Little Swimmer!

My dh attempted to video tape me candling eggs. Next time we won't invite the kids, lol. All the eggs we looked at had little black dots moving around!! So it was very exciting and happy. These are baby chicks on day 6 of incubation:

Cracked

Well, today was a sad day. When we turned the eggs first thing this morning, we dropped and cracked one of the eggs. I immediately put tape on it and did a google search. Funny thing is, people have successfully hatched a cracked egg!! Maybe not two weeks out. . . but still. Later, I accidentally got water on it, which was then trapped in the tape. So I took off the tape. [No more damage done thankfully.] And melted some candle wax on it; an idea I found on a chicken website. I tried to candle it to see if there even was a live baby chick inside, but these darn green/blue eggs are not candling nicely!! Not even on other days when we tried candling.

Here's our egg: Hoping it can last!! Not sure if I want to do any more candling and risk handling the eggs. . . Maybe in a few days. . . For now, I'm just going to leave this one alone [other than turning] and pray for the best:

"Candling Eggs"

YAY! We attempted our first candling this evening and were super spastic excited!

Candling is when you shine a bright light through the egg so you can see what's going on inside. Kind of like 'ultrasound' for chicks. We used a bright desk lamp with a movable neck and I made a cardboard table with a small cutout for the light to shine on the egg. This way, we were able to set the egg down on the 'holder' and take pictures!. We only candled three eggs tonight and all of them looked good! It is normal to loose a bunch- especially first timers like us, so the fact that we randomly picked three good ones out of 18 seems like a great sign to us!

Here's one, but I bet my husband's photos were better. I'll try to get them up too.

The spidery veins and dark spot is the developing chicken:

Let the Incubation Begin-

So, I have avoided posting until I really had something cool to share, lol. Well, happily, now I do and not a day too soon: For my 2 Second Graders, I decided they could incubate some chicken eggs for the annual homeschool science fair. On one of our local lists is a homeschool mom that RENTS the incubators AND the eggs. Once you are done- you can give them back. It's a really cool idea as it just makes its seem so much more assessable. I picked up the eggs, incubator, chick food and water [for after hatching] and the instructions. It's a simple styrofoam electric incubator w/ no turner. We set it up and left it overnight [I moved it a couple of times] and next morning added the eggs. Since we'll be turning the eggs, we marked them with Xs and Os on opposite sides to keep track of their rotation. Saturday we will start 'candling' with a bright lamp covered w/ cardboard. . . The incubation process takes about 21 days. . . and I'll keep you 'posted' right here!

We have eggs from at least 3 different types of chickens:

Here Cordell is marking the Xs and Os as we add them to the incubator. Melodie did some too.

Next, I'll try to post photos of turning the eggs and candling. . . stay tuned!

Ready, Set, Go. . . Umm, not quite

I love taking 'vacation' from 'homeschool!' I'm not so good about getting back into it. Thus my kids are not so good at it either. I had planned to have the first 2 weeks in January be 'half-time' weeks to ease into it. Well, it's turning out to be more like 1/32nds or something. We are all recovering from days and days of staying up all night and recuperating from sinus infections. [I don't know why, but we love to stay up all night- despite the disadvantages] We still have a few 'special events' during this time too. I always celebrate my birthday [1/5] usually extending it the entire week if I can manage to. [out w/ my older girls, out w/ the youngest kids, out w/ my girlfriends, out w. my dh. . . you get the idea] So that's a distraction. And Next Week my oldest leaves for Navy Bootcamp. [boo. :(] So lots of distractions there too. I really want to get back into the normal routine, but not if it's just going to be disrupted again!. We did do Latin w/ our friends on Monday and maybe we'll tackle a few things Thursday and Friday. Next week, I hope to to do at least as much. Happy New Year!

History Fair

I need to catch up a little. Over ten years ago, I started a history fair for our homeschool group. It's pretty much just like a science fair, though in our case there is no competition to have the best project. Everyone gets an award and a comment sheet. Community members volunteer as 'judges' to visit each project, ask questions, listen to the students and make comments for the students. I also allow the students to present any 'drama' such as a skit, speech, or demo. Some years, I have invited special guests w/ a history passion, such as a local re-enactor.

I wanted to start a History Fair, because hands on projects are usually the best way to 'internalize' history and geography, but the motivation for mom to handle the mess is not always high enough for 'just at home.' By providing a place to showcase work, we encourage both the students and the moms who help, to present history in a more formal, public way. Most students make a tri-fold display board. Many make 3-D models, arts/crafts- paper mache, clay items, kits from craft stores and my all time favorite: food from the period/culture. Some students wear costumes too. It is a lot of fun for not that much work. Our History fair is in the fall, after Halloween and before Thanksgiving. This year, our younger co-op students did projects on the early middle ages and our older co-op students did Alexander the Great. They picked these topics because that was what we were covering this fall. But some students pick projects that they are especially interested. We usually have about 30 students from the area- and the variety of topics is always exciting. I always believe in double duty. If you have to write a paper for History and a speech for Speech class and attend the history fair; why not write 1 speech on your history topic and present it at the fair w/ some pictures/art? Voila, 3 subjects with 1 effort. I thought I had great pictures of their projects, but alas, I can't find them. The younger students made pockets for spoon puppets and flaps/doors over their information on their display board- sort of a huge lapbook. The older students had the 'speech', maps and a hand drawn time line as some of their items. And with the help of my friend and fellow mom, they made a paper mache dragon head. By doing group projects the moms can help out where they are more gifted. While one mom did paper mache, the other helped make Greek dolmas. [stuffed grape leaves]

If there is not already a history fair in your area, you might just want to start one!

Simple Lapbook for studying

So, my younger 2 students have started Latin this fall. [Prima Latina] An 11 year old friend is teaching it to them and she asked them to make vocabulary cards in order to study their Latin. Unfortunately, they have not been keeping up, they can't keep their cards contained, and they just don't use them. Also, when they are filling in the assignments, they groan about having to look back in the book for the answers or for a vocabulary word. So, I decided they needed a simple lapbook as a vocabulary reference/study guide. The Latin words are in alphabetical order and under the Latin words are the English translations. This way, they can easily and quickly look up a word or study all of their words in one place. Because it's a folder size, it fits neatly with the rest of their homework. If you think I do this kind of thing all the time; don't. I simply go in spurts. I had a few ideas in my head and since they were simple, I managed to get them done. A recent thing I 'discovered' was that I could use one of those window decorating markers to make a 'to do' list right on my bathroom mirror! Currently, I have about 4 crafty items listed on my mirror: this and the glitter name are crossed off. . . 2 more to go.

Cordell's is blue on the outside, 'manilla' on the inside. His sister's is all pink.