On the Homeschool Front.

The Boys are almost done for the year. The two oldest have finished for the semester and are now working to save money for the next. My oldest went through his graduation ceremony and made his mama smile. Toward the end of the semester the other boys were teasing me about making such a big deal about his graduation. It was after all only an Associates degree. But I heard my eldest tell them to leave me alone, it was like the high school graduation that he never had. They did stop bugging me about it after that, but my seconded oldest told me with a gleam in his eye that he would graduate but wouldn't walk for either his Associates or his bachelors degrees; that I would have to wait for his Masters to see him walk. I smiled that knowing smile that my mother used to use on me and said "We'll see." Little do they understand the power of a mothers will.

My youngest is through with everything except his math. He would be done with that but he and his older brother have a major case of Spring Fever. My second oldest has math and bible left to do. If they would just do it they could be done but they won't. The grass is calling, the days are long and warm and there is a cool breeze in the air. How can a school book compete with that? So we do other outside stuff.

Yesterday the dogs raised a huge racket. When my son investigated what should he find out in the field but a large, 1 ft. diameter, turtle. He came to get his brother an I so that we could see it too. I, ever the mommy, was worried that the dogs would kill it. We have one dog who is the leader of the two puppies that was wild when he got him. He had been running around a friend neighborhood living off whatever for months and was in the process of eating a deer when my husband stopped and called him in the car. He was one visit from animal control away from being in doggy jail, but they couldn't catch him. He nearly starved himself to death before we could get him to eat dog food. He still would rather have a rabbit, but everything else considered, he is a sweet boy. Anyway, I don't think he would be above trying to eat the turtle.

On the other hand we do have snapping turtles in this area. I'm not sure what they look like compared to other turtles but I didn't want my son getting bit in an attempt to find out. I told my son my worries as he got ready to move it and he said that he was pretty sure it was one. When I asked how he knew he told me he had move it away from the dog once before and that it had tried to bite him then. Sure enough when my son carefully picked it up it's mouth came open. luckily it was too afraid to pull it's head out of the shell very far to do much damage. It just sat there with it's mouth open. I wish I had though to take pictures but I was so shocked by it's size to do more than stand there and watch it for a while.

We have been checking out the birds, rabbits, and wild flowers. Because the field hasn't been hayed yet they grass is high and there are plenty of flowers out there. They are so pretty. Every time I walk through the field I think about the settlers walking through the plains. They say the young girls sometimes collected wild flowers as they went. I can't help feel that it must have been very much like our field.

Out west of us, out of the hills and hollers, is the Tall Grass Prairie. They have replanted all the old grasses and let the wild flowers grow. A few years back they let Buffalo loose on it again so that it would look much like it did a hundred years ago. I think that would make a good field trip for the boys this summer. I'll have to talk to my husband about going.

We used to take field trip like that more often before my husbands health started to fail. Last summer he and I took the boys out too see Monte Nae because the lake was low and you could see a lot more of the old town. As we started to leave my oldest got a little wistful and said "We used to do this kind of stuff all the time. This was fun." I resolved at that point to do more of it again, but the school year started and trying to come up with places to go got put on the back shelf. It's time to pull it down and dust it off again.

Most of my curriculum is purchased for next year. I only have a few literature books and one book for history left. I found what I wanted on Ebay and thought I would get it at a pretty good price. I put a ten dollar bid on it to see how it would do. I had twenty dollars left of my school book money so I thought it would be fine. I ended up giving it to my husband but he promised that he would get it back to me in time to take care of the book. That was before all the money problems. I have spent the last few days figuring that the book would go for more than that and praying that I would be right because I knew that we really needed that money for gas money. The sale ended at $10.50. One the one had a part of me say "Oh man $10.50, what a good price." On the other hand the mature, sensible side of me says "Thank you Father!"

Well in seven minutes it will be 9:00 and the school day will start so I had better go.

P.S. Oh the joys of school work! My youngest has decided that before he can start the window by his desk really does need washed and is in the process of doing that right now. If only I could get him to wash windows at any other time. He's doing better than his brother though, who has decided that guitar practice is of utmost importance. How else will he be able to play during church one day?