Galileo, Copernicus, and the Reformation

 They boys took art into their own hands this week, creating color books for each other. They had some bet going where if Michael liked Emmet's better, he would trade, but if he liked his own best, he wouldn't. They make me laugh so much sometimes with all their negotiating. Sometimes they make up rules and fines to go with them if the rules are broken. Of course, I blame this on our history lessons from Story of The World, as that is where they got the idea. Haha! But, we have learned so much as well. Last week we studied more about the reformation and counter reformation of the Catholic Church. They tie this in well, one of my favorite things about this program is how neatly they connect thoughts, by continuing conversation about Martin Luther. Our second chapter last week moved into Copernicus and Galileo, seamlessly bringing it all together about how science was broadening; the printing press invention made it possible for people to read, and question, Roman historian studies, and how that effected peoples view of life and connection to their God. It was a confusing and interesting time as the universe itself was realized to function not around earth, but in its own unique pattern. No longer were humans at the center!

 We worked some on our cross stitch patterns from Usborne and also practiced cooking with this months Raddish club, making a Moroccan beef biscuit. The older two have also mastered making toad-in-the-hole and do so almost daily.

It seems we had a pretty boring week, I have few pictures and can't remember much we did, which is funny being as the boys lost screens for four days, so we must have done lots!! We continued alternating flash cards and math workbooks, reading our spanish books, and studied about "or" blend in All About Reading.

A note from our farm side of life: we had a broody hen in our coop, so we bought some chicks for her to raise. A lot of breeds have been bred to not be broody, but some, like this beautiful Black Jersey Giant hen goes broody on us once or twice a year. What does broody mean? I asked Avery and he says "wants to sit on eggs and keep safe our babies!" He is mostly right. Hens go broody when they want to hatch eggs. In nature they would do it every year. This hen likes to in the spring and late summer. If we let her she sits on eggs for 3 weeks, tearing her stomach feathers out to use for a nest and expose skin so she can regulate temperature and moisture on the eggs. They also get protective, will nip at you, fluff up their feathers, and growl! Instead of having her sit 3 weeks on eggs (we have in the past, but other hens fight to lay in her next box, bumping and breaking eggs), we let her sit about a week, taking the eggs each day to eat, and when we know she is serious we buy day old chicks, and place them under her. She fluffs feathers, looks at the chicks, purrs to them, and takes over the job of brooding, or raising, them. Pretty fun project, the boys love watching the baby chicks, and I love not having to care for them constantly!

Hope your week went well!
The Dillman's