Our Reading Nook...

  Our favorite spot to read, in the early afternoon...



Noah just finished

I love this book!

 I'm thinking about trying to build a solar cooker just for fun.

I couldn't put this book down, read it from cover to cover:)  

Very interesting and useful ideas.

Bad Cats and Old Newpapers...

After cleaning the kitchen, I stepped outside for a few minutes returning to find this nice mess of cat kibble all over the kitchen floor. Three cats sitting nearby... when I yelled "Who did this?!" a certain little Jasper hightailed it down the basement. Guilty!

On to homeschooling...

I have this old 1922 newspaper from our city. Noah and I found many interesting and amusing articles.

so many baby chicks for sale...

Noah loved this owl graphic.

Free candy at the movies for kids!

The zoo gets a fawn.

This lady refused to go to jail for making bootleg liquor without her six children. Such a good mother!  

Today's Interest Led Learning...

Worked on long division (not an interest of Noah's) learned about plants in science. We had some fun outdoor projects planned for science but saved it for another day...woke up to snow. Not happy.

Adding to our Japanese art display.

 Sumi-e Bamboo art and Noah's name in Japanese.

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Japanese Fish Windsock/kite

May 5th is Children's day in Japan...

it use to be "boys" day but has since changed to include girls;)

The children celebrate by flying Fish Kites.

The upstream struggle of the fish represented the passage of a boy through to manhood. According to legend, when the carp reached the river source, it became a dragon.

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Watched the live eagle cam...check the top of my sidebar for the link.

Watching mama eagle feeding the babies, dad was there helping for awhile.

Noah spent a hour reading his book... one of the Redwall series,

I loose track of which one he's on at the time.

Finished our day by playing a game of Mancala:) 

Tomorrow is co-op classes: Solar Energy and Drama.

Love Homeschooling!

Stonehenge Unit.

Noah has been studying Stonehenge this past week.
We read an article in the National Geographic June 2008 magazine titled: Secrets of Stonehenge. Then Noah made a model of Stonehenge with air dry clay.   
We also watched a documentary; National Geographic's Stonehenge Decoded  and visited the web page for the DVD, which has some really neat stuff on it.
Stonehenge was built some 4,500 years ago using bluestones and sarsen stones. It's really a mystery to this day what Stonehenge's purpose is... but there are some pretty interesting theories for it.  

My Protesting Boys!

Rally at the State Capital.

Noah and Caleb

I'm so proud of my guys helping Dad protect the Unions!

I.B.E.W local 665

Pysanky Egg Class

 Sunday my friends Ann, Hanlie and myself took a Pysanky Egg class at the library. It was taught by our other dear friend Jozefa (all homeschooling mamas.) Jozefa is a wonderful artist and she had self taught herself the art of Pysanky Eggs years ago. She sells them now at art fairs and they are just amazing!

Jozefa referred to these eggs as her "crappy ones," we had to laugh at that! I would be so talented as to make these crappy eggs:)



The tool to apply the wax is called a kistka.

We had such a great time learning how to make Pysanky Eggs. It's very relaxing and therapeutic. I think the flickering candle has a calming effect.  Layering color and wax, color and wax. I had to really wrap my mind around the concept of one step at a time. Jozefa is a wonderful teacher.

Unfortunately my camera died and I didn't get a picture of my friends finished eggs, bummer... cause I really wanted to show you how great their eggs turned out.  

 Here's my egg... blurry and all. (believe me... it looks all blurry in real life too!) hey, I tried.

One side has what should be a chicken (?) or perhaps a quail and on the other side I decided to put a whimsical purple squirrel, a tribute to my beloved blog and our homeschool.

I also added some Pysanky symbols along the sides. Such as the star that means: eternal life and good fortune, a spiral that means: divinity or immortality (and to me it means my sweet friend Tara:) pine needles that mean: eternal youth and health, dots that represent stars in heaven and from sorrow comes unexpected blessings. I love the symbolisms:) oh yes... there are tiny hearts for love.

So now we're thinking we should check out The Polish Art Center and order some Pysanky Egg kits and keep at it. In about ten years my eggs might look as good as Jozefa's crappy ones:)



Our Jimmy Mirikitani Inspired Cats

inspiration... an amazing Japanese gentlemen.

Jimmy Mirikitani's motto: "Make art not war."

Building a Robot...

Oh yeah... to clean my floors.

That's my kind of robot! It actually picked up the cat's fur from the floor (Jasper and Harpo had a wrestling match this morning.) Noah had fun building his robot which he named Brushy.

Thrifty Treasures...

Autumn and I hit a few thrift shops the other day. It's been so long since I've been treasure hunting! Here are my thrifty finds:

Some strange and wonderful books for Noah, 1970's. Cost: 50 cents each.

They came from a school library somewhere here in Michigan.

Sweet bird and fauna prints, by James Gordon Irwing 1950. Cost: $6 each

The cutest darn cheese plate ever!

The mama mouse, baby and cheese are made as part of the plate

(all one piece.)

Autumn guesses from about the 50's or so. cost: 99 cents.

She's so jealous of my cheese plate!

Autumn came home with some vintage clothing for her etsy shop and a huge tote bag.

Here was my living room floor just before we left.

Noah left his rock collection on the floor so Harpo decided to study a bit. I swear, we homeschooler's must have the smartest cats on the planet!

Heirloom Seeds and Vulpes vulpes

Our heirloom seed bank from the Heirloom Seed Company

(sorry my linking button seems to be not working for me...grrr! )

My heirloom seeds arrived the other day. Brad and I have been watching documentaries, reading books on how to live a more sustainable life. "If " someday we need to rely on ourselves to provide food for our family, friends and community we'd like to be ready. I know it may sound a bit paranoid. But I figure better prepared than sorry.

I'm currently reading a book on seed saving and another on canning and preserving foods. I know a little bit about canning from working with my mom over the years. We are also stocking up on can goods, rice, and a small fresh water supply. This spring we are buying a rain barrel and a composting bin.

The seeds will be properly stored for this year in our seed bank (an airtight container in the refrigerator.) I just won't have the time for much gardening this summer with helping my mom and all. But we'll be ready for a wonderful garden another summer.

Our city recycling is now working on a single stream system...which means we as residents can recycle many more items now. I've hung a poster over our recycling bin and trying...trying to educate the rest of the family on what and how to recycle. Believe me... I'm watching what is thrown in the trash can like a mama hawk!

We are also going to start making an effort to buy as much local and organic foods as we can. Our van will be paid off next month. Yippee!!! Which will give us a little more pocket cash for better healthier foods:)

We have a plan, to someday soon sell our big city home for something smaller but with more land just outside the city limits (we still want to stay close to our homeschool community.) Brad agreed that we could get a few egg chickens too! Oh yes, remind me to talk to Brad about becoming a hunter. LOL! He's never killed anything in his life! Hey, but I do like venison:)

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Noah's latest study unit~Or should be worded as Noah's latest interest. Because all of what we refer to as "units" is taking from what Noah is interested in at the moment. It may take days, weeks, even years (Civil War) to finish any certain unit. It's up to Noah. When he's ready to move on, then we do.

Fox Unit: Red Fox, Vulpes vulpes

Foxes have been around for 30 million years. They can run 30 miles per hour. There are 14 different species of fox.
Study source: Red Fox The Catlike Canine by J. David Henry and lots of YouTube videos with the cutest little red foxes! I want one.

Just a day in the life of this homeschooling family...

Yummy gluten free pancakes made with local MSU poultry farm eggs for breakfast.

Bella~ritto... for lunch?

Noah working on excavating rocks and minerals from his Smithsonian kit.

Autumn working on her antiques college course and checking her facebook.

Luckily with Autumn here, I was able to go out for awhile. (My mom is doing okay but we don't leave her here by herself anymore.) My good friend Ann called me and we went for lunch and stopped in to browse around Michaels. I bought some sweet vintage-looking Easter pails. It was so great to get out of the house and hang out with Ann. She always makes me laugh:)

A typical day here at the old Purple Squirrel.

Alas, poor Noah!

Whereas~

To play in plague-time is to increase the plague by infection; And to play out of plague-time is to draw the plague by offending GOD upon occasion of such plays; Therefore, until such time as GOD pleases to reduce the number of plague deaths to below 50 per week, NO Plays shall be performed within the city... August, 1609

Noah has read enough tragedies for awhile: King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet (Noah's favorite)
and Romeo and Juliet.
Now on with the comedies! ~ A Midsummers Night's Dream (my favorite.)
Do you have a favorite Shakespeare play?

Shakespeare's School Days

Poor Shakespeare...
"The schoolroom was my heaven and my hell both. Learning to read~ah, what joy it brought me! To learn my letters was hard labour, enforced with the birch rod..."

"I was clever enough with my left hand, but the Church tought that those who favoured this "sinister" hand were servants of the devil! Thus I was forced to make my crabbed way with my unwilling right hand."
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Noah's reading list so far: Hamlet, Othello and Romeo & Juliet (Kid friendly versions, sort of)
and he is studying Shakespearean speak. Our made-up sentences in Shakespearean:

Methinks hob, thou jest! Doth not thee bone~house suit thee well?
(I think hobgoblin, you joke! Does not your grave suit you well? )

To be or not to be...

that is the question!

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Homeschooling is just too fun sometimes!

"Alas, poor Yorick"

Noah as Prince Hamlet, Shakespeare unit.

My mom's latest scenery painting. This one she did for me. She keeps busy with her art.

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Autumn is enrolling in an Antique's College.

She would love to have her own antique shop or an estate's sales company someday.

Here's a few of my favorite pieces that's she's been appraising.

Atlas E-Z Seal Aqua canning jar with lid


Audubon print of Orioles

Twin Winton squirrel cookie jar.

Hull Pottery; Wild flower cornucopia

Chalkware carnival prize rooster.

Shakin' it up with Shakespeare

Yesterday Noah and I headed to the library, not sure of what we'd find. We just took our time and wandered up and down the aisles of books. Noah has really been into owls and hawks lately
so we picked up a few true story books; Adopted by an Owl, a story of an owl that lived only a few miles from us. We've already read this book few other times but it's our favorite. I guess I should buy us a copy of it.

Also we found Pale Male a true story of a hawk that lives in Central Park. We have hawks that live in our downtown area, two times a hawk has swooped down very close to Caleb and I when we were downtown... sort of startling!

The squirrel book, well... that was my choice:) Ghost books... cuz we're weird and Noah found another Brian Jacques story to read.

Then I spotted the Shakespeare section! I've always wanted to do Shakespeare with Noah but he just wasn't ready for it until now. So we'll be doing a Shakespeare unit, which I imagine will take a few weeks at least.

this is a wonderful book, filled with envelopes and flaps to lift. Beautifully illustrated!

The rest of the day was spent answering the door for some black squirrels. I must of giving out 10 handfuls of peanuts. They come right to the door now and drive poor Jasper bonkers. As you can see the snow is almost melted away!!! Yeah for that:)

Today the sun is shining, the birds are singing happily. I think it's a good day for that stroll in the woods. Happy Full Moon everyone, I'm off to the attic to dig out a skull! (for our Shakespeare unit:)