We’re not doing school right now, but…

weekly report

We haven’t been doing school these past two weeks, but we’re still learning.

We’ve seen a baby cowbird being cared for by it’s surrogate parents, a pair of house wrens. We’ve had cowbirds around for years, and we knew they laid eggs in other birds’ nests, so we figured it was a matter of time before that happened in our own yard. {Read more about these “parasitic” birds’ habits here.}

We’ve observed countless chipmunks and a family of bunnies.

We’ve been watching our garden grow. {Several varieties of tomatoes and peppers, plus a cantaloupe, a romaine lettuce plant, and a few potatoes I probably planted way too late.}

Veggie Garden May 2012

Kathryn has been reading interesting posts on Wonderopolis, studying her favorite astronomy sites to learn about when and how Venus would cross in front of the sun this week, and playing a few educational games on my iPad.

Lindsey and Kathryn have both been reading up a storm.

They’ve watched me refinish furniture (this cabinet and the table below); even though they haven’t really assisted, they have seen how much work it is and I hope that will help them appreciate this sort of thing more.

sanding an old table

We’ve been watching our caterpillars turn into chrysalids, and waiting for them to emerge as butterflies.

We’ve been trying to figure out why our ladybug larvae were eating each other, and watching them turn into pupa, and we currently have two that have become adult ladybugs — or more correctly, ladybird beetles.

Lacy sniffs ladybugs

Kathryn studied for and aced her oral Hebrew exam, which included sight-reading, vocabulary, and speaking the language. Now she’s studying for her upcoming final exam over all the Biblical history she’s learned this year in her bat mitzvah classes.

Ken and Lindsey have been taking a conversational Spanish class at church.

We’ve watched a few episodes of “How It’s Made” from The Science Channel.

We watched Princess Ka’iulani, a movie about the Princess of Hawaii when it was an independent nation, and then shortly after it was annexed by the U.S. in 1898.

My favorite thing this week was…
Today we celebrated my almost-birthday (it’s tomorrow) with a tradition of lunch at my favorite tea room. This is the tenth year I’ve celebrated here.

birthday tea

Linking today with:
– iHN’s Homeschool Mother’s Journal
– Kris’ Weekly Wrap-Up
– Rachel’s friday favorite things

14 responses to “We’re not doing school right now, but…”

  1. All Things Beautiful Avatar

    What a great week! I love it when learning just happens! A tea-room birthday sounds wonderful!

  2. Tricia Avatar

    Well Happy Birthday tomorrow – and I agree with Phyllis. I love the tea room tradition for your birthday! Lots of fun at your house with things growing and changing and refinishing.

  3. Ang Avatar
    Ang

    Happy Early Birthday! Have a Wonderful Birthday Weekend!

  4. Lisa Avatar

    I hope you have a wonderful birthday and that God blesses you with many more years of love, health and happiness! 🙂 It sounds like you had a whole lot of learning going on–so maybe you were doing school and didn’t even realize it, lol! 🙂 (that’s the best type!!) 🙂 Have a great weekend! Many blessings, Lisa

  5. Penny Avatar

    Happy almost birthday! I love that idea. I hope your garden grows abundantly!

  6. Paige Avatar

    How neat about the parasitic bird nesting, what a great learning opportunity! Hope you have a great real birthday!

  7. Eddie - The Usual Mayhem Avatar

    Happy birthday! Looks like a great week! I never knew that about bird nesting.

  8. Mary Avatar

    Happy Birthday!! Looks like you had a relaxing, reading kind of week. I love those!

    We did the ladybug thing last year… ours didn’t last very long. We were pretty disappointed. It turned out, though, that my son used it as a place to keep all the ladybug we were finding inside the house!

    Enjoy your weekend and your birthday!

  9. Giggly Girls Avatar

    Happy Birthday!

    We did the lady beetles last year. They weren’t what we expected. LOL

  10. monica Avatar

    Love times like those! We haven’t been doing school…but can’t claim to have been learning much more than how much FUN summer is. 😉 Hehe-_I have bigger plans after the boys have settled down a bit. ENJOY, you’re an awesome mom!

  11. Jess Avatar

    Bah…the internet at my comment.

    You guys have been busy! Congratulations Kathryn on your tests!
    I think I have the same table as you…it was my parents when they got married 32 years ago and now it’s mine. Can’t wait to see what you do with it!

    Happy Birthday! Many, many blessings in this next year.

  12. Leah Avatar

    Happy late birthday! I like the tea room.:-)

  13. Jamie Avatar

    Thanks for all the birthday wishes, y’all!