An Eclectic Homeschool Journal

Kate' story "The Dog who wanted a Flower" won second place for the second graders in the local Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrator's contest. Here she poses with her ribbon and certificate. This is especially cool for her as it was completely a self-initiated and self-directed activity. The only thing we did was fill out the form and drive her to the drop off location. She did everything else herself, with no input from us! 

The ladybug Kate drew in MS Paint.  

Since they can't play in the new flower beds, the kids have been digging a hole next to the basketball hoop and moving dirt between it and the empty sandbox. Esther likes to sit in the sandbox and move dirt around with the little blue shovel.  

Kate is checking to see if the hole she dug is big enough for the lavendar. On Tuesday, she transplanted three lavendars, a mum, and four poppy starts. Joshua planted Bachelor Button seeds with Ms. Rachel while Kate and I worked on the hole for the mum.  

I now have competition for my strawberries. Esther and Zach insist on having their share. Here's Zach munching on his.  

Joshua made brownies this week - all on his own! 

Kate made this puppet for Ms. Rachel. It had a red mouth, a blue tongue, a purple bead necklace, and a red shirt with a pink heart.  

After receiving the braille card, which pictured a ladybug, Kate was inspired to research ladybugs. Here she is drawing a ladybug using Microsoft Paint. She's trying to explain to me that when she was using the fill tool it would fill the whole page red instead of just the ladybug.  

Joshua working on the hole for the rosebush. The ground was so rocky that we all had to work on it.  

Kate, soaking her feat in water, poses for the camera. 

Josh, Kate, and Esther take a break from gardening.  

Today Kate received a braille alphabet card from the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). She's been interested in how the blind read and write, so we looked up information last week on the AFB website. She's now practicing the Braille alphabet using her new Braille alphabet card. The AFB site also has a slate available so she can learn to "write" in braille too. That will be next on our list.