Happy Hearts

We had a great time this week. 

Monday-We went to the fair, so we didn’t do a whole lot this day.  Alan read to them about Egyptian Vultures, and how they throw rocks at ostrich eggs to crack them.  Read some other bird books.  Observed birds at the feeder. 

Tuesday-We watched a video about arctic terns and penguins.  T1 got all bent out of shape because H called an emperor penguin a macaroni penguin, and he just had to get the penguin book out and show her the difference.  He’s like his momma, he can’t let things go when he just knows he’s right.  Ha!  We made an owl craft using their handprints for the wings.  That was the highlight of their day, they love crafts.  We had chicken for dinner, and I saved some bones for them to look at and feel how light they were.  Read various bird books.

Wednesday-  Trip to the library.  Watched a video about hummingbirds.  Made bird puppets out of brown lunch bags.  T1 made a blue jay, H made a cardinal, and T2 made a very colorful scribbly one.:)  Read bird books.

Thursday-We read about the gizzard and how it functions.  We did an experiment with sand and gravel to simulate how it works.  Tried making egg salad (while talking about chicken eggs) but I opened the fridge right after I put the eggs in there to cool, and the colander came tumbling out, and the eggs went splat.  There were tears involved, they were very disappointed and we didn’t have anymore eggs.  We did some worksheets. 

Friday-Watched “March of the Penguins”.  Reviewed everything we learned the last 3 weeks. 

We’ll be back in 2 weeks~ 

Monday-We modeled birds, eggs, and nests out of playdough.  We read some books about penguins and pretended to be penguins.  They did that again later that day with daddy too.  Did penguin dot-to-dots.

Tuesday-We made pinecone bird feeders and watched a video about condors.  Read some bird books.

Wednesday-We made hummingbird nectar and hung a feeder for them.  We had one visit within an hour.  It was very exciting.  They have been visiting ever since, and the kids have been enjoying watching them through binoculars.  We played Duck, Duck, Goose.  Or Anhinga, Anhinga, Loon (the kids thought on their own to change the names of the words to different birds!),  Read some more bird books.

Thursday-We read about Weaver birds and their nests.  Talked about migration and watched a video about it. 

Friday-Went on a nature hike to look for birds.  Only found tons of mosquitoes and 1 hawk type bird (and I’m the only one who saw that).  

This huge wasp type bug was flying by the van when we got out.  It was carrying a bug even bigger than itself.  Found out by looking at the “What’s That Bug” website that it was a cicada killer wasp.  It was very scary looking!  We also found a huge fat green caterpillar, 3 times bigger than any caterpillar I’ve ever seen in real life.  T1 also found a small frog.  At least we found some cool things, even if they were disappointed we didn’t see any “vultures eating carrion”-which is what T1 said he hoped he’d see that.lol  We did end up seeing some seagulls in the parking lot at Costco though. lol

 The best book ever is Eyewitness Handbooks “Birds of the World”.  T1 has carried that thing around with him now for 2 weeks.  It is a very informative book, he’s constantly talking about all kinds of birds I’ve never even heard of. 

I found a bunch of Great Illustrated Classics books at the thrift store.  We read the first one yesterday, The Wizard of Oz.  It was a pretty scary book for them, we don’t have TV channels, only a video player, so they never see/hear anything scary at all.  They did like it though, and today we started on 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea.  I like these books because there is a picture on every page, which helps keep H’s interest, and it has a larger print then a normal book, which is making it easier for T1 to take turns reading pages with me.  T2 hasn’t cared for these books at all.  He’s still fixated on his colorful little flap books for now.:)

Next week will be our last week with the bird study, and then we’ll be taking a 2 week break, Alan and I are going to New Orleans to work with a relief group for a week, and then to MI to pick up the kids at my sister and BIL’s house and visit family up there.  We are going to be planning out the next several studies together on the drive, so I’m not sure what we’ll be doing next.