what kids love

During our Valentine's Day dinner with the kids, we asked them each what they loved most about our family. "Snuggling", "Wrestling", "Christmas" ......"The connection between mom and dad - their relationship".

Wow.

Meet Patrick. And Patrick.

Just in case you thought it was cute that two of my boys painted their starfish drooling and wearing green shorts (this is for you, D), you need to know that they painted them to look like Patrick from Spongebob. (See previous post.) When we sketched mollusks, I got Gary the snail. Complete with a "meow" word balloon. From Spongebob. And when we studied sea-sponges....well, do I really need to go on?

Our entire invertebrate unit was like a tribute to Spongebob Squarepants and all his chums. Squidward, even Plankton made it into one or two pages. Yes, Mr. Crabs, too...however, I don't think they thought of Sandy the (underwater??) squirrel during the mammals unit a few months back. What IS Sandy doing in Bikini Bottom, anyway? That never occurred to me before.

"What exactly ARE those children learning over there, anyway?" It's what you're thinking, I know.

I wonder, if we would ever have to submit "proof" of our home education, if the powers that be would take issue with science notebooks filled with Spongebob illustrations. Hmmmm....

realistic, indeed....

We just got done with a science unit on invertebrates. One of the sections was on echinoderms (starfish, sand dollars..), and a suggested activity was to make starfish from salt-dough. (side note: Ever plunged your dry, cracked, winter hands into a bowl full of salt, flour, and water? Mostly salt? aaaAAAGGHHHHH!) So we made starfish, and carefully etched the five "spiny" rays and added texture, etc. We waited a long time (days) for them to dry so we could paint them. I was envisioning what kinds of realistic colors and designs the kids would come up with, and wouldn't they look pretty hanging on the wall with an "ocean" background?

Sigh.

Well, they did have a lot of fun. :)

He was a good fish...

Rest in Peace, Jeff the fish. You gave us four good months for the bargain price of $2.99. I'm sorry that the children wanted to see if Henry and Charlotte would eat you after you died. And I apologize if posting a picture of you dead on my blog is completely sick. We will miss you.