Window with a view

View from our dinning room window, as night falls we are beginning to hear the frogs sing.

The Great Backyard Bird Count

Well here they are ready to do the reporting for the Audubon Society. February 13-16 is the Backyard bird count. The girls were more than happy to go outside after many days of rain. Here are a few photos of the serious data collecting that was going on before our eyes. I think the only birds they saw were the chickens.

Wishing you a very happy St. Valentine's day

A little update

School has been going good. I am finally coming to terms with the fact that everything is never going to get done. As usual my expectations are always high, and I am realizing it is quality not quantity that matters.

For example I had a stack of things I wanted to do on thursday, (latin, language arts, science), the math got done at least, and for some reason we began talking about right triangles, I ran upstairs to grab a geometry template I had, and she was off. She spent and hour making all the shapes with the stencil and labeling them. I took the opportunity to read What's your angle Pythagoras? aloud, and that was it. An official geometry rabbit trail.

I absolutely adore when something comes up and I have the materials, "in house" like that.
Next week I will pull the Montessori three part cards on triangles and let her play with some shape models I have.

We also have been really interested in what's going on with the birds in our backyard.
There is a great website, where you can post and keep track of migrations of all sorts of thing. A great way to teach about data collection.
check it out here~

Bye for now.

Roman Feast

We finally finished Story of the World Vol. 1, so it was cause for celebration!

Sophia put together a "Gifts of Rome" collage that came out so great, and she gave us an "oral presentation" about all things Roman.

Then we ate, (not sure how accurate the menu was), and danced......

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Moving Along

Well she is moving along with the Little House books. The other day I was in shower and she left this on the bathroom floor for me to find. The note on the book says "all done!".

For schoolwork this week I have some story cards that I plan on introducing to work on some writing. We are about to finish up with Rome, so that is exciting. It took a little longer than I expected, but oh well...Oh, and she is loving cursive.

Montessori in the Home

Wonderful article here by Montessori Lori!
http://www.montessoriforeveryone.com/Homeschooling-with-Montessori_ep_83-1.html

Inauguration for Kids!

check it out at the crafty cow~
http://belladia.typepad.com/crafty_crow/2009/01/inauguration-party-ideas-for-kids.html

loving this....

http://heartofwisdom.com/blog/20-signs-you-are-a-homeschool-resource-junkie/comment-page-1/#comment-38485

I am pleased to say that we have entered the realm of the Little House on the Prairie books.

Pleased because she is reading them to me.....no.

Pleased because I am having another opportunity to experience them again. I don't really know what I remember more, the books or the TV shows, but I loved it all.

Just in case you didn't already know it existed, I found this great little website devoted to all things Little House.

http://www.littlehousebooks.com/

Having a child read you something so

poignant such as the Ingalls family

as they battle malaria is truly an amazing feeling.

Hey kitty, you are sleeping on our math books

They joy of school at home......

Things got started again today after a long break.

It felt good to attempt to get back on schedule.

We took it slow~~Back to math operations, skip counting, and multiplying, some review of action and helping verbs, copywork, and a journal entry about her adventure riding a pony in Los Angeles. We even managed to get out for a nature walk with some friends at the marsh. It was a wonderful sunny day today~yay!

A little taste.....

of what we were up to in Southern Ca.
This was out at my mom's in the desert. The girls love it there, it is pretty wild.

Hello 2009!

Wow, I cant believe it. The holidays are over and our big trip is over too. We had a nice time in Southern CA celebrating with our family. Lucy and I got sick of course, but there were some really nice moments after we healed. My kids were blessed with lots of treats from their grandparents. Lucy even got an American Girl Doll~Kit. They had a blast!!

Our last day in Los Angeles was so fun. We spent it in Griffith Park and went to the Observatory to watch the Planetarium show. It was incredible. The view from there was just amazing and the SUN!!

http://www.griffithobservatory.org/

We even took the kids train ride and did the pony rides!


I wanted to share a picture of my first knitted/felted bag that I gave my mom. I was so pleased the way it came out.
Looking forward to jumping into this year, and getting back on schedule.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Huge Weekend

See my little harpist behind all the big girls? Big ballet weekend and Christmas recitals, we survived the drama, and they did so wonderful!

Feast of Saint Nicholas

OK~ it is a cookie stamp~super cute, and you could go crazy with all the designs.
Have a look.

What a great start to the season. This past weekend we got busy with our craft projects, and made some shortbread cookies to celebrate the special visitor to our house on December 6th~
St. Nicholas!! The girls received a Peter Rabbit book collection, and gold coins of course.

Advent Reading

I wanted to talk a bit about the wonderful Christmas books we have been reading each night since the beginning of advent. There are so many out there, I know you already know that, but a couple in particular this year have been quite memorable for me.

The first one is called The Donkey's Dream. "A donkey wakes from a dream of unusual burdens to find that he has carried Mary to the stable where Jesus was born". So Sweet!

The second one, more of a read aloud than a picture book, is called

Mary's Little Donkey and the Flight to Egypt. It is about a donkey that Joeseph buys for Mary. "The stubborn, dirty little donkey who is of no use to anyone in Nazareth becomes a quick and willing helper under Mary's care. The other animals in Mary's stable like him and together they wait for the birth of Mary's child".

And they third book that we have been loving is Take Joy~ The Tasha Tudor Christmas Book, by Tasha Tudor. What a treasure!! It is filled with stories poems, and carols, and of course her sweet illustrations. If you would like to venture into the world of Tasha Tudor, click here. It looks like it may be out of print, but the one I have is luckily from our library.

And don't forget all the gems from Tomie de Paola~

Happy and Cozy Reading

Take a gander

at these!!!
simply adorable~~

Here are some favorite knitting resources~

The Yarn Harlot-super funny Stephanie McPhee,

author of many knittnig books

Ravelry-an online community for knitters, with millions of patterns

Stitch and Bitch-my first and favorite book

Can we talk about knitting?

I am not quite sure if it has been the change of seasons or what, but I am completely obsessed with knitting right now. I am all about starting projects, ripping them apart, doing them incorrectly, reading about knitting, looking at yarn, etc. anything related to knitting basically.

It amazes me, now that I have been knitting for a few years, there is still so much to learn in this wonderful world of yarn and needles.

Here is a hat I did for Lucy last month. It was made with a yummy baby alpaca blend.

Too cute~