Mini Society

As usual I'm behind in my blogging. We have enjoyed a week long visit to NC, details in a future post. We also had our hardwood floors redone, while away, that turned into quite the mess. We and our furniture are now all returned to their proper places. So a little bit of catching up on blogging, laundry and housecleaning.

This past year in our homeschool co-op, Hannah participated in a class called Mini-Society. It's a program for late elementary and junior high students on developing a society -government, currency, laws etc. The class is divided into groups of 2 students who then are responsible for developing a store with a theme, products, marketing, pricing etc. The overall theme for this year was Recyling materials. Hannah had a great time. They had to decide on products, make them, market them, price them and then sell them at market at our co-op. At the end of May, there is a big Market Day at James Madison University, with other local school groups consisting of about 500 students . They have several awards that they give out, for theme, ideas, how your group ran etc.

Hannah and her partner, chose a retro 70's theme along with the recycling. I know, its hard to believe that the 70's are considered retro, our childhood wasn't that long ago!

They made pretty flowers out of coffe filters, water color paints and pipe cleaners and then put them in small glass coke bottles that we got from a local store, before they recycled them. They also made some bath salts for the coke bottles.



Headbands out of scrap fabric




These were my favorite~ bowls out of old records. They softened them in a warm oven over a pyrex glass bowl and then shaped them. Very cute.


Lip gloss with retro flowers, and in those small condiment dishes from a local restaurant, not previously used though : )

They also made cute handbags out of old jeans. These were a huge hit and I didn't even get a picture before they were sold out.


I'm so proud of Hannah, she worked really hard on her projects and had so much fun. She also won two awards~ First Place in the essay contest for the junior high students and she and her partner won for their green marketing~ use of recyled materials for their products. She won Barnes and Noble gift cards which she was thrilled about.

An article in the local paper that highlights some fellow co-opers. http://www.vcee.org/misc/userfiles/file/Marketplace.pdf

Look Closely

Do you see anything? A chair, anything else? Well besides the mess of shoes and stuff.


Look even closer, now you see it, a nest, in our chair, on our back deck! Doesn't look like a great place for a home to me, but I'm not a bird.




An even closer look shows you that we have baby birds. They are baby wrens. Wrens are notorious for building nest in odd places, often in the corners of front porches. We had seen the mom and the nest but hadn't realized she had laid eggs, until they had already hatched.


A week or so later, they look much different. We've gotten to watch momma bird bringing a meal of worms and other insects on several occasions.






A few weeks later, we happened to be downstairs and got to watch the four little birds fledge the nest. It was really neat. They were all quite brave, leaving the nest, dropping to the deck floor, wobbling their way to our post and then leaping off into the back yard. Well, except for the last one, who was slow and timid enough for us to catch on film. He took his time, almost saying this seems crazy why am I going to fling myself off this deck. But he finally joined his siblings in the backyard and then onto the trees.

Carefully surveying the job ahead, he sat here for quite awhile, the momma bird even came to check on him and give him a little pep talk.



Onto a little higher place, but gripping tightly onto the deck.

Just about ready, and then he went. We cheered, knowing we had watched a big moment in the life of a little bird.