Roman Arches

Assignment: build a Roman Arch using jello pudding boxes. It was tricky to get it to stand but we did it. Austin was truly impressed, Andrew and Aiden . . . not so much.

Water Trailer

Uncle Todd works for the Bureau of Reclamation in Albuquerque. His job includes calculating water levels in the rivers of New Mexico. He has access to a water trailer that they use to teach elementary school kids about watershed.

The trailer bed "sand" is actually recycled plastic bits. Austin and Andrew helped Todd set up the two rivers and the props.

We invited two other homeschool families to join us for our watershed lesson/field trip a few weeks ago.

There are two rivers. The one on the right is lined with vegetation and rocks and the one on the left shows errosion. The lined river flowed quickly and was deep enough for our little mini canoe. The un-lined river pulled the sand into the river bed and pulled near by animals in with it.
















After the lesson, the boys had a blast building dams and rivers of their own.


Thanks Todd!! We had fun!

School is back in session!

I've been meaning to blog about homeschooling for several weeks. We did continue to do school through the summer with a really fun curriculum that I should write about at some point. I had a blast! We took several weeks off in August and now we have finished our first two weeks of "real" school. I've been calling it that because it is our first attempt to cover a week's worth of lessons from all the subject areas at the same time. : ) So far, it has gone wonderfully! I'm so pleased with our curriculum and the atmosphere of our home these days.

It is a great help that Aiden recently became interested in videos and cartoons and can be easily distracted with "Mickey Mouse" if we need some extra time while he is awake. But he is even wanting to get in the mix and joins us most mornings to color or drive his cars on the kitchen table while we work.

We just finished reading "Rainbow Garden" as part of our literature for the country of England. The book was written from a child's point of view as she slowly realized what it meant to trust Christ and give her heart to him. I was coughing a lot as I read it trying to keep from crying through the whole thing. : )

Today, the boys and I practiced prepositions and plural nouns with a text about Jesus teaching his disciples to be fishers of men. I noticed that Austin had written the sentence, "I want to be a fisher of men." He is hearing the gospel articulated often through many different avenues. I pray that God will use all of it to draw their precious hearts close to himself.

Starting School

Aiden started Preschool this week. He's going to our church's program two mornings a week. Bobby and I thought it would be good for him to have a little social time out of the house and allow me a little extra time with the older boys for school. So far, he loves it and was excited to go back today. Isn't that the most precious face?

Edit: It was too much for mommy. Now he's only going one morning a week. : )