Even real-er than Cinderella!

Is there a better compliment?  And is there a better reason to be a homeschooled 5 year old girl than to stay home and watch the wedding?  I thought they would enjoy it for a few minutes, but they were mesmerized.  It was amazing to watch them drink it in - Zoe learned more world history today than any other probably and recited it all to Daddy tonight.

At least we did our new world map puzzle to learn about where things were happening.  

Lucy did some princess lacing cards.  We liked Princess Kate's tiara - it was the Queen's, you know - much more than the tracing card.  It was way more sparkly.

Getting some pictures and video of the kiss.

There was math, reading, and writing, but they paled in comparison.

Lucy is loving Get Ready for the Code and demands a red check plus with a circle around it for each page done correctly and a sticker at the end of each work time.  I happily oblige.

Pollination

Today began by checking on sweet Anna Marie to see how life post-tonsils was going (A "Wizard of Oz" snuggle viewing was arranged for later in the day.  Zoe reported the movie to be "magnificent.")

Lucy is still enjoying her school work.  Here, she is learning ordinals: where is the turtle 2nd in line?  

Everything seems to be easy for her right now.  At one point, she was calling out answers to Zoe's math from the hallway.  That might get annoying one day soon...

Then came the fun part!  We used our pot of dried bees from our Wisconsin Fast Plants (I've used these plants several times in the classroom and LOVE them).  We read a Gail Gibbons book about pollination and used our bees to pollinate different plants.

First, we looked at all the parts of the bee and noticed how fuzzy the body was so the pollen could stick to him.

Then, we pretended the bee was going to drink the nectar from the flowers and looked at all the pollen that rubbed off!  We saw how visiting different flowers made the pollen rub off and get mixed up in different plants that could then make new seeds.  We got the gist of it, anyway.

Zoe kept saying, "I keep thinking they're alive" and I did too! 

And our favorite part of our day...only 16 days until Disney!

New Life

We are watching spring in action around here!  Between our garden, butterflies, ladybugs, and Ms. Brooke's chics, we have had a front row seat to the emergence of new life.

Tuesday morning, we got a call to run across the alley because chirps were coming from the eggs!  We ran over and got a front row seat!  The little girls got bored, but Zoe didn't miss a thing!  Allie named the 3 chics Zoe, Zoe, and Zoe. 

 He rested for awhile, then put his foot out and shoved the egg off of him!  

Then, he made his way over to the other eggs and began chirping at them.  Amazing.

 Thanks Ms. Brooke!  We love you!

Our ladybugs came out of the pupa stage about a week ago.  They have been crawling around and eating raisins, but we thought they would be happier in the backyard (there are lots of other ladybug friends waiting in our yard).

By far, we were saddest to see our 5 Painted Ladies go.  We have loved watching them go through their life cycle.  It was exciting when they finally opened their wings and we saw they were orange like our play models.  Aren't they beautiful?

Opening the top...

There she goes!

Bye bye!

Our garden is doing well!  The tomatoes, strawberries, morning glory, and crabgrass (!) are all thriving.  A cute little bunny visits our yard every night, so we are wondering if he will be able to get into our garden and eat the tomatoes when they grow.

My little scientist capturing everything.  When she couldn't get a clear picture of the ladybug, she narrated a video instead.  That's my girl.

Happy Easter!

Friday School: Easter Fun

First, a "little bit of homeschool" consisting of a quick math and reading lesson, then...

Egg Dyeing

Peeps Smores.  YUM.

Our 3rd annual neighborhood egg hunt.  We have the best neighbors!

And of course some Mexican culture: Cascarones!

Where in the world are we?

Inspired by this book and my lack of useful geography knowledge, we are working on drawing world maps.  First, we are tracing and labeling continents and then moving to freehand while looking at a map.  She loves this.

And sandwriting...again.  She loves it.

Top Ten

Here are a few things we have been busy doing instead of blogging for the past two weeks (sorry for the absence):

10. Popping Balloons (subtraction)

9. Working on Dreambox

8. Doing our Body Unit Assessment 

(and wishing I had done more of this type of assessment this year)

7. Playing in our Sensory Box

6. Growing plants (and ladybugs and butterflies) in the kitchen

5. Spelling...almost done with AAS Book 1!

4. Sand Writing - Lucy's new favorite pastime

3. Helping Mommy do a Science Lab for the whole school

2. Riding in the Bike Parade

1. Actually making foot to ball contact in soccer!  

Apparently all it took was the entire family coming to town.   This was our 20 person cheering section (pictured: "Give me an L!!!")

BODIES: The field trip

We took a major field trip!  On the spur of the moment, we decided to go to Tulsa to see the BODIES exhibit.  We left after Spanish School Monday afternoon, swam in the hotel pool, and made it to bed on time.  The next morning, we finished up our last body system: the digestive system.

We used a fruit loop to trace the progress from our mouth, down the esophagus, into the stomach, small and large intestines, and out in our poop!

Then, we made it to the exhibit: the strip mall location was not what I pictured!

I SO wish I could have taken pictures inside.  It was amazing.  The exhibit itself was breathtaking.  We saw every single thing we had learned about inside actual people.  Zoe was able to identify all the parts and remember so much of what we learned: "Mom!  That's where the pee pee comes out of the kidney!  That's where the blood goes into the heart!  That's the small intestine where our food goes!  The large intestine looks just like the one we made for our bodies!  There are the vertebrae!"  It was everything a field trip should be and more.  A 3 year old and a doctor could have an equally educational time looking at the amazing bodies.

At the end, we got to hold a real bone, heart, healthy and smoker's lungs, and a brain of a 21 year old and one of an elderly person with Alzheimer's.  Zoe called Daddy right after we walked out to tell him everything we saw.  That's what a field trip should be.

PE and Etiquette class: Pinkalicious Game

It's a work in progress...

Strong girls!

Today, we learned how strong we are.  We added our muscles to our cut-outs and looked at lots of pictures of the muscles in our body (did you know there are over 600?)

We reviewed each body organ and function

Then, we tested our prediction that our muscles never get tired.  

About 30 seconds into this exercise, we revised our hypothesis.

 We jumped for a long time and noticed the effect on our lungs, heart, and muscles.

Then, we pulled out these cubes from Nonnie and Papaw.  It's amazing how much easier these are than a few months ago.  Zoe was able to do some of the more difficult ones easily now and seems to be more systematic in her approach.