Well, this past week we traveled north to visit my sister in Lowman, ID.  She had a brand new baby on Nov. 16th, so we got to meet her as well as my sister's other daughter (18 mo) and husband.  That was very exciting.  Another blessing was that my Mom was also there and together we all cooked Thanksgiving dinner!

Lowman is a very small community way up in the mountains of Idaho.  It was an incredible drive!  My twin nephews had school Monday and Tuesday, and on the teacher invited us to visit Tuesday afternoon.  My sister is also going on and on about the one room schoolhouse her boys attend.  I think there's about 10-12 students total, the youngest being 6 and the oldest being 14.  As you can see from the photo below, the school is run a lot like a homeschool classroom with multi-ages.  I LOVED it!!!!  I got so many ideas and it was all I could do not to drool all over all the bookshelves!!  This is like a dream homeschool classroom!!  Thank you to Mrs. K and the Lowman Elementary students for an awesome visit!!!!

This is another view of the Lowman Elementary School in Lowman, ID.  Yes, near the end of the day, all the kids grabbed books and just flopped down anywhere to read.  David is holding a guinea pig!  And though you can't see her, Alycia is holding another one.  The school also has 3 dogs and some fish, and GOATS!!  The dogs often just wandered around the room, checking the kids out!  Felt very homey!!

Well, Glenn has made good use of the two car deep, heated garage.  He has opened a "shop class" for Joyful Jajliardos' Christian Academy!!

Hood?  What hood?  Who needs a hood with this beautiful engine to stare at??

Okay, no front fenders either??  THAT is going a little too far I think!!

Glenn had 2 weeks off, which we spent here doing stuff around the house (and in the garage, obviously!)  We were rather surprised that the most avid "student" was David!!  The others came and went, but David just hung out, watching it all.  Alycia says that Daddy's breaking the car; David says, "Daddy took off some pieces so he can paint in there."  Hmmm!

Wow!  I didn't realize it's been so long since I posted!  Lots has been happening.  This week Alycia attended her first American Girl class.  3 hours every other Thursday; she's pretty excited about that.  We've also been attending story hour at the base library every Wednesday, and during that time, Daniel has been volunteering his time there.  Now, while Alycia's at her AG class, Daniel and I will both be working in the library (David will watch movies or charm the library staff )  As you can tell, we're thoroughly enjoying the library!

Other things....last week we attended a play day at the park on Tuesday afternoon.  It was great for all of us!  The kids enjoyed making new friends and I enjoyed some Mommy time with other homeschooling Moms!

And yes, in amongst the fun stuff, we are getting school done too.  Believe it or not I am STILL following my schedule (okay, with a few little tweaks, but still...)  Glenn came home last Monday and informed me that he had the next 2 weeks off, so that makes it a little more challenging, but we're getting stuff done none-the-less.

It has been raining for 2 days and last night there was sleet.  You can't even begin to imagine the excitement of the kids when they looked out the front window and saw SNOW on the tops of the mountains.  They are beside themselves.  Last night we even fired up the fireplace in the living room...and had s'mores.  Quite fun!!  But this morning Glenn discovered that our heater is not working, so now we really need to keep the fire burning!  However, we need a chainsaw to cut the wood that a friend is giving us.  Ah, the fun of it all.....BUT AT LEAST WE'RE HAVING REAL, SEASONAL WEATHER (my apologies to my southern friends, you are all dear to me but your climate is NOT!)

Oh, one interesting note...I've never really been big on preschool (thought it was enough to get the upper grades getting their work done) but David has really dived into it!  While the big kids work on their writing, Daniel and I sit and do several pages out of his work books, and he does really well too.  Can't believe that little curly-top will be 4 soon!  Wow!! 

Well, guess that's all for now!  Will try to get more frequent with this!

Blessings all!

Well, I think we're just about settled in now.  There's a few little things I'd still like to get (a table in the family room for school!), but it's liveable now.  A couple weekends ago we were able to go out and buy new furniture for the formal living room (with the money we earned by moving ourselves).

So today we marked our first day back to school.  I actually have lesson plans made out for 3 months!  I think that's a record for me!!  It was a little daunting, but I found an excel spreadsheet at www.donnayoung.org (or is it .com?) and that helped a LOT!!  Then, as I was arranging school books on the bookshelf, I took a deep breath and purged some books we really didn't need (and thus further committing myself to my lesson plans!  Yay!)  A local homeschool group had a picnic/used book sale so I was able to get rid of some things and pick up some things (NO!  Not a lot, just a few little fun things)

School went well today.  I was kind of surprised though, because Daniel really buckled down and got his work done with a good attitude and Alycia just dragged through the day.  Ugh!!  I have them do school right after breakfast and then chores have to be done once school is done in order for them to earn movie/computer time and play time.  Worked well!  What I hadn't planned for was David!  He really wanted to be right there doing school too, so thankfully I found some things for him to do today, but I'm going to have to get some kind of plan for him too, I guess!  Yikes!!  He was a little sad that he wouldn't be going to school at the daycare across the street (he REALLY wanted to climb on their castle), but he finally understood that we were doing school here.  I told him I would be so sad if he was gone from me all day (too which he replied that we could all go to school there with him!  Hee hee!)

So that's pretty much it.  Well, for extra curricular, Alycia will be taking part in an American Girl's class twice a month, plus there's preschool story time on base every Wednesday (and Daniel will volunteer at the library during that time).  I'm hoping to find a choir or theatre group to get Daniel into as well.  We'll see!

So there you go, all the news fit to print for now!

Blessings!

Voila!  Here is our new homeschool project!!  Let the "shop class" begin!

Big D is certainly an eager student!!  Anyone that sets foot in our yard earns a tour of "his" car!  Hee hee!!

Yep, there's actually 2 enrollees in the Academy's shop class!! 

Anyway, here's the stats:

'69 Cutlass Supreme with 68,900 original miles, 350 rocket engine, 442 hood, a rear wing.  Supposed to be pretty fast (our 73yo neighbor asked, "Is that a hot rod??"  Yep!!!!)  Glenn's dream car, in case that's not already evident.  This was how he got paid for a tile job he did for a friend.  Nice!  Gotta love that bartering system!!  Woohoo!!

Today we read chapter 3 of A Child's Geography.  I got an email today saying that Ann is planning to have the book finished and available by Sept. 1st.  We can't wait!!

We finished our "tour" of Earth's atmosphere.  Last week we learned about the troposphere, stratosphere (with ozone), and mesosphere.  Today we "hiked" on up to the thermosphere.  It's amazing!!  I am learning right along with the children!!  For instance, did you know that the thermosphere is both hot and cold??  Yep!!  It's 3000 degrees BUT you would still feel VERY cold (and get a nasty radiation burn too)  While that was amazing in itself, more amazing was the ionosphere, which is a layer within the thermosphere.  Did you know that God gave our planet a kind of shield??  The ionosphere keeps flaming balls of gas (shooting off the sun) from hitting Earth.  They hit the ionosphere and explode into beautiful colors......called aurora!  I have actually seen these (we call them Northern Lights) and though I've been told why they happen, I never understood it until today!  That is amazing!!  Alycia, when asked to explain it to Daddy, said it best...."God wraps His great big arms around our Earth and protects us."  I love it!!  You know, I often am amazed at the things I don't know!  What I mean is.....I never had any idea that flaming balls of gas were being shot at us quite often.....and yet I am safe from it anyway!  God is protecting me!  Sometimes I get frustrated when I'm driving somewhere and a train makes me later than I already am.....but you know what, there are things I don't know.....GOD is in control!!  Beyond what any one of us can ever imagine, God is taking care of us.  That is just awesome to me!  Oh, and that's all wrapped up in an exosphere.  God is simply amazing beyond our wildest dreams!

Okay, if anyone was looking in, it would have seemed as if we were simply doing housework all day.  But really, we were working on life skills! 

cleaning bedrooms=sorting, stewardship, decision making, organizing, etc.

Setting up bookshelf=sorting, prioritizing, thinking ahead, organizing, decision making

cooking (Daniel made a chocolate cake with only visual supervision and Alycia made rolls using the bread machine and hands on help)=math, reading, analyzing, time, etc.

Seriously, I really do incorporate this kind of stuff in our school.  Okay, so we did it in one big day so as to be ready for dinner guests, but overall, I truly believe that one of the reasons I homeschool is so that my children get these opportunities as well as "book learning".  They enjoy learning it now, I am available to help them, they won't have to struggle through learning only by trial and error when they're adults.  Before school, everyone is required to have their chores done and then they get a short play time between chore time and school time.  They may think I'm a "slave driver" now, but in the long run I hope they will see the blessing in developing good habits at a young age.

Well, it's Tuesday, and while I'm satisfied with what we've accomplished for school....well....we're not following those lovely plans I had labored over (for at least an hour or so....after all, it's only 2 weeks worth at a time).  We've had school time together as a gang, at the dining room table.  Yesterday they worked on letters and projects to mail to Grammy and Peppy.  David did some coloring, Alycia did some coloring and then wrote (very creatively) a little letter too, and Daniel wrote a short letter in cursive (for at least the first 4 words, he got up to show me each word and did a wriggly little happy dance at his excitement to be learning cursive).  They also did math and some science (Alycia made a bee puppet and Daniel tested himself on the solar system again, using that cool World Book Learning Center I bought him).  Today they both did math in their workbooks while I did laundry and hung it out on the line.  Then Alycia asked me to read a book, then she picked up a Magic School Bus book about Ancient Egypt (actually it was just Ms. Frizzle's adventure)....it was a GREAT book....that lead us to our history lesson.  They worked on their maps (locating Mesopotamia), then colored pictures of the first farmers using a "shaduf" to irrigate their gardens.  I finished reading about the early people (we'd read that they were nomads, today we read about how farming came about).  In that lesson, they mentioned that Jericho was one of the first cities.  They told how the people built homes out of mud bricks and reeds and then put up walls around their village to protect them.  It said that this wall was 10 feet thick and 13 feet tall, so I had the kids measure that out using the slate tile on the floor.  Boy were they impressed once they got the picture in their mind.  Well, that of course, was a perfect lead in to reading about Joshua and the battle of Jericho.  I asked Daniel if he thought he could yell loud enough to knock over a little plastic coffee can, if the whole family yelling could do it......Nope, he was pretty sure it couldn't be done.  Then we talked about reasons why God would have given them such a strange battle plan....Daniel figured out right off that it would show that God really was the most powerful.  Yay!!  They're now doing some quiet reading, David's napping, and I REALLY need to paint some trim for Glenn so we can get our kitchen/dining room/living room/hallway renovation finished!!  Boy would it be nice to not have to step over tools in the house!! 

Where has this week gone?  I was really getting discouraged because this week has whizzed by and we have NOT accomplished a full day of school (or what my lesson plans claim is a full day of school) ALL week!  It's been busy with doctor's visits, library, grocery shopping, return doctor's visits, etc!  Then yesterday a friend stopped by to pick up a baby gift I had made for her daughter who is a missionary in Guatemala.  She was barely in the door before my children were barraging her with their latest endeavors in school!  They each played her a selection from their piano lessons (okay, Alycia has only one page under her belt, but she played it well!  Then Daniel whipped out his solar energy stuff and talked to her about that and it went on until I finally managed to get them out to play so I could sit and visit.....and then, moments later they were back in describing a butterfly on our butterfly bush, and how close they got to it.  I explained that we had studied butterflies last week and my friend said, "That's the great thing about homeschooling, the kids are excited about learning!  I mean, it is evident that these kids are really enjoying learning!"  Thank You Father, for sending that encouragement my way!  We may not get ancient history in today or even tomorrow, but it will get there in it's time and in the meantime we're gonna chase butterflies and count spots on ladybugs!

  Blessings friends!

     Well, Sunday David and Glenn stayed home from church as David looked terrible (pale faced, etc) and threw up too.  Yesterday he looked better but he had a really nasty diaper and he was pretty fussy.  We went to run a few errands in the afternoon (including the library) and at the library he was screeching and crying.  Not good!  The library ladies always turn on the computer for him to play on, but he doesn't really know what he's doing and messes with stuff.  He's only 2!  I wish they wouldn't just turn it on for him!

     Yesterday we really started cracking down on kid responsibilities.  Rather than a chore chart, per se, I came up with a responsibility chart.  In order to get computer time, they are required to get their chores done in a timely manner (more on chores in a minute); get school done; practice the piano (I started teaching Alcyia too, yesterday); AND have a good attitude.  Nobody got computer time yesterday, but I'm hoping this will work.  Now, for the chores.  I did have a chore chart for each of them and they do know what their chores are, but I've started rethinking that....I think that I want them working together as a team to get the jobs done that are designated "kid jobs" (or that I ask them to do that day).  I'm hoping this will work a little better and maybe promote teamwork.  I will have to watch though, and see if one is not pulling their fair share (they won't get a check in the chores box then).  I'd love to hear what other people do for chores with their children.  Mine are responsible for cleaning up the floors (I vaccuum), cleaning the bathroom counter, clearing and setting the table, sweeping the front walk, cleaning/sweeping the patio, making their beds (one of them has to wash his own sheets too) and put away their laundry.  Oh, and clean up the back yard as it's often strewn with toys.

     This week for school Daniel is still working on solar energy and Alycia will be studying ants (and bugs).  We got lots of good books at the library yesterday including a fascinating photo book by Yann Arthus-Bertrand.  It's called Earth From Above: 365 Days and it's all pictures that he took (a few from other photographers too) while leaning out of a helicopter!  (Okay....adding this in here.....word of warning, there ARE some pictures of naked people one is a crop picture I think and the other is 2 people at a nude beach.....I found this out as the kids were looking at it in the doctor's office!!!!  Yikes!!  But it IS and interesting book.  Just use your best judgement.)  It was suggested in our geography lessons.  Speaking of geography....those pages on childsgeography have been updated and hopefully the whole e[book will be out in a couple of weeks.  Praying for you, Ann, if you read this!  Thank you for doing this!!

     Today is grocery shopping day....what fun!  Hopefully David will be feeling better.  It's 8am and he's still in bed.  Usually he's up by 7, so that's good that he's getting extra sleep!  I need to finish my menus and grocery list so we can do that.

    Yay!!  We made it through the week!  It is about 7pm and I just have some cookies (the NGJ cookies!) to bake and I am done!  I've got lots of goodies to take to the market this week!

     School is kind of tough to do on Fridays as I'm trying to get stuff ready for Saturday.  Been having a little bit of a struggle with the kids getting their chores done before school time.  We're going to be working on that next week!!  I have taken away computer time the last 2 days as they just dallied about their chores even after I spoke to them about it.  Grr!! 

     Alycia made a little book today called The Very Friendly Catepillar.  It went along the lines of Eric Carle's book, but instead of a different number of fruit each day, Alycia's catepillar plays with a different number of bug friends.  It is VERY cute!!  I had her trace the day of the week and write in the number of friends he played with that day.  1 Praying Mantiss, 2 inch worms, 3 daring dragonflies, 4 lovely ladybugs and 5 roly-polies (pill bugs.....Alycia loves them and gathers little families of them....Ranger Rick had an article on them this month!)

     Daniel worked a little more on his solar energy stuff.  I did find some books that he might enjoy (he wants to MAKE a solar panel) so I need to email that list to the library to see if they can track any of them down!

     Yesterday I worked with David matching and gluing shapes.  That little guy is amazing!!  With only a little, infrequent prompting he got the shapes right and then as he was gluing them he made sure they were right in the lines!  This from an almost 3yo??  I was amazed!  We made a school bus with windows, wheels and a little stop sign (in honor of Grammy and Peppy who both drive busses).  Too cute!!

We received our history curriculum yesterday.  We're using Story of the World part 1 (Okay, I confess, we haven't done much more than read kids' books for history up until now).  The kids sat and listened and were able to discuss what we read (just the intro today), so that was encouraging.  I think that reading works well for my little gang, so I'm hoping that this will be a good way to get history in!

Not much else exciting today!  (Which is nice for a change!)

This week Daniel is learning about solar energy.  I found a really nice coloring book to print off at http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/index.html  He's very eager to make a solar oven, but before that happens, I want him to dig in and learn about it.  He asked the library to check on books about making solar panels (!!!) as they didn't have any (they actually really didn't have much info at all about solar energy).  I am finally remembering to remind him to wear his glasses (they're new and he only needs them to read and write) and his work is actually looking a little neater.  He's still pretty eager to start school each morning, though it's the science stuff that's really drawing him.  Yesterday we did chapter 2 of that Child's Geography....learned about the atmosphere....very interesting!  (Ann V.  if you read this, I'm anxiously awaiting the next chapters!)

Alycia is really enjoying working on butterfly stuff.  I was going to have her rewrite Eric Carle's book, The Very Hungry Catepillar, but instead I copied off pictures of different butterflies (and it tells what colors to color each one) and we'll cut them out and make a butterfly mobile for her room.  Did you know that the Queen Victoria butterfly has an 11 inch wing span???  Wow!  I wasn't sure what we'd move on to this week, but decided to do the butterfly's body parts  and then just progress on to bugs (which she also loves)

As for little David, he's not really liking this school business.  He doesn't seem to really be a morning person anyway and he gets really feisty with the kids.  Thankfully this morning he got preoccupied with a box of train stuff!  I have some file folder games for him too, but it's hard when I need to pay so much attention to Alycia at the level that she's at right now.  We'll see how things go. 

So there you have it, that's the excitement here.  I did just go on UPS website to track a package.....my history curriculum should arrive today!!  Woohoo!

You know, I have struggled with making and using lesson plans for the LONGEST time!  We've been homeschooling for 4 years now, and just up until this past January I basically floundered through school.  Yes, I've tried different ways of keeping plans, but nothing really worked.  Well, I was really getting frustrated last December.  Something had to change!  Daniel totally hated school, I felt directionless... So, I set up a parent/teacher meeting with the principal  (Hee hee!) and we discussed ideas.  What we came up with was a page with subjects listed down the side, days listed across the top, and then squares to fill in with assignments.  The back of the page was left blank so that I could make notes about the week, things that worked, things that didn't, and what we needed to continue working on.  Sounds simple, but I am still in total amazement at how well it works!  Daniel LOVES it because if I'm busy for the moment, he can take out his assignment book and pick something to work on.  I think part of his love for it is the fact that he can tell when he's done!  I just list page numbers of workbooks, or write a brief description of projects or what have you.  For reading time I just wrote in "30 min." and he can read whatever for 30 minutes (sometimes goes more than that too!)  When something is done and I've checked it, I put a checkmark in that box the assignment was written in.  If something got skipped on one day, I circle it so I remember, and then adjust accordingly.  At the top, where the day and date is written in, I also leave room to note anything extra we'll be doing that day in terms of errands, field trips, or what have you (library is listed there as is grocery shopping day)  With Alycia now doing school daily, I wasn't sure how to go about it, but decided finally to get her a separate folder to keep her schedule in (their schedule folder is the same color as their big notebooks) and she too, can look at it and figure out some of what to do (math is easiest as I just list a page number).

So that's what we do!!  I just really needed schedule AND flexibility and this REALLY works for us!

I meant to do this yesterday....to list out the curriculum that we're using.

DANIEL (3rd/4th):

AVKO spelling (great for poor spellers, find out more at www.avko.org )

Complete Math (workbook I bought at Walmart) plus some Math U See (maybe)

Story of the World, Vol I (for history....lots of reading!)

Alfred's Complete Piano (he's a beginner piano player)

Simply Grammar

We're also just going to use library books and such for science, kind of letting him explore on his own with that....I really think he'll be an inventor some day!

We're using notebooking for science, history, geography, etc... and have a separate notebook for Bible (I've sectioned it off into all the books of the Bible, and then he can stick information into the specific book he's in)

ALYCIA (K/1st)

Alphabet Island Phonics

Complete Math workbook

Story of the World, Vol. 1

First Language Lessons

She also has the same notebooks that Daniel does.  Her Bible notebook will probably consist of lots of illustrations of verses and such at this time.

This week's science discoveries are:

Daniel.....working on a research paper to present to Dad on Friday.  He asked, "How long would it take to dig all the way through the earth?"  So he is going to try to determine that, figure out how to do it, and see what kind of problems he might face in doing that.

Alycia....learning about catepillars and butterflies this week.  Doing a lot with Eric Carle's "The Very Hungry Catepillar"

   Well, today was our first day.  I had such high hopes!  I gave the kids all their new school stuff and they were so excited that they wanted to hop right into school without tending to chores or even getting their play time!  Well, we're also working on getting back into a good routine, so they had to do all their chores and they did get about 40 minutes play time before school started at 10.  I even had some new school stuff for little David (who's only almost 3). 

    Finally I get my things done and it's time to start school and they're off like shots!  Except that they each search for a fun looking page in their math books and get ready to start in on that.  So we had a little chat about that!  Then Alycia started balking as she couldn't draw hearts and wanted to do her own thing.  This is the first year we're getting serious about school with her (though it's more of a k/1st grade level), so I had to have another chat about the importance of learning to follow directions.  We finally worked through all of that but then David started getting really impatient and angry about everything, wanting me to read to him (a big kid's book, and in the middle of Daniel's spelling, no less).  It just was a lot tougher than I thought and I got a little frustrated.  I could go on and on, but you know what, just a little bit ago Daniel came up to me and said, "Thanks Mom, school was just awesome!" and right now they're in the livingroom doing some kind of school projects on their own (I did tell them that they needed to get out other workbooks to work on so they wouldn't just do their own thing in their new ones).

    So we survived our first day.  I think David is battling allergies or a cold or something.  I picked up some medicine for him today, so we'll see what happens.  I didn't get everything done that I had thought I would, but really, looking back on it, it was a pretty good day, considering it all!

We were blessed with a really neat school experience this morning!  We got to watch as a cicada finished emerging from it's exo-skeleton!!  Alycia went out to put a letter in the mailbox and when she came back, she spotted it!  We've seen lots of old exo-skeletons on trees, and I've seen a couple of  locusts flying around, but I've never seen one shedding!  And there it was, right on our front step!!  I'm including info that I found about them (as I didn't know they weren't locusts!)  Enjoy!!

(Family Cicadidae)
This is a group of insects commonly known by the popular name of "harvest flies" or cicadas, and frequently in this country by the erroneous term "locust". The term "locusts" should properly be applied to the long-horned grasshoppers of the true family Locustidae, although it is also, especially by British subjects, applied to the short-horned grasshoppers and especially the destructive species.

The family cicadae is a group of large insects containing very many tropical species. Their bodies are large, with a wide, blunt head and with prominent eyes on the outer angles. The head has three ocelli placed triangularly on the summit between the compound eyes and the antennae consist of a short basal joint surmounted by a bristle which is divided into about five segments. The tropical forms are sometimes brightly colored but the species which occur in the United States are usually greenish marked with black.

The commonest form in the more Northern States is the socalled "dog-day harvest fly" or "lineman" - the insect which every summer, toward the end of July or early in August, begins its doleful but resounding buzzing hum in the tree tops. This sound is familiar throughout the hot days of the late summer and is frequently more noticeable in the early morning and about sundown. This, however, may be due to the fact that the day noises of a town or city are less noticeable at such times. It is supposed that this is an annual species, i.e., that it has but one generation annually, the larvae living in the ground through only nine or ten months of the year. It may - that it has a much longer larval period, and that be, however , that it has a much longer larval period, and that only its great abundance and the intermingling of generations accounts for its annual occurrence in the adult condition. More information and cicada pictures.

This is a point which should be investigated as its life history has never been thoroughly worked out. There are other cicadas in the Southern and Western States, some of them rather small in size, like Tettigia hieroglyphica, and others large, like the big Cicada emarginata.

Life History of the "Seventeen-year Locust"
(Cicada septendecim, L.)
This insect, commonly known as the periodical cicada or seventeen-year locust, is taken here because it is the only species of the family whose life history is thoroughly well understood.

It is probably not typical in its very extended larval life. In the North this insect remains either as larva or pupa underground for seventeen years. In the South it develops in thirteen years, thus giving rise to two races which are known as the septendecim and tredecim races. The dividing line between the two races corresponds fairly well with the northern margin of the so-called lower austral life zone. In some localities confusion arises from the fact that the insect makes its appearance at shorter intervals than seventeen years. This is accounted for by the fact that the insect appears in distinct broods some of which overlap the territory also inhabited by other broods. There is no reason, however, to suppose that the length of life of any larva is of shorter duration than seventeen years in the North and thirteen in the South.

It will be found in great numbers throughout New Jersey, Delaware, part of Pennsylvania, Maryland, northern Virginia, Ohio, southern Michigan, Indiana, eastern Illinois, Kentucky and down the Appalachian chain of mountains through North Carolina into northern Georgia. It will also appear in a few localities in Vermont, New York, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Tennessee.

The eggs are laid in small twigs and branches which are pierced by the ovipositor and in this way the insect does practically the only damage which it accomplishes. They occur in enormous swarms and the weakening of the twigs, caused by the punctures, causes many of them to be broken off by the wind. The young ant-like larva hatches from the eggs a few weeds after oviposition, escapes from the wounded limb, falls to the ground and burrows quickly out of sight, where it forms for itself a little underground chamber near some rootlet, remaining there, isolated from others and moving, probably very slowly, for seventeen or thirteen years. It molts four times, the first time after from one year to eighteen months, the second after two additional years, the third after three years more, and the fourth after another period of three or four years, leaving three or four additional years to elapse before the insect assumes the socalled pupal state. The anterior legs of the larva are curiously enlarged and resemble the cutting jaws of biting insects. They are especially designed for digging and transporting earth.

The food which it consumes is obtained probably from the soil humus and to some extent from the roots of plants. After the change to the pupal condition the insect burrows to the top of the ground and, emerging, crawls up the trunks of trees where the skin splits and the adult insect issues. Occasionally, in certain kinds of soil or when the pupa has reached the surface too early, it will construct mud chimneys from the summit of which it eventually issues.

We're planning to officially start school next Monday, August 1st....and I CAN HARDLY WAIT (just hope that excitement lasts!)  We went to the base library today and signed out lots of books that we'll be using for school next week.  Alycia is going to start off with butterflies, catepillars, days of the week (all encapsulated in Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Catepillar).  Daniel sat down yesterday and wrote out a short list of things he'd like to discover/learn about.....I'm hoping that will keep him more interested in things.  So next week he'll check out the earth's measurements and what would be required to dig all the way through to the other side (what equipment and how much time?).  I still need to order our history curriculum, but am hoping to do that in the next month or so with money I earn at the Farmer's Market.  And no, I have not forgotten little David....I'm creating an activity notebook for him too....he makes sure he's not forgotten, believe me!!  He'll be doing some of Alycia's butterfly projects too, as well as doing some file folder games that I've made up.

Well, thanks for checkin' in on me!  I'm hoping to post at least once a week and tell how our school is going (whew!  Talk about accountability!)  I hope you all enjoy journeying along with us!