France

France!

For as long as I can remember, Peanut has been in love with France. She talks about Paris all the time and dreams of being able to visit someday. I honestly have no clue where this is coming from since we've never even really talked about France! 

We are counting down the last 3 weeks of school and Peanut's attention span is non-existent these days. So I decided to build on her love for France and have her make a salt-dough map! We began the outline last night, as you can see in the picture above she is totally in love. She insisted on having her picture taken in France. (I love this girl so much!)

This morning we got right to work, mixing and pressing out the dough on the outline. It's still not totally finished yet, but here is where she's at so far. 

She is doing a fabulous job. She really wanted to paint the Pyrennes Mountains pink and purple and didn't think I would let her. She was very happy when I told her to get creative!

Flowers Flowers Flowers!

We've been working super hard this week on finishing our flowers and plants unit. Peanut has put together a lapbook. It's not quite finished yet

Painting the cover of her lapbook

Another labeling activity she did

 

 We did a super cool science experiment to show how flowers absorb water. We put yellow carnations (the experiment called for white carnations but I happened to have yellow on hand)  into cups of water colored with red food coloring and green food coloring. After about an hour or so, the carnations actually absorbed the colored water and started turning red and green! Peanut was very impressed.

I was asked by the wonderful folks at All About Spelling to review their spelling curriculum. Although we just started it this week, we are loving it so far. I have a full review in the works, so please stay tuned for that soon!

Happy Mother 's Day!

I just wanted to wish all you moms out there a wonderful Mother's Day. We are having a peaceful day. Peanut surprised me with a beautiful purple and white flowering plant and a drawing she made. Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Way to go Peanut!!

She made the gymnastics prep-opt team!! Its something she's been dreaming about, and yesterday the gym owner gave her the ok to join the team. She starts training the last week of June. Its going to be quite the change for her, right now her gymnastics schedule is one hour per week, that will be bumped up to 4 hours per week once she joins her teammates.

Congratulations Peanut! I am so proud of you!

My first link-up to The Homeschool Mother's Journal

I came across the Homeschool Mother's Journal at The Homeschool Chick 
and decided to link up! I am very excited to read some of the other wonderful link-ups!


In my life this week…  My blog is growing and I am so excited! I have received so much inspiration and hope by reading blogs, I hope I can inspire others someday.




In our homeschool this week… It's vacation week! Peanut's dance and gymnastics schools are closed as well, so we are taking some much needed rest. Peanut has been going strong since Christmas break, so it's really nice to have a week with nothing scheduled.


Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… We saw the Imagination Movers today! what a fantastic show. They are a kids band that has a show on Disney Channel. We had a wonderful time. Peanut is also on a sleepover tonight!


 My favorite thing this week was… My mom had eye surgery and everything went really well. I am so thankful she is healing well and she made it through with no problems. 


What’s working/not working for us… Our math program. Sigh..Peanut struggles so much in math. She thinks she is awful at it. She really isn't, she just isn't very confident. 


Homeschool questions/thoughts I have…5 more weeks! we are counting down until our portfolio evaluation day!


A photo, video, link, or quote to share… Peanut has been fascinated with the Royal Wedding this week. A quote from her: "Mom, I'm going to marry a Prince one day and live at Buckingham Palace."

Toilet paper roll bird feeders

Being that we are in New Hampshire, we have had some beautiful birds visiting us in our yard. Robins, blue jays, and finches can be found most often near by and they are really beautiful birds to watch.


Today, Peanut and I decided to try and make some homemade bird feeders as a little gift to our feathered friends.

Here is a sample of what one looks like.



They are a bit messy to make but a fun way to past the time!


Supplies you'll need:

empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls
string
hole puncher
smooth peanut butter
wild bird seed of your choice


poke 2 holes in the paper roll towards the top. String about a 1 and half to 2 feet length of string through the holes and tie into a loop.

now for the fun part! smear the roll with a generous layer of peanut butter. If you have little ones, I recommend holding the roll for them as they smear it on. It's a lot easier for them (and less messy!)

coat the roll in bird seed. It helps to dump some of the seeds on some wax paper first then roll the feeder in that. Press down gently to help the seeds stick to the peanut butter, and you're done! Find a nice place in your yard to hang up your new feeder.


Jolanthe over at Homeschool Creations created a  Bird Preschool Pack that is a wonderful resource to use to teach your little ones more about birds!

Gardening Challenge update!

This is the second link up for the Gardening Challenge at Homeschool Village 
Last month, Peanut started planting some seeds in her little starter pots inside. Since then, we've had to transplant the sprouts into the ground outdoors since our mischievous little cat Mitten kept trying to destroy them! I was a bit doubtful at first, the seedlings didn't seem to take at first, but surprise, surprise! we have little tiny sprouts coming up from the ground!

This actually isn't from this year, but Peanut planted this in the fall and is very proud that it fully bloomed this year. She wanted to show everyone.

she found this rock in the yard and pointed out it was the same shape at New Hampshire (the state we live in) She insisted on me taking her picture with it.

So far we have planted pumpkins, tomatoes, morning glories, sunflowers, and sweatpeas. Just today, our neighbor gave Peanut a whole tray of seedlings as well. We were going to put them in the ground but were cut short by thunderstorms.