I Love The Way We Learn

I may not have posted much in the month of February (truth is I've not posted anything), but that is not to say we've not been very busy around the "Greenhouse Academy". What is the "Greenhouse Academy"? It is the name we gave our school...a place for my young "plants" to learn in the best environment for each of them, until they are ready to be planted in the rough elements of this world. Growing them up with the love of learning all the while instilling in them a solid foundation of their faith in Jesus and the freedom to walk in that faith every single day.

So here is a little snapshot of what we've been doing. Shane & Kyle and I have completed our study of Ancient Egypt and have moved on to Ancient Greece. The boys are totally loving Greek mythology! Brendan is full force into American History and loving every second of it....Boston Tea Party was last weeks reading!

Of course we do math, reading....well, all of the subjects...our latest science experiment is a month long experiment with radishes. We will see them grow from seeds and test various environments and manipulate several variables and see how it affects their growth and heartiness. Here a few pictures of the boys getting their hands dirty. The fun part (or not so fun part depending on the day) is that we HAVE to visit this experiment every single day, chart their growth and examine something...so even when friends come to visit...they get a little science lesson. (Which is great...every kid wants to be homeschooled!) lol! - makes my kids feel pretty special! The picture above is our class clown Kyle pretending to eat the dirt. (Funny thing is...a few years back...I wouldn't have put it past him!)

That is our friend will helping to read instructions as we build our tin foil planters.

Here they are after a little growth! Below Brendan is charting the growth....cool right?

Then we have spelling. Brendan is a great speller...some kids are! Kyle & Shane...well, I need to find more creative ways to make these words stick. Here we are with some play dough. I have to say...that was actually fun!

As everyone knows, we have a puppy. That requires many breaks in our day...so we take full advantage of the fact that we must go outside about every 2 hours or so...we bring our binoculars out there and do what we Engels LOVE to do...bird watch. We have spotted several species right in our backyard. Here are some:

Great Blue Herons, Cattle Egrets, Wood Storks, White Ibis, Swallow-tailed Kite, Red Tailed Hawks, Red Shouldered Hawk, Bald Eagles, Turkey Vultures, Black Vultures, American Kestrels, Mourning Doves, Ruby Throated Hummer, Red Headed Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Red Bellied Woodpecker, Yellow Bellied Sap Sucker, Downy Woodpecker, Peewees, Blue Jays, Tufted Titmouse, Carolina wrens, Ruby Crowned Kinglet, Cedar Waxwings....5 different species of warblers and so much more...my husband is actually keeping a backyard life list.

All that to say, this following picture is....

Kyle spotting the turkey vultures and laying himself down as "dead meat" so they can come and prey on his lifeless body! He is such a crack up!


OH and then I caught my kids doing this:

by themselves, on their own, just for fun! That is so nice to see!

Brendan is our resident breakfast chef, Shane loves to bake and Kyle...well, he wants to be a smoothie guy when he gets older! Here he is practicing and making strawberry banana smoothies for breakfast for our family.

Finally, every Friday we have our very special art teacher, Mrs. Carla Sellers (aka. Grandma Carla). She comes to our home every Friday and teaches the boys how to paint using the one stroke painting method. Of course we enjoy a very special breakfast with her as well. We count ourselves blessed beyond words to have her in our lives, not just because of her amazing talent, but her amazing heart and love for my family!! I love having her in my life!

And as you can see.....

the boys love her as well.

Well, hopefully that explains why we've been so busy here for the month of February. Well, I have a few more blogs that will explain more! Stay tuned...yes...there is more to come...like in the next day or so! You know me, that is the way I roll!