Homeschool - Science - Seed Sorting

No matter which 

curriculum you use,

whether you homeschool

or not.

One of the first topics

covered in science is

the study of plants and seeds.

We have studied them in the past:

attempted to grow lima bean plants,

classified monocot and dicot seeds,

studied the inside of limas.

We revisited this concept 

again in this year's science:

Abeka 3.

Side Note: I am doing Abeka 3 for Jackson,

because I couldn't find my Abeka 2 science book.

Come to find out, I never bought it.

For second grade for Rico,

I started using Behold and See,

but never finished

(I wasn't too impressed).

So I didn't really do a 

Science curriculum per say with Rico.

Jackson is doing GREAT with the 

third grade book,

BUT, 

he is NOT ready for the 4th grade book next year

(which Rico is doing this year).

So I have ordered a 2nd grade book for Jackson,

it is on its way.

Yes, we are way into our school year,

but its ok.

(don't tell anyone but we are only a few months in...

we still have quite a ways to go!)

Anyways...

one of the activities they list

is to sort various seeds and to examine them.

We eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies.

So I started saving the seeds!

I was pleasantly surprised with the variety we came up with:

peas
green beans
orange
apple
pear
pumpkin



Jackson had an audience when he sorted.



(Who knew it would be a spectator assignment!?!)

Then I asked Jackson to try and label them.
AND
to try and spell the name!


He did pretty well!!

Then Ms. Priss enjoyed watching so much...
she wanted a go at it!

 Sorting is a very favorite activity around here.
(This includes sorting laundry!)

Fall Family Sports

Our kids play sports...

whether they really want to or not...

we kind of insist.

For many reasons,

there is a lot to be learned from playing team sports.

Especially by homeschooled kids!

We started insisting on the sports thing,

before we started homeschooling.

It is chaotic with multiple children

on different teams.

We are now officially up to 3 players...

on 3 different teams...

with 3 different game and practice schedules.

We are being eased into the real chaos though.

This past fall,

we started playing with

Upward Sports Leagues.

They are smaller

Christian leagues

played at churches.

It is not the gigantic rec league.

It has its benefits and drawbacks,

but right now,

the biggest benefit...

we will never have games for

multiple kids

at the same time

at different locations!

All games are played in the same place,

at different times.

So the drawback...

our Saturdays are SHOT!

And if you have hung around long enough,

you know that NC State football games

are rather important to this family.

So having our Saturdays 

SHOT

because of kids sports...

reeked a little havoc on our 

State football game attending this year.

There was more than one game 

where we rolled into the parking lot
AFTER the game had started.

That was TOUGH on this girl!

But I survived.

We have now resolved ourselves

to the fact that we aren't going to make it to

every home game

every season

like we did when we were

childless

or

had really young kids

who weren't playing sports.

But its ok.

(i think)

I took a TON of pictures.

Here are some of the highlights of our

Upward Flag Football and Cheer Season

Fall 2013 

One of the awesomest

(my spell check says that isn't a word - but it is for this)

One of the awesomest things this group did

was to announce each player,

by name,

then they ran through a tunnel of "fans".

Look at the sheer joy on these kids faces!!!

 The coaches even got to run through the fans...

so daddy got to take a turn 

and this big kid always had just as much fun as the little kids did!

Lex was our little cheerleader and

 liked to play and goof around

more than cheer.

We had to have a couple of discussions about that.

This is her pouty faces after we had one of our little 

"you better get up and cheer and listen to your coach 

or I am putting your tail in the car" 

talks

 And some action shots from my football players!

Rico getting "mad"

"yeah, baby, that's how its done!"

Getting a little coaching from dad.

 Jackson makes the best faces when he is playing!!!

 TOUCHDOWN!!!

 Photobombed by the brother!

(this was one of those days that we left 

directly from the kids games

and headed to Raleigh to see State play - 

can you tell from the looks of the car?)

Not sure if Rico was going for the interception or the tackle here.

But he didn't get either one...

it wasn't from lack of trying though.

Poor Mr. T was left to fend for himself on Saturday 

mornings.

Mommy was taking pictures.

Daddy was coaching.

The boys were playing.

Ms. Priss was cheering.

So he found ways to entertain himself.

Thankfully we played in a completely fenced in 

area, so I really wasn't worried about him disappearing.

Sometimes he would throw a fit...

just because.

Other times he would use the water cooler 

as a log...

or count the laces on the football,

or eat breakfast,

or play football with one of the other dads,

or stick his head into a cone

and make funny noises.

But for the most part, 

he was happy.

Happy Halloween-y (in January!)

Well we are making progress...

lots has happened in October

and 

it has only taken a total of a week to get

you up to speed!

I can't wait to move to November.

We sent October out in 

Halloween-style.

We found these cuties

at the store!

I was all over this.

Meant I didn't have to make 

cookies

or

icing

and the kids got the joy of 

decorating

and

eating!

Jackson disappeared

before I could snap a picture of 

him with his creations...

A few days later

we headed 

over the river and through the woods 

to grandmother's house!

And that is the truth!

My grandmother lives in the woods.

It is a modern house built about 20 years ago,

so its not the old charming house my mom 

grew up in or anything...

but it is still in the woods!

Down a gravel path.

The hubs and the boys hadn't been out 

there since we had gotten back from 

Texas,

I don't think the hubs had gone out there with us

since well before we left for Texas.

So grandmother enticed us down to her 

neck of the woods

by telling us her church was having a 

fall festival.

So we figured we would give

it a try.

Fall Festival 

in small town

South Carolina...

why not?

We hadn't carved our pumpkins yet,

so we loaded them up

(the ones we had gotten at 

Hillridge Farms on my birthday)

and took them with us 

to do there.

(then of course I had daddy load them

back up and bring back to the house)

My sister and her hubs and daughter showed up too!

We paused for a quick picture of the kids

in front of the decorations 

at the church.

Yes,

again,

this was the best out of about

10 pictures.

They had cute team games

and 

relay games set up for the kids

and 

adults.

One of which was trying to put a frozen shirt on.

Huh?

One of the older ladies there had put a couple of

shirts in the freezer days before

and 

couldn't understand why they weren't freezing.

After we wet the shirts the day before the festival...

they froze.

Then they grabbed a couple of unsuspecting kids

out of the audience...

and had them attempt to put them on.

It was actually really cute to see them struggling to 

pull the shirts apart.

After a fun filled weekend,

we picked up an extra passenger,

Nana,

and deposited her back at her house. 

I honestly can't remember how 

she got down there,

I am guessing she rode down with

my sister and her family...

Then we celebrated Halloween night 

in our neighborhood.  

Rumor had it our neighborhood was

one of the places to be on Halloween night,

in our small city.

The neighborhood newletter went out

a week or so before telling people

to expect upwards of 300-500 

trick or treaters!

WHOA!

Because of this,

less than 25% of our neighbors

were giving out candy!

I was very disappointed,

but at the same time,

not.

Each of my kids only got about 20 pcs

of candy that night!

But it was GONE

that night and we didn't have to worry about it anymore!

We hit the neighborhood streets with

a couple of neighborhood friends.

And a couple of pics of 

my crew.

A couple of irresistible

pictures of the littlest 

member of our family! 

Stopping to pose for a quick pic.

 

Daddy with the princess and the pirate.

Pausing during the trek around 

our neighborhood

for a quick candy break

in a random yard!

Once we got back to the house,

our friends hung out for a bit

and 

daddy had a little

6 on 1 

wrestling match,

just to zap the last bit of energy 

out of all 7 of them!