Never stop learning!

Everyone these days are talking about summer break and how great it is to be out of school... the girls keep getting asked if they are enjoying their break and the girls just look questioning to me as if they don't understand the question! lol I guess that is the joy of homeschooling. My kids don't understand so many of the socially expected terms and rules associated with public schools. You see, for us, learning doesn't stop just because the temperatures are rising (everywhere else in the country anyways! ha!)... Summer "break" for us just means that we get to take our learning outside more, that we get to do more hands on things and that we get to take part in things like the summer reading program at our local library! :)

Each summer we chose a subject to study and then we run with it!! We read about it, do crafts about it, find things to do hands on, make snacks.... you get the picture! :) Last summer it was volcanoes (complete with a trip to Mt St Helens!) and this summer it is all things associated with Chickens and Eggs!! Boy have we been learning about that all first hand!! lol This summer has truly been a whirl wind of chicken activity at our house and from my 5 year old all the way up to DH, we have been enjoying the process every step of the way!!


 Now, I must say, this learning topic isn't something that is new to us. For any new readers, it is something that started about 2 years ago with the move to a new state. We just happened to luck in to a house in the country that already came with a coop that was complete with chickens!! We were over the moon to say the least!

Last spring we added to our chicken flock by getting and raising chicks from our local feed store. What an exciting day it was to bring those little guys home in a little box with air holes! If you've never does so, you would never believe how LOUD those little things can get!! lol















And then earlier this spring we decided that the next step of this adventure was to attempt to hatch out some eggs of our own!! A dear friend was kind enough to give us an old incubator she wasn't using and within a few days of getting it we were off and running!!  I have no words to describe what an amazing experience that was. To get to candle those eggs (almost nightly!) and watch them grow and eventually even get to witness a miracle!! What a blessing this journey of learning has become!





Which brings us to our most recent endeavor, raising chickens for meat!  Never in all my wildest dreams/nightmares did I ever think I would want to do this or be ready for it in any way shape or form!

And then thanks to our loving hen Mert, we have gotten to experience a broody hen at work! :) She hatched out 12 chicks and even let us witness parts of these little miracles...

I will be forever grateful for the amazing summer of learning that we've had. There has been nothing flashy or showy about the time we've had... just a fun simply summer of nature, learning and everyday miracles..