Enjoying Life in the "Barn"

Our Pre-K/K Group Eggs - hatching in 21 days!!

Just put our eggs in the incubator, so 21 days they will be hatching hopefully at a time that our Pre-K/K group will be here:)! The lighter colored egg is a Speckled Sussex and the darker is a Blue Orpington. They are incubating at 99.5 F degrees with 50 percent humidity in the incubator. Fingers crossed they hatch for us:)! They have to travel all the way from Arkansas to NY in the mail so they do get a bumpy ride before they land at our house, but last time we had a good hatch rate.

An Outdoor Classroom and Playgroup prep!

Today we were too tired to go to swim club so took a break and stayed at home. I took the opportunity of being at home to clean and prep for the Fall. I still have IHIPs (NY paperwork) to do! But since those aren't as much fun as creating an "outdoor classroom", I focused on the new addition to our learning environment. All 3 kids were great helpers and had lots of fun. They caught insects and spring peeper frogs to put into our aquarium on the table, wrote on the chalk board and begged for more "science" animals (pets)! They couldn't convince me that the idea of adding a snake was a good one. Yes, I'm sure there are lots of learning opportunities that snakes would bring to science class, but they still give me the creeps! The outdoor classroom will also be used this Fall with my youngest's new playgroup! He's really looking forward to having a group his age since he's constantly being dragged to the big guys activities and classes. Enjoy the pics of the new "Outdoor Classroom" designed by mom and kids and future space of the PuddleJumper Playgroup (that's what we've been nicknaming it here since the kids are big frog fans!) (And while working on it all, our cat, Gem, was being lazy and enjoying our company - Eoghan snapped this picture, I thought it caught the mood of the day well!)

Summer time fun! (and some learning mixed in there:)

Kid have been busy this summer! Between swim team, chicken keeping (and show prepping), and camps we've been busy! But not too busy to sit back and enjoy the summer sun and long days.

Finally Hatched some Eggs!

We finally completed one of the projects we always wanted to do - hatched eggs!! It was all that we expected and more. Now 12 chickens later, we are finding ourselves addicted to chicken raising!

Met two of the kids favorite writers this year!

The kids attended book signings with two of their favorite authors, Erin Hunter (Warrior series) and Rick Riordan. They got their autographs and learned a bit more about the writing, editing and publishing process.

One of our Science habitat projects this year...

Our Homeschool Art Class!

We adore our homeschool art teacher, a very talented artist who encourages the kids creativity. In class they study a country each week. The teacher uses a globe to show them where the country is and art books with the samples of the country's art. This year the kids studied China and the Ukraine, as well as created water colors and self portraits. We are really looking forward to the Fall classes!

Our short phase of Montessori:) CLASSROOM reflections

I decided white rugs on the floor for private work space would be a great idea. It lasted for a short time, and was nice while it lasted:)!

This was the "classroom" when we were in our Waldorf Year

I miss the nature table! I think I am going to have to bring that back to our "class". My youngest just isn't into nature as the older ones were at his age. I hope to get him more interested when the weather improves.

Classroom Reflections...

Over the past 7 years of homeschooling, I've changed classrooms and curriculums almost every year always in search of the perfect one:)! I have learned what I liked the best of each and kept something from each method, and have continued to tweak it for each child and their learning style. But I have to admit, as much as I loved all the "classrooms" we created, we always seemed to end up sitting at the kitchen table. So now, we did away with the "classroom" and have a whiteboard next to the kitchen table. Looking back, I do miss the feeling of a specific classroom area in the house. Maybe when the destructive 3.5 year old gets a bit older, I might have to come up with yet another design for the family students ;)!