Life with our little family of 3...

Last week Emma & I did an experiment to simulate the surface of Mars. It was pretty fun and interesting! Here is what our sandy surface looked like after a couple of days... close to Mars or so we thought! Here is our little scientist in the making! I wish I could have gotten a wider shot.. she was wearing a polka dot dress and her lab gloves while doing a science experiment! Why of course she was! She was bringing beauty to the world of science!

Homeschoolers get snow days too! :-) Today was one of those days! We now have about 3 or 4 inches of snow. It's still only 19 degrees at 11am though so the snow isn't great packing snow. But it still makes great snow angels!

Today we continued our study of the beginnings of England. We read about serfs, noblemen and castles. Our project today was to make an edible Norman Castle! Yum! Emma is adding the final touches to the castle. It almost looks too good to eat... but no worries I am sure it'll be gone once Emma's friend arrives!

This year for history we are studying 'The Middle Ages'. Our history curriculum always has great ideas to help bridge the story and real life. Emma particularly likes the cooking activities! This week we began learning about England. On Tuesday we learned about Alfred the Great. In the story we read of him hiding from the Vikings in the wild countryside of Wessex. He took shelter with a peasant and his wife who didn't know who he was. While the woman of the house went out to gather firewood, she asked him to watch the cakes that she left on the hearth. Well good ole' Alfred the Great was so worried about how he was going to defeat the Vikings, he let the cakes burn! To top it off, he was too embarrassed to tell the woman that he was the king! So on Tuesday we made "Alfred's Cakes". Emma has become quite the cook! She does really well following all the directions for a recipe. Though she isn't always keen on having to get hands on with some of the rec...

Today we started a new curriculum about the solar system. The first activity was to put together a model of the solar system. It took us awhile to make decent circles but we finally did it!

I love homeschooling on days like this! It is sunny and beautiful outside. So we sat in the living room to do our history. Emma snuggled up in the chair with a blanket and her coloring pages while I sat in the opposite chair. We had the warmth of the sun on our faces. At one point my heart was full with knowing that we are making the right choices in our lives...

Thanks to a much needed break in the rain we took a walk at a local nature park. It was a great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon. We saw these beautiful mallard ducks hanging out in the pond. Emma loves to compare her height to everyone and everything... finally this grass was something that was almost taller than her! :-) Emma found a little friend... "Catapilly". She really wanted to take her home but we just couldn't.

These aren't special pictures... just more practice and fun! I have been inspired to take more pictures thanks to a friend of mine. This friend also got me hooked on a blog of a woman who also posts about homeschooling, photography, life and more. So here are some shots of what we have for lunch during a typical homeschooling day... Emma doesn't deviate much from her lunch menu... bagel pizza w/ ham, ham & cheese sandwich or bacon sandwich is what she wants pretty much every day! Emma even posed for me like she was picking up her food in the lunch line!

Our Ancient History study of the fall of Rome....

We started our full school routine today! We have been working up to this point during the last week or so. It was a good first day full of math, science, language arts and science. Of course there were projects and experiments to do! Here Emma is making the dough for her Roman pillar cookie! I'll post the final picture later this afternoon. Of course she had to lick the bowl! Here we are testing to see how many pennies we can put into the cup before the water overflows. I think she got up to 50 something but I know the water was leaking out before then since the towel was soaked! :-) I am so blessed that I am able to homeschool Emma. It's not something I ever thought I would do but I am very glad that we are. I love being involved and knowing what she is doing all day. I love the interactions we have, the conversations we have... because soon these days will be gone...