New reader on the way!

He is slowly but surely sounding out and reading to me!  I am so proud of him!  He lost his second front bottom tooth yesterday and they say one is ready to read once their teeth start to come in..seems to be true here..so excited for Win!

Lego Club::Snowflakes

By Winston and Gunnar.  I don't think its finished though?

Field trip::Stay trip?

Our neighbor got a new driveway.  For about four days, we were intrigued and made daily pilgrimages to check it all out.  Here are some photos.


the tear down, what mom, there is dirt under the driveway?



the concrete scrobbling, spreading?  Followed by a brief reading on the history of concrete.

dudes and trucks = cool

My kitchen floor is gross::sewing

Yes, it is gross.  Food, dried, crusty food drips, crumbs and I suppose, its okay.  So what.  The tile is dirt or sand color anyway.  (Thank you first homeowner, good call.)  Well, I say that but I will sweep if five month old boy stays asleep through the crashing of Legos by the five and eight year old and the sure to be tantrum throwing of the three year old when I tell her we are eating Paleo Breakfast Pizza and no, she cannot have another Rainbow Popsicle.

We are, well the children are, getting over lingering illness.  Fevers for days, runny noses, even sinus infection of one boy and now today, I seem to be succumbing to it.  We have never had an illness, small illness, that takes this long.  I know appetites are not normal right now.  I try to remember the Immunoberry drops, vitamins, probiotics, borage oil.  Pedialyte freezer pops anyone?

I did, with the support of my husband, manage some sewing.  Its an escape from dragging on but not serious illness and, I am really tired of all the skin tight pant and top styles out there on the rack.  This is all I have had a chance to photograph today.  I rarely get photos taken of me but maybe I can get some more.  Silly, dark photo but you can see the silhouette of this raglan top anyway.  I put some sway in my hips to look sassy because that's how I feel in these tops, sassy and cute but not cutesey.

I love these easy patterns and like the way they look on me more than I expected.  They are VERY loose and large.  I am sure those ladies on "What Not To Wear" on TLC, would not approve..not snug enough but, I really like the silhouette I am getting here.  I can wear a nursing tank top and pop one of these over it which provides some modesty.  The fabrics are lightweight cotton or cotton lawn.  I am thinking, BoHo, Anthropologie, unique, different.

I have also constructed some pants.  All patterns are from the book, Simple Modern Sewing.  It is a Japanese sewing book which is translated to English.  It's not easy.  I have employed other finishing techniques I have garnered over the years from other patterns, sewing books and just paying attention to details and asking questions.  I make acquaintances at JoAnns all the time!  We talk sewing because we love it.  This book leaves out details and that might frustrate a beginner sewist.

Here is another not so fab photo but there it is.  The one on the left is the one I modeled.  I made two more!  Oh yeah, me likes, a lot.  I pick up cotton or linen or blend fabrics that I love, whenever I find them or there is a sale, even if I don't know what I will do with them yet, that way I have some good material to work with when I have inspiration and make time to do it.  Usually 2 to 2.5 yards is enough to make a top or pants for a woman.

Back to that floor and the laundry and the dishes and the school lessons and the runny nose.  I do love my life at home, I really do.

Lovely neck casing detail, the best part of the top.

What are you making these days?  Please share a link!

A day may as well be a week

These days of winding down are kind of hectic.  The very fact that I can admit that they are winding down in the last months of pregnancy is a big enough step.  There is so much I want to do but just cannot fit it all in the day or night.  I crave my afternoon nap, I want to finish up formal schooling around here before Thanksgiving.  I want to nest and knit more.  I want to just keep house and make nutritious food.  I just want to get to the park more in the cooler days ahead.  This is a smattering of what is going on right now in photos.  The busy-ness of our life together as a family will only increase in time.  I am trying not to overhwhelm myself with it all and just take it all in one day at a time.

 King Tutankamen exhibit at the MFAH coincides with our history timeline as we are in Egypt right now.  It was not child targeted and I noticed, I was the only parent with a gaggle of children in attendance, however, we paced it fine, even enough for me to enjoy it..no snacks or drinks in tow.  It was great and they did great.  I was not informed though that the mummy of King Tut has never left his tomb and the one we saw, enclosed in a plexiglass case, was a duplicate.  It was still amazing to see in person.  The children thought it was gross.  The gift shop was fun and everyone got a souvenir of shiny rocks.

An early Saturday morning ultrasound.  I have had two now in this pregnancy.  Against what I would rather do considering the controversy of their saftety however, I felt the benefits outweighed the risks, both times.  My back up midwife, Leah, thought I had excessive amniotic fluid.  We wanted to see if I had what is called polyhydramnios which can indicate a host of things, most likely, I would have thought, a birth defect as the other reasons did not seem feasible for me.  A prayer just before from Martin as we went in, as a family to check on the baby.  A prayer to accept God's plan for this little one.  The test showed no excessive fluid and a normal babe.  We don't do prenatal testing so things can still present at birth but excessive testing leads to excessive worry and false positives...we let the Lord handle the details.  The rest of the day, we counted our blessings and savored the moments together and healthy.

Why is it, just before the baby is born, the "baby" stops acting like, well, a baby?

 

More potty interest and exploration.

Paint mommy?  Yes.  She has special little girl paint for when mama is inspired to paint her toes and we do it together most times.

Woke up early and hit the grocery store with me recently.  It was all good with her Starbucks hot apple cider.

Fall Festival at the TGR Exotics Wildlife Park.  We are still asking ourselves, why didn't Daddy jump in on this photo?  It was a pro photographer that took it that day.  We still shake our heads.  That is a baby kangaroo, a joey, in the pouch in my arms...so sweet!  I guess I love baby anything!

Roasting the largest pumpkin ever in my life.  Made puree and froze some, made bread with the rest and trying to get more Vitamin A from whole foods into all the people here as much as possible.

I cannot believe I am showing you this, but, here it is...I have placed a small mirror that I had gotten out for a science project, in my window, above the ktichen sink.  When I catch a glimpse of the mama in it, as she tosses more dishes in there, washes them, washes her hands for the 20th time today, etc., her face reminds me that "the children need you to love them and show them on your face".  There is so much meaning in just your face.  I have enjoyed seeing what I look like to them, throughout the day.  I also give the reflection a pep talk when necessary.  I think it has made me more aware of how I behave even if mama is tired and ready for that nap!  Be nice please, be kind, be patient.  I am always modeling.  Like it or not.

 cursive writing and happy at the ease of it

 sounding out letters better and better all the time

The YMCA had a Fall Festival complete with bounce houses, a train ride, small games for candy.  This was on a Friday night so going out on a Friday night?  Well, unheard of in our house.  We did it though and were happy to do it.  They enjoyed it for the most part.  The weather also had changed from mosqitoes and humid to cool and dry..much better to enliven a night out.

More thoughts and memories to come...

Nature is shifty

By this time of year, in October, I am in full swing itching for cooler days.  The funny part is that, while living here in Texas, as I always have, I find myself outside while children play with buzzing bees and mosquitoes and some sweat beading off your brow, needles in hand.  The sweat makes for easy hold on the woolly silk yarn but it just does not yet feel "right".  None of it.

I recall, two autumns ago (can we call it that in our three season state?  autumn?), when I first began deliberately homeschooling.  I was hot to trot to do a small unit on Fall Nature Study.  I am so out of touch with what goes on outside at times (I am mostly an indoor gal) that I thought we would roam the neighborhood, more like...just our street, and find new fall colors from fallen leaves..in October.  Not.  There was maybe a handful of lightly yellowing turned leaves to be had or they were brown and dried up or just plain green.  For me, it turned out to be more of a "don't hype up a lesson until you see if nature provides" kind of thing rather than a great lesson on why the leaves change color in fall.  I guess I should pay attention to where or what part of the country the author hails before implementing my nature study choices.  The viewpoint of the author...matters.  This is one of those little things that mama/teachers learn along the way.  Its a good thing really.  Actually, its these little reality checks in my school that keep me from getting too hyper about how well I am doing and all the other plagues of being a teacher/mama.  Am I doing enough?  Am I doing the right thing for the age group I have right now?  Blah, blah, blah.  The beauty, the lesson, is really in the questions.  Not necessarily my questions but, my "students" questions of course.

So I have found, with any lesson I do now, that while I keep the oldest one especially, the middle one somewhat and the littlest one "kinda" going along and following what I am teaching, I love, even happily anticipate, the questions.  I have had to teach the two oldest that they can only ask a question pertaining to the reading, lesson, etc., while I am doing it, save it for later otherwise because there are so many and that has been a lesson in itself!  I am talking about our group study work.  Bible, Science/Nature Study and History.  (Not to imply that my oldest is ready for me not to be near or at elbow for study...he needs me for sure when it comes to handwriting, spelling, reading lessons, math lessons)

Let's talk Science.  I recently purchased a download on SCM called 106 Days of Creation Studies.  I was struggling with implementing one of the five or so books on science experiments/projects that we own, into our weekly plan and it frustrated me.  I really love science although I did not progress very far in school with it.  The highest level I met was basic Chemistry I think?  I was an Art student.  I would love to have been more like Leonardo da Vinci with his multi talents in art and science but, my dear reader, that is why he was the great Leonardo.  We have read this fabulous bio on him here.  Anyway, I segway.  So back to yesterdays science/Bible lesson.  From the book, 106 Days...on creation day one, there is a unit on shadows.  We were to draw around our feet, on the pavement and then outline each others shadows.  We did it.  We came in, we ate lunch and other things and planned to return a few hours later to re-record our shadows from the point of our same feet in the same spot we had marked.  I quickly realized that mama chose a bad spot.  The house had blocked all bits of sunshine from the cloudy day.  Oops... what now?  They get out their bikes and begin to ride and play while I start thinking...do we just skip this lesson or move it to tomorrow?  No, I don't want to skip it, it is good.  The Bible verse associated with it here:

Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. ~James 1:17

So I get out my knitting, begin to work and think.  I realized that I don't have to do the three times in a day shadow marking, as the lesson suggests, to make the point.  I can get a new tracing in a good spot, play out here for an hour and then retrace and voila, lesson activity will work!  Well, low and behold, an hour later, sweat beading down, children hungry and hot, we go to check and the same mass of clouds happily perched right over the sun.  We talked about how the clouds put the whole village (that is what we call our suburban neighborhood) in a big shadow.  I read the Bible verse.  I asked what did it mean?  Blank stares.  Not a bad thing, the blank stares.  I have had to learn this one though.  So, today, I will not be lecturing, I will perhaps re-read the verse after we again, go outside, in the sun, and playfully, twice over an hour, mark our shadows and show them so they can indeed, ask the questions.  The beauty is in the questions.  There are not any answers given in this study.  It is provoking.  I have my ideas of the authors intent.  I will try not to lead unless I have to but, I anticipate the shadows and the Word will show them the way.

Nature is shifty.  Families with gardens know this all too well.  I hope to have some kind of vegetable garden one day not just as example of wonderful lessons learned from a garden like patience, consistent care needed like weeding and watering and fighting off pests but also for the bounty and beauty we could grow in our own backyard.  We plan to start just simply cultivating the soil.  We will begin with a compost pile but I want it contained and that, for now, is the hang up.  Until then, it seems every deliberate "nature study" we embark upon may just give us those little lessons anyway...patience, unpredictability and successes and failures.  Like life, yes?

Habit training gone wackadoo

Charlotte Mason says that habit training is...

“What you would have the man become, that you must train the child to be” (Vol. 2, p. 15)

For some time now, I have a regular routine of "morning chores"..they all know what I am talking about.  Little habits of neatness that make my day start right.  Little things that make our personal space more, happy?  Is that the word?  I do these things without thinking.  I do these things for visual harmony and also for my husband's relaxation or to induce it anyway even if we have three little indians running wild in through the house when he gets home, atleast it looks less chaotic.  More importantly, there is a time to play/make messes and a time to clean up and start over or change gears.  Anyway, the list is this:

Morning Chores

• Make beds
• Dress/hang up jammies or fold up for the next night
• Feed/water cats
• Breakfast
• Back upstairs to brush teeth/hair

And while upstairs, I get dressed and they play a game like Old Maid or Tangoes or Legos or a Richard Scarry or B. Potter video, sometimes just quiet free play and reading...there are variations on those things depending on the mood.  Sometimes I wonder if farm families really care about all this with all the land and animal chores waiting outside..hummmmm.

This is the wacky part.  For over a month, mostly consistently, the boys have been completing all before they come down for breakfast!!  Great.  Saves time and no hassle for me to lead them through it, right?  Well, this is the really wacky part.  They even make my bed sometimes!  See example below!  Remember, the boys are almost 8 and almost 5 but not yet.  Feeling good about my routine, right?  Now it gets, wackadoo.

Recently, they have confessed (is it really a confession or just they wanted me to know I think) that they get up in the wee hours of the night, get dressed, make their bed and cover themselves with a blanket and go back to sleep.  This way, the boys contend, there is less to do in the morning.  What??  Hold on now.  I do recall, in his bachelor days, their father did something similar and has told them about it.  Did they remember that sage advice?  I am not sure.

I told them that we have plenty of time in the morning since I homeschool so we are not rushing off to school.  We are here to cultivate habits and we can get these things done and they don't need to do that in the middle of the night.  They just look at me.  I have not asked recently if they have done it.  I usually get up before them and occasionally look in on them and so far, have not seen them atop the bed with a blanket and dressed so it does not happen all the time I think.

I don't think they are stressed with my habit training.  They don't get angry or resentful about it but just seem to know, it has to be done so they were being...practical.  I keep it nice, friendly but steady but maybe I am just a wee bit too habitual for my own good!  Now the details of things like putting the lid back on the toothpaste, flushing the toilet every, single time, pick up a toy in your room when finished with it (you know, the kind of toy with a 100 pieces scattered hither and yon)...things like this, well, the training goes on and on. 

I am trying to feel happy about this one gone a little overboard for now and not worry over it. It is really cute, really.

I cannot leave her out on the subject of habit training.  She is not the least bit interested in the potty which is okay with me.  The time will come when she will want to with gusto just like the boys.  She does have a habit of bringing me all supplies to change her though.  I can live with that for now.  She also unloads her dresser drawer to get dressed in the morning..thats a start.  It's fun and funny.

Is there anything you have taught your children that has stuck really, really well?  Please share!  Got ideas on the toilet flushing thing?



What he did

I am still a little shocked at this behavior.  My second born was motivated by what, I still do not know and can only speculate.  My first born is still "feeling" it in more than one way.

We have a secured bookcase that the boys, like it or not, love to perch on and read/play or even take leaps to the floor..sometimes dropping army guys with parachutes..."Mom, it is the best spot!" they plead.  One morning, Winston was reading/playing on top the shelf and Gunnar was directly below reading quietly...until, all broke loose.  Gunnar wailed in pain suddenly and came to me with Winston soon behind with a tone of voice that indicated his intentions and then his words, he was sorry.  One of these,

a sturdy cedar tree section pencil holders made by John and Cheryl Amelang, right on his noggin!  Ouch.

And boy, was he hot!  He gets really mad and I would too...it was surprise attack in his mind...although, an accident.

And here is where the shock comes.  Winston made what I would call, a trail of apology..of sorts.

 As you walk along, first there is a smiley made of blocks...

 then a frown...

 then a sweet smiley again and,

 a collection of books, toys and a favorite copy of Gunnar's Calvin and Hobbes library and his own loved handmade Hobbes.  So sweet.  It made a big difference to Gunnar.  He really appreciated it and the brothers carried on their friendship! 

The sewing lesson

She loves to be with me.  And, I do love to be with her.  The boys are wild outside with their Dad and she inside, listening to the whir of my sewing machine and taking part in it with me.  Saying to me "mommy, I hep a you?"  How can I resist??  So I took out an embroidery hoop and spread an old sheet scrap on it.  In the past, she has used burlap but she seemed to want more, for me to increase the difficulty a little.  I gave her a steel, blunt tip needle, pink (is there any other color in her life more beautiful right now?...No.) embroidery floss and then I lightly drew a letter "T" and began to stitch..then, she took over and loved the entire 5 to 8 minutes of it.  So did I so much.

Showing her to put the needle down through the top then back up through the back and back down through the top...well, she will get there.

Call Me Chicken::A Science Project

LOOK WHAT WE HATCHED!

The incubator, full and warming a steady 99.5 degrees as we checked it daily, right in our living room.

Would you let these people handle fragile eggs with growing embryos daily??

The warm new nest for the new babies, ready and waiting, Martin set it up when the first hatchling was imminent...I was so excited and nervous, almost just like my own births!

The waiting and watching and listening to the movement of the hatching eggs was difficult to bear. He did his best and sat with me on the couch.

I was so anxious, nervous even, that I had a stomachache! I had to park on the couch for some rest time as we waited, and waited and listened.

And finally...there he/she was! He/she was still when we opened the lid and we all stared at each other locked in silence.

Unsteady and wet but warming nicely in the warm, cushy chickie bed...

You can see where the yolk was attached to the inside of the shell with tiny blood vessels visible too.

We decided he/she needed some sunny dry time after an hour or so of birth, we could not resist him!! Mamas and daddies know how it is with your first baby!

And, before long, a passel of chicks! So, so much fun you would not even believe! Our every day was permeated with sweet cheeps and visiting them, feeding them, loving them, right in my living room.

********************************************

It is 7am. (I wrote most of this letter the morning after they went to their new home.)

I think I still hear them behind the whir of the washing and drying machines. the faint "cheep, cheep" that may be coming from the trees just outside or from the grass, as they slurp morning dew or find insects jumping.

I had watched "The Natural History of the Chicken" on Netflix streaming some time last year. We watched it again with our project...lots of interesting lore and truth on ...chickens. I know and, have explained in a general way why we buy the chickens the way we do to the children, the inhumane and dirty practices of the big commercial chicken farms by watching other documentaries such as "Food, Inc." on Netflix and for several years now, we have been purchasing our meats through a local co-op found here: http://www.localharvest.com/ that orders poultry specifically from Fran's Fryers, read more about their procedures here. You can find a similar producer from localharvest.com for your family.

I like it because I know these birds are clean. I know they get to eat bugs. I know their feed is non-GMO and they are humanely harvested the old fashioned way. As a child for one Easter, my sister and I each received a two or three week old chick. I still remember that we kept them in a box in the garage. I don't remember caring for it, watering and feeding it, or changing the newspaper and leaf debris or straw in the box as we did here but I do remember my chick moved to my grandmother's house in Conroe and grew to be a mean spirited rooster we all called, for better or for worse, "Traci Rooster". I also recall chasing the chickens in my grandmother's yard...that was fun. There ends my short history of interaction with chickens. Well, besides the fact that I am an avid consumer of the meat and eggs like many people.

Now, as a homeschooling mother, I get a chance to dig into things that I did not quite get to know enough about before and I am motivated by my curious children as most mother's will be, and therefore, always on the lookout to explore something new together. Aha, chickens, a science project! Let's go!

My friend who runs our local co-operative, Marilyn or Miss Marilyn, as the children say, knew I wanted to incubate my own eggs. She keeps a coop and sells her eggs on co-op days so this would help her out too. We talked about it several times and she had provided the opportunity to other homeschool families in our co-op. In time, it came together and one afternoon, on June 8th, she arrived with a brand new, hand turn incubator and approximately 40, hopefully fertilized, fresh chicken eggs.

Marilyn told me about the incubator, left the owner's manual, stressed we would need to hand turn all the eggs 2 to 4 times per day. No problem, right? ahem...well, more on that one...

We set it up and it took the rest of the day, over the next 8 hours or so, to get the temperature just right, 99.5 degrees and steady in the incubator, meanwhile, I left the eggs in the garage to keep them warm. Actually, now that I think about it, I left them on our counter and then later to the garage as I had underestimated how long it would take to get that incubator to a steady temp. That night, before bed, I loaded them in and it all began.

In the ensuing days and weeks to follow, we calculated the due date. If chickens take 21 days to hatch and we got ours started on June 8th, I estimated the chickie due date to be June 28th so we planned to stop turning the eggs a few days prior to allow them to "position" themselves for hatching. That day was a Tuesday but we know, due dates are approximate, and in keeping true to that fact, our first chick was born on Sunday, June 26th..Gunnar found him just after he emerged and names him "James". After that, Winston named the next one "Tom" and then I named the third, I decided it was a girl "Pearl". There were six born overnight and as Martin took the incubator and the box upstairs to our bedroom for the night, I played chicken midwife all night long...happily. I named one more a girl name "Lavinia" and then quite lost track of who was whom. In the night, I got up each time to check on the newly hatched to see it and then would leave it to warm up, recover and stretch until the next hatchling and when I would I would check that one, I would put the earlier born one into the hatch box with the others in the cushy leaves with the warm lamp and the familiar sounds of siblings, food and water. What an exciting night it was for me! I felt badly the boys were sleeping through it but knew we had plenty more to be born the next day.

By Tuesday, we still had babies hatching but things had slowed down.

On Tuesday, the chickie due date, to break the tension, and also because they were in town, my cousin and her daughter joined us to bounce out some stress at Bouncin' Bears and then out to eat for Tex-Mex. It was such an enjoyable day and a nice break in the tension of animal husbandry for us all.

Altogether, we got 27 hatchlings but not all was perfect. The first crack in the shell is called a pip. There was one egg in particular we had noticed had a pip on Sunday but by Tuesday still had not hatched. We could hear and see the egg rocking and the little beak showing just through a break of the pip so I knew he was alive...finally, when that one was born, we named him "Slow Poke". The others seems to hatch more quickly once we saw a pip. Tuesday night, maybe it was Monday, there was a sad hatchling that actually took the wind out of my sails and made my tummy sink with sadness. It was born with most of its internal organs in a sac on the outside. I knew that we could not take him to a surgeon (like who would you go to?) and I even considered trying to push things back in myself but feared I would hurt the poor thing. Martin and I talked it over and as I had observed, the poor thing had not been able to even amble to take water or food and I thought about helping it eat/drink but still just knew, it could not survive. Martin and I made the decision to decapitate it quickly. I offered to do it since this project was by no means Martin's responsibility and I knew there could be complications with these little births. Man though, it was tough thinking it over. We were making a decision a farmer makes often and even daily. We knew he would likely suffer and die.

Although all were heartbreaking, here is our most devastating birth defect chickie. So sad it left a hollow pit in my tummy when I first saw him.

In fact, there were more casualties. There were five in all. There were two more birth defects with one again, we put out of his misery and the next, even though he was not as desperately deformed, he still had intestine or cloaca or something external by about 1/2", so we made him a close but separate area with food and water and by morning, he had died. The fourth casualty was from a broken leg. I am not sure if I was not careful enough in my supervision of the children (yes, plenty of guilt feelings ensued) with the chicks or if it happened with his flock mates or what but again, we helped to separate him/her and hoped for the best. We had to separate them to protect them from the lively pecking other chicks. Anyway, he died. Then finally, a seemingly physically perky one was deceased just surprisingly on Wednesday or Thursday afternoon..I am not sure what day, but it was born no later than Tuesday and seemed just fine. I guess you never know.

The children and the chicks dying was no big deal really. Maybe they reacted a little too casually actually. Seems they understand that some things live and some things die. They were delighted to hold and cuddle and talk to the chicks. We cleaned plenty of chicken baby poo and tinkle from the carpet. It was chlorophyll green. I regret that we did not let them run outside too much but I was concerned of injury or loss...22 babies plus my three running loose....not an easy management in the tall grass. They would have enjoyed the sunshine and bugs though. I knew that Marilyn would come on Thursday, Friday or Saturday. She came on Thursday and we talked about the deformities. She suspected we did not turn them enough...again, guilt...I did the best I could at managing the hand turning but know that next time, (yes, I want to do it again sometime...maybe ducklings?) we must aim higher for 3 to 4 times per day. The boys always helped and this lesson was wonderful in many ways..more ways than they know now. Patience, responsibility, fine motor skills, accuracy, exactitude (make sure you put the lid back on the incubator straight to keep babies warm!)...how many times did I say that last month? Many. It was fun. It was also interesting. It was sometimes tiring.

We checked out some good books from our library linked here on amazon. This is not my extensive good books on chickens list (I do not have one) but rather what I could find at the library quickly as we already had the chicks incubating.

How An Egg Grows Into A Chicken

for the very young, color paper collage illustrations and not too heavy on much, a good introduction

Tillie Lays An Egg

funny story of a hen looking for a good spot to lay her egg and find good worms to eat with color photos

Inside An Egg

my favorite one we found with live photos of eggs at different stages of fertilization and growth with egg shell and membrane removed so you can really see it as well as x-ray photos of skeletal forms and details on reproduction...our first real lesson in how babies are made that I discussed with the 7 year old

Chicks and Chickens

another one done in watercolors skipping the full on reproduction part but still showing how an egg forms in the ovary, etc. I bought this one as I am a sucker for books soulemama recommends but that I cannot find at my local library.

It has been two and a half weeks on Thursday since they went to live with Miss Marilyn in their new small chicken coop. We visited our babies just yesterday and the boys found "James", "Tom" and "Pearl" in the small crowd. We were very surprised that our first chicks born on Sunday, had stiff feathers appearing in their wings by Tuesday..they grow very fast so we expected changes in them. By November, if the weather is not too cold, the hens will begin laying. I wish we could track our chicks somehow but they will get mixed in with the older flock and they will change so much in time. It would be fun to know that we are eating "James" eggs and "he" is a girl! We are thankful for the time we had and I hope to do a project like this again in a couple of years for the younger ones. So much fun it was for sure!

(pics are blurry, phone pics)

If you do get a chance, please watch "The Natural History of the Chicken" on Netflix. There is a beautiful and heroic story about a mama hen that would make you want someone to call you "chicken" anytime.

Here is a video clip of a live hatch! The children are calling like a mama hens to the chicks to encourage them out as the books told us that mama's do. (I know, they don't sound like chickens but they had a way they thought it should be so we went with it!) The pencil lines you see on the eggs are to mark one side so we could keep track of making a full turn of the egg each time we rotated them. Did you know, if you wet an egg to wash it with soap to remove poop/dirt, it permeates and would harm the embryo? So if you see chicken poop on the eggs, that is why. They were au naturel. Lots of hand washing went on but not what you think. We needed clean hands so not to give the embryos a virus.

I apologize, the video is not well lit and the chick had black feathers so it may be tough to see well. You will just have to do this project yourself to really appreciate it anyway! I hope it works!