The Mayberry Sparrow

Pardon the long post delay, this is long overdue!

Life has been busy, both in business, and at home!

The weather has been gorgeous, so we've spent many afternoons outdoors in our garden (or the start of one anyway!) or at the picnic table doing *home work*.

We started homeschooling a couple of weeks ago. I originally intended on sending the boys to school just for JK/ SK, and then starting to school them at home for grade 1. There are a lot of reasons behind this (a list too long to even begin), but we decided to start early.

They're doing very well with it, and enjoying it. I've gotta say, I'm enjoying it too. At first I thought it might be really hard to balance everything, but we've actually settled into a routine that works well for us. We do the more formal work in the morning, on most days, such as printing, math, geography etc. In the afternoon we do our science (most of this has been outdoors because it's so nice out) and our reading once the boys have had some run around activity. That's usually the point when they want to come inside, and curl up on the couch with a good book.

I'm amazed at how well they're doing with their reading. Working with them one on one has been so enjoyable, and I can tell how much they're benefiting from having more time to work on their reading, rather than having to worry about finishing their work before "class is over". They take all the time that they need, and seem to soak up every detail of both the story, and the new "tricky" words or phonics.

We've got a busy week ahead of us. The boys got a new science book full of projects and observations that can be done in your own backyard. I'm pretty excited about this one!

So far the boys have already been digging and identifying various types of bugs, and planting native flowers (and some weeds) to attract various types of butterflies, and bees.

Apparently, Stag Beetles are hard to come by these days, especially in the city, but thanks to some old tree roots in both our back and front yard, we have plenty. Now what that means for the rest of the garden, I don't know. Are they pests? I have yet to investigate!

We've also gotten a used composter, (thanks mom!) and the boys have been busy "feeding it". They've personified it in someway, it isn't just a hunk of black plastic. This is a magical being with some sort of smarts to it. It is their FRIEND, who allows them to play in his worms. (and they're very fascinated now that they've learned that compost is WORM POO. In Reuben's words, "THAT IS SO AWESOME!!") I'm glad my kids can get excited over compost.

On a more ME note, I'm busy designing some new rubber stamps, and more illustrations. Here are a couple of quick sillies I made up for some greeting cards. I called the bird a baby sandpiper, forgetting that sandpipers have really long beaks, and stripes!...oh well. I'll need to find a new family for this guy.

Bird in watercolors and pencil

I made this so that I could have some more "boyish" designs. This is a rough one, I'd like to do a larger, cleaner version.

Watercolor and Ink