Life keeps moving on and

still no picture of the cucumber plant, but it seems to be doing ok. I will try to remember to get that tomorrow. Today was spent running some errands in between the morning homeschool routine & the afternoons tae kwon do.

A friend of mine told me about a great website called www.edhelper.com and I've been using that to create some good puzzles with spelling words, math games as well as critical thinking stuff. I know the unschoolers don't use worksheets, but they make for a good filler for us while I go to switch laundry, run dishes, etc. It works for grades k & up so it's certainly worth a subscription for all the varied things it offers.

Niles is reading Blackthorn Winter right now for his literature. It's a bit ahead of where we are in History but it has pirates, adventure and is a story about a young boy who heads off to sea and his ship is captured. He really likes it so far. It's a bit more difficult but it's certainly not too difficult for him. I also have the Carole Marsh mystery book about Blackbeard lined up next. This will be the third mystery by her that he's read. These are excellent books that have kids as the main characters and contain facts, as well as are just a good read. I may save this one for when we go to the beach, but that's a whole month away and I think he can finish the Blackthorn Winter book and this before hand. I guess we'll see. There are a couple other Carole Marsh books about the Outer Banks and NC to choose from if we get there.

Tomorrow, we'll be reading Straight From the Bear's Mouth - The Story of Photosynthesis and The Reason for a Flower in Science. I have a great workbook to use by Evan Moore which contains experiments, a plant log as well as lists of books to look at and read. Very cool stuff. We're using that to go along w/our garden. The great things about the book suggests is that they aren't simply textbooks. They also have stories, great illustrations and are written to entertain, as well as teach a lesson. Good stuff. Books that you like to read vs the plain old textbook that makes you want to fall asleep.