Outdoor Learnin'

With this warm weather it is the perfect time to head outside. Don't forget that there is lots to learn outside that will help your kids. Take a break from the books and plant a garden. Roosie has been helping my parents plant their garden this week. Hoopy and her will be helping me get our seeds started tomorrow.
 Let kids help with garden planning. It is a great learning experience for them. Learning the value of being able to grow your own food is priceless. Look into the different ways of preserving your harvests and let the kids help with that too. Blessings! ~ Nikki

There Be Whale....Sharks :)

Roosie has always dreamed of seeing whale sharks. These large animals have fascinated her for many years.So, for her 13th birthday we took her on a trip to the Georgia aquarium where they have not only a whale shark but FOUR whale sharks. Now, to be honest, overall I don't rate the aquarium itself very high. We had to wait in a line almost two blocks long for well over an hour to try and buy tickets.(We were already tired from the four hour drive.) Finally an attendant came along and told us there was another line for people who were going to pay with a debit card...a shorter line...much shorter. Then we found out the tickets were time stamped. You could only enter the aquarium at the allotted time on your ticket. Luckily for us we were able to get some of the LAST tickets for the 2:00 entry although by this time the dolphin show was sold out. They did discount our tickets by $5 though. By this time our patience was stretched pretty thin and we were ready to get inside. Inside the aquarium was packed and I mean packed...like sardines in a squished can. The displays were small (as in small viewing areas) and people were very rude (yes, almost everyone was very rude). Kids and adults alike were shoving us (and others) out of the way. If you were lucky you got to go up to a viewing window and see something, mind you only got to see it for five seconds but hey at least ya saw it. The "flow" from exhibit to exhibit was weird and difficult to navigate. Plus it was so loud and noisy you couldn't hear yourself think and you had to yell to communicate.Was there anything good about the trip you ask? Why yes, the whale sharks. Believe it or not we actually had no problem getting into the viewing area and finding good seating. We watched them for a long time. It was so amazing that something so large could glide so serenely and easily through the water. The whale sharks alone made the trip worthwhile....or more specifically, the joy it brought to Roosie to see them. And the manta rays....awesome! They were huge and may I say a bit show offy but it was so much fun to watch them. We may go again someday .... a slim maybe, just to see the whale sharks again. My opinion though is that the Ripley's aquarium we have in Gatlinburg is a much nicer aquarium. When it is crowded you can't really tell it. The flow is still good and it is still peaceful and quiet.The exhibits are amazing too. If only we had whale sharks up here it would be perfect :)

Anyway, I thought I would share some neat resources with you in case you were interested in learning more about whale sharks. Enjoy the links! Blessings ~ Nikki
Fact sheet with link for a PDF

Another fact sheet

Whale shark color sheets, even has a blank stencil so you could make a shape book for lap/notebooking.

Great printables for a shark report  

One thing I do love about the Georgia aquarium...Ocean Voyager webcam. Watch whale sharks :) 

Week One & Two Wrap Up

We finished our first week last Thursday. We had a good week. We once again decided not to do school on Fridays unless we had some makeup work or a big test to take care of. This leaves us Fridays open to take field trips or catch up on chores around the house or just goof off. Once again I am homeschooling three of my children. I have 1 Senior, 1 Sophomore and a 7th grader this year. An eclectic mix to be sure but it works great for us. I'm eager and excited to have begun this school year. I'm not sure why exactly but I am. I just love being with my children :)Roosie and I took a nature walk Saturday morning and did an experiment with persimmon seeds to check the validity of an old wives tale from the Farmer's Almanac. We will share a bit more of that later.
Today we will wrap up our second week. We are on schedule so far even though we took an impromptu field trip Tuesday to North Carolina. It was very fun and I have pictures to share later :) Fall has been sneaking in early this year so we are already seeing color everywhere and it has been quite chilly the last two nights (YAY). Of course we have been enjoying some hot chocolate and cappuccino :) I hope that you have a blessed day today homeschool world! Blessings! ~ Nikki

Clearing Out The Cobwebs....Reviving This Blog

Well, it has been way too long since I posted here. I have been a terrible blog hostess. I'm cleaning up this blog though. I'm dusting off the cobwebs and sprucing the place up. A new school year started...I've got lots to blog about...it IS going to happen this year lol Bear with me ....

Little House Links , Printables and such

Roosie is doing a study on the Little House series. To start off she is reading Little House in the Big Woods (after our break). We will be notebooking and other activities. I thought I would share with you some links where we find our resources. Enjoy!

little house unit study
prairie pages

PDF for Little House In The Big Woods

http://homeschoolblogger.com/jaminacema/page/2/

Hi All

Time has just flown by with all that has been going on at our house. We are only homeschooling 2 days a week now since I am back in school. Roosie is attending our church school part time while I am in class and Hoopy and Tman are attending full time (their wishes). We do math and some other things at home now while the rest of Rossie's work is done at school. We are getting ready to start a Winter nature study and she has a book report (notebooking style) to do. Posts might be infrequent here but I am planning on trying harder to make sure I get all my blogging done more regularly. I do post a little more often on my main blog. Please check back in from time to time here though. You never know when something new might pop up. Blessings! ~ Nikki

Black Widow Notebooking/Lapbooking Pages

I created some notebooking pages to use for studying Black Widows. You can find them on my file list on my HSLaunch page by using this link Nikki's page or by using the link widget on the right sidebar. Blessings! ~ Nikki