Saturday, April 16, 2011

Homeschool Journal Week Four





chicken tractor with the nesting box attached.
So, I have missed a couple of weeks since I last wrote. We had family one weekend and were gone the next so I just never had time to write. This is a combination of the last couple of weeks and the things we did.

An Inside View: my favorite part is that you just open and retrieve the eggs, no going into the tractor.
In My Life This Week: We added an addition on the chicken tractor. Believe it or not the girls( an affectionate term for someone who used to hate chickens) are almost big enough to start laying eggs. So Glenn added the nesting box onto the end of the Casa. Bring on the eggs.

Our garden is coming on, although we have had gale force winds for a month now with very few breaks thus our plants are not very pretty. However, we are getting some blooms now on our peppers, and tomatoes. We have little cherries on our trees, green berries on the vines, a row or two of corn,(which really has suffered in the wind) and a row of beans. More details on that if they ever do anything.

In Our Homeschool This Week: There are a couple of things Bodie has going on in addition to his regular work. One: he is involved in a sports program with quite a few other kids. He attends every Thurday and they spend about a month on four particular sports. After a month they switch to four more sports. I am really pleased I found this program. I like his coach, who is no nonsense, but fun at the same time. They have the ages split up and there is a coach with each group. I like the approach they take to sports. For instance, when they were teaching Bodie's age baseball, they used tennis rackets to hit the ball. I thought this was such a great idea because it is a good way to teach them the hand eye coordination and give the confidence you need from actually making contact with the ball. Also, they signed up for the presidential challenge. Age of participation actually starts at 6 year olds, but they had everyone do it. It is four or five timed events. They had a lot of fun doing this.
They had to stretch a certain amount of inches depending on age.


Lining up to do the Shuttle Run.

Bodie and another team mate doing their pushups.




















Also, once a month, Bodie attends Enrichment Club. This is a program for homeschoolers that exposes them to speaking in public. They get up in front of their peers and tell about a project, recite a poem, or demonstrate a lapbook they have been working on. This is Bodie's second one to do. I wish I had gotten a video because he puts on his big man voice when he gets up there. It makes me laugh.

Bodie's combine project. I did the writing but he did all the coloring on it.


 
Places we are going and people we see: On Friday we decided we would stop at Lyndon B. Johnson's park on our way down to San Antonio to visit Glenn's mom. It is an historic site so there is a lot of history to be told. First of all this park has no entrance fees. When you check in they give you a cd that tells you what you are seeing as you drive along the ranch. I was pretty happy about this as it was 94 that day. We also visited the Sauer-Beckmann Living History Farm, which was right next door. Here people are in character and run the farm as it would have been run in Lyndon's day. They have cows that they milk. Then, they show you how to make cheese and butter. You can help them gather eggs, they show you how to make soap, smoke meats, can foods. It was fun and informative.
Airforce 1 that Lyndon B.Johnson flew on.  (he had a landing strip built right through the middle of his ranch)




Brylee trying to pet one of the chickens there.







Still looking for any extra tips on working with toddlers while schooling. Brylee will be three in July so her attention span is getting bettter. But, if anyone has fun things to do with them I am always looking for ideas.

2 comments:

  1. Found you from the homeschool chick's blog hop. I'm a former preschool teacher and have had several preschoolers of my own while homeschooling. I have a list of ideas on my blog, you can check it out, search under "preschoolers" and you should find it, if not let me know.
    Enjoy! -Jill
    http://thywordisalamptomyfeet.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete