Mar. 21-25, 2011

We took a trip to the farm as a starter activity for our farm unit.  He felt right at home!

                                     

                         Check out the chicks                                                         Tractor ride…kind of 

                      

 

                     

                       Newborn pigs                                

                       Molly, the sheep                               Ride’m cowby                         Love this pic of Molly

                                                                             Hay ride                                                 Front row seat

                          

Even Papa went on the ride                   Love this straw picture!                     Cowboy swing

  

                                Posing on the bridge at the farm…gorgeous little boy

                          

                           The farmer gave us fertilized Cochin chicken eggs for our incubator

                

                                                                                Our eggs                                              Due date:  April 13

                         

      Time for the Playmobil farm, even Big Bro loves it           Our first chrysalis

                                   

                                                          4 others are preparing to transform                        

                                                        

           Co-op…painting his clay pot from a previous week and making some new concoction

                                    

                 Making our farm mural                                      Helping me make a healthy smoothie

                    

Our nutrition workshop with Bianca.  The boys learned about the benefits of exercise to various muscle groups.  We learned the difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercises.

                                                      

Updated progress photos of our raised bed gardens.  We planted some seeds and transplanted some young plants.  So these are photos on Day #1.  We are hoping for toads so we even put a toad house in between each garden.

                                  

We have leek, peppers, lettuce, onions, mint, basil, cucumbers, pumpkins, rosemary, carrots and shallots.

                   

In this bed we have tomatoes, watermelon, blackberries, strawberries and eggplant.

                                                                

Mar. 14-18, 2011

Caterpillars!  Our caterpillars finally arrived and they are so tiny.  This is going to be fun!

                                                         

 

                                            Co-op this week:  recycled art…he made a robot.

                             

                      Creative genius at work                                  We didn’t finish the project over Spring Break so we had to extend it into this week as well.  Here we are all working on the painting. 

                    

Big Bro came home from co-op and was interested in his mixture from class that we wanted to come home and do it with Lil Bro as well.  The first project in the kitchen solo without mom!

                                                                       

Daddy put a weed block on the bottom of each garden.  As we rolled it out, we realized that the material is the same stuff that is on the back or underside of some furniture. 

                                                               

The book we used as a resource for our garden suggested we use 5 different kinds of compost for the boxes.  So with that in mind, I hunted all over Tampa for various kinds of compost.  Here’s what I found:  Hen, earthworm, cow, forest and mushroom compost. 

                     

 

                                             

                                                          Our 2 yr old compost bin              The site of the new garden beds.

 

                                                       Here’s the mix of all five composts. 

                       

                  Now with the vermiculite                                         Adding the weed block to the back

                       

               Bottom of one raised garden bed                                              Finished box #1    

                        

                   The first bucket of the soil mixture:  vermiculite, compost & peat moss

                                   

                                                                               Box # 1 is filled

                                                            

                                                                    He’s proud of his robot

                                                              

                                                 The caterpillars at the end of the week