February song

I have discovered that singing a song with our 6yr olds about the month as it begins really helps us all remember what month it is. So, this is how we start each Monday morning for school! We found most of ours on scholastic teacher resources :)

February (sung to "Yankee Doodle")

In the month of February, I'm so very glad Oh,
The groundhog comes on Groundhog Day a-looking for his shadow!

February, what a month! Cold and crisp and snowy.
Middle of the winter when the winds are sharp and blowy!

Presidents' Day in February, always sets me thinkin
About our special pair of heroes: Washington and Lincoln!

February, what a month! Filled with lots of cheer now!
Will you be my Valentine? Valentine's Day is here now!

Baking Soda and Vinegar Fun Experiment

Today the kids made "magic in a cup" as they called it! This was a really fun experiment. I had seen it many times online, and decided the twins were finally old enough to do it. Big Kid thought it was cool, but the twins were just amazed and were very disappointed when we ran out of spoons! 

I put a drop of food coloring on each spoon, then covered the spoons in baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). 

Then I partially filled little cups with water (plain H2O) or vinegar (acetic acid) and moved the cups around so we couldn't tell which was vinegar and which was water. They don't need much liquid in them, really! The boys got to pick a spoon and mix it into the liquid in the cup. Some were "magic" and others weren't :) This one here was definitely magic! The cups with water turned colors because of the food coloring, but the cups with vinegar made colored foam and erupted out of the cups. 

It's a double replacement reaction. The acetic acid reacts with the sodium bicarbonate to form carbonic acid, which is very unstable. The carbonic acid immediately comes apart into carbon dioxide and water, a decomposition reaction. The bubbles are the carbon dioxide being released! CO2 is heavier than the air so it pours out of the cup down the sides. You're left with a colorful solution of sodium acetate and water! It was fun to mix the colors when we were done too, as my four year olds figured out :)

Butterfly Garden

I love butterfly bushes! Ok, I love flowers in general but seeing butterflies flock to a bush in my own backyard is just awesome. I'm also really enjoying seeing all the hard work we have put into our gardens come to fruition! My flowers are BLOOMING like crazy!!!

This photo is from the first year we planted our butterfly garden, ordered for $29.99 from Spring Hill Nursery. 

And here it is two years later, wow! I have already had to seriously trim back the blue butterfly bush, the pink one is uncut still. The bee balm took off like crazy, I moved half of it up front and I still have probably 30 blooms in each area. I did lose a few plants, the dianthus never came back and the coreopsis came back but never bloomed again after the first year. I have added some verbena to cover up the dirt, it's tiny but it should take off nicely. I moved the lilies to the front garden to make room for the lantana (keeps coming back every year!) and bee balm to spread. Woohoo! I love it when gardens work!

Octonauts Project

My twins love the Octonauts. They watch the show daily and pour over the books. Yesterday I started our ocean life theme, and read a few books - Fidgety Fish and Commotion in the Ocean. We made octopus as a project, and while Thing Two was finishing putting the "suckers" on his octopus legs, he stated that he wanted to make a Captain Barnacles project. I was totally caught off guard, but managed to cut out enough pieces to make Captain Barnacles, Kwazii Kitten, Peso, and Pinto. Thing Two is a perfectionist to a degree, his eyes had to be straight etc. but Thing One just went at it with the glue bottle and had a blast! I was impressed at their finished results - they look pretty darn great if you ask me!!! Thanks to this show (ok and a few Diego episodes) the boys know all about whale sharks, oar fish, sea stars, it's just amazing how much they retain and enjoy learning from tv shows and books! I'm glad there are so many nice educational shows on tv these days, because while we don't watch a lot of tv it's really nice to know when they do sit down to watch a cartoon they can watch Little Einsteins, Octonauts, Doc McStuffins, Wild Kratts!

Do you make folder games?

We love folder games! We have tons of them, but the boys' favorite has always been the pickle game. It's simply pickle jars with dots on them, and they put the pickle in with the right number on it! They love all the games, and have been playing them for at least two years... I know I should introduce more challenging games, but they so love the ones we use now!

Things like learning about Al Gross make homeschooling AWESOME!

Today opened my eyes to how charmed my children's education really is. Big Kid was watching a National Geographic show about ancient Nubia on netflix, and the twins wandered in and couldn't stop watching. Maybe it was the deserts, or statues, or camels. Whatever it was, the twins were riveted! Big Kid said he liked the show too! The twins finally came in and started playing with their Marble Madness, talking about the paths of the marbles. Much better than any morning I ever had at public school!

I sat at my computer reading an article about Al Gross. I wrote a report for science class years and years ago in high school about some of his technology, and I never connected all of his projects! Al Gross really was an amazing man, up there with Einstein and maybe Steve Jobs. Al Gross invented the Joan-Eleanor radios in WWII, which used a higher frequency so the Germans never even knew the American soldiers had radios. He invented CB Radios, walkie talkies, and the basis for cellular communication. Here's a great article about him if you're ever interested! My grandfather was a great inventor himself, held many patents in the field of instant photography - I just have the utmost respect for inventors!!!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Our boys love Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Dad reads it like a rap, and they just eat it up. I read it like I learned to do teaching preK, and they love that too. They read it to each other, in sing song voices, and laugh and laugh. I saw a really cool blog that inspired me - both about the Ikea bookshelf and making a tree on the wall! So now we have our own version of a coconut tree on the wall - and it's a big hit! I ordered it online and laminated it with contact paper. I love it!

Bookshelf in the school room!!

I drove all the way to Ikea (ew) and bought the bookshelf I have been drooling over. I had no idea we had so much "school related items" until I had to empty a bookshelf to make room for the new one! This is from just one of our bookshelves...

Who knew three kids could "need" so much for homeschooling? I sure didn't but I promise we use it all or I wouldn't keep it. I have most of Big Kid's curriculum for the next year or two, because I fell across it at a homeschool book store that was closing. That takes up space. I have some K and 1st grade curriculum for the twins, someone gave it to us, and who knows when they will actually start using it, so I keep it handy. Everything else is used on a regular basis - wow!!


I love the new bookshelf - it brightens up the room and stores everything we need in that room! I have a bit of extra space on the shelves, hopefully we can keep it that way. I honestly don't have to buy any curriculum for Big Kid until 9th grade, but I really don't know what I'll need for the twins as they grow because I have never homeschooled a child younger than 6th grade! It's an adventure :)