Back to school

Well, I have to confess, contrary to popular opinion, I'm really excited about school starting up again & getting back into a daily routine. I've been spending the last few weeks preparing, planning, & organizing which has just fueled my excitement about all we're going to be learning this year. Joshua will be studying early American history as we read stories about the first pioneers & pilgrims. We've already started reading Squanto this week which is the first thing he asks to do every morning and complains when I stop reading. I love seeing him excited about learning! Caleb wants to get right in on the action. It's going to take a little creativity on my part, but I'm hoping to discover along the way how to include him in what we're doing. For example during our geography lesson, Caleb searched for all the A's on the map while Joshua pointed out all the continents. It wasn't what I had "planned" for him, but it worked & he felt like he was "doing school" with big brother.

Joshua was excited about starting school too, but for one reason and one reason only: the Owl Pellet.

What is an owl pellet you ask? An owl pellet is what your 6 year old son decides he wants to buy when you give him extra money to buy "anything he wants" while mom is gathering curriculum and supplies at the local homeschool store. An owl pellet is NOT an interesting book about space (his favorite subject). Nor is an owl pellet a fun math or phonics game, an interesting puzzle, or anything else from the myriad of educational findings you would expect him to chose from. An owl pellet is "a mass of undigested remains of a meal that is regurgitated by an owl after consuming it's prey; mostly consisting of bones and fur" The goal of this activity is to dissect the owl pellet, remove the bones from the mass of regurgitated fur & compare them to the chart provided, thereby concluding what type of animal this owl consumed. Now those of you thinking, "This is NOT the Joshua I know and love, who demands a paint brush with his finger paints & won't touch dirt without a shovel, never fear! He is still alive and well. As you will see in the following pictures, even though it didn't stop the dissection, he was quick to ask for safety gear i.e. gloves, as soon as he opened that enticing little foil package.

Warning: the following images may not be suitable for those with weak stomachs.

Here he is seperating out all the bones and matching them to the pictures on the chart to identify the prey as either a rodent, shrew, or mole. It was actually pretty amazing to see how many bones he found. Below you can see the skull he uncovered. Looks like a rodent! Awe, how cute!

Here are some pictures of another favorite activity of the week.

Joshua completed his tee-pee with a fire pit. :-)

They spent the rest of the day playing "white men & indians".

And here are some pictures of our comic relief:

So that's a small glance at our first week of a new year on the homeschooling front. There are already kinks to work out, chores to be rearranged, and plans to be tweaked. But I can't wait to see what the Lord has planned for us this year. As hard as it is to see them grow up, I'm so thankful I'm able to be right in the middle of the process! I was so encouraged by my friend, Amy's blog post today. You can read it here. Regardless of the fact that she is my "homeschooling hero", you don't have to homeschool to appreciate her thoughts on our children. You may want to grab a tissue! And if you have a daughter (I'm still getting used to that one!), please read this. It's beautiful. What a blessing to be entrusted with these precious lives!