Magic and Mayhem

We’re not officially doing school at the moment (do we ever? LOL) but it sneaks in anyway.  Here’s a few ways the kids have managed to learn despite the (mostly) wonderful weather.

• Jack announced yesterday that he could count to 400 by fifties.  He did it for me and later counted all the way to 950 by fifties.
• Anna and Daddy found a killdeer sitting on her nest in the middle of a dirt parking lot in a nearby wetland.  They talked to the DNR worker about her and he said nobody parks there when it’s not hunting season so she should be safe.  They researched how long it takes killdeer eggs to incubate (about 28 days) and they visit her every day.  That funny little bird sits on her eggs in the middle of the parking lot and if anybody comes near her she either feigns an injury and tries to lure them away from her nest or she ruffles herself up and shrieks at them.  What a brave little bird!  When we drive to a nearby city for groceries we pass the parking lot and can just barely make her out, sitting and sitting. 
• Anna and Daddy also found a Soft Shelled Turtle yesterday.  They’d never seen one before and went to the DNR office to find out more about them.  The worker gave them a brochure all about the types of turtles found in our area and they learned all about  them.
• The library is doing their summer reading program and the kids each have sheets to fill up with books they’ve read.  I’m not a fan of reading reward programs (my kids already love to read and they tend to look for shorter, easier books just to fill their sheets up) but it has jump started the reading around here even more.
• Jack and I read books together yesterday, with me pausing and having him read one or two words per sentence.
• Victoria and I did a quiz on her Webkinz account about the arts and then did one on math.  Both were for ages 13 and up so it was challenging for her but still doable.  A lot of the arts questions were about music and I learned a bit about sheet music, instruments and such.  I learned a bit about math too!  Victoria learned from both too, of course.
• And so on! 

We’ve also had flash floods and tornado scares (my heart goes out to the families of the Boy Scouts killed and injured in Iowa), done art and gardening, gone swimming and bird watching and generally yapped and played.