A New Bookcase

I love this new/used shelf/bookcase. I have put it in the kitchen, near the dining room table where we do schoolwork. I think I will use it for the library books.

It also is on wheels and has a lower shelf on the wall side too. I put games and puzzles on that side which we use often, but I need out of the baby's sight.

(I got this today, so I don't really know what the wrong date is doing on the front of the picture?)

Zoo Day

Today, Dad took us all to the zoo.

In the zoo gift shop we found this sign, which is now hung in the kitchen. I thought it described perfectly the house as we got ready to go to the zoo.

Kimmy hammed it up for the camera while we were there. She kept this pose until the camera was put away.

I'm not sure what this penguin thought of Mark, but I guess it liked him.

Of course, we have to have some of the kids pose as penguins. Very cute,

especially the little baby penguin.

Poor Luke had to push his own stroller. I hope his legs won't get too tired.

He walked all the way to the barn, and then had to milk the cow by himself so that he could have a drink.

Is there an age limit posted on this cow?

We have just finished learning about bears around the world, and we were very happy to get such a good look at the spectacled bear.

We have been learning so much, Grace is ready to get out there and move the world!

Sad News

We have discovered that Seamus was hit and killed by a car. He went missing on Saturday night, and someone came to house today because they found him in the ditch about a half mile from our house.

New Scrubs!!

I finished making Grace and Luke each a pair of scrubs today for their never ending doctor play.

I used Butterick Pattern # 5565.
They were quite easy.

Mark told me that he didn't want a pair, but he does like the hat, maybe if I make him a pair in camouflage material....

Peanut Butter Play Dough

Yesterday, Crafty in Coffeeland, shared the St. Monica prayer board craft. She also shared a recipe for an edible St.John the Baptist craft.

We made our dough using 11/2 cups of peanut butter, 3/4 cup powdered milk,(we used quite a bit more) and 3 tbls honey. We mixed this into a playdough consistency.

Crafty in Coffeeland then made the head of St. John the Baptist after he was beheaded. (O.K., but my kids loved it and they sure know the story of John the Baptist's death now.)

We also continued to make many more sculptures.

Everyone enjoyed playing with it, and

it is completely edible.

Craft of the Week #5

This week, the Craft of the Week came from Crafty in Coffeeland . It is St. Monica's prayer board. We laminated the white paper and background paper together making a wipe-off board. We added a picture of St. Monica, a heroine of pray. Mark and Grace deocorated it and we hung it near out kitchen table because we always pray for people after we way grace at meals. This will certainly help us remember everyone that we want to pray for.

Mark wanted to pray for the soul of Grandpa Collins today, and we also are praying for the soul of our dear friend, Paul's grandfather.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen

Seamus is Missing

Please say a quick prayer that Seamus, our dog, will be found.

Last night Pat Sr. was out playing with him and he got away.

We have some real sad children around here, but hopefully he will be found and taken to the shelter or to the vet's office.

The Great New York State Fair!!

Today Pat, 4 children and I headed to the New York State Fair. We try to do this every year and we all have a great time. This year Becky stayed home with the babies, Dan and Matt had soccer practice and Patrick Jr had to work.

Hopefully, I will go back next week with some of the kids who missed out on the fun this week.

New York is an agricultural state,(there is much more to NY than just New York City), and above, the kids portray some of the livestock of the region.

Mark participated in the raptor demonstration, he did a wonderful job in spite of being quite scared of this "meat eating" owl.

Dad took this picture of a real live bald eagle in the raptor show. I think this photo deserves to be blown up large and hung on the wall.

I think that this white Iceland falcon was one of my favorites.

We watched the New York State troopers repel off a 60 foot tower. They repelled down backward, forward, feet first, head first and upside down. Great job guys. (It was law inforcement day and Pat got us free entrance tickets to the fair today.)

Gracie made friends here, just as she does everywhere.

She made friends with bears, and

friends with horses.

The kids drove fighter jets,

jet skiis,

and snowmobiles. It may have been 95 degrees today, but we all know that winter in northern NY is headed our way.

Our favorite thing to do at the fair is to find all the free stuff that we can. This year was no exception. We made quite a haul.

We have counted-

56-pencils

25- pens

12-coloring books

8-rulers

6-key chains

4-gun locks

2-t-shirts

and other things to numerous to continue.

We do want everyone to be warned though. If you are headed to the fair and the weatherman says that the temperature will be 95 degrees but the "heat index" will be much hotter, know that some of your children will arrive home looking like this.

It is now time for bed.

A Rabbit Trail

I commented to one of the older children recently that we have only been schooling for a few weeks and we had already headed off on a "rabbit trail." This child didn't understand what I meant so I explained and then realized that it would be more easily explained in a visual way.

So, here is what happened in our homeschool from the time we began our Blueberries for Sal
lapbook from Hands of a Child, up to today.(We never know what tomorrow will bring.)

We got started in the usual way, we purchased the book and project pack and started on our trail.

We learned a lot about Maine and blueberries. We studied the New England states, and the coast line and the ocean.
We then went on to the animals of the New England area, concentrating on bears. This caused us to learn about bears around the world, especially Kodiak bears and Polar bears. Two of our favorite animals, which of course live in Alaska.

We happened to see a television show, Into Alaska with Jeff Corwin, which is now one of our favorite shows and I have scheduled our DVR to record all the episodes. We loved the scenes about bears, in fact we loved everything about Alaska.


After discussing Alaska, I ordered all these books from our inter-library loan borrowing system.
These books made us very interested in all the animals of northern North America.


Because we have found we love all the animals of northern North America, I bought these very nice animals from Safari Ltd.


Of course these animals are so nice, we will need some from other parts of the world, maybe the animals of Antactica, because we could always compare the animals of the far north with animals from the far south........or we could learn animal folklore of the Inuit people.....or animal folklore of all native Americans......maybe this is way we don't always finish everything I plan to do in a school year----there are too many rabbits leaving trails around.

Week 4--4Real Craft

This week Mary G, from St. Athanasius Academy, provided us the week 4 craft directions for the 4Real Learning Craft of the Week.

This weeks craft is simple paper weaving. We haven't done this before and everyone enjoyed it.

In fact some very big children are still working on theirs right now.

Now, if you are 5 years old there is nothing simple about paper weaving. It took Gracie a lot of direction to get the hang of the whole concept of this craft.

Mark is 20 months older than Grace and he caught on immediately. There must be a developmental stage that kids go through between 5 and 7 that make this idea click into focus.

But, you can tell by the pride in Gracie's face that she is very proud our her accomplishment.

Today just happened to also be the day that a package arrived from Montessori N' Such with our new wood cut food box. Mark made his weaved mat red and white so that is could be used as a place mat for his fruits and vegetables.

We laminated the mats so they will last longer. (please ignore the cute baby who was saying "cheese" during this picture)

I wanted to take a picture of our wavy weaving but this is as good as I could do---I wonder why?

Our Church Picnic 2007!!

We had a wonderful parish picnic this afternoon with a lot of good food and many good friends and family. The cooks were all great.
Grandma and Grandpa were very hungry and were the first in line.

Luke enjoyed his ice cream the most,

and Kim did a good job on her cone too.

Following lunch everyone enjoyed games of every kind.

Of course, no church picnic would be complete without bows and arrows.(???)

We played--tie a balloon to very small children's legs and watch what happens.

Not much happened--until the balloons popped by themselves on the grass, and then the very small children all cried.

It was a much different kind of game when played by big kids and adults.

The very small children enjoyed an Easter egg hunt. (O.K., but they don't know it is not Easter)

Middle sized children are all set to start the sack race.

Ready, set, go!!!!

Mark learned that it is not a good idea to wear his father's sunglasses during a sack race.

Very small children also found a way to enjoy the sack race.

This was our version of the three legged race. (no broken ankle's this way)

Matt and Abby look like the team to beat.
GO!!

The bigger kids also enjoyed wheelbarrow racing.

Some real big kids played too, but they didn't win, in fact they almost killed each other.

The day ended happily with friends and

water balloons.

It was another a great day!!