Dawn K Homeschool

And, the winner is Stacey Jeannete!  Please email me your mailing address! While in the Shenandoah Valley, we finally visited the  Green Valley Book Fair .  I had so much fun looking at all the children's books; many were titles I had never seen before.  For about $50, I received the following history, artist and composer books which I know we will enjoy. I also bought several fun books for Ben including Poptropica and Club Penguin items along with The Great Christmas Kidnapping Caper (Audiobook on CD)  and The Modern Story Book (CD and book set) . For Nathan, I bought  The Secret History of Giants  and  Eragon's Guide to Alagaesia .  My husband picked out a landscape painting book for him.  His favorite from us is  The Name of this Book is Secret (Audio CD by Pseudonymous Bosch) . So, I bought an extra The Name of this Book is Secret audio CD to give away on my blog.  If you would like this unabridged audio book, just leave ...

We took the chicks out for a little fresh air and sunshine yesterday. The soaked it in!

I bought a styrofoam incubator years ago at a yard sale for $5.00. I finally had a chance to use it when a friend gave us four fertilized eggs. So, I found the box in the garage, dusted it off, set it up and hoped for the best. It worked! For 19 days, I flipped the eggs two-three times each day. On the 20th day, I added water to the extra reservoir and waited. The next day, I noticed a tiny chip off the egg (I learned this is called peeping). Within 24 hours, three eggs (named by the boys Charles, Cheep-Cheep and Peetey) had hatched with little Luna bringing up the rear.

Today, I finished reading  Children of Summer: Henri Fabre's Insects by Margaret J. Anderson  to the boys.  It is a lovely book which introduces naturalist and scientist Henri Fabre and many of his insect investigations.  Here is a review from Booklist. Imagine having a father who is known as a hermit, accused of being a poacher, and thought to be strange and simpleminded. According to this fictionalized story, French entomologist Jean Henri Fabre, a contemporary and correspondent of Darwin and a friend of John Stuart Mill, may have been such a man. Using the voice of Fabre's 10-year-old son Paul, who, according to Fabre's own writings, often helped his father, Anderson tells of Fabre's passion for learning about cicadas, scorpions, and the other "children of summer." The man's curious behavior will draw readers in, and the descriptions of the oddities of the insect world will keep them interested: children are bound to remember Fabre's shooting a cann...

I never took the time to upload some of the boys' writing assignments for the course we have been using this year from the Institute for Excellence in Writing -- Student Writing Intensive A. So, here they are! First are Ben's from the assignments "Our First President" and "The Donkey and His Driver." Next are Nathan's from the assignments "Our First President" and "Peter the Great."

We have been moving slowly -- too slowly -- through our writing course this year. On the bright side, we have been diligent in all other areas. Here is Ben's -- 5th Grade Here is Nathan's -- 6th Grade .