Learning Through Living...

Eloise & Carmacita had a wonderful time building a playground for children who otherwise wouldn't have a safe place to play.

 Eloise quickly made friends with one of the recipients and got him involved in the project.

Here they are pictured preparing to paint a hop-scotch.

 These "Kaboom" projects are truly amazing.

Volunteers from HOME DEPOT and other companies arrive in the morning and are assigned to a team. By the end of the day the whole park is assembled. This one contained a "fleur de lis" shaped garden, a covered patio, picnic tables, four square, 4 hop scotch stations and a mulched playground.

Besides all of the work the girls enjoyed eating a free lunch from Subway and hamming it up with local celebrities.

We tried to give the children light jobs like painting, but they wanted to help haul the mulch.

 Mulch is one of the jobs that Hubby usually gets to do. It is hard work!

 I will have to take a picture of the finished project the next time we go across the river.

 While we were exploring Florida's Emerald Coast, Eloise was able to conduct a couple of experiments.

 She used this bottle to produce a few drops of fresh water from the salty ocean water.

She also used a magnet to find magnetic flecks in the sand.

 Of course she had to search for shells...

 ...but some of them weren't vacant.

 After researching "hermit crabs" on the net, we discovered that these guys do not survive well in captivity.

Eloise decided to return him to his natural habitat. We then purchased another domesticated hermit crab to play with the one we originally bought to accompany the wild one. Contrary to popular belief, hermit crabs are actually very social creatures and don't do well alone.

This vacation was very timely; as we were studying animal classification and habitats.

Eloise also received hands on training about dolphins, but you will have to check out those pics on her blog.

Also, don't forget to check out her latest book review. 

Great Things Are Happening....

We have been studying the civilizations that inhabited the Americas long before "Columbus sailed the ocean blue". The above are Mayan symbols that Eloise drew.

If you haven't noticed, we are a very "hands on" kind of school. Eloise is pictured crafting a leather canoe and tee pee. These were kits purchased at Hobby Lobby. The only part she needed assistance with was cutting the leather with an exacto knife. She did all of the sewing, gluing, and decorating.

These were the fruits of her labors.

The last thing I would like to mention is our new computer lab.

Thanks to a donation from the

GRAN & GRANDPA CORP.

Our class was able to upgrade from a tiny laptop to this beautiful touch screen computer.

It came fully loaded with Windows 7 and a library of educational resources.

Eloise has been learning how to use "Word" and "Mavis Beacon Typing for Kids" as well as taking a virtual tour through the human body and many other exciting programs.

The best part for the big people around here is the simplicity; the whole thing is what you see.

The only cord is the power cord.

It is amazing how advanced things have gotten since we purchased my desktop (only 3 years ago).

Check back Thursday evening for pics of our field trip.

Eloise & I will be helping Daddy build a community playground. The program is called "Kaboom" and is sponsored by The Home Depot.

Our Principal Is Also The Wood Shop Teacher....

 Eloise was having a bit of trouble with the table top easle. It works for small painting projects, but not so well for serious sketching lessons.

Hubby decided to build a miniature version of the "sketch horses" used in his college art classes.

Eloise helped him build it. They did a wonderful job. All of the edges are smooth and the angle of the board can be adjusted.

The best part is they have enough wood to make a big one for me!

We Finally Took The Plunge....

This morning, while thousands of children marched off to school, Eloise and I enjoyed a nice breakfast. We then headed upstairs to our "school". The above is a picture of our uniforms. Below is a close-up of our logo.

Overall it went really well. I will have to make a few adjustments to my lesson plans, but that was expected. We will be keeping you posted.

P.S. Kelly, We will be going on vacation at the end of the month too. We are going to Florida. Where are you headed?

P.P.S. Eloise's blog doesn't have anything new in the main post, but we added a few tabs with lots of photos at the top of the home page. Just click on Book Reviews, Hobbies, or Friends.

12 DAYS TO GO....

We are a little bit nervous, yet very excited about the start of this school year.

We've been using the classroom all Summer, but it won't be official till August 11th!