A lot has been going on ... we're homeschooling, of course. You can read about what we've been doing over at
4 Brothers Ranch Homeschooling Blog ... and Noah and Nathan (especially) ... have had a ton of doctors appointments. You can get updated on that over at
My Unique Flowers blog....
We got a couple of new pets thanks to Freecycle. Thankfully they came with just about everything they need for awhile. Probably a year for the Hermit Crabs, and all we need for the Lizard is to get crickets now and then. Oh we need to get a temp/humility thing for him too but that's pretty much it. The Freecycle'er was moving to Arizona and didn't want to take the pets. The Lizard they had for awhile, but the Hermit Crabs their son had just gotten for his birthday. We had lost a hermit crab already though. He got stressed out and started to drop limbs, so Kaedyn got to pick out another one because the warranty was with the papers they gave us.
So here are the Crabs ....
Max - above - passed away. And Sansa changed shells.......
and the new Max ...
We have a lot of pictures of the crabbies over on 4 Brothers' Ranch right now. Including their shells, and how we learned they are different types of species of crabs. We have a Ruggie, a Strawberry Crab, and Two Purple Pinchers!
These are allowing the kids to learn a lot about different types of pets (and animals). And to help ease a natural fear.
I listened to a man - at Corey's Day on the Farm - tell his daughter how she was not to trust any animal and she has to be afraid of every animal. We were at an event that focuses all around animals. And even though I don't disagree with his message, I don't necessarily agree with it either.
Children have a natural fear of animals. They get use to Cats & Dogs a bit. We teach them to reach out our hands and allow them to smell us - as an introduction - prior to petting them. This isn't a bad thing. You should always be cautious of animals. Just as you should be cautious of strangers.
But children have to experience different things, and be exposed to different animals, just as they need to be experience different things. It's how they learn.
It was just weird to hear this lecture and then watch him put his daughter on a horse that he doesn't know, and to let her pet all the animals int he petting farm.
Regardless......
Here are a couple of pictures from Corey's Day ....
My boys (minus Cal) at Corey's Day on the Farm 2013
Noah and Nathan on the same horse, named Trigger. Trigger and Nathan formed a relationship. Nathan kept watching the horses this year instead of riding over and over ... and Trigger would come nuzzle him when he passed. It was cute. Never got a good pic of it though :/
You can see more
HERE ...... or if you are friends with me on Facebook, you can see much more there.
Here is Emrys ... the kids really enjoy him. He jumps from the vines to his "pool" that we created from some rocks and a big plastic storage container. We also went walking on the beach one day and got a bunch of driftwood for his terrarium.
He does change colors some ... from brown to green and green to brown ... LOL... and Kaedyn has a blast watching Emrys and announcing a play by play. We had him in our room for awhile, but moved him out to the living room where it's a little warmer (we were originally trying out our AC out in the livingroom but it was too big a space, so we moved it into our room.) ... there will be blog posts over on our homeschooling blog about Emrys - soon. Not to mention my boys love to watch him eat the crickets! Ugh....
As we are learning about BOTH these animals :)
It's a lot of fun so far. Noah has been doing his work with little to no argument too :) So YAY!
