Just a Collection? Or is it MORE?!

Austyn is the type of kid who just loves COLLECTIONS. He loves, fossils, rocks, crystals, hockey cards and now he is starting to like Pokemon cards, due to his exposure to them at day camp. Although having a ton of collectables around the house and scattered in his room can get a bit frustrating, I see the value in them. I know that the rocks and that sort of thing bring about a stronger interest and help him to gain knowledge. The cards influence reading. When he plays with the Pokemon cards he needs to read what the card says. As I have mentioned in a past post, he looks up hockey cards on the internet and reads about them and tries to find out what the cards in his collection are selling for. I have downloaded a hockey lapbook and we've started it. He is reviewing and learning more about hockey, history and the players. I can't deny that collecting hockey cards is a great way to get a sluggish reader reading!!

Taking Initiative

I just love it when my kids get what they need and go and do something all on their own. Here Zoe picked up a library book. She looked through it and decided on a craft that interested her. She got the supplies that she needed, set herself up at the table, and proceeded to make the craft from the book.

This doesn't always happen, but when it does, I just think it's great!!

Raptors at the Library

A library in our area had the local Raptor Rehabilitation center come and hold a special educational session. They talked about raptors and passed around things to read or look at. They answered questions. They talked about how they rehabilitate the birds and about how many they help each year. 

The kids got to dissect an owl pellet. They provided an information paper to help them identify the bones found in their pellet. 

The people from the center were available to chat or help with the dissection.

Each pellet had a different colour. It depended on what colour the fur of the animal they ate was. Austyn's was grey. The bones were different sizes. Most of them were mice, we think. One boy at Austyn's table had really small mouse bones, suggesting that the mouse was a baby.  Austyn had a clear jaw bone and all of the teeth mixed in with his bones. That was probably the most interesting part that he found.

Austyn and I were not surprised by the small size of the raptors they brought because we read what birds they planned on bringing and knew right away that they were small. We have been reading about raptors for years now and have been on field trips relating to that subject. We also use to follow hawks and other animals in our area. We still try to, but it's not as easy being in the area where we live. This cute little owl is an Eastern Screech Owl.

This is my favourite bird. It's an American Kestrel. This one is a female. I like the colours on the male better. They are beautiful birds!

We brought home his bones glued to a piece of black paper, the information sheet, pamphlet, a couple more pellets (I'm not sure how Austyn convinced them to give him those, but he did), and a couple of books that we've not read yet. One of our cats found the bones from the pellet interesting! LOL!!

Used Homeschool Material

I've been taking advantage, whenever I can, and purchasing as many books as I can from other homeschoolers. Every year, around this time, there are usually homeschool families who have finished homeschooling or have decided to put their kids in school. This is the perfect opportunity to get used books, in excellent condition, for really great prices! Usually when you get a bunch of books or curriculum from one mom, there are things thrown in for free. Many of these books were $5 or less. It's a great way to add to our library and keep the price down for new material.

As you can see our cat enjoys the books as much as we do. LOL!!

Day Camp

 It kind of felt like the first day of school. The first day of day camp EVER was a bit scary and also exciting for them.

We never really believed in sending our kids away to school or camps or even to a babysitter, unless there was a good reason. Well, I guess there is a good reason, but still... We tried to get a babysitter for a few days each week in the summer, but that fell through. So, we signed them up for a day camp. Austyn didn't even want to sign up, but now they both absolutely love it! It makes it so much easier to drop them off when we know they enjoy it so much.

While they are at camp I'm helping my hubby work on a part of our business. He works on a contract all day, while I work on our other work. This will help us so that we don't have to move someday, if the contract ever ends. That could be a long time from now, but we have learned the hard way that it's always better to be prepared. I'm a bit out of practice so things are going slowly, but I'll get there.

Here are the t-shirts they tie-died at the camp. They turned out great!

Book Sharing Monday - Rocks in His Head

Rocks in His Head by Carol Otis Hurst is a true story about a Carol's father. He collected Rocks. Everyone thought that his obsession with rocks would never be worth anything. It would never help him amount to anything. They told him that he had rocks in his head.

No matter what anyone said and no matter what happened to his family due to the depression, he still collected, shared, and displayed rocks. He visited a museum often to see their rock collection and one day he ended up being hired because a man with rocks in his head was just what they needed!

What a great story!

Rain for the Garden

These boxes have proven to be great for me and gardening. There seems to be very little maintenance to be done once the plants start to grow. It's worked out well, even with how much I've ignored it. It's been unusually hot and we haven't had much rain, so it was nice to finally have a few days in a row with rain.

Some of the cloud formations were beautiful!