10 Books for RUBY…Valentine Surprises

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If you follow us on Facebook, you might have seen my post the other day about finding a book with Speedracer’s name in it. His real name, I mean. It’s a treasure, and a tough find! I love finding books with our kiddos names in them because it makes them really connect with the character–which also makes having good stories especially important! It’s something that’s going to stay on their shelves long past the age when they appreciate the story. It’s a love gift more than a literacy gift. Which is … Continue Reading…

Nature Encounters…The Great Horned Owl

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Have you noticed how much hustling about there is right now out in the world of wildlife? Everyone’s scurrying around to find new homes and territories and stock up their dens and burrows and bellies for winter. Seems like the squirrels around here are having a festival of foolishness around the roadside ditches. Mr. Fix-It and I were off for a walk, alone, the other day (how often does that happen!!) and collected a bunch of turkey feathers and an empty turtle shell to take back and show the kiddos. … Continue Reading…

Costumes and Cows in the Chicken Coop…Thankful Thursdays #5

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Boy, I’m thankful that lamb harvest for the year is over. We just reduced the amount of mouth to feed over the winter by about 50%! And everyone seemed satisfied with their product and how it went. (Except for the Cowboy who is totally bummed that he missed it all just for school!) And I’m thankful that the weather seems to have cleared up. It’s still a bit soggy, but nothing to complain about since we had a week of steady rain! I’m also thankful to Mr. Fix-It for taking … Continue Reading…

Resources for Studying Jamestown

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In honor of Columbus Day, I thought I would share something about explorers, but not at all about Columbus! {smile} We have been reading and studying and talking and learning about Jamestown and early Virginia colonization and woodland Indians for several weeks now. It started this summer when we started reading Blood on the River together as a family read-aloud. I had been collecting Jamestown resources for most of the spring and fall to put together one of our mini unit studies. You know, stalking Amazon for price drops, haunting … Continue Reading…

New Neighbors in the Farmyard

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Mr. Fix-It woke me up early the other morning and told me to grab the camera. We have new neighbors. We think they’ve moved into the driveway culvert pipe at the neighbor’s house. A momma and two babies. The kids find it all very exciting. I find it very nerve-wracking. Here’s a few things I know about skunks from personal experience… They eat chickens. They eat eggs. They dig. They spray dogs. They are not scared of dogs, cats, cars, people…or bears, supposedly. Here’s a few other things I know … Continue Reading…

Children’s Atlas of God’s World — Book Review

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As you know, we love to read together around here for family time and it’s one of our favorites ways to incorporate home learning even if we don’t formally “homeschool” together. So I was super excited to be invited to join the Moms of Master Books review team! We receive one brand-spankin’ new book a month from New Leaf Publishing Group to review (free of charge) and share with you. I won a copy of the Big Book of Earth and Sky at the Titus 2:1 Conference and my kiddos … Continue Reading…

Real Life Homeschooling — Learning While Camping

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Real Life Homeschooling is a monthly blog hop with 20 other blogging mommas that I’ll be participating in this summer. It’s all about the non-traditional face of homeschooling today. What it looks like when it doesn’t look like school-at-home. Last week my introduction post touched on our love of nature study and family read-alouds. This week I’d like to touch on the idea of learning everywhere, all the time. I’ve been writing about our camping adventures lately, and I think that’s a perfect example of how we can surround our … Continue Reading…

5 Days of Summer Reading {Make Reading Fun For the Whole Family}

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This week I’ll be part of a 5 Days of Summer Series and I’m talking about 5 Days of Summer Reading. Each post comes with recommendations for how to choose good books, tips to encourage a love of books, and ideas for how to enjoy reading as a whole family–as well as a book list, so be sure to check them all out! MONDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Homestead} TUESDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Boys} WEDNESDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Girls} THURSDAY: … Continue Reading…

5 Days of Summer Reading {Tips For Encouraging the Reluctant Reader}

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This week I’ll be part of a 5 Days of Summer Series and I’m talking about 5 Days of Summer Reading. Each post comes with recommendations for how to choose good books, tips to encourage a love of books, and ideas for how to enjoy reading as a whole family–as well as a book list, so be sure to check them all out! MONDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Homestead} TUESDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Boys} WEDNESDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Girls} THURSDAY: … Continue Reading…

5 Days of Summer Reading {How to Choose Good Books For Girls}

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This week I’ll be part of a 5 Days of Summer Series and I’m talking about 5 Days of Summer Reading. Each post comes with recommendations for how to choose good books, tips to encourage a love of books, and ideas for how to enjoy reading as a whole family–as well as a book list, so be sure to check them all out! MONDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Homestead} TUESDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Boys} WEDNESDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Girls} THURSDAY: … Continue Reading…

5 Days of Summer Reading {How to Choose Good Books for Boys}

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This week I’ll be part of a 5 Days of Summer Series and I’m talking about 5 Days of Summer Reading. Each post comes with recommendations for how to choose good books, tips to encourage a love of books, and ideas for how to enjoy reading as a whole family–as well as a book list, so be sure to check them all out! MONDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Homestead} TUESDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Boys} WEDNESDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Girls} THURSDAY: … Continue Reading…

5 Days of Summer Reading {Books You Need on the Homestead}

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This week I’ll be part of a 5 Days of Summer Series and I’m talking about 5 Days of Summer Reading. Each post comes with recommendations for how to choose good books, tips to encourage a love of books, and ideas for how to enjoy reading as a whole family–as well as a book list, so be sure to check them all out! MONDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Homestead} TUESDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Boys} WEDNESDAY: 5 Days of Summer Reading {For the Girls} THURSDAY: … Continue Reading…

Real Life Homeschool…On Teaching Something Every Day

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  Real Life Homeschooling is a monthly blog hop with 20 other blogging mommas that I’ll be participating in this summer. It’s all about the non-traditional face of homeschooling today. What it looks like when it doesn’t look like school-at-home. Which, obviously it doesn’t around here since our crew goes to a Christian school full-time and home-learning has to be fun and relaxed to keep us all from getting burned out. One question you may have is Why do we even bother, if our kids are already getting an excellent … Continue Reading…

Spring at the Virginia Living Museum

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Well, I had a bit of time with the kiddos while they were on spring break last week and we headed to the Virginia Living Museum–which we’ve been enjoying often since becoming members last summer! It was fun to see it in Spring, before everything blooms, but when everything is just coming awake.We’ve visiting in Summer, Fall (boy these pictures take me back a bit!), and Winter now and not only have we gotten to see different exhibits, we’ve gotten to see the animals and habitats change for the season. … Continue Reading…

They Will Soar–Backyard Wildlife Adventures

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Ever have one of those moments when something just stops you in your tracks and changes your everyday moments to not-so-everyday moments? Something exciting suddenly swoops in and the joy lasts long past when the moment is gone? Yeah, bald eagles do that for me. {grin} We had one visiting the back field for about 30 minutes or so last week after Annabelle had her new calf. We’ve come to expect a certain conglomeration of turkey buzzards to show up after a birth looking for any buzzard-ly “treats.” But every … Continue Reading…

10 Books, Part 1

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Do you read more than one book at a time? I do. And apparently, I’m training my kiddos to as well! {grin} We’re reading books for school projects (American Heritage speeches coming up in November!), books for family read-aloud time, books for one-on-one time…and of course, this Momma is reading books on farming, books on parenting and marriage, books I want to preview for my crew, and books that are just for fun! Here are 10 books lying around our house right now in progress by someone! 1. Viking Quest, … Continue Reading…

10 Nature Journaling Notes

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We started nature journals with the kiddos over the summer. While I haven’t been completely faithful with them, they’ve been a great activity and we catch up every couple of weeks. We’re certainly not stopping and they’re not just about nature now. We’re recording gratitude lists, family trips, and just snippets of our everyday life together. Here’s a few tips I’ve picked up over the last couple months… 1. Take lots of pictures. This way you don’t lose things just because you don’t draw well or you forgot in the … Continue Reading…

5 Days of Organizing Back to School…Fresh Routines and Learning Lifestyles

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Well, this first week of back to school has just been exhausting–but joyful too. The Ladybug brought home her first math paper and it was…PERFECT! I don’t think we had one of those in math all year last year. No one was sent to the principal’s office, and Speedracer ate at least one thing on his plate at lunch all week. Only one, but at least he’s not starving! {grin} All week I’ve joined with 21 other bloggers in a 5 Days of Organizing and Cleaning series, and today I’m … Continue Reading…

Rainy Day Fun at the Virginia Living Museum {Family Connections Summer 2012}

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Once again I’m joining Aurie, Lisa, Amy, and Connie to share ideas for fun, family activities for the summer. We hope you’ll stop by every Wednesday to share in our theme or link up your own posts about great summertime fun for the whole family! And wow, don’t I feel silly! Last week I posted about Nature Notebooks and summer learning fun, and then said that this week would be our series wrap up–but it’s not! This week we’ve got some great posts about rainy day fun ideas. (Next week … Continue Reading…

A New Discovery–The Virginia War Museum

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Remember our summer learning plan? How I had penciled in several museum-type activities that I thought would be fun and educational, both? Well, we were off this past Saturday afternoon to have some fun family time and discovered a hidden treasure–while making a little lemonade from some summertime lemons. Can anyone explain to me why it is that things like museums, farm parks, and the like still open at 9am and close at 5 or 6 pm in the summer when it’s light out from 6 am-9 pm? I’m sorry, … Continue Reading…

Where Eagles Dare to Fly

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So, I could fill this post with more pictures of sheep and lambs and calves… Or I could fill this post with cute pictures of my kids and especially my boys like I usually do for Boys in Motion Fridays… But I got the coolest pictures of something else yesterday when I left the office! They sort of tie in with the farm, since they were definitely in range of our property “as the crow flies.” And they might have been boys and were definitely in motion. {PS. If you’re … Continue Reading…

Family Time at the Virginia Living Museum

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Our holiday weekend included lots of family time.  Mr. Fix-It was able to be home Thursday thru Saturday and most of Sunday too, even though he was on-call for work, and his sister came to visit for the weekend.  So we took the crew to the Virgina Living Museum.  This trip has been on my list for family time all summer.  We weren’t disappointed.  The whole place is just made for kids! The VLM is all about wildlife and ecosystems native to Virginia (obviously, right?) and has live exhibits as … Continue Reading…

With Wings as Eagles

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My dad would have been 52 today.  I’ve been saving these pictures from last week for his birthday because he would have LOVED them. If the sight of roadkill bothers you (or you’re a cat lover), you’ll probably want to skip this post. If you’re a fan of Wild Discovery in your own backyard (or a few blocks away, in this case) you’ll probably like these too.  The Fed Ex guy that was stuck behind me seemed to think it was pretty cool too.  Although he didn’t have much choice. … Continue Reading…