catching up

Henry David Thoreau once explained his philosophy of schooling as such... "students should not play life, or study it merely, while the community supports them at this expensive game, but earnestly live it from beginning to end."

And so we have been taking this great man's advice. Last week was a little crazy as Josh's big sister came over for a visit and dinner and then ended up getting very sick and staying with us for a few days to recover. No it was not my cooking lol but unfortunately she caught a bad virus. Josh spent alot of time out in our backyard with his new bird friends. He is set on eventually getting them to eat out of his hand. He has been obsessed with this ever since I told him the story of how Thoreau was able to feed numerous different animals including birds right out of his hand when he was living at Walden Pond. At the end of the week we made a visit to the Bird Viewing Preserve out in Henderson, NV. We had a great time and it was amazing to see so many differnt birds especially the waterbirds and waders. It soon became apparent that Josh is wayyy better at identifying birds than I am. lol We are looking forward to going back. Maybe tomorrow to celebrate John Audubon's birthday. What better way :)

This past Saturday Josh, his dad and I went to a presentation at Red Rock Canyon put on by the Las Vegas Astronomical Society. It was really well done and a fun time. We saw a slide show presentation on Saturn and the Cassini mission and then went outside to use telescopes that numerous volunteers from the society had brought and set up for viewing. We were able to see Saturn and its rings and Jupiter along with other stars and such. What generosity of these people to share of their time, knowledge, and EXPENSIVE telescopes. Some of these were HUGE! It was fun and easier to see the stars without as much light pollution from the strip as we get in our neighborhood. We were excited to be able to see the constellation of Orion. We are looking forward to going on a full moon hike up at Red Rock (this is just one of the many fantastic programs they put on up there) on Sunday. We are also signed up for a "clean up the canyon program" next Tuesday which will be our way of celebrating Earth Day which is this Friday.

This week has been a little crazy again with getting Josh's older brother's passport for his trip to Germany this summer and his oldest sister's Honors Convocation Ceremony today at UNLV and his other older sister getting ready for dance shows at her high school. We are trying to fill in as best we can. That's the beauty of homeschooling. We can learn ANY time of the day or week.