks EXACTLY ~ and really only 2 of them are really ~bred~ to give up eggs at 17 wks, the rest will come in some time after that. At least they better ~ lol ~
By the way, we went to a ladies house a week or so ago, and picked a ton of cherries, thought of you, and how kind you were to share your cherries when we came & visited that once ~ I miss you & love you ~
~carer


LillyZoo said...
How manh chickens have put in it and how many eggs do you get per day? Great Coop!
4:09 AM

Lillyzoo ~ well, now, I suppose what we did may have been a bit unconventional ~ we actually got away with sticking 15 chickens in there to begin with, since they were young & small when we did it. We knew there would likely be at least one roo in the lot, turns out there were 2, so we ended up eating them ( we live in town, can't have roo's, otherwise, I never would have eaten fluffernutter & max, they were gorgeous birds... but anyway, I digress...) & then our little toddler neighbor kids went & let them out of the coop one day, and only three were left in there ~ I managed to round up all but the last one ~ so... long story short, we now have 12 birds in there.
It's a nice fit, and they don't mind eachother at all. We also don't move the thing around near so much as we used to, in fact, it's practically grown permanent legs where it's at right now, and the chickens don't seem to mind at all. They are not stressed, they don't peck at eachother, they waddle around & catch bugs & eat any weeds or garden clippings, bread, & general kitchen leftovers (except potato & meat products), & they are totally loveable, and happy, healthy birds. So for us, the space given works for the number of birds we have. They aren't crowded into a cage, but they don't have the Taj Mahal either.
As to the number of eggs we get ~ this is the hard part ~ so far, none ~ but it's because theya re still too young to be producing them. Only the white leghorns are supposed to give up eggs as soon as 17 wks, the rest are somewhere between 18 & 20 wks. Since literally today will be the very 1st day of 17 wks, I'm not concerned.


Christy said...
We found your blog while doing a search for chicken coop "ark" plans. Would you be willing to share the dimensions with us. 4greenfrogs@gmail.com. Thank you!
3:22 PM

Christy ~ hi, we would absolutely be willing to post the dimensions, and If I had my other computer up, I could even post a pic with the dimensions on it & everything, but for now, the best I can do is to give them to you longhand ~ so here you go ~

If you look at the coop from one end ( & therefore see a large triangle, with the nest box doors) & measure that from the very center of the triangle, from the very top to the very bottom ( it's all so VERY :-D) you come up with 68".
Then, if you look at the footprint of the coop, it measures 60" x 96". ( or 5 ft x 8 ft)
They have 21" of headroom when they are down on the ground, underneath.
*One word of caution on this ark ~ it can get very heavy, very fast. As it stands, only Tony can actually move it by himself ~ all the rest of us are wimps, and it takes 2 or 3 of us to move it around. *
While Tony used 2 x 2's, he says he could have gotten away with 1 x 2's. Also, we kind of beefed it up, because of our heavy winters, and don't intend to move it around in the winter. For those who have mild winters, you could use thinner materials & get away with it easily.
We also get summers in the high 90's , & sometimes into the 100's ( but we do always have a nice breeze, as well), & the insulation has been EXCELLENT for keeping the internal coop temps nice & mild. That is with the vents open night & day. During the winter, of course, we will only have the one vent open, or maybe not either, if the ramp being down provides enough ventilation during the day.



Comment deleted
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
7:57 PM

This comment was deleted by me, since it was just some dude advertizing ~ :-D


twinshiner said...
Hello, we were in the process of building our own chix arks when i found your blog. thanks for all the photos. the visuals sure helped me *see* and refine our arks. So, what about an update on the chix now that they're several months old. Is the ark still accomdating them? And design tenets you'd like to do differently? I've been watching your blog hoping for an update from you. Sure hope you've not stopped blogging as I enjoyed reading another homeschooling red-heads thoughts and humour. I added your site to my links on my blog. Hope you don't mind. ~the twinshinerhttp://twinshiner.blogspot.com/
1:07 PM

Twinshiner ~ hello! yes, it IS still accomodating them ( see my reply to lillyzoo above), however, as noted, there are now only 12 chickens in there, instead of the original 15.

Also ( sorry, I seemed to have answered a number of your questions already, if I weren't so lazy, I'd just re-type them, or even copy & paste them, but, there you have it, laziness at it's finest, asking you to please scroll up several times, filter through on your own... I know, I know, laaazzzyyy blogging, lol .... sorry... sorta.. :-D) yes, indeedy, there are some things we'd do differently, just check out the answer I gave Christy up above.

One good thing about the size of our ark, however, it IS large enough for all of those 12 chickens, even though it IS also quite heavy. And it has proven quite predator proof ( except for the toddlers, didn't see that one coming) Still, it CAN be moved, just not so easily as I'd like. ( For instance, it would be nice to be able to move it on my own ~ yes, I am a 5 ft nuthin wimpo-deluxe, however, I'm not totally incapable of lifting & etc... but this IS pretty heavy.) Also, with regards to the nest boxes, I think we are going to have to make the entrance hole for the chickens a little larger ( though we have seen them in there, so they can fit just fine), and we really need to add a little stick of wood or something right where the nest box door opens, as the wood shavings can just fall out. ( yah, yah, this was my whole wood working contribution to the ark, & I haven't done it yet ~ on the other hand, those ladies haven't started laying yet, either... )

Another thing I'd change ~ those blasted knobs ~ we have these two little wandering toddlers in our neighborhood that just waltzed right in, & let the chickens all out ( "we were wookin at da chickies..). So NOW, we had to put some new closures on them, with little padlocks, which is more of a pain in the tooshy, but at least ~da chickies~ are safe.
Also, you linked to me? SHHWEEET ~ I will stop by your blog & link to you as well ~ thanks for the link!


Pebel said...
Hi,This is a geat Coop! I too found it when looking for plans for our own coop. I am starting homeschooling this year and we have acquired 4 chicks that are soon to be in desparate need of a coop. Would you all be willing to share the dimensions? The pics were great, but I can't quite figure out how everythng fits at the apex. I would love any pointers you or "wood genius" have. I am definately not a wood genius but am trying. My email is pebel@hotmail.com. Thanks! Patrick
1:55 PM

Hi Pebel! Thanks! Believe me, for 4 chickens, this coop is a PALACE. Personally, I wouldn't make one this big for just 4, since you could definitely get away with half the size, and therefore make it WAY more transportable. However, if you are planning on more later or something, check out my answer to Christy up above for the dimensions. ( I know, I know, more LAAAZZZYYY blogging.....it's a habit, I admit it....)

Congrats on the starting homeschooling!! It's a big leap, but it's SOOO worth it! My son is able to excel at Scouts, my daughters get to excel at their hobbies, and they all get to expand on their talents, & have so much FUN, because they don't have the snasty strict schedule of meaningless line-ups, ridiculous homeworks, & asinine no-child-left-behind- ISAT- test teaching. I do not even CARE about the ISATS, ( or the state standards, for that matter, shhh.. madame M, you didn't see anything....), nor do I teach to ISATS or standards, yet somehow, my kids seem to do just fine on them. If you haven't read it before, I HIGHLY reccomend the book "A Thomas Jefferson Education", by Oliver Demille. It is the one book about homeschooling that I have found absolutely INVALUABLE! I could go on & on about the whole homeschooling thing, but I guess I should save that for another post, eh?

~Red

Guess What? Chicken BUTT! Coop is DONE! It's a Chicken Tractor!

UPDATE ~ If you scroll all the way to end, I added the finished product ~ so the tractor is done ~ now for the real coop........... ( better not mention this to Wood Genius just yet... best to let it lie for a day or three..... hehehehe... BWAAAHAHAHAHA... ;-D )

WOO HOO!! SO ~ we got the chicken coop done!! Well, ok, ALLLLLmost done ~ the kids & I still have to paint it. And I am thinking that good ol' Barn Red with white accents is just gonna be IT ~ what do you all think? Afterall, that WOULD tie in with the shed & the treehouse.

So ~ I know what you all are waiting for ~ PICTURES!
And we DO have pictures!

This is meant to be the portable chicken tractor, or also known as the chicken arc. It is based loosely ( ever so loosely) on the boughton forsham models that can be found online. Since we have 16 chickens right now, and will have 10 after the fair, we needed to make our tractor a little larger.

We decided to go with the A-frame style, as it made up for less mass in the long run to transport. And with Wood Genius making it, we knew it could get complicated fast. Here is a pic of the basic frame with supports in the corners, so that nothing wracks when it is being transported.

oops ~ lazy blogging, sorry ~ sideways pic. Just a close-up of the joinery ~ easy sqeazy so far.

Here is a pic of the feeders, on extending drawer guide arms. Wood Genius used a 3/8 drill to drill through 3 times in a line so that the arms could extend out, thus saving your back. That way, the feeder & waterer can just be hooked on and slid back, or slid forward to remove & re-fill.

These are heavy-duty drawer guides, and will easily hold the weight of the galvanized metal 2 gallon double walled waterer & the five gallon feeder.

(Had to move it back into the shop to work on it, as it was getting quite dark out.) Here you can see the flooring going in. It should be mentioned that the wood being used is 2x2's, & I believe 3/8 material.

Here you can see the chicken ramp on hinges, plus the framework for the ramp.

This shows the nest boxes & the flooring installed. There are 3 nest boxes, and we made them a little larger inside, but still a nice snug hole to crawl through & feel safe with.

Now you can see the roosts installed, as well as the back and top of the tractor. You can also see the vents at the apex. We used a very strong wire for this. Also visible is the 1 1/2" gap between the inner melamine wall and the outer 3/8" sheeting wall. This, & the back side, is where Wood Genius installed 1 1/2" styrofoam core insulation. The door is also insulated.

Vents are a bit more visible here. Also visible is the pulley system to raise & lower the chicken ramp. There is the rope & the nail to hold it when the ramp is closed.

Follow the rope over, and down it goes through a hole drilled in the flooring.

This is the pulley in the roof. These pulleys make sure that the rope doesn't get run ragged by snagging on the wood. The pulley is just hanging by a screw screwed through.

oops, another sideways pic. The rope is shown here heading through the vent above the nest boxes, to another pulley.

Voila! A close-up of the outside pulley above the nest boxes.

Ok, this is just showing the foamcore.

And what have we here? A BUTT shot! Can't say "Guess what? Chicken BUTT!" without a butt shot at least SOMEwhere. heheheh. Wouldn't he be so annoyed if he saw this? :-D

However, I actually have a better reason for the pic. It is showing the door fitting on.

I forgot to add that this is actually one of those ~green~ coops, because almost every single bit of wood on here was harvested from left-overs, the dump ( see that pile of 2x4's?), old fence parts, and various other places.


And here is the door on. The handles are close enough together for one person to lift if they are bigger, & far enough apart for two smaller kids to lift off together. (It's good for them, makes them work as a team.....) :-D

Hmmmmm... trying to remember why I uploaded this pic... Maybe just to show the ramp in closed position. Also, see the rungs are spaced so that even with a fair amount of snow or chicken goo, the ramp can still be closed completely. Also showing the roosts, which are positioned higher than the nest boxes to discourage pooey eggs. ( The chickens will choose to roost in the nest boxes if they are higher... I don't know why, it's a chicken thing..)

Here's the whole contraption, alMOST all the way finished. From the side/back.

From the side/front. Note the wooden latches to make sure the nest boxes are all the way shut. The little doors will make egg gathering easy.

Latches secure the door as well, just for predators' sake. (Little kids in the neighborhood can't reach that high... that's pretty much the main concern.) Also, the vents open and latch shut... We get winters down to -20F, so the chickens will need to be warm. While not shown, the heat lamp will be able to be dropped down through a hole drilled in the roof, and we will just use an extension cord ( heavy duty, shop type) to either light the heat lamp or, when they are older, to extend their perception of daylight so that egg-laying continues through the winter.

Last night & today, Wood Genius installed the hardware fabric around the base. ( which, by the way, isn't really fabric at all ~ what a cruel joke to play on a fabriholic...it's really just metal wire with a whole bunch of little bitty square holes in it. ) And now he is off buying the wheel set-up, which will consist of large lawn mower wheels, connected & used in the same manner as the boughton forsham chicken arc/tractor. These will be installed on the nest box side, as it is the heaviest. He will also install a large bar on the end opposite the nest boxes, so that we can reposition the tractor once a week. (During the winter, this will obviously not be easily moved, so we will add additional run space, connected to the bottom of the tractor, via the removable screen end.)

And the last thing to do will be to paint it up, and add chickens! {:>)=

Well, I am going to keep adding pics here as he finishes it up ~ I keep running out there to take pics for each phase.

Ok, so here you can kind of see the removable screen door there on the end, with a latch to close it up tightly. You might also notice the dolly and the suspiciously wet ground.

Yup, it's true! Here in Idaho, it could be shining one minute and literally SNOWING the next!! Where is the justice in that?!? See that? Green grass with a snowy blanket ~ AAARRGGHHHHH !!!!

UPDATE!!! ~ YEAH! It stopped snowing and actually got sunny enough that Bek painted the tractor ~ Next post ~ the Garden project!!

Thomas Jefferson Homeschool Method

Well Folks ~
here is one more plug for homeschool ~ This is the method we use at our home, with the eclectic style of application. That means a Thomas Jefferson Education, applied eclectically. Also, once again, I would like to plug the best book I have ever read on homeschooling, called "A Thomas Jefferson Education", by Oliver Van DeMille. I went to a seminar by him once, a Math seminar. I am so NOT a math person~ but ~ at the end of that seminar, I can tell you I was interested enough in the subject to have taken well over 10 pgs of notes, got some excellently reccomended math classic books, & actually ENJOYED the heck out of it!
His book is the reason my husband & I decided to switch over to homeschooling in the first place.

Here is the plug for A Thomas Jefferson Education that CBS did on some folks who use the method:

Chicken Adventures ~ Baby Chicks!

So this is our latest homeschool adventure ~ we now have 12 little peeping balls of fuzz!!! And they are SOO cute!! And we are SOOO popular with all the neighborhood kids! And I'll be SOOOO impressed if half of them make it into adult-hood ~ cuz they are SOOOOOO loved!

Ok, so ~ enough of that ~ :-D ~ Let's look at the little ladies. {:^-- (<<<--isn't that a cute chicken-head?)

First, we read up on chickens, & egg-layers for our area, & what it takes to brood them, & raise pullets for laying, and all of that. Then we went to a wonderful little family-run farm (small world, turned out Wood Genius knew the gentleman who owned it through Scouting) where they let us go & look at their hens, along with all the other animals they had. ( There were goats, lambs, peacocks, & I think even a cow or two.)

They had mostly Rhode Island Reds & Sex-links, but they also said that some are ~indiscriminate mix & match~.

Our next step was to prepare a brooder, & order the chicks. On the day of their arrival, we heated up the brooder so it would be all nice & warm for the chicks, & then waited with baited breath. And finally, AT LAST ~ They came!

This is a Rhode Island Red, a Barred Rock, & an Auracauna.

Here you can also see the Buff Orpington's, and the White Leghorns. Also, notice that mason jar feeder. These little ladies are only on their second day of life, first day at our house, and they have already consumed almost an entire mason jar of medicated chick starter. AND, they have gone through an entire mason jar of water as well. Which makes for quite the lovely toodles ( or shall we say *chicken gravy*).

These are Liz's Buff Orpington's.

This is is Izzy's Auracauna.

Bek chose Barred Plymouth Rocks.

Aren't they SOOO SWEETTT??

And perky, too. So far, we haven't had any problems with mean chickens, but they have already established a pecking order.


Kat chose White Leghorns.

And Jess & I chose Rhode Island Red's.

This little lady is the only one I am worried about ~ She is sort of listless, sleeps more than the other chicks, & she is also tinier than the other ones. She toddles around with her wings sort of dragging. Here she is, ~ going.....

Gooooiiinnnggg..........

Gone! The next step, is where she lays her beak down on the ground and just sort of hunches there, snoring away.

Anyway, more on the Chicken Adventures soon! Hopefully, they make it through the night, other wise, we'll have 5 highly distraught youth, as well as about 7 sad little neighbors. (All of whom wish, on a regular basis, that they too could be homeschooled.)

(:^-- {;>)= (:^--

Comedy & Tragedy

Et tu, Brute? ( yah, yah, yah, but it fits the picture)

I find this little lesson on Ancient Greek history rather amusing ~ a tragic comedy indeed!

Ένας αρουραίος στο σπίτι μυρίζει ~ αλλά μια μυρωδιά στοσπίτι μπορεί να είναι δύσκολη στον αρουραίο έξω.

nos venit , nos video , nos victum ~

~yes, it's a moldy oldy, but a goodie woodie ~

The kids are learning Latin from the Rosetta Stone homeschool series ~ excellent, & I HIGHLY reccomend it! They speak better Latin than I do at the moment.

Among other things, we also had great fun sculpting & labeling the heart

and the digestive system.

I would show you Izzy's version of this, however, it was a little too crude. Yes, he included the stinky, lumpy brown end results. All I can do is point to Wood Genius & say, "That must be Your son!" (to which Mr. Wood Genius simply smiles, flicks a conspiratorial smirk in Izzy's general direction and proudly acknowledges all stink relations.....)

We did weavings, ( part of our trip through Europe & Asia with Marco Polo)


as well as model ships.

This candy lab had to be one of the most disgusting labs ever ~ in part because we actually tasted the results of our lab-work. ( It was dealing with the different chemical reactions of sugar heated to various temps, & the like.) Included were rootbeer, gummi candies, marshmallows, & bubblegum. BLeaahhgg!

Here we have Valentine's Day woven heart baskets. They were quite fun & a little challenging. I am thinking some origami would be great as well. Definitely going to be included when we cover Japan.

And of course, the dead, drowned fly experiment. We swatted this fly without squishing him, ( a stunning blow :-0 ) drowned him ( held him under water till he quit struggling... ooohhh .. how sadistic!..), let him sit there drowned for a few hours, and then put him on a bed of salt, and covered him with salt ~ & Voila!~ within moments ~ re-incarnated to fresh NEW FLY status! It was beautiful. We all wept. And then smashed him for good. Gotta love homeschool ~ smashing him for good afterward wouldn't have been very politically correct in Public school. Yep, that's why WE homeschool... so we can still smash the flies and be gleeful in our doing so. (:7-- <<<---

That's a chicken face ~ pre-cursor to the next blog entry, & our latest homeschool adventure.