More or Less Homeschooling & Home-making Adventure

I am a work in progress. I am striving to be an encouraging wife, a fun and loving homeschool mother, to learn to homestead, organize, and adapt. I desire to see life more like Jesus and less like the world's view of what's important. I praise God that I am saved by grace alone, through faith alone, by Christ alone! Cuz' I CAN'T DO IT ON MY OWN!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Pagoo - plankton videos

We started reading Pagoo this week and I've been searching the net for videos on plankton. I found 3 this morning that we really enjoyed. I a posting them here because of the inappropriate videos on the side bar of youtube. They were fun and we all enjoyed these.

Our favorite:



Another good one: 




The kids liked this one:




Now I'm off to find clipart and printables to use in my lapbook for Pagoo....

Friday, March 20, 2009

Dogs meet chickens

Everyone has so enjoyed watching the chicks!! We have 18 chicks now. Tinkerbell especially loves to hold them. When we had chickens 2 years ago, she was 6. We called her the chicken whisperer. She would walk up to a chicken and just pick it up. It wouldn't fight her or squawk. It would simply sit there patiently until she put it back down. it was so funny! I think she's on her way to that name again.




          Just hatched                                 Less than an hour old.

          


      About 7 hours old                                    1 day old           

          


It was finally time to let the dogs in and introduce them to the chicks. We're hoping that by allowing them to be around the chickens constantly and from birth, they will leave the chickens alone. Our male, who's name is Rooster by the way - so funny, has really taken an interest in them. We're not sure what he's thinking. He watches them constantly. He's even tried to climb into the box with them. Every once in awhile he will try to pick one up. He's very gentle but we don't let him. He's either thinking that is one really cool toy or he is trying to care for them. When they go to sleep and quiet down, he has to go and nose them all to wake them up. I don't think he likes when they are quiet.

 


Our female, Sarah, acted like they weren't in the room. She completely ignored them. It wasn't until Daniel Boone moved the box into the middle of the room where she has to acknowledge them did she. She slowly walked up to and around the box. 

          


After about 5 minutes of staring at, around, and finally into the box, she became angry at Rooster. She slowly began to show her teeth, then growling softly, then finally telling him in no uncertain terms to get away from the babies! We're not sure if she didn't like them so she didn't want him around them or if she wanted to protect them from that big lug. 

          


It has been non-stop laughter around here.


Wednesday, March 18, 2009

"WE HAVE CHICKENS!!"

That is the exciting screams that are going down the halls this morning. We forgot to put the last 2 pictures on our timeline since we were out of the house yesterday and we were very surprised to hear chirping this morning. We did check them every morning and evening to make sure the humidity was increased and the temperature was correct for the hatching this week. But then today we were so excited to see that baby chicken in the incubator. Tinker Bell came screaming down the hall, "we have chickens!!" How fun it has been today. When the one little chick finally hushes you can hear lots of little peeping sounds coming from eggs. Then the chick hears them too and starts chirping and looking for them. It's so cute!! Tinkerbell was listening to music and she noticed that when the music was on the chick chirped loudly. When she would turn the music off, the chick would quiet down. What a science experiment!! They are having a hard time waiting for the chicks. It's taking hours for those little chicks to peck their way out of the egg. They thought it would be so fast. They are learning the great lesson of patience that the Lord wants us all to learn. Here are some pictures from our hatching experience today. 

Chicken #1 (Cracker Jack) - it's the black spot in the corner. I'm sorry it's hard to see through the plastic window and the fog:




Listening for any more chirping in the eggs:





Chicken #2 (Annie Oakley) & #3 (Yoda) are working hard to hatch:




Watching Annie Oakley hatch:

                    


We know for sure that there are 4 more chicks trying to peck their way out. We'll know tomorrow just how many of the 36 eggs made it. I hope everyone reading this will try this at some point. It is so fun and a great science class and testimony to God's amazing design and plans.