A Hidden Habitat

I haven't written on this blog for a very long time now... almost 5 years now. In fact, I haven't written much at all in the past year. But, I miss it, so I may try keeping up with this blog again, if I can find the time.

Hannah is wrapping up her freshman year at the local high school, which Ben will also attend when he is a freshman next year. Becca is finishing 6th grade, and Kayla will actually be old enough for kindergarten next year!

I have been furthering my own education a bit as well. In the fall, I completed classes to become an Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist (OCVN), and this spring, I attended the Environmental Education Council of Ohio (EECO) annual conference. I have loved nature education since I was in college and worked at the Philadelphia Zoo. Though my certification was in Social Studies Secondary Education, I always had a longing to teach about nature and wildlife. Because of this passion, I have been volunteering a lot at our local nature center. I recently helped with a 5-week nature journaling program for 4th graders at an urban elementary school, and I will be assisting with many field trips at the nature center this spring. I love it!

I have also been incorporating even more environmental education into our homeschooling. This week, Ben had to take the state Geometry test on two separate mornings as part of his preparation for entering high school. The beautiful weather inspired me to take the rest of the school day outdoors.

We walked around our property and talked about nature - what we saw and what we wondered about. Becca kept dashing around looking under rocks and logs for red-backed salamanders, which we find all over our property. She did find a few, including this large gray one and one that measured only an inch from head to tail.

As we rounded the "hairpin," as the kids call the sharp bend in the walking path around our property, we glanced at all of the logs in various stages of decay next to the path. "Hey," I told her, "you should see if you can flip one of those really rotting logs and see what you find underneath." The log ended up being so rotten that it pulled apart instead of turning over.

 First, we noticed patches of white fungus spread across the inside of the log.

As we looked closer, we began to see even more signs of life: a tiny mushroom, a spider web and a small brown spider, myriads of tunnels with reddish brown ants scurrying through them, a salamander, a centipede, a beetle, and five or six of these beautifully colored millipedes. An entire miniature ecosystem lay hidden within an old log on the forest floor.

We decided to examine the millipedes a little more closely before returning them safely to their

rotting log. We learned that they are called Euryurus leachii, or Leach's millipede, and they primarily live in decaying hardwoods. Apparently, they even glow under a black light, though we didn't have the opportunity to test that out.

Becca, in particular, seemed to love this investigation. She and I talked about all of the things she had found, as we walked back toward the house. She wanted to find some way to demonstrate what she had learned. At first, she mentioned drawing a picture, but then we discussed other ways she could model the hidden habitat we had discovered. When we got inside, she instantly collected her craft supplies and got to work. I love her final results!

On the outside/front, she used green yarn to create a soft bed of moss with patches of bark showing through. She added a turkey tail fungus to the edge.

The front flips up to reveal the inside of the log, where she drew a millipede, ants and their tunnels, a centipede, a worm, a spider and a web, a mushroom, and streaks of white fungus.

I look forward to doing even more nature exploring with the kids in the future. I am amazed at how much we can learn when we begin to ask questions and look beneath the surface of what we see.  Just as we had to peel back the layers of the log to see the hidden world inside, we can also discover hidden realms of knowledge by just taking the time to stop and dig a little deeper into the world around us.

Chickens and Eggs

I worried that the baby might disrupt school this year, but other than a bit of fussiness and screeching when she is ready for her morning nap, she does quite well overall. She often plays happily in the pack-n-play or eats her breakfast in the high chair while I teach. Even better, once she goes to sleep in the morning, she sleeps through almost our entire school day before waking up for the afternoon and evening. I have even been able to run between 1.25 and 1.75 miles each day after lunch while the kids have their recess time, and it helps me feel refreshed and ready to finish out the school day.

No, the baby has been quite compliant this year so far. Instead, our biggest distraction has been our chickens! They like to come to our front door and peck at it to get our attention. If we are working in our school room in the basement, they actually peer in our basement window at us!

Poor Kitty

In addition, we began getting our first eggs this week. Elsa, the biggest barred rock, laid us a perfect little egg around lunch time on Monday.

Just a tiny egg - they will get bigger, though

Amazingly, Rosie, one of our black australorps, also laid her first egg on Monday afternoon. She came to the front door squawking anxiously at me, but then ran back to the woods. When I went for my run a little later, she was hanging out alone by the coop. I talked to her softly and showed her the fake eggs in the nest boxes, and she climbed in to inspect them. By the end of my run, she came running out of the coop, leaving a tiny egg in the nest box behind her.

On Tuesday, we only got one egg, but Wednesday through Friday, we got two eggs each day. Now, the kids are obsessed with checking for eggs, which would cause enough of a distraction by itself. However, the hens cause an even bigger distraction with the ruckus they make every time they lay. I had heard of the egg song, but I had no idea just how loudly those hens could sing. We can often hear them squawking in the coop, while we are working down in the basement.

Adding to the noise, Rosie and Elsa had quite the battle over the favored nest box. Elsa has staked her claim on the nest box in the darkest corner, and she will often lay in there for an hour before she gets around to depositing her egg. However, Rosie prefers this box too. On Tuesday, Rosie ended up not laying because Elsa refused to vacate the box. On Wednesday, we spent the day at Cedar Point and left the chickens in the coop all day. Both hens somehow managed to lay in the same box, so I assumed they had worked out their dispute. I was wrong.

On Thursday, we heard such a disturbance that we rushed out to make sure nothing was attacking the flock. We found Elsa in the nest box with Rosie yelling at her frantically at the top of her lungs. We came back inside, only to hear the egg song a moment later. Thinking Elsa had finally finished, the kids went out to check, but Elsa was still in the nest box, working on her egg. Rosie, on the other hand, had finally given up and laid her egg in a neighboring box. Silly hens! We have six nest boxes and six hens, and yet, they fight over the same box!

With all the noise and distractions, I have to fight with the chickens to keep my kids’ attention on their school work. On a positive note, though, they are learning quite a bit about chickens and where food comes from. As I was making dinner yesterday, Ben asked me if I was going to use chicken eggs or store-bought eggs in my recipe. He realized his mistake immediately, and we both laughed. Before this year, however, eggs only came from the store. Now, through the crazy distraction of our little flock of happy hens, our kids know the joy of getting their breakfast straight from its source. And, I suppose, that is part of a good education as well.

City Mice, Country Mice

This school year so far has slightly resembled the fable "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse."

In August, when school began, we lived in a smallish brick home on a busy street in the city. For recess each day, the kids played outside in our small backyard, with strict instructions to never leave our property or get too close to the road. They quickly tired of playing in the small yard and yearned for more freedom - freedom I could not grant because of the neighborhood in which we lived.

At the end of September, we moved into our new home, on 5 acres of land in the middle of the country. The kids roam the property, playing in and out of the woods, leaping over the small stream, never tiring of playing and exploring.

Hannah has named her favorite trees, and she constantly shows me interesting bugs she finds. The first day, Hannah excitedly brought me a giant leopard moth caterpillar, and this weekend, we laughed together at the dancing of a colony of beech blight aphids on a tree branch. We also found a particularly odd cluster of bugs, which we finally identified as adult and nymph oak tree hoppers. And, this evening, Becca discovered a walking stick in the living room as she headed up to bed. The kids love looking up and identifying all of the interesting species of bugs.

Of course, the one type of bug none of them like is spiders, particularly the wolf spiders which keep coming into our home. Yesterday, Hannah picked up her sneaker and a large one fell out, and today, one kept creeping out from under the wall in the school room as we worked. Josh finally caught that one this evening and relocated it to the barn, hoping that might keep it from returning to the house.

We also all enjoy seeing wildlife we rarely or never saw in the city - dozens of deer, chipmunks, squirrels, blue jays, cardinals, sparrows, nuthatches, chickadees, Carolina wrens, tufted titmice, downy woodpeckers, and red-bellied woodpeckers. Two mornings, we even had a great blue heron land in the yard! And, this is only autumn. I cannot imagine all of the birds and animals that will be here in the summer! Hannah has been begging to work on her bird project again, creating her own bird guide for all of the different birds she sees. I love that all of this nature and beauty surrounding us inspires them to want to learn.

(See the deer in that photo? I am amazed at how well they blend in, especially in the evening.)

We have definitely had to adjust quite a bit to living in the country, but we love it. My kids (and I) may be "city mice," but unlike the mouse in Aesop's fable, we feel perfectly at home in the country and have no desire to go back. This city mouse would rather be a country mouse any day!

Taming the Dragons

We unexpectedly bought a new bearded dragon last week. Actually, we purchased a new, larger cage with a nice stand, and the young bearded dragon came with it. He is a pretty little beardie, with touches of orange around his ears and down his back. At first, I wanted to name the new little guy "Eustace" after the boy who becomes a dragon in C.S. Lewis' The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. However, this little beardie has proved to be a not-very-tame dragon! After much debate and discussion, we finally agreed to name him "Norbert" after the baby dragon Hagrid hatches in the Harry Potter series. As Hagrid oohs and ahs over the baby dragon in the movie, the little dragon sneezes and sets Hagrid's beard on fire. We all decided that this name fit his character much better!

Since then, Josh has been valiantly attempting to tame the little dragon, while he is still an adolescent. He picks Norbert up and holds him almost every day, and we feed him Phoenix Worms and collard greens by hand. We try not to frighten him, but he is still adapting to his new home. When Josh holds him, he puffs out his beard and turns very dark, and he gapes at Josh, trying to prove that he is boss. If Josh is not careful, Norbert gets a nice, hard nip in there, too. Through all of this, he was never so fierce as when he noticed Trogdor, our old, mellow bearded dragon meandering past his cage one afternoon.

 

What a display of dominance he put on! His beard was jet black as he puffed it out and glared at Trogdor, who does not care one bit about the tiny, ferocious new dragon.

At the same time, we have been attempting to tame our three little dragon-children, as well. Now, obviously, our kids are much sweeter than Norbert, and we love them quite a bit more, too! But, recently, their dispositions have been somewhat dragonish, especially when they do not get their own way. Ultimately, we try to address the heart issues behind their misbehavior and bad attitudes so that they will eventually desire what is right. However, in the meantime, we have had to adopt our own dragon-taming techniques to deal with day-to-day problems.

First, as a method of positive reinforcement, we began using a system of "Daddy Dollars." I recently learned about Daddy Dollars from a friend, so I googled it and found some wonderful information, including a link to a site where I could print my own dollars with my husband's face on them!

The kids earn up to three Daddy Dollars each day by behaving well during school time and at Bible time in the evenings. They can also earn Daddy Dollars by doing extra jobs to help me out. When they save up enough Daddy Dollars, they can use them in the Mommy Mart, purchasing items such as 15 minutes of video games on the cell phone, balloon animals (made by me!), and back scratches. So far, the system works fairly well, though we are still smoothing out some of the details.

In addition to this, we have implemented a more formal chore schedule for the kids. Every day, they must make their beds, clean their rooms, and pick up the toys at the end of the day. Also, each child has an individual job to accomplish each day. Hannah washes breakfast and lunch dishes, Ben feeds the cats and sweeps the kitchen, and Becca sets the table for dinner. They mark off their chores on our calendar, and on Saturday, we pay them one quarter for each day they accomplished all of their chores, plus a bonus quarter if they did their chores every day. So, they can earn up to $2.00 each week. For now at least, the kids enjoy having chores and earning an allowance, and I appreciate having some help with daily jobs while also teaching them responsibility.

However, with this allowance, we have also instituted fines for talking back. Perhaps because of their age or because we have not been consistent enough with discipline, our kids have developed the bad habit of talking back every time they do not get their way. Their behavior reminds me of little Norbert nipping at our fingers whenever we approach him. Anyway, now, whenever the kids talk back or use inappropriate words, they have to deposit a quarter in my "I'm-a-rude-piggy bank." I have accumulated quite a collection of quarters - enough to fund allowances for a long time - and the kids are gradually learning to rein in their tongues.

Finally, I adopted something I once read on an ADHD website to address poor table manners. At each meal, we light a candle. That candle remains lit until someone uses poor table manners, and then we have to blow it out. Once the candle melts completely, we take a family trip to Chuck E Cheeses as a reward. Obviously, the candle burns down more quickly the longer it burns, so the kids have incentive to watch their table manners very carefully and even nicely remind each other without me having to nag and punish. This has been very successful so far, especially when we remember to light it and blow it out consistently...

Hopefully, consistent, firm, loving discipline will tame all of the dragons in our lives, from the fierce little bearded dragon, to the dragonish attitudes and behaviors of the kids. In the long run, however, we hope that the dragon will learn to enjoy interaction and not merely tolerate us, and that our kids will internalize good choices and responsibility without needing constant rewards and punishments. Overall, though, I appreciate having a plan, a consistent approach to deal with the everyday difficulties and to make our home a more pleasant place to live - for both people and pets!

Toucans and Animal Art

My parents subscribe to Ranger Rick and Your Big Backyard for the kids, and we always look forward to the new magazines each month. Last month, one of the issues included a section about toucans. We read through the article together, learning all about their beaks and how they work. To Hannah's delight, the issue included a page about drawing toucans. Since Ben struggles a bit with drawing and Hannah sometimes struggles with following directions, I went through the page step by step, pointing out how to look at small portion of the image and draw what they see, and not just what they expect to see. Hannah's toucan ended up looking quite nice:

I expressed to Hannah how much I loved her drawing, and she told me that she had learned how to draw a toucan in her "How to Draw Animals" book. She proceeded to draw another picture.

In fact, drawing animals has become one of her new pastimes, and she is becoming better and better with all of her practice. I will share a few of her animal drawings.

An armadillo:

A wombat:

A komodo dragon:

I love watching her artistic ability develop and improve, and I look forward to seeing what she does with it someday - whether it becomes a vocation or simply a hobby she enjoys. Either way, I will always remain her biggest fan!

Strolling Through China

For the past couple of weeks, our geography curriculum has focused on China. We colored and labeled maps, explored China on the globe, and read through a few non-fiction books and a student atlas from the library. The kids learned what the flag means and colored the flag for their geography notebooks, and I pulled out an old BBC movie about pandas for them to watch. They have learned quite a bit about the country.

On our visit to the library, I also decided to get out a handful of fiction books about China to add some literature to our geography study. The Story of Ping by Marjorie Flack and Kurt Wise takes place on the Yangtze River, which the kids labeled on their maps. The Empty Pot by Demi tells about an emperor seeking his replacement and teaches about honesty and the courage to do what is right. Huy Von Lee has written a wonderful series of books teaching Chinese characters and where they come from, for example, how the symbol for fire looks like a little campfire. We chose In the Leaves because it focuses on autumn and harvest time, and it fit in well with the time of year. However, I found another favorite book in the new edition of The Seeing Stick by Jane Yolen. The story begins by telling about an emperor's blind daughter and the search for something that might help her see. An elderly man treks to the inner city with his special "seeing stick" that helps the young girl see - not with her eyes but with her hands. The illustrations are stunning, black and white in the beginning and becoming colorful and vibrant by the end. And, the end of the story is simple and lovely. I think I will be adding this book to my Christmas list!

Additionally, when I purchased my geography curriculum this summer, I stumbled across a kids' cookbook with simple recipes and activities from all over the world. The book's section on China includes instructions on making your own chopsticks and writing numbers 1-10 in Chinese. I decided that the chopsticks activity would better suit older children, but we did practice writing the numbers.

As a new family tradition, every Friday night, we have family game night, so we turned this past Friday into our "China party." The cookbook had two delicious and very easy Chinese recipes - honey-glazed chicken wings and birthday noodles with peanut sauce. On Friday morning, the kids and I made the noodles, so we could serve them cold as the recipe indicated, and we prepared the marinade for the chicken. Friday evening, I broiled the chicken and made a salad with an Asian dressing, and we all ate a delicious Chinese dinner. We even ate with chopsticks (the kids at least tried!) and had fortune cookies for dessert. For our game night, we taught the kids how to play Chinese checkers. It was such a fun way to learn about China!

Finally, we are beginning to wrap up our study so we can move on to the next country. I may still spend a little time discussing the Chinese new year and learning about parades, but we are just about finished. At this pace, I think we are strolling, rather than "galloping" around the globe, but I feel sure that the kids will remember these experiences, instead of packing them away at the end of the year with their old notebooks and completed worksheets. Their learning has not been all fun and games, but the fun and games have definitely helped with their learning!

Autumn at the Zoo

Hannah turned seven on Tuesday, and, as we often do on our kids' birthdays, Josh took the day off, and we took a surprise trip to the zoo. I love visiting the zoo in the fall. First of all, on a weekday, students are in school, and, especially in the afternoons when any school groups have left, we have the zoo nearly to ourselves. The weather was beautiful and sunny, neither too warm nor too cool, and the fall leaves added a splash of lovely color to our day.

On such wonderful, warm autumn days, many of the animals move around more, because they are not uncomfortably hot or cold, and the shier animals often come out instead of hiding from the crowds.

This autumn afternoon did not disappoint us! When we reached the flamingo exhibit, we could hear them squawking loudly at each other. Two of the flamingos in the very back had their feathers all ruffled up as they made their raucous noises.

The penguins enjoyed the lovely weather as well.

Birds in the African aviary seemed less afraid to show themselves as we stood quietly in their exhibit. This bird perched quite close to me for a little while.

And, the East African Crowned Cranes strutted around next to the walkway.

The big African cats, more comfortable in warmer weather, appreciated the chance to lounge in the warm fall sunshine.


As we walked through the Australian section of the zoo, we heard nearly deafening screams and wails coming from the gibbon cage nearby. We hurried over to that area and saw that the zookeepers had confined one gibbon in the caged portion of the exhibit while allowing the rest of the group to roam outdoors. Apparently, these apes did not like being separated and loudly expressed their displeasure to the entire zoo! They whooped and wailed and shrieked back and forth to each other, calling to each other in a clamorous frenzy.

As we watched, we observed the caged gibbon puffing out his throat like a frog before he howled to the others. After a while, we moved on, partly because their loud noises actually hurt the kids' ears. I told them they often sound like that on their rowdier days. They did not seem to appreciate the comparison...

Heading to the orangutan exhibit, we noticed both auburn apes settling down for a nap. The male climbed to the lower platform with an armful of dried grass.

The female rested herself against the glass with a dreamy expression on her face.

She even looked right at me for a photo!

We wrapped up our visit by heading to Hannah's favorite place - the manatee exhibit. Of course, all three kids had to pose on the sculpture for a picture.

Hannah always loves seeing the sting rays.

This one appeared to like seeing people as well. It swam over to the glass and hovered near Hannah as she watched him. It almost looked like it was smiling, and we could clearly see its many teeth.

Because it was Hannah's birthday, Josh took her to the gift shop and allowed her to pick a small present for herself. She chose a tiny stuffed penguin, just like the baby emperor penguins in the movie March of the Penguins. She named him Fluffers and wrote about him in her journal yesterday. I must say that I am impressed at how accurate her drawing has become, at least when she tries to draw exactly what she sees. Her penguin drawing is pretty impressive, I think, though I may be a bit biased, of course!

The other drawing is a giant tortoise, drawn from memory, so not quite as accurate. Still, I am beginning to think that Hannah may very well become an author and illustrator someday, just as she wrote to Mo Willems.

Overall, we enjoyed our autumn trip to the zoo on Tuesday. The animals entertained us, we learned quite a bit, and we also had a lot of fun. Hopefully, we will return to the zoo very soon, perhaps for another fall fun day!

An Enchanting Tale

As part of our morning routine, I have given Hannah pages from a workbook that thoroughly covers grammar and writing skills at a first and second grade level. She has completed all of the grammar lessons and now must apply those concepts to her writing. Today's assignment required her to write a story or a report about a frog or toad. It suggested topics and word choices, but of course, my little author already had plenty of her own creative ideas. After several hours of writing and brainstorming and talking through her ideas, Hannah finished her enchanting tale: "Rainbow Diamond's Wonderful Treehouse."

Here is her story:

Once upon a time there lived a frog who lived in an enchanted forest. She was an enchanted frog. Her name was Rainbow Diamond. Rainbow Diamond is an enchanted name, as you can see. But this was no ordinary forest. The hills were pink, the trees were purple, the flowers were green, and she was all the colors of the rainbow! Unlike other frogs, the only problem in her life was that she couldn't find a home.

Then one day, she lay down in the mud just relaxing and wondering what she should do to have a home. Then, all of a sudden, she saw a rainbow lily pad come floating toward her. She gasped! There on the lily pad was the most wonderful seed! It was all the colors of the rainbow! "Is that seed magic?" she wondered. She did not know that the seed was very magical indeed.

It was so very magical that as soon as she planted it, up grew a house. She was so excited about her house that she didn't see Hannah the fairy come flying toward her. Finally, she noticed Hannah. "Hi, Hannah," croaked Rainbow Diamond.

"Hi, Rainbow Diamond," said Hannah.

Then, Hannah spied the high, enormous treehouse. "What a big treehouse!" said Hannah. "How did you make it?"

"I planted it," answered Rainbow Diamond.

"Let's go for a swim," said Hannah.

"Sure, we can go for a swim," said Rainbow Diamond.

"All right! Yay! Hip hip hurray!" they yelled together.

"Wow! Look at that strange glow," said Rainbow Diamond.

"And I know what it is," said Hannah.

"What?" asked Rainbow Diamond.

"A lamp," said the fairy.

"How did you know?" asked Rainbow Diamond.

"I gave you the seed, and I gave you the lamp. I wanted you to have a rainbow house and a rainbow lamp, just like you. I know that today is your seventh birthday. Happy birthday, Rainbow Diamond!" said Hannah.

"Wow! Thank you, Hannah," said Rainbow Diamond. "What a wonderful friend you are! Would you want to live here with me?"

"Sure, Rainbow Diamond!" said Hannah.

They both lived together in the treehouse for the rest of their lives.

The end.

The Wheel on the School

Last week, Hannah and I finished the first chapter book we worked on together - The Wheel on the School by Miendert DeJong. What a lovely book! We both fell in love with it from the very first page. Lina, the main character, is so sweet and thoughtful and full of dreams. She reminds me very much of my Hannah!

At first, the book focuses only on the school children and their teacher, as they are the only "important" characters in the story. But gradually, more and more characters become "important" until the list includes the whole town and even some people in adjacent towns: the oldest man and woman, the young tots, the fathers, the women, the poor tin man, and even the once-outcast legless man with a cherry tree in his back yard. By the end of the book, everyone has come together to make Lina's "impossibly impossible" dream a reality.

Last Friday, Josh surprised Ben by taking him away for the weekend to a Virginia Tech football game with all of the guys on that side of the family. Since I didn't have to plan any school work for Ben that day, I decided to spend the whole day with Hannah working on a project to wrap up our reading of the book. I planned to do three lapbooks - one on the book, one on the Netherlands, and one on storks. In advance, I found a few printables from homeschoolshare.com, and I designed a few booklets myself. Using some non-fiction books from the library about the Netherlands and storks, Hannah and I planned out the rest of the ideas. She did most of the writing, though I wrote the titles on each item and the tiny labels on the timeline. I also filled in the main character list, when her hand became tired. Of course, she helped me by listing characters and describing the main events. Once we finished assembling the lapbooks, Hannah decorated the cover of each one. I am absolutely amazed at how they turned out!

The cover for the book lapbook:

The inside of the book lapbook:

The cover of the Netherlands lapbook:

The inside of the Netherlands lapbook:

The cover of the stork lapbook:

The inside of the stork lapbook:

In addition, during play time yesterday, I noticed that Hannah had used her Legos to build a replica of the village of Shora. The little girl even has on a pair of wooden shoes!

Amazingly, Hannah has nearly finished reading the entire book for a second time on her own! The reading level is fairly challenging, but she loves the story so much that she does not mind. This is one reason why we opted to homeschool this year. Last year, school exhausted her so much that she never wanted to read on her own anymore. She seemed to have lost her love of reading. Obviously, that love returned once we provided a more restful and academically stimulating school environment. I am very excited by how this project turned out, and I am already considering our next one when we finish our new chapter book. I love how much fun learning can be - for my kids and for me!

A Creepy, Cool Bug

A few nights ago, I walked onto our porch to put cans in the recycling bin and noticed a strange looking bug on the screen. I called Josh to come look, and he captured the bug in a little bug cage to show the kids.

The kids squealed in fear, and I must admit that the bug looked quite dangerous. About an inch and a half long, it had a long, pointy tube on its back end with another thorn-like point above it. It looked like a very large wasp with two stingers, though I suspected it might use the long tube for laying eggs and not for stinging.

After some creative googling, we identified the species. It was indeed a wasp, though it was a wood-boring wasp and not a stinging one. In fact, this species could do more damage to local trees than to us, though we figured that out after we released it... The bug we found was a "pigeon horntail." It uses its long, slender ovipositor (that scary looking tube) to deposit its eggs into the wood of trees and then infects the trees with fungi in order to soften the wood for its larvae to eat. I hope that this particular pigeon horntail decided to lay its eggs in someone else's trees...

Anyway, after watching it for a few minutes, we let it go in our bushes. I did get one good picture of it, before it flew at me and I screamed and jumped away despite knowing that it could not do me any harm. It certainly looked intimidating!

Later that night, Hannah was excited to find the pigeon horntail listed in her little bug guide in her room. I actually enjoyed examining and learning more about it, even though I panicked just a bit at the thought of it landing on me... What a creepy and cool bug!

Goodbye to School

I very much look forward to homeschooling Hannah next year. Because of that, I am surprised at how sad I feel as her school year comes to an end. Today, when I picked her up from her last day of school, I had to fight back tears as I said goodbye to her wonderful kindergarten teacher and Spanish teacher, and I could see that they felt the same way. I never questioned their love for my sweet Hannah, and I knew they cared for her well when she was at school. Our decision to homeschool is the best thing for our family next year, but I also know we have given up something very good in exchange, and I will miss the school quite a bit.

Wrapping up the school year actually began last Friday with the kindergarten "Knowledge Fair." Each kid could choose a topic and create a display to teach others about that topic. Hannah chose Sea Creatures. Though I sometimes had to convince her to spend time after school working on it, for the most part, she enjoyed this project. We borrowed some lapbook printouts from www.homeschoolshare.com to organize the material, and she created a nice display to set up in the kindergarten room to explain what she learned.

She also brought her stuffed manatee.

After the Knowledge Fair, the kindergarten kids had their promotion ceremony. They all lined up while their teacher spoke. The kids had decorated their hats at home the week before the ceremony.

One by one the teacher called their names, and they walked across the stage. Their first grade heart partners took their hands and walked them over the bridge to officially become first graders.

They lined up and sang "It's a Small World" together before dismissing to their parents.

Hannah has loved her teacher so much this year! In fact, she often calls me by her teacher's name, and she ends nearly every journal entry with the words, "I love Mrs. F!"

I could not have asked for a better kindergarten year for Hannah, even as I am glad that we will be homeschooling together as a family next year. I will miss the school very much and I am sure we will keep in touch with many of the wonderful people we met there. Her experience has made her into a better student and me into a better teacher, and I will always be thankful for our time at the school. We are sadly, but confidently, moving on to our next adventure!