Ladybug & Caterpillar Update

So, we've been watching our caterpillars and ladybug larvae that we got from here grow everyday. By Monday, all of our caterpillars had turned to chrysalides, and it was time to move them from this:

to this:

As I was NOT going to touch these things, Hubby had to do it after dinner Monday night. YUCK! Did you know that even when a caterpillar is in chrysallis form, it moves? UGH! We were able to keep two hanging on the lid of the cup, but the other three dropped and had to have silk removed from them. (Yes, apparently caterpillars can spin silk so that they can move around in their container, then get tangled in it when they don't have a good grip on the lid.) Anyways, Hubby picked one up with a q-tip and it started squirming all over the place! GROSS!! So now all 5 of our chrysalides are in their home. Now it's a waiting game.

As far as our ladybugs, they are all hanging upside-down in their habitat as well! Who knew Ladybugs had a similar life-cycle to butterflies?

If you look close, the yellow thing in the middle of picture below is actually a ladybug larvae turning into a pupa! Princess and I got to watch it moving around to turn into one! God's work is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! I cannot believe the wonders He has created!

We'll keep waiting for them to "hatch"!

Blessings...

Sarah

A Unit/My Family Week 2

Since we got soooo busy last week, we ended up having to turn our "A" Unit into a 2 week unit (which I really ended up liking, so we will probably do the same with all the following units). We started the week making drawings of "My Family". Junior's is more of an "abstract" piece. ;-)

For this being Princess' first time actually drawing "people", I'd say she did a REALLY great job!

 Then we continued our Catechism lesson for the week: Love Others as God Sees You. The kids really enjoy making projects where they get to use glue. This is our Window to our heart. There is a "picture" of God the Father in the little flaps. You can REALLY see how hard Junior is concentrating on opening that glue stick:

Princess is working on letter formation every chance we get by tracing everything possible. I've been writing a LOT of stuff in pencil for her to trace lately. 

I think this picture was taken right after I found Junior sneaking bites of a chocolate chip cookie in the kitchen. Can you tell??

I'm working really hard on letting the kids work be "not perfect". It was quite hard for me to NOT fix this glue job. LOL. 

They're here!!

For Christmas this year, Junior got this Ladybug Land & Butterfly Garden. So, thinking it would be awhile before they were delivered to us, I went ahead and ordered them just about a week after Christmas.

Well, they got here just last week!

Total Excitement!!

                                   Ladybug Larvae                                                 Caterpillars

We finally put the ladybugs into their home, and several of them are already changing to pupae! All 5 caterpillars have starting building their chrysalides!! We can't wait to move them into their garden home so we can watch them turn into beautiful painted butterflies. Now, if only our front garden was a nice home for them. Guess that's something we'll have to add to our spring cleaning list, planting a butterfly garden so we can grow more butterflies!!

Blessings...

Sarah

Along the Alphabet Path "A" Unit

I found THIS program when I was browsing one of my favorite Catholic Home Schooling Blogs, Shower of Roses. Along the Alphabet Path incorporates one of Princess' favorite things, fairies, with learning about Catholic Saints, Cooking/Baking, Art, Music, Book Studies and so many other things!

Anyways, after not getting much done last week, I decided to turn each letter into a 2-week "unit" instead of a weekly unit. That gives us plenty of time to do any of the activities and more!

We started with meeting Mrs. Applebee and the Apple Blossom Fairies. Princess listened with eyes wide open to the first story where Mrs. Applebee tells Michael about her "children" (the fairies). When the story was over, we read about St. Anne, and started to color our Apple Blossom & St. Anne Coloring pages:

 We had apples for a snack.

Once I noticed the kids getting bored with coloring (they are only 2 & 3), we decided to make our "Letter A" Apple Pie! The kids had a blast measuring, pouring, and mixing the ingredients, as well as cutting the letter A's to put on the pie.

 Even Marshmallow got to get in on the apple action, having his first taste of "real" apples...

 Don't they look soo excited? LOL

Watching their pie bake.



Mmmmm...it tasted so good! The kids would only eat the A's. They wouldn't even try the pie. But, us adults sure did enjoy it!!

Better late than never...

With the beginning of our schooling for this year, our first Unit is on Family.

We weren't able to make it to the library due to the big kids being sick, so we weren't able to do our read aloud, but we did get to work on our unit. The kids colored "families" to use to tell a story (we didn't get to that part yet, but plan to this week).

Coloring their "families" (Little Saints Preschool Program)



 

 Princess has REALLY been working hard on staying in the lines when she's coloring. She's getting much better!

"Never too Small" from Who Am I? Children's Catechism Series

 The yellow fingerpaint didn't work out too well on the dark paper. Next time I think I'll use a lighter color for the background. :)

 Princess' finished project (she traced the wording).

A "Weak" Start to 2011

Well, I had all intent on getting this year off to a good start. So much for that. For the past 3 weeks, we've been on and off homebound between the two big kids having bronchitis, croup and ear infections. YUCK! I've definitely seen enough medicine to get me through the rest of the year!

We did get a couple of days of schooling in last week. But starting this week I vow to be much better at schooling and blogging. (At least starting tomorrow. Today we'll be visiting the library to pick up our books for the next two "units".

Blessings...

Sarah

Little Lambs

So...things got off to a rocky start yesterday. First, we were lost as to whether or not Princess had ballet! See, her teacher never showed up for her last class in December, and never called! I found out yesterday am (when she finally called back), that she was in the hospital for a short time (very vague) and that we WOULD be having class in the am. Soooo, with only half an hour until class, I could already tell our day was going to be rough!

Anyways, after dropping off Princess to ballet, Junior, Marshmallow & I went to the library to return (and pay our fines, I seem to have a memory lapse when it comes to due dates) a few books. Then to the playground to play while waiting for Princess, where we were sprayed by the stinky well-water sprinklers, trying to get out of the car!

In my mind, we would go home, eat lunch, take a nap, then start school for the day. Boy, was I wrong! We did get home and eat lunch, but that's where things went bad. Princess & Junior did NOT want to sleep. They ended up playing in their room for over an hour before finally nodding off. To make matters worse, they took a VERY short nap which made for a VERY grumpy Junior! We did get to get some schoolwork done from our Little Saints program. The kids had a blast sewing and stuffing their own little lambs (The theme this week is "In the Country"). We learned "Old McDonald", read a picture book and of course a poem. (Junior ended up having to take a 2nd quick nap because he was just waaaaay too grumpy!)

Here are some pics of the kids working on their lambs (you can see Marshmallow in the background just hanging out in his booster seat):