Hatch a Turkey!

How's THAT for a summer project! LOL! Yip, a friend has some excess fertilized turkey eggs that she can't fit into her incubator, so we're fostering them for the 28 days it takes to hatch them.

Since it's a Still-Air incubator without an egg turner, we have to be sure to turn the eggs 3 times a day for the first 25 days to prevent the chick from sticking to the shell while it develops. Then, for the last 3 days the chick positions itself for hatching and it's HANDS OFF! It's very cool that you can sometimes even hear the chick cheeping before it hatches :)

So that's one of the things we'll be doing this summer (to make the daily Math and English more bearable ;) as well as our vegetable garden, and just generally having a good time out in the sunshine :)

ECC Field Trip Ideas

This is more a post for my own records, and is a compilation from the posts on the MFW forum.

• World Showcase at Epcot Center (Disney World, Florida)
• Zoo
• Arboretum & Japanese gardens
• A favorite spot for nature walks, to re-visit in various seasons
• Restaurants from various cultures - Russian, French, Mexican, Greek, Chinese, etc.
  (many times the restaurants include artwork etc, not just food)
• Hispanic market
• Local German architecture
• Russian art museum
• Swedish "castle" museum
• Missionary speaker and missions experiences
• Library's map drawers, atlases in reference section, & huge wall map of our city
• Small county museum for looking up ancestors, neighbors, etc
• Chinese restaurant and little Chinese grocery store
  Mexican restaurant
• Indian Restaurant and little shop attached to it
  
• BIbles for the World (the founder is from India and he entertained our children for an hour with his stories)
  
• Our German babysitter spent an hour discussing how things were in her town during WWII (she was a young girl of about 7 or so).
  
• The people across the street met a family from Kenya and we went to visit them for an afternoon.
  
• We went to the local mosque and visited. While there, the leader wrote our kids' names in Arabic on a piece of paper for us to keep.
• Aquarium (after studying Japan and oceans)
• United States: We went to an Atlanta Braves baseball game. We also went hiking in order to identify trees in an American Forest. To conclude our studies we had an All-American BBQ, complete with grilled cheeseburgers, homemade lemonade and New England pumpkin cake.
• Mexico: We visited the International Farmers market to pick up some different types of cactus, brought them home and cut them open to study what was inside.
• Brazil: Our botanical gardens have a rain forest terrarium. Very cool!
• Norway: We took a little field trip to Ikea. Some of the largest forests in the world occupy Norway, Sweden and Finland. Furniture is a major export. Plus, they have a Swedish market so I could pick up some authentic eats.
• France: Visited a lake, did tree identification and painted en plien air. We also visited the Coke museum and drank soda from around the world.
• Germany: I had every intention of visiting Helen, Ga. This city is a recreation of an alpine village. We never made it, busy December. Instead we went to the Christmas Around the World exhibit at our local children's museum.
  
• Kenya: the zoo. Also did geocaching.
• China: Found out that there are Chinese Culture classes in our area. Went as a guest. This was quite an experience. They taught brush painting, Chinese songs and even had stories in Chinese.
• Russia: Went to a ballet performance of Tchaikovsky's work.
• Antarctica: Saw the penguins at the aquarium.
• We also met with missionaries from other countries whenever we could. We were able to talk with missionaries from China, Mexico, Zambia and India. we also have friends from Mexico, Australia, Holland, Ireland, India and Brazil so we made a point to tell them when we were studying their country. They always loved talking to us about their homeland.
• On a few occasions we went to restaurants of the country we were studying; Mexico, Canada (Bugaboo Creek), Norway ( Ikea),India and Australia (I never knew meat pie could be so good!) But our favorite memories were when we cooked at home ethnic food.

Longterm planning

Just looking ahead at the cycles we're going to be doing and this is what I get:

[DONE] K
[DONE] 1st
[DONE] 2nd gr + K'er ---------------------- Adventures
[THIS YEAR] 3rd gr + 1st grader -----------ECC + 1st
4th + 2nd + 3 year old-----------------------C to G + pre-k
5th + 3rd + 4 yr old -------------------------R to R + pre-k
6th + 4th + K -------------------------------Exp to 1850 + K
7th + 5th + 1st ------------------------------1850 to Modern + 1st
8th + 6th + 2nd -----------------------------Would we repeat ECC here?
9th + 7th + 3rd ------------------------------High School + C to G again
10th + 8th + 4th-----------------------------High School + R to R again
11th + 9th + 5th -----------------------------High School + High School + Exp to 1850
12th + 10th + 6th ---------------------------High School + High School + 1850 to Modern
11th + 7th-----------------------------------High School + [Would we repeat ECC here again?]
12th + 8th ----------------------------------High School + [Would we repeat C to G again?]
9th------------------------------------------High School
10th ----------------------------------------High School
11th-----------------------------------------High School
12th ----------------------------------------High School

Hoping that sitting on this one and mulling it over will bring some clarity ;)

Oh my!

8 months!?!? REALLY!?!? Wow. That's all I can say. Wow.

See, I have another blog that I'm really good about updating. Sort of. Mostly. But since the last post here, I have taken my children to Africa, shared Christmas, Easter, and Mother's Day with family, there have been 4 birthdays.... a LOT of life has happened!

I think it's because I want to blog in a little more detail than I actually feel free to do "online" with this being out there for just anyone to read. Perhaps I should think about making it a private blog.

Anyhow, for this next year, I want to instill the Mission Heart of God in my children! We have been doing Perspectives since January, and by week 4 we had committed to going into full time missions. I was astounded with realizations that our God is a missionary God, and that "the end of the age" won't come until we have "made disciples of all nations, teaching them and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit" (paraphrased) The last lesson was last night, and Paul Borthwick spoke of how important it is that we teach our children the missionary heart of God from a young age.

When Paul said that, and started explaining the importance, I was completely blown away, because God had already laid that on my heart, and I had already been looking into which curriculum would best do that. I don't know why I "look around" every year. I do.... every single year. And every year I come back to MFW.

AND! God has even blessed my 'perfectionist' tendencies by having my homeschool plan fit in PERFECTLY with His! LOL. I had planned when I started with Pre-K, and worked everything out so that the 4 yr cycles fit in perfectly before DD's final HS graduation, and this year was slated to be an "Exploring Countries and Cultures" year anyway!

So, I was very excited to order the curriculum this morning, and was completely blown away when the box shipped before the end of the day. MFW is truly a shining example of dedication and great customer service. What wonderful testimonies of what it means to do everything as for Christ they all are!

We're expecting the box next Wednesday. We will be going on a bus ride on a real live school bus (which is the only reason my kids ever cite for even considering going to PS) for the earlier part of the day, and will be home just in time to get our box. So exciting!

Of course, we will hit the ground running....