Attacked by a BlueJay...

     Anyway, I started walking around the tree, looking at it through the binoculars to see if I could find the nest and get a glimpse of the babies. I got closer and closer and at one point saw the mother bird fly away, only to come right back and peck me on the top of the head as I got too close. At that point I decided I would try to find the nest from a much safer distance. 

     Later in the day, after arriving home from a trip to the post office, I found blue eggshells in the driveway. I think they must be robin's eggs. The only reason I'm not sure is that I found a bluish egg last year, that I saved and it is much smaller. So I'm not sure which is robin's and which is something else.

     Speaking of lawnsales, I got some great deals this weekend. I filled a bag with some very pretty springy type jumpers that actual fit me. The cost? They said anything I wanted to donate because they were raising money for the American Cancer Society. Then, yesterday we stopped at a lawnsale that had tons of books. I could tell she used to homeschool. I got about 35 books for $10.00 including titles such as The Charlotte Mason Companion, Wabanaki's of Maine and the Maritimes, From Araseph to Zuni, Frog and Toad, Little Bear, Meet Josefina, several Usborne titles, The Unschooling Handbook, several History easy readers, some historical fiction, Magic Schoolbus, and lots more. I am so excited.

     Back to the grind, I have been busily trying to clean out the school closet, getting rid of the old to make room for the new. We will be doing some schooling this summer. I want to start U.S. History with everyone and went through my bookshelves for any books I may have on the subject. I wanted ds16 to do the Beautiful Feet U.S. and World History course, and I actually have all the books, but  he's fighting it too much because he's not enjoying all of the books. I'm going to try to put together my own "unit study" that we can all do together this summer and into next fall. I thought we'd start with the Revolutionary War, since we've studied Columbus to death in the past and think they would be bored if we started there again. I found tons of books in my own bookshelf that we can start with. Together I think we'll start by reading Our Independence and the Constitution, followed by Swamp Fox of the Revolution. These are both Landmark titles. I'll have ds16 read George Washington the Christian, Carry on Mr. Bowditch, and Johnny Tremain. I'll have ds11 read The Life of Washington and America's Paul Revere, while I read Meet George Washington,  Sam the Minuteman, and Winter at Valley Forge with dd8 and ds4.

     I also have American Adventures to read from as well as History Alive through Music and an American Revolution activity book that will add some fun to the study. I will also use Peter Marshall's books to read some excerpts from. Now all I need to do is figure out how I want to document it all in an interesting manner for their portfolios as well as to test ds16's knowledge and understanding of the material to make sure he is getting all of the elements of a good highschool level course. Any ideas?

I am so happy for you and your bargains. I found some bargains this week, but they were not book.
Blessings,

We love all the bright colors. school all year? Yes, and we do mostly history, science, art, story writing and lots of books. Our whole family loves to read! We even listen to books on tapes and CD's at night and going down the road. May God bless you & your family!
In Him; Elton

Pecked on the head - wow. A few years ago at our old house we had robins & their eggs were blue. They didn't appreciate being peeked at but we didn't get pecked LOL.

Boy, those Blue Jays can be mean alright - but sooo pretty. Next time you go saling, bring me along. What a great deal! Those things are a real high for me.

For documenting/transcript help, I can't recommend "Senior High: A Home-Designed Form+U+La" by Barbara Edtl Shelton enough. A fun & easy read with tons of good advice and examples. You can find it on their family's business web: www.homeschooloasis.com It is about finding things that interest your child or that you deem important and then running with it - making it into highschool credits and transcripting it. I love the book & it's what I will be starting to do for our oldest this year. Also, is your son more hands-on rather than reading? Perhaps doing more fieldtrips or history reenactments and making it into creditable stuff may help get him fired up - or whatever interests him - maybe it's rebuilding an engine or learning all the ins and outs of flying a plane. Whatever his passion is can become a high school course.