Ok, there's a couple of pics to prove that we have been doing lessons, despite lack of documentation. :P Thats Aralia working on a Happy Phonics game, and Kyden doing math at the kitchen table.

In other news, we got a new car. This is the old one, it was an Aztec and we loved it. We just got too big for it. The kids were jam packed into the back seat. So we got a minivan. I don't have a picture of it to post yet because I still have not come to terms with the fact that I'm driving a minivan. I will need some time to adjust.

After we left the Boring Center (as the kids called the dealership), Aralia was so upset that we left the Aztec behind that she cried all the way home. :(

In yard news, it was a very good year for the roses. We have three wild roses in the yard. This one was barely growing in the shade between two dead trees and a fence until last fall when we cut down the trees and the fence and provided a trellis for support. Now it looks great.

This is one of the other rose bushes, the biggest one. Its a little more "wild" then the other one.
It also goes up really really high into the tree.
We also have a catalpa tree. Here's a pic of Aralia with a leaf so you can see how big they get. I've seen catalpas with bigger leaves then this though.

Zaith, Kyden and I went to the "carnival" at the library to start off the summer reading program. Kyden played skee ball.

And got his arm painted.


One thing I've been wondering how to address is the way Aralia holds her pencil.


I can't decide if it matters if she doesn't hold it "properly". I hold my pencil a couple of different ways, and I know others who hold it oddly too. So maybe its just not that big of a deal. I guess if it works for her......

We've been studying plants for science. One of the labs we did was to identify parts of a flower. They all did a worksheet.
Kyden

Zaith (doesn't he color neatly for a 3 year old?)
and Aralia

For history, studying Ancient Rome, we made some puppets out of the History Pockets.









We also found a couple of cool looking caterpillars out in the yard. We've brought them in and put them in the "Butterfly Garden."

This one is the caterpillar for the American Dagger Moth. It made its cocoon the very same day we put it in the Garden.

This one will be a WhiteMarked Tussock Moth. Its a really neat looking caterpillar, this picture isn't all that great.

Kyden made lego models of our caterpillars.

As interesting as these caterpillars are, with their spikes and tussocks (?), they both turn into very ugly moths.

American Dagger Moth

Whitemarked Tussock Moth

Pretty common, eh?

Ok, now to address the garden.

A couple of entries ago, we couldn't find the garden.

But I'm proud to announce, that we have made giant steps towards reclamation of this area. And this is how we did it.



Yeah, thats right, we (mainly me) literally pulled out every.single.weed. in that garden. See the progress? So far, I've worked a total of 10 hours over two weekends, and I've almost got it licked. I figure 4 more hours this weekend and it will look like its supposed to.

This first weekend, I was the only one who weeded. This past weekend, though, everyone pitched in for a couple of hours. It went so much faster.

It was really hot, so afterwards, we cooled off with the sprinkler.

Ooooo, I had a new visitor to the birdfeeder recently. I didn't get a pic, I was afraid I'd move and scare him away. I haven't seen him since, but he was an indigo bunting. Very pretty.

Well we've had this week off from lessons as Aralia had a day camp that she and I went to every day. But next week we'll be back to cracking the books. And swimming, it is still summertime afterall.