What is this?

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While walking awhile ago, one of my walking buddies braved the busy traffic on Road 98 (a busy country road that borders our community) to retrieve this….whatever it is!  After checking it out, none of had a clue what it was.  I offered to bring it home and have my boys dissect it as we are studying Botany.

We observed that is it more lightweight than heavy, sticky and has a sweet smell.

Today we were excited to open it. We sort of expected to find a big seed like an avocado – but we ….well, you can see below (you can click the photos to see them bigger):

Science Experiment

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J2 is studying Botany this year.  I admit, I chose this subject with hopes of a big year-end project – a container garden that he would help me create!  Sneaky homeschooling Momma! 😉 lol

Today was the end of a 2-week experiment with bean seeds.  He put 2 or 3 bean seeds in a zip-lock bag with a wet papertowel – he created 3 of these bags.  One he taped to a sunny window, one he put in the refrigerator and one he put in a dark closet.  Then he predicted what would happen.  He guessed the ones in the refrigerator and closet would not grow. But that the one in the window would grow.  Every day he measured them and recorded the results on a chart.

Here were the results:

In the refrigerator – no growth:

In the closet – they sprouted, but no green leaves:

In the window – healthy plants:

Now the window plant is ready to be repotted and the seeds from the refrigerator are in his window to see if they will grow! I love it when kids take initiative in their learning!

And, here is our helper who wanted HER picture taken – just cause! 😉

J2’s IEP Meeting

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I am so thankful for the direction the Lord lead us last Spring when we realized that we needed help with J2’s education.  I didn’t share it at the time, but things got very bad around here in relation to his schooling.  He became very angry and discouraged.  This lead to a depression that caused him to threaten – and even to attempt – to take his own life. 

It was a very dark time for all of us.  J2 is normally a very enthusiastic, happy person.  But his struggles in school and our inability to help him, created a very angry, very volatile person.  I pray everyday that my Happy J2 returns, but for now I’m content that he’s doing better than last Spring.

After last Spring, we made two big changes.  (1) J2 started to see a Psychiatrist and eventually a therapist to help him deal better with his emotions and (2) we enrolled him in a charter school – specifically South Sutter Charter School.  I had lots of reservations about this change to our homeschool.  I worried what my local friends would think when I joined a charter and abandoned the private school method of homeschooling.  I had fears based on the bad experience with a different charter school several years ago.  And, I was scared that this change would create more busy-work but not help us make a difference for J2’s education.

But I’ve been so blessed in so many ways….

  • One of the biggest blessings is that both of the charter people whom I work with most frequently are believers.  Maybe that wouldn’t mean anything to you – but it was an added blessing to me.
  • Our ES (Education Specialist) is my former neighbor who has had many, many years of working with special ed students.
  • My brother – who’s working on his special education masters – has been great to listen to my worries and educate me on the system!
  • The school has agreed – based on the new diagnosis of autism & the length since his last testing – to update all his tests.
  • This testing will happen quickly which is another blessing!

More than anything else I feel blessed that I’m not doing this alone.  I am blessed that I can continue to make the decision to keep my child at home where I know he can do his best work without all the distractions in a standard school setting but  now I can do it with help and encouragement.  I’m not alone anymore!  And, I’m so thankful!!

First day of school – take 3

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First, Hubs & J3 went back to school on August 11th.  Then J2 and I started up again on August 16th.  And today, finally, J1 started back to school!

After he did his assignments we headed to a new frozen yogurt shop in town – Big Kahuna.  It was good but I was very thankful for the buy 1, get 1 free coupon I found!  It’s a self serve spot – and the bowls are big – so it was a bit more than I wanted to pay.

Here are the boys creations:

Pink Lemonade with sour patch kids

Bavarian Chocolate, Vanilla, Pink Lemonade, Cookies & Creme, and Sour Patch kids

(shudder)

Then we went to get Sissy a trim – her first one! I had hoped to get pictures but it didn’t go well so all I got was “after” photos:

A bit of this, a dash of that

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Today, it’s catch-up day on the blog….all those things I’ve been meaning to share but they aren’t enough for a full blog post:

  • Today Netflix released a new iPod/iPhone app to allow you to watch movies/tv shows from your instant queue! Love this! I almost can’t wait for the next time the boys take over the television! I’ll go find a comfy chair – maybe backyard on my swing? – and watch a bit of my old favorites!
  • Sweater Design Class.  Tonight is class #2 and I think I’m ready to set aside the sleeves but I’m a bit confused how to do that and what to do with the rest of the stitches so I’m definitely looking forward to this class! I hope to take some pictures tonight to share here – stay tuned!
  • Linde Lane Tea Room – I’m so blessed! Tomorrow, Ruth, Margaret & I are headed back for visit #2 and then, next week, I’m headed there with a friend who works with Hubs!  Yeah for me!!
  • I realized it wouldn’t hurt to bring a little organization to Sissy’s day.  So I did a quick search and was super happy to find http://www.letteroftheweek.com/ is still around.  This is a free curriculum for preschoolers that I used for J1 & J2 and loved.  (I wasn’t in a good place to do anything like this with J3 – poor J3, and me!)  Check it out if you too want some structure for your preschooler!
  • We now have all our curriculum for J2’s school year!  We are plugging away.  I am SO happy to have some help each week!  I hope when we have his IEP to ask for a bit more, some speech therapy for his Auditory Processing and possibly to have him retested.
  • We also finally have a weekly therapist for J2.  I hope she will help him recognize emotions in himself and others to help him in his interactions.
  • Jennifer S. shared about the Home Ec class she is using with her kids on her blog, For Such a Time As This, and it’s free! Definitely going to use this with my boys.  It’s written for girls, but I think it will work for them with just a bit of tweaking!  Check it out here:  http://www.futurechristianhomemakers.com/FCHLessonsIndex.html
  • Working out first thing in the morning is working great so far.  By the time I wake up enough to think I don’t want to do this, I’ve already been there for 25 min so I might as well finish! 😉
  • Downside is that it is really cutting into my work schedule.  So I’ll be working on that next.
  • J1 starts school in just about 1.5 weeks but we found out his teacher is still on maternity leave. :(  Please pray along with us that the substitute will be a good match for J1 and our family!
  • I’m attending a free webinar next week “Ten Stumbling Blocks to Writing” . I’m really looking forward to it.  Check out the link – there are other great webinars available for you!  Definitely an encouragement!

Guess that’s it!  Hope you enjoyed some of these links!