April consisted of studying plants. After finishing our study on famine and water, it only made sense to look at plants. I love all of our units but this one was especially enjoyable in that it was able to be taught with so many life lessons and not as much book work. We bought a large number of seeds and looked at the differences between each kind. We studied the parts of plants and the purpose of each part. We talked about all the uses of plants and how we use them in so many areas of our lives! It is such a blessing to be able to incorporate God and His wonder into all of our home school lessons and obviously this was a wonderful unit to accomplish that. We looked at many places in the Bible where plants were used as a teaching tool. Our favorite to look at was the parable of the sower with the seed that fell on all the different kinds of soil. I went looking on YouTube to find a video to illustrate it, and low and behold, there was a Lego video on it! While it was a bit of a different way to look at the story, the boys loved it and because it was Lego, I guarantee it is one of the Bible lessons they have learned the most from this year and will remember!
We made an all seed dinner one night. A few of the items were a bit of a stretch for being complete seeds but I needed them to have enough choices to actually eat a whole meal. We had green beans, popcorn, sunflower seed butter(similar to peanut butter but allergy friendly with our youngest son), whole wheat bread, granola bars, refried beans and tortillas. We also had soy milk to drink. The kids enjoyed the strange meal and it helped them be more aware of what food was made of seeds.
Along with our seed dinner we also ate avocados which obviously are not a seed. We needed the seeds from them though! We are trying to sprout three of them. Everything I have read says 2 to 6 weeks for sprouting so fingers crossed at least one will take. We did succeed though in sprouting a lemon seed for a lemon tree which is really exciting! We also started tomatoes, bell peppers and jalapeno peppers from seeds. My wonderful husband worked with the boys to lay out a garden bed. We have yet to transplant any of the seedlings into it because of some crazy rain the last few weeks but we hope to later this week.
This will be my first garden ever. I have successfully killed every plant I have ever had. How I have kept three kids and dozens of pets alive and not a few plants is beyond me but I am trying to overcome my curse and we really, really want this garden to work! We are planning on planting tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, carrots, lettuce, strawberries, watermelon, pumpkins and a few herbs. We also are going to do a few flowers to finish up a Cub Scouts Requirement. I will keep you updated on if I succeed or if the garden suffers the same fate as the other plants I have had!
Speaking of Cub Scouts, we had the big Blue and Gold Banquet in April. Landon earned his Bear Badge and 3 Arrow Points and Epi earned his Wolf Badge and 3 Arrow Points. They worked so hard this year and with it being their first year ever doing it I am so proud. They have enjoyed it and we will continue with any summer activities they have and then next year Landon will be in Weblos and Epi will be in Bears which I will lead. I am excited to try it out! They also kept busy with the scouts in April by doing a few flag ceremonies to open up the high school baseball games.
Tying nicely into our plant study, we did a wonderful art class towards the end of the month. I have to be fully honest when I say art is not either of our strong points. Crafts I am good at, but actual art techniques and skills came from my dad and not my mom for me! For this reason any outside opportunity to let the kids learn art skills is wonderful for us. We had the opportunity to go with a group of other home school kids to a painting class. Each child had a canvas and the teacher went through step by step what to paint to come out with a final painting of an apple tree. The kids loved it and it was great to see what they did. The most fun though was watching Daniel. This was the first time he has ever been in a classroom type situation and he loved it and had the two instructors almost in tears laughing at his comments and his desire to do this painting on his own. He would only let one of the instructors help him, not Joe or myself and it was so cute. He is really proud of his painting!
April also marked the end of basketball season for both the older boys. They really enjoyed playing basketball and I hope it is a sport they can do for a few more years at least. We run into an interesting sports situation in Texas with home schooling. In some states home school children are allowed to participate in sports teams at local public schools. Texas is not one of those states. There is a proposition in front of the state government to implement what they call the "Tim Tebow Law" which would allow Texas home schoolers to compete in public school sports. At first I was all for it but after much research we have actually decided it might create issues for home schoolers in Texas if passed because of the way home schooling is set up in Texas and the issues created would outweigh the benefits. For this reason we are not in support of the bill but realize that means we need to accept that the kids may not have as many sports opportunities or may not have them for as long. With that being said though, we will continue as long as we can and if the kids are still wanting more we will cross that bridge when we get there. This brings us to our next sport....... soccer. We have them all signed up and they will start practices later this month and participate most of the summer. There are a few reasons we are really excited for soccer. One is that the soccer league here goes all the way to age 18 so it is one sport they could continue regardless of home schooling. Another reason is that it has both summer and fall leagues so it is something they can do multiple times a year. The kids haven't played it in probably 4 years so it will take awhile to catch up but they are so excited!
This is the point in the blog where we will see if my husband ever actually reads the blog. He turned 40 years old in April! We are so blessed to have him and he is a wonderful man, husband, father and provider. Home schooling would not even be remotely possible without his support. We love you Joe and thank you for all you do!
