Last Day of School 2017 (Siobhan)

~Last Day of School~

We finished our last day of school! This year Brandan finished Preschool, Shaila finished 1st grade, Connor finished 3rd grade, Aidan finished 6th grade, Ethan finished 10th grade, and I finished 12th grade. Here are some pictures from our last day...

 We have been going through a crazy heat wave over the past few days. Last week we were bundling up in winter coats, and this week we had to pull out our shorts. Baxter and Cade have not liked this heat, but they still nap together 😉

 Cade and Baxter

Poor Brandan had a bad asthma flareup today 😔He felt much better after having the nebulizer.

Brandan finished his letter of the week (LOTW) curriculum. We are so proud of him! He has absolutely loved school this year and gets so upset every weekend when he hears that it's not a school day.

Brandan is graduating from preschool this year, and I am graduating from highschool!

This year I am finishing Omnibus. I have been doing Omnibus since 8th grade and have read 172 books! 

 Sylvan Classical High School

 We finished the day with burgers and  s'mores! Baxter and Cade loved trying marshmallows for the first time.

 These pictures pretty much sum up how we all felt after our last day of school. We had a great year, but we are all very excited for summer!!

Three Science Experiments By Rus Tert and Filia (Aidan, Connor, and Shaila)

~Science Experiments~

Hi. This is Rus Tert and Filia. We want to tell you about some fun experiments that we have done. First was an egg experiment showing how much weight empty chicken eggs can hold. We put lots of books on six eggs that weighed 12 and a half pounds. This shows how eggs can hold up even the largest of birds. This makes it so chicks don't go extinct from being crushed by the mothers. Birds have hollow bones making them very light weight. Leo then took some heavy weights and laid them carefully on one egg. This egg alone held up to fifteen pound total! This shows that full eggs are very strong.

We tested the strength of eggs in other ways too! We all were given eggs to squeeze. If we spread the weight out around the egg, then they were impossible to break. If we focused our strength on one part of the egg, it would shatter. Have you ever wondered why mother birds fluff out their feathers before laying down on their eggs? They are balancing their weight on their eggs so as not to break them. Another way eggs cannot be broken is if you squeeze the very tip and bottom of the egg. This is literally impossible. This shows how God designed eggs to be very sturdy.  

We also learned about bats in science. A mother bat can smell her babies even in nurseries with millions of baby bats called pups. She can also hear her pups' special sound. For a few minutes we turned into mother bats. Mom dipped cotton balls in different scents and we chose our own "baby bat". Mom spread them all over the rug. Some smells were pleasant, and some...not so much. Some made our heads ache, and some not. We found our pups after a little sniffing, and searching. This experiment God designed mother bats very well. I'd rather leave smelling to mother bats!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day 2017! (Siobhan)

~Happy Saint Patrick's Day~

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, everyone! I know this post is a little late, but hopefully it will give you some good recipe/craft ideas for next year 😉 We had a lot of fun making yummy treats and learning about Saint Patrick through some fun activities.

First we learned about Saint Patrick. I just found a brief summary of his life online. Brandan and Shaila did a coloring page while they listened, and Connor filled out a crossword puzzle which had questions about Saint Patrick's life.

Click here to print out the Saint Patrick's Day crossword puzzle

Click here to print out the Complete the Leprechaun coloring page

Next I had the kids glue tissue paper squares onto a shamrock template to make a mosaic.

The kids' favorite Saint Patrick's Day craft is this leaping leprechaun. I printed and cut out the printable, and they colored it and put it together with brads.

Click here to print out the Leaping Leprechaun printable

Our last craft was this Heart Shamrock. We made the hearts out of green construction paper and stapled them together. You can click here to see our Valentine's Day Heart Chain tutorial. It shows you how to make the hearts. They are so easy and are a lot of fun to make!

(Baxter took advantage of the fact that I was distracted with the crafts to unload Mom's spice cabinet!)

I didn't get great pictures of the food, but it tasted delicious! For lunch we had a homemade 'green' pizza, with pesto, artichokes, sundried tomatoes, and asiago cheese.

 For dinner we had corned beef, cabbage soup, and homemade honey wheat bread.

Click here for our Rustic Irish Cabbage and Potato Soup recipe printable

Click here for our Slow Cooker Dijon Corned Beef recipe printable

Click here for our Simple Honey Whole Wheat Bread recipe printable

Click here for our Shamrock Shake recipe printable

Click here for our Classic Mint Chocolate Brownies recipe printable

We had shamrock shakes on Friday, and on Sunday I made some mint chocolate brownies (photo courtesy of Sally's Baking) which we served with mint chip icecream. Both are wonderful Saint Patrick's Day desserts!
Click here to see our 2014 Saint Patrick's Day post
Click here to see our 2015 Saint Patrick's Day post
Click here to follow my 'Kids DIY and Crafts' board on Pinterest

Owl Pellet Dissection (Aidan)

Hi. I’m Rus. Two days before Mom and Dad’s anniversary, we did a very fun science experiment. We are studying flying creatures in our science this year, and one of the experiments was taking apart owl pellets. Connor, Shaila, and I waited a while for them to arrive in the mail, and we were very excited when they did. We could not wait for the evening when we could dissect them. I had never seen an owl pellet before, and I was surprised to find how much fluffy stuff was packed into it. Before we started dissecting, we laid newspaper out on the table, and took out Ethan’s dissecting set that he used for his science labs. Mom bought five owl pellets, so Ethan showed how to open them up with the extra one. We all took a pellet and began to dissect. As I slowly opened it layer by layer, I found many more bones than I had ever expected. My greatest find was a few jawbones and an almost complete bird skull. After I had ripped the whole pellet apart, I searched through the pieces for bones. Most of my time was spent searching, and finally, I could not find any more bones. I noticed while I was dissecting that the kids had taken off their gloves. They had not been so sure before, but they were very enthusiastic now. Ethan identified many of our discoveries, and he dissected two pellets because of his meager finds in his first. I laid out my pellets in one long line. After I finished my line, I sorted the bones onto paper. We had a great regional meal after that (Mom wants me to mention that we SCRUBBED the table first! J), but that has been posted about already. We had a lot of fun with our owl pellets.

By: Aidan
Age: 11 (6th Grade)

Happy Valentine's Day 2017! (Siobhan)

~Happy Valentine's Day~

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you all have had a wonderful Valentine's Day. As always, we did some fun activities I wanted to share with you. I also am attaching links to our other Valentine's Day posts down below in red. Enjoy!

Mom always lays out chocolates and a small gift for each of us in the morning. Shaila and Brandan loved their new puppies!

 Baxter and Cade got these teething food feeders. This was Brandan's favorite teething toy! We fill them with mangoes, blueberries, and even ice cubes. They love sucking on them. 

 Shaila loves holiday hairstyles!

Click here to see our post on Valentine's Day hairstyles

 Our first Valentine's Day craft was these cute heart stamps. We simply folded toilet paper rolls to form a heart, and the kids stamped with them.

 

 Next we did these adorable little Bee Mine valentines. We used toilet paper rolls, construction paper, googly eyes, and pipe cleaners to make them.

I love Connor's addition of teeth 😁

I didn't get a lot of photos of the last craft, but it was so cute. It's a Valentine tree. We traced the kids' hands out of construction paper and left a thick border so that the 'tree' could stand up. I cut some hearts out of craft paper. Shaila glued them onto her hand cutout. These make super cute centerpieces!

Click the links below to see our other Valentine posts:

Valentine's Day Heart Chains

Frozen Olaf Valentine Tutorial

Heart Suncatcher Craft

Red Velvet Muddy Buddies

Valentine's Day Slideshow

Valentine's Day: Preschool Edition

 Valentines Tutorials