Monday, May 4, 2009

Spring Projects

Taking on insane projects seems to be in our blood in Springtime - to see last year's, go ahead and click here, here, here, and here.



And, this year is no exception! In addition to gardening, Earth Scouts, Pick-Up Baseball, and just regular life, here are some other doozies we've got going on around here:



From Spring 09


We're continuing with the Why Do You Homeschool? study, with surveys coming in from all over the country, and world! In studying that map up there, you may notice that most of the responses come from Massachusetts and New Jersey. Many of these respondents didn't hear about the study from my blog, or even the blogosphere - they read about it in their homeschooling email newsgroups. So, I'd like to ask you, if you haven't already, to consider posting the link to my survey (this is the link), or the survey email address - whywehs@yahoo.com - into your email newsgroup. The more surveys, the better, and I'll be working on this for at least the summer.



Here's another new, log-term project we've got going this spring:



From Spring 09


No, not a new sleeping-place for Owen - we are getting baby chicks this week! They will live in this brooder for the first month or so of their lives (in the basement, not the living room), and then they will move to the coop that Ben's building out back. This is exciting, and a little scary, and sure to be a big blog topic in the future... especially as I have a fear of chickens that I'm obviously going to have to overcome!



And this last one is not a long-term project, but I wanted to share a pic of this great creation the boys and I made today... think of it as part of our interest-led curriculum:



From Spring 09


A geodesic dome, made of newspaper. Unlike the brooder, this structure will remain in our living room... and may very well become Owen's new sleeping-place!

4 comments:

Knittycat said...

Ooh chickens :) You and the kids are going to love them. We love our chickens - the eggs are out of this world!

Rana said...

The dome is cool! Did you have a template of some sort? My son and daughter would love to try this.

Have fun with the chicks. Have you ever watched the episode of "Most dirtiest jobs" where the host is squeezing peeps to get them to poop? Apparently that's how they find out what sex they are.
(Your not the only one afraid of chicks)

Karen said...

Knittycat - we cannot WAIT for the eggs :-)

Rana - this dome came from a really old Family Fun magazine, like from before my oldest was born, that I found a few weeks ago in a thrift shop. However, I plan to post more about this and include directions, it was a fun activity that didn't involve much but newspaper, tape, and a stapler.

Anonymous said...

Our next door neighbors have chickens (right in the city, no less!)and that is plenty poultry enough for me. Best of luck with your chickadees!!!