• HOME
  • {A}’s Chipmunk Training Archives

 Homepage

  • The Homestead
    • Home Projects
    • Home Improvement
    • Home Decor
      • Seasonal Home decor
        • FALL Home Decor
        • WINTER Home Decor
        • SPRING Crafts and Creations
        • SUMMER Crafts and Creations
    • Our Chickens
    • Gardening
    • Organization
    • Re-Purposing
    • Furniture Refinishing
    • Budget
  • Crafts & Creations
    • Seasonal Home decor
      • FALL Crafts and Creations
      • WINTER Crafts and Creations
      • SPRING Crafts and Creations
      • SUMMER Crafts and Creations
    • DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Project
    • Kids Arts and Crafts
    • Homemade/Handmade Gift Ideas
    • Holiday Crafts
    • Fan Pulls
    • Free Printable/Downloadable
    • Sewing Projects
    • Giveaways
    • Business Features
  • Recipes/FoodFun
    • Breakfast
    • Lunch
    • Main Dish
    • Sandwiches
    • Appetizers
    • Slow Cooker
    • On The Grill
    • Side Dishes
      • Soups
      • Salads
    • Baking
      • Breads, Rolls and Muffins
    • Snacks
    • Treats
    • Desserts
    • Drinks
  • Homeschooling
    • Elementary Homeschooling
      • Elementary Homeschooling READING
      • Elementary Homeschooling MATH
      • Elementary Homeschooling LANGUAGE ARTS
      • Elementary Homeschooling SCIENCE
      • Elementary Homeschooling HOME ECONOMICS
      • Kids Arts and Crafts
    • Middle School Homeschooling
      • Middle School Homeschooling SCIENCE
      • Middle School Homeschooling HOME ECONOMICS
    • Language Arts
    • Math
    • History / Social Studies
    • Geography
    • Foreign Language
    • Field Trips
    • Games
    • Nature Study
  • The Big Picture
    • Life In General
    • Celebrations
    • Faith
      • Into the Light; The Series
    • Giveaways
    • Reviews & Sponsors
  • Photography & Lettering
    • Photography
    • truck lettering
    • vehicle graphics
    • Newborns
    • Kids
    • Engagement
    • High School Senior Pictures
    • High School Senior Pictures Sneak Peeks

More Time at the Horse Stables

January 24, 2009 By Laura 6 Comments

  kids-horse-riding-lessons

{A} has loved every minute at the stables with the horses, and learning every bit she can take in.   The trainer said “She’s a natural.”

I am looking forward to her horse riding outside, come springtime, when she continues some lessons.  When there will LIGHT and COLOR.  And WARMTH.  That will make for prettier photos, I think.  These lessons have been nothing less than frigid.  Even in the arena….just bitter cold.  We leave with numb fingers and toes.  And there’s always a smile frozen on {A}’s face, too.

cleaning-horseshoe-hoof

She has to clean her horse’s shoes every time, before she rides him, as well as brush him.  It can be a real task cleaning his shoes well, but thankfully he’s a co-operative horse. So that makes it easier than it could be.

horse-headshot

He’s all ready to dress and ride.  Handsome boy, isn’t he?

english-horseriding-lessons-for-kids

{A} has learned to ‘post’.  Which is that bouncing you see English riders do, when the horse goes into a bit of a gallop.  Once she learned how to stay in the saddle while ‘posting’, she was all set.

She’s been wearing her Daddy’s gloves to try and keep her hands warmer.  Come to think of it, that’s my jacket she has on.

english-horseriding-lessons-for-kids-2

Yes, spring photos will be so much better.

These stables have little birds flying around all over the place inside.  I forget what kind of birds they are. {A} would know, but she’s asleep at the moment.  What a nice shelter for them though.

grey-and-white-bunny

They also have a couple of rabbits.  I approached their cage slowly, but I could tell my camera made this little guy nervous.  He probably wet the hay a little,  when my shutter went off.  So I just took one shot.  I heard rabbits can have heart attacks rather easily, and I sure didn’t want to be responsible for that!

Hey-Guess what??

On Monday I am going to start posting, intermittently over the following days/weeks, our Christmas Crafts reveals.  Anybody been waiting for that?  I posted the kids busy crafting gifts, right along through the pre-Christmas season.  But now will come photos of the finished products, materials, tools and techniques used to make them, and where to get everything you need!   We’ve been waiting to post it all, so we’re excited.  Lots of COLORFUL PHOTOS and FUN!!  So all you who may want to do some lovely crafty-gifts this year, for Christmas or anytime,  get out your notepads!  We’ve got at least a few ideas coming your way that we think you’ll enjoy.  We sure enjoyed making them, and giving them to the people we love.

Until then!!

Save

Filed Under: Homeschooling, Life In General, The Big Picture Tagged With: english-horse-riding, English-horse-riding-lessons, english-horse-riding-lessons-for-kids, homeschooling, homeschooling-learning-experience-ideas, horse-stables

God’s World News / World News Group – A Newspaper for Your Kids!

January 17, 2009 By Laura 4 Comments

God's World News / World News Group

(now….)

God's World News / World News Group  
*
See UPDATE Below.

1_God's-World-News-World-News-Group

Hi there Everyone!!

We’ve been wanting to share with our readers, a subscription that we have found our children really, really benefit from.  It’s put out by * ** God’s World News, and there are various titles, for various reading/age/grade levels to fit the level of any child, Pre-K through young teens! We have received it for a number of years, and it has proved to be a valuable and educational news source throughout. It’s a newspaper for kids!!

* UPDATE/Revision:  God’s World News is now: WORLD News Group   – The links in this post (for God’s World News), will still bring you to the correct site, under their new titles. From there, there are individual site links to the newspaper for the proper age range for your child(ren):  God’s Big World/Pre-Schoolers, worldkids/Elementary age, WORLD TEEN/Teenagers
** IMPORTANT NOTE: Although the titles of the newspapers has changed, the high quality content has not! The intent of the newspaper publications, for age appropriate world news, reported in the light of faith, remains unchanged.

2_God's-World-News-World-News-Group

(Is this photo of our boy, reading his newspaper, not a RIOT??!  He often does sit just like this….while reading, at Mass, etc.  It always cracks us up, but he looked especially like a little man, sitting in his chair with his legs crossed, reading his newspaper. Look at his flickering toes. lol)

Our triplet 6 year olds receive God’s Word News-Early Edition (now World Kids).  Our 11 year old receives God’s World News-Top Story (now World Teen).

Our kids benefit from their age-appropriate newspaper-magazines so much, because they ENJOY it so much! They enjoy it so much, because it has SO much to offer! There is a LOT in each edition, and a huge (educational) variety at that.  If you homeschool your kids, we highly recommend this subscription!  If your kids are enrolled in school, we highly recommend this subscription!  : )  This rave review is fueled solely by our family receiving this magazine, and us as parents, consistently seeing what happens with our kids, when they get it into their hands. They get many hours of social studies educational exposure and information from each issue.  All in the name of QUIET for us FUN for them! That’s why we had to tell you all about it…..it just seems like it’s something GREAT for any and all kids!   Read on.

3_God's-World-News-World-News-Group

I don’t know about you, but I want my kids to know what is going on in the world.  They should generally be aware of current events, politics, new-breaking stories, scientific findings, history, etc. But in an age appropriate way!
The problem is, television news, as well as newspaper news, are not geared towards communicating to children.

Naturally, it’s not their mission, as it is all meant to inform adults, and rightly so.  So it’s simply not conveyed in a way all children would understand, nor necessarily be emotionally ready for.

God's-World_news-World-News-Group

That’s what we love about this magazine.  In it HIGHLY informative about the world’s news, presented in a way to catch and hold kid’s attention,  and is easily understood, in kids’ terms and ways they can relate to.  It draws them in.  In younger level editions, it’s snippets of info they can read and truly comprehend and retain.   Older kid’s issues are generally the same topics, but with more detail, longer articles and a more in-depth study overall. Then additional stuff. What I love most, is that the contents is delivered in a Christian/Biblical Worldview style.

5_God's-World-News-World-News-Group

But it’s not just serious current events news stories. Each issue is also jam packed with (reading, of course), science, history, geography, weather, funny stories, etc.  And all with LOTS of photos. There are games, experiments, activities and puzzles that strengthen skills such as logic, observation, process of elimination, …. the list goes on. AND on!

6_God's-World_news-World-News-Group

 Beyond the magazine itself, they have a website that has even MORE to supplement each edition.  There are parent/teacher resources, bonus pages to enhance or expand on all the kids have learned, and even quizzes and keys you can use.  There is LOTS at the web site, that is another educational tool all it’s own.

  7_God's-World_news-World-News-Group

9__God's-World-News-World-News-Group

010_God's-World-News-World-News-Group

011_God's-World-News-World-News-Group

When our kids are reading their issues, they are so amused by something, or intrigued with something they learned, that they feel compelled to share it with us, or read it to us.  Sometimes, they ask questions, because they want to know more and more. This often launches great discussions to have with your children, that can get as deep as you want, or give you an opportunity to ask them questions, that encourage them to think through concepts, varied opinions, or their own perspectives.  It’s a wonderful tool to help jump-start really good discussions, about often very important topics in the world, with your children.

012_God's-World-News-World-News-Group  For example: Here, {A} is reading about Fidel Castro-how he came to be a dictator, his ways of dictatorship, and all of the effects it has had on his country.

Here’s another  page of Top Story (sorry about the glare. : ):

010_God's-World-News-World-News-Group

Each issue (all editions for all ages) most always has wonderful maps, educational fold-out spreads, and/or pull-out posters, like this one:

013_God's-World-News-World-News-Group

014_God's-World-News-World-News-Group

I love also, how these arrivals in our mailbox, bring our kids together too!  They love to share with each other what they are reading, and have discussions of their own about the topic.  They end up laughing together, reading together, learning together, which all means they are simply enjoying more of being ….together!

015_triplets-reading-God's-World-News-World-News-Group

If you find yourself remotely intrigued, we encourage you to check out the God’s World News web site. Look around!!  There are peeks inside these subscriptions, and you are also likely able to get a free copy if you request one, to decide for yourself what you think of them!  For us, it’s been just too good of a great thing, NOT to let any parent, or teaching parent, know about this amazing tool. We find it WELL worth the cost of the subscription.  We all know that our kids learn the most, when they are enjoying what they are doing, or enjoying HOW they are learning…anything at all!  The more ways we can find to give them that, the better. Because when they are having fun learning, they want to learn more and more and more.  So we hope you find this newspaper-magazine to be ‘good mail’ in your family.

We’re pretty excited about MANY things we’ve got coming up to share with you on our blog, so come back soon!! In the meantime, if your kids are receiving a subscription, or have a book, or watch a show….that YOU find very valuable, educational, and they really enjoy, please share it with us!  We know there is a wealth of info and resources out there, and what better way than to share it with each other, complete with reviews and gold stars!

We hope you are all enjoying this long weekend!

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Filed Under: Elementary Homeschooling, Elementary Homeschooling READING, Elementary Homeschooling SCIENCE, Geography, History / Social Studies, Homeschooling, Middle School Homeschooling, Middle School Homeschooling SCIENCE, Politics and Government, Science Tagged With: Catholic-blogs, current-events, current-events-newspaper-for-kids, God's World News, God's-worldviews-news, homeschooling, newspapers-for-kids, social-studies-for-preschool-elementary, triplets, World-News-Group

Hand-Taming Chipmunks – by {A}

November 16, 2008 By A 3 Comments

Hi there!  If you’ve been visiting our blog from the beginning, you may have seen posts on my chipmunks troop before. If you’ve missed them and want more background, you may want to go back to here, and also here. I have hand-tamed / trained 3 of them, and am working on my fourth, named ‘Sergeant’.   The one in these photos that Mama took, is ‘Chipmouse‘, which was the easiest one to train.

chipmunks

My family and friends call me ‘The Chipmunk Whisperer‘.  Sometimes they try to whisper back!!  This REALLY tickles! Look at her little paw on my ear!  My Dad said she was thinking, “I wonder if I can put some seeds in here?”.

chipmunks

I’ve spent extra time with them in the last month or so, knowing I’ll see them a lot less over the winter. I don’t believe that they truly hibernate, but they are like the squirrels.  They stay in their burrows and sleep a LOT, only waking to eat a little bit from the food the keep right next to them. Or under them. They have been known to come out some in winter on milder days to collect nuts or berries or whatever they can find.

In this photo below, she is searching for some of her favorite treats that I might have dropped.  Some of the things I’ve fed her that she loves to eat are dried corn, sunflower seeds, slivered almonds, and she has taken grapes cut into quarters when we didn’t have any of the other things in stock.

chipmunks

chipmunks .

Just look at how she looks up at me!  I think she loves me. Sometimes she gives me little wet kisses.

chipmunks
chipmunks

chipmunks

chipmunks

I don’t have a photo of it, but I actually taught Chipmouse how to shake paws. : )  I put my finger out by her paw, and she puts her paw on top of my finger.  Then I push up, and she pushes down, and I push up, and she pushes down. It’s really fun!I think in the photo below she wanted to do a double paw shake.

chipmunks .

I also love to twirl her tail.

chipmunks

chipmunks

I really love my chipmunks.  I’m glad that God allowed them to trust me. 0

I’ve spent a lot of time with them, so I think they will probably remember me in the springtime.  Especially ‘Chipmouse’, because we’ve spent countless hours together.

I know where her burrow is, which is on our property, so when I really miss her, I can at least whisper down to her and tell her. Notice how chipmunk holes are so nice and round? That’s how you know it’s not a snake burrow!

chipmunks

Well I hope you enjoyed my post.  I should have another coming up.  I won’t tell you what it’s about so it’s a surprise.  : )   Also, today we got a very early, and very, very special Christmas present! We are all over the moon and were bouncing off the walls with happiness when we opened it!  (We weren’t being impatient. We were told to open it right away.)   I hope Mama blogs about it, but she wants photos.  Of course!!

See you later!

 

 

Filed Under: Elementary Homeschooling, Homeschooling, Nature Study, The Big Picture Tagged With: chipmunks, hand-taming-chipmunks, homeschooling, homeschooling-nature-study, training-chipmunks

Whale Carcass Washes Ashore – A Spontaneous Field Trip

September 23, 2008 By Laura 1 Comment

This morning, after having had an extended weekend away, we were planning a regular school day today, with getting some our book lessons done.  That is, until we woke up to helicopters, circling around and around, near our house.  So my husband turned on the tv to find out what might be going on, and low and behold, there was a whale carcass washed ashore on our beach nearby. Time for a spontaneous field trip!  THIS is the beauty of homeschooling!

So the kids ate breakfast, washed up and got dressed as fast as they could, and we all headed out in search of the whale. After a driving down a few side-roads that had public access ways, and checking the shore there, we finally found the spot.  Except the only way down was very steep, very sandy and rocky cliff.  But if you know us…..we went for it.   We all made it down safely, as I wondered out loud, repeatedly, how we’d ever make it back up!  But we’d figure that out later I guess.  We had a dead whale to study. : )

whale-carcass-washed-ashore_1

Though it didn’t seem to be a full grown adult, it was rather impressive, nonetheless. (And seemed huge to our little kids.) It was so interesting to see all of it’s parts, up close and in person.  as a whole, it was not pretty by any means!! Not anymore, anyway. Part of it was really decomposing, as it seemed to have been dead awhile, and just finally got washed ashore.

This side (photo below), was the worst. It was barely recognizable as a whale at all. And in standing on the other side, where the breeze came on off-water, the smell was intolerable. UGH! But it was this side that you could see the bones of the jaw, on the far right, as well as the eye socket.  So it was fascinating, visually.

The kids enjoyed walking around it, checking it out, asking questions and stepping on it’s tail. LOL. Naturally, I was taking photos, and thinking about blogging with such yucky, yet interesting photos, about our unexpected experience.  Below at this angle you can see the upper jaw bones even better,  on the far left this time.

whale-carcass-washed-ashore_2

As we were looking at it, yet another couple of helicopters were flying around over head.  Other people began to arrive too, and some guessed we were homeschoolers.

whale-carcass-washed-ashore_3

Once we had our fill of fascination and disgust, we decided to figure out which one of the many sets of beach access stairs, that climbed the cliff-side, were public.  As we made our way down the beach, we came across a scattered intestines of the whale, here and there, that had washed up separately. (Yuck.) Once up the cliff and on our way up the road, back to our van, we saw the environmental police showing up.  Marine biologists had already been there, in the earlier morning hours.

When we got home, we did some research and determined that it was a humpback whale.  Later TV news reports throughout the day confirmed that.  It’s not yet determined if this whale died of natural causes, or by accident due to being bumped by a ship, or caught up in fishing nets.  It seems they plan to retrieve the the skeleton of the whale for museum display, and either bury the flesh, or drag it back out to sea.

It was yet another homeschooling adventure our kids were able to witness! They talked about it the rest of the day, and the little ones colored pictures of whales and other sea creatures, and recreated the scene with imaginary play.  After we got all of our book lessons done of course.

whale-carcass-washed-ashore_4

Filed Under: Elementary Homeschooling, Elementary Homeschooling SCIENCE, Field Trips, Homeschooling, Life In General, Nature Study, Science, The Big Picture Tagged With: beached whales, homeschooling, homeschooling-field-trips, homeschooling-marine-biology, homeschooling-nature-study, homeschooling-science, marine-biology, whale, whale-carcass-washed-ashore, whales

Meet ‘Webington Ringaling’ – a Ringneck Snake

September 7, 2008 By Laura Leave a Comment

ring snake

I swear that half the fun of getting a new pet, is naming them!

‘Webington Ringaling’ was rescued by {A}.  She was on a job site with her Dad on Friday, when she spotted him, with his tail all caught up in a spider’s web. (Thus his cool name.) He’s a Ringneck snake. He’d probably been dangling there for hours, but just couldn’t break free.  He had been in the shade, and lucky for him, {A} saved him before the approaching late afternoon sun got to him.

Aside from our formal lessons, every day occurrences like this, are how Science is taught at our home. Natural, real curiosity leads to research, and research leads to reading, and learning.  Real life observation provides even more.

ring snake

There are 12 subspecies of ringneck snakes found over much of the eastern and southern parts of the United States, as well as parts of the Pacific Coast States.  ‘Webington Ringaling’ is just a baby, only about 4 inches long.  But adults can range from 10-27 inches in length. {A} has learned all kinds of facts about ringnecks, and exactly how to care for this one for awhile, providing for him a safe and healthy environment while she observes him.  She’s handled him some too, but not much, because this variety of snake is edgy and nervous, and shouldn’t really be handled unless necessary. (The photo below counts as ‘necessary’ in my book.)

Not sure how long we’ll allow her to keep him.  It may depend on how fast he starts growing.  He has everything he needs in his terrarium, and she feeds him small insects and slugs.  So he’s in a pretty happy environment for the time being.

Just makes me wonder what lessons God has in store for us next.

 

 

Filed Under: Elementary Homeschooling, Elementary Homeschooling SCIENCE, Homeschooling, Nature Study, Science Tagged With: homeschooling, homeschooling-nature-study, homeschooling-science, nature, ring-necked-snakes, ringneck-snakes, snakes

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • …
  • 14
  • Next Page »

We are wicked happy to have you here! We hope you find much inspiration, help, humor and enjoyment here.




Archives



POPULAR POSTS

* * * * * *

SUBSCRIBE to House of Joyful Noise blog! Every new post, delivered right to your email box!


Privacy Policy

Amazon Affiliates

Never at any additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission for our endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products from our website. Your purchase through our links helps support our family, while sharing with you the products we authentically use and recommend, for various ideas, and letting you know where you can purchase them. Thank you for your support!

[footer_backtotop]

Copyright © 2025 HouseOfJoyfulNoise.com · Genesis Framework by StudioPress