First Day of Homeschool for 6th and 10th Grade

We survived the first day of 6th and 10th grade. Minus some 6th grade Math drama, the day went very smooth. My 6th grader, and I, are doing a lot of hands on learning this year. I am hoping it will help her memory for remember facts and such. This greatly limits my time for other things including, house work, yard work, and crafting. Three things I love, but there will be plenty of time for that later in the year. Note, I do not love house work, lol, but I do love a clean house. Of course we took first day of school pictures. My kids hate these, now that they are older. The first image is of a very small lizard attempting to eat a rather large moth. He actually froze in place for us to take his picture. The Passion Vine, I did not plant, has produced tons of Zebra Longwing and Gulf Fritillary caterpillars. We have witnessed the hatching of three chyrsallis' and that is always fun. The last school year was full of drama, stumbling blocks, and family emergencies. Here is to a more stable school year. We do have family coming to visit, the first week of October, so we will be on an early break for a few days. Tomorrow we start up our daily walking, and Charity Miles app. My new phone should be here soon, so my 15 yr old can finally replace the phone he drowned, and leave mine alone. Happy homeschooling! I will try to keep up with this blog, at least a few times a week. Lots of goodies, and ideas we are trying out this year. We get to be your free guinea pig, lol.

Passion Vine Update Portfolios and Blue Springs

When I was taking the Zebra Longwing photos, for the previous post, I saw this Gulf Fritallary floating around the Passion Vine too. What I didn't realize, until I saw the caterpillars was that the Gulf Fritallary also uses the Passion Vine as a host plant. How exciting, though I am still not thrilled that I was sold Passion Vine, and told it was Bleeding Hearts, but oh well.

I have started working on our portfolios. DJ will actually have two, one his yearly evaluation portfolio, and the other his high school transcript. If I keep up with it, it will be much easier. Lucky for me, I keep a good daily journal, and this blog helps a lot for record keeping.

Friday, we went to Blue Springs, in High Springs, with some home school friends. This is one of my most favorite springs. There has been chatter that the state will be buying it. I hope that is true. Right now it is too expensive to visit there more than once or twice a year. Making it a state park, would make it my new home, lol. As always we had a very good time. I only got the one pic, because well I forgot to take any others. I did not see hardly any turtles this year, which is weird, kids said they saw a few, I didn't see any. The springs were low, however.

Be sure and visit my craft blog Melissas Jewelry and Gems, and check out my Etsy shop.

Science In Your Own Backyard Zebra Longwing Butterflies

I have been saying for year, especially for elementary aged children, you don't need a fancy curriculum to teach Science. You just need a yard, observation, camera, and a way to do some research. I have posted before about our Milkweed and the Monarchs that have laid eggs, hatched, fed, then morphed into Monarchs. Two years ago, I bought what I thought was Bleeding Hearts. I planted them, and they did nothing. Last Fall I decided to move them, thinking they were getting too much of something, and not enough of something else. I placed them in different spots. Early this Spring I noticed them starting to grow, but the leaves didn't quite look right. Then, I started to notice that the Zebra Longwing butterflies really liked this stuff. So, I looked up Passion Vine, and sure enough I was not sold Bleeding Hearts, but Passion Vine instead. The flowers are just starting to bud, and we noticed Zebra Longwing caterpillars on the vines, two days ago. Now, if we pay attention we will find a chrysallis, and hopefully get to see them hatch into a beautiful butterfly.