Let's Talk ART, BABY

Anthony's "Where the Wild Things Are" 

Alex's Flowers for me 

Alex's Drawing (from 4th grade) of Schultz and Tuffy with him

Anthony's self portrait from Preschool

Art is a major part of my homeschool curriculum, whenever possible we talk about the art of books we are reading, art in history, nature crafts/art when we are taking a walk, and many other areas that escape me at the moment:) I find that it pops up whenever I least expect it, especially when driving in the car, which is why the boys almost always bring their sketch books! I have a bonus in my pocket though, my hubby is an artist, he can do just about anything art related. (Well except for the crafts,LOL not his area, that's MINE)

We did do one art curriculum that the boys loved and learn a lot about how art has been used throughout history. EVEN telling hubby a couple of things that he didn't know about it! (plus in my book teach the teacher) Mostly, it is hubby teaching the boys techniques to draw then giving them an assignment of what he wants them to draw that week. It is a time that I know that the boys will cherish for years to come.

From reading a lot of forums and group emails, I have noticed that most homeschooling families out source the subject of art. I figured that it might be good to list some of the sites that I have found online to help those of you that don't have a live in art teacher. These are books and sites that I have used in the past when hubby is working and the boys want to do some art to show him when he gets home. A site that we have used on more than one occasion is cartooning for kids ,they have other areas for you to check out on there but the boys LOVED the hound dog lesson. YouTube is another great resource ,just type in "How to Draw" and you will get a great list of videos. We used HelloKids, to learn to draw dinosaurs, which are a favorite in my house. How To Draw site has tons of different lessons from Transportation to Manga lessons, and everything in between! Artists Helping Children Draw is a fun site for kids because most of the how to lessons on there are on drawing their favorite cartoon characters from shows. The boys love books like these How to Draw series, or these Manga How to draw books.

So... have you used a site or curriculum that you loved for ART?? Share it below so everyone can benefit!!!

Shout out to the Animal LOVERS out there

My personal favorite PANDA cam!

Cam 1 - Yaoman & Shenbing - Pandas - explore

What child doesn't love animals, for that matter what adult doesn't like animals!! Even if people don't like all animals, they have one type of animal that makes their heart go ~AWE!! SO I thought that I would share some of our favorite sites,etc. on the subject of animals!! Feel free to shout right back with any of your favs!!

We are a family of watchers here.... OK maybe that sounds wrong but it is true, HA! So we have a ton of sites that we rotate thru spending time watching all the animal cams out there. I love this one for zoo animal cams, this is one for an African animal cam by the old watering hole, our favorite owl "Molly" famous web cam (well famous to us!), and yes even goat cams that we recently found out about!!LOL Friends were waiting for these goats to even birth on the 24 hour web cam! I think our favorite right now is the African web cam, we have seen lots of animals that the boys love in their natural habitat.

Then come the animal educational sites, and oh the amount of sites I could list from online animal games to educational sites like WWF and National Geographic (two of our favorites) to animal activist sites that need your help to save one animal species at a time. One such place that we would love to visit is the Australia Zoo, once the stomping ground of the famous Steve Irwin. Hubby and I first saw this guy with his new wife Terry back in the 90s, we both were hooked by his style of getting involved with the crocs!

Lastly, here are a couple of great sites that offer a wide range of animal unit studies. Discovery Kids, has some great animal lesson plans for k-12; Secular Homeschool, has some great secular animal unit studies that members of the site have shared; Farm animal lessons for Pre-k is a fun one for those of you with younger kiddos; The Humane Society has some great free pet lessons and then there is Switcharoo Zoo creative writing lessons with some great animal prompts.

So what are doing to nourish your animal lover?

4H Project Updates

All the projects we have done including Pizza Garden 

Sweet Potato

Mango seedling

As we are getting to the last two classes for 4H, I wanted to let you see how my gardening class projects are doing. I began working out of the 4H curriculum within the first class the four kids in my small class were bored, bored, bored . (as so was I!) So I asked them what they wanted to know more about.... catnip, mango,lemon trees,apple trees, avocado, sunflowers are the answers I received from them. So the first class I did something I thought might be fun we planted a pizza garden!! Tomatoes (2 kinds-Big Boy and Yellow Pear) Basil, Oregano, Sweet Peppers were what I came up with... I purchased the seeds, starter greenhouses and markers and away we went! After that we learned about avocado and mangoes, while you can't grow them outside here in NC they can make fun houseplants. Well we got our seeds from the fruit at the grocery (for all our items above) germination rate is 1 in 10. So far I have gotten ONE mango seed (above pic) to sprout, very excited about that one! The other things that are doing awesome are the pizza garden, I knew those would. Apple, lemon, avocado have been the ones that I haven't gotten to sprout yet but I am not giving up!!
Just wanted to share how the seedlings are doing! So what are you growing from seed??

Sunday Walk in the Park

Getting a little sugar,LOL!

Anthony taking a bite out of things:)

Reflecting spot

Awesome walk

We decided to get up this morning, have some blueberry pancakes, YUMMY and drive out to the park for a breathe of rest air. I also wanted to see if the boys could point out any animal tracks, etc. from the Homeschool Day Camp they took last week. Both hubby and  I were treated to a non-stop gab fest from the boys. We saw little fishes, baby frogs (didn't think that they were out yet!),tons of ducks, turkey vultures and more. As you can see from the pics it was a little chilly and I was the only one who stayed warm:)

So what did you do this weekend?

Homeschooling Day Camp

Boys with Gumby at the Piedmont Nature Center

When someone talks about the pros and cons of homeschooling, I can always say the pros out weigh the cons!

Take this day of learning at the Piedmont Nature Center Homeschooling Day Camp, this wonderful place gave us homeschoolers a free day of learning at their awesome facility. I also got to be on the ground floor of their desire to create a program geared towards homeschoolers. The boys had a great time learning all about how to make a fire, herbs/plants that are safe to eat, tracking animals, playing great games with others without it being too competitive( a good thing in our house!). The parents,kids and counselors sat down at the end of the day in a sharing circle, where we went around and said what we were thankful for.... Anthony was thankful for being able to wash his hands after touching poison ivy, Alex was thankful learning to build a shelter and tracking and I was thankful for the opportunity that this amazing place offered us for free!! At the end of the day we were able to try some pine needle tea, which has an unique taste and chewing on the pine needles gives you some Vitamin C. Two things that we had never tasted before or knew were edible.

This is just one day that makes homeschooling the most incredible experience for the boys and myself. I am learning right along with them. So what did you learn with your kids today??

Berenstain Bears Author Dies, Thanks for all the great stories!

So sad to read about Jan Berenstain's passing on February 24.... The Berenstain Bears were a favorite in our night time reading routine when the boys were younger.
 I still read

when their rooms get too messy!! Yes the eye rolling is a part of the fun!

Jan's creative partner and husband, Stan, passed away in 2005. The Berenstain Bears have been delighting young readers since 1962 with over 330 titles, and will continue to do so for the next 50 years and beyond. Rest in Peace, Jan and Stan, from the Pierce Family.

My Fav Sites/Links for Homeschooling!

Well there is no way I can name them all BUT I wanted to give you all a run down on just a few that we use ALL the time in our homeschooling lessons! I find that it is hard to remember all the sites that you have used for homeschooling or even other areas of your life. While I am still sorting thru the bazillion sites that I bookmarked that first year of homeschooling here are a few that I LOVE. Most are free, the ones that are not are ones that I couldn't do without!!

Informational Sites on How to Homeschool or great forums with tons of info!
Homeschool Portfolios (its for my favorite online educational program BUT it has free links with pics that let you see what they need to look like if your state/country requires it)
Secular Homeschool (yes I am an admin on this site BUT just look at all the resources that on there. Another plus is the members! They are always chiming in with what worked for them and what didn't. A great money saving site, wish I had found it sooner,LOL)
State by State Info on homeschooling (there are tons of these out there, I like T4L because it gave me great links without being overwhelmed. A plus for those first few months)
The 8 Strictest States for Homeschoolers (this one was emailed to me from the site's admin., it is great read if you are looking into college in the near future)



General Fun Educational Sites
Dr. Seuss site  (OK we LOVE this site but of course we are a bit of junkies when it comes to Dr. Suess)
Learning Games For Kids ( site with typing, math, english and more!)
BBC Kids (site like LGFK)


Educational Sites that we use

Spelling City (great website for helping your kiddos with their spelling)
Time4Learning (we have used this site since we began homeschooling, it has a monthly fee but it has been well worth it)
Khan Academy (very helpful site with free videos)
iTunes U ( again another great free site for educational videos)
Spanish Town (free site for those learning Spanish)
Supercharged Science (I sign up for their free newsletter and tele-classes! The boys love them!)

Now while there are hundreds if not thousands more sites, like YouTube( you would be surprised the amount of educational videos on there!), homeschool moms and dads that have made up their own curriculum for sale and for free to download, and all of them are just a Google search away!

Please feel free to list the sites you love with links to them in the comments below!