FEELING kinda kindle-y like

Yes. I changed sides. I didn't think I ever would. I thought I would never convert. But I've been won. I would be crazy not to... I am now of the opinion:

Kindle = awesomeness.

Kindle for homeschoolers = awesomeness quadrupled.

$3,500 books weighing less than 1 pound?!  How can it be?! (and that's if each book is only a $1!)
(Do you know how much it costs to send ONE book to Peru?!
Almost as much as it would cost to China!! TOO much.)





Do you know how I spent the majority of my first year homeschooling with Ambleside ONLINE?  Uh, yeah.  With a laptop perched on one knee, a nursing baby on the other, kids squeezed up one every side, a toddling child in and out of the room... reading from the computer screen.  Yes, now that you mention it, I do wish this invention had come a little sooner.

Now.  I am not giving up my real, hold them in your hands, crinkle beneath your fingers, hear the page turn, with a delicious mixed aroma of ink on paper, printed words...   I've just gone and done the sensible thing.  I bought a Kindle.

Now, I can have all the books in one place.  I can carry them all with me in the car, up a creek, when we go a traveling, to bed, out on date night, without breaking my bag straps anymore...
oh, I think I'm in love.

For many books, I have a choice of whether I'd like to buy the fondle (paper between my fingers) version, or buy the kindle version (send it through cyber space for instant perusal).  Or I can take advantage of 1,000,000's of free books online!

Using Ambleside Online, of COURSE the FIRST thing you'll be sure to download is the six-volume Home Education Series by Charlotte Mason!!  Obviously.  And I couldn't find it anywhere in Kindle format (though I didn't look terribly hard...) So, I've created them and put them right here!  I'm also sending the files to the AO site so they can put the links up there too...


Download CM's six volume series in Kindle format here:


Vol. One - Home Education
Vol. Two - Parents and Children
Vol. Three - School Education
Vol. Four - Ourselves
Vol. Five - Formation of Character
Vol. Six - Towards a Philosophy of Education
download instructions:

{Right click on the link above and select "Save file as..." to download the files in a .zip file to your computer (save to your desktop).  You'll have to unzip the files to your desktop (click on the little icon, and then you should be able to just drag and drop the individual files to your desktop), then drag them to the "My Kindle Content" folder on your computer, or straight to the "Documents" folder on your Kindle device. 
(Click here if you need free software for 'unzipping')}

How to find 1,000's of more free books:

• A compilation of AO y1-8 books in Kindle format at Blossom's weebly site.  She's adding more too!
• Archive.org - Search for free books here in LOTS of formats
• Amazon.com - Get TONS of free books for your kindle here
• Using the Kindle for Homeschool squidoo lens

Are you feeling a little kindle-y too?  Check out the links below...

*(Pssst!  If you decide to buy one, use one of the links below!  that way we both win!)

Read Jimmie's Kindle experience here!  Of course you already knew she would go and make a VERY helpful Kindle squidoo lens... of course!  Go and check it out!!

Notice that the screen isn't lit... it looks like a piece of paper.  This is supposed to be easier on the eyes. I don't have much of an opinion on that. I use a flashlight to read my books in bed anyway, so no built in light doesn't bother me at all. I do really like the search feature (search for any word within any book on the entire thing!), and the built in dictionary... mmm.hhmmm. yes. I am a happy girl :)

Up a creek...

One of our favorite times each week is when we get ourselves up a creek... ;)




Now, you may notice the glaring face in the center... they get kind of annoyed when they're headed for something interesting and I make them stop and take a group picture... c'mon mom!!!

I like it if we can get out several times a week for nature study, but at the VERY least, we have one nature walk scheduled every week.  Some time back, around the end of last school year, we changed up our schedule a bit.  We are now going on our walks on Fridays... I need to change that little box in my sidebar... hmmm.  yeah.

Well, for our nature walks, this is what we do...

1) We go out our front door,
2) we walk either west or in a southwesterly direction,
3) we notice stuff,
4) we look very closely
5) we ask ourselves questions about what we see.

:)

Now, that's not all that hard is it?  Nope.  Easy-peasy-nice-and-cheesy as my kids have been heard to say once or twice or seventy-five thousand times, take your guess. Once we get home we do our sketches and fill in an entry in our nature journal/sketch books.

Now, sometimes, like lately, we've been getting a little bored trodding the common path... even though we can depend on seeing something new every time.  So, sometimes we toss things up a bit... like this week.  We got ourselves up a creek... and boy were we ever glad.  I think we'll do it again real soon.  Micah even came with us for a rare treat!  Here are some pictures from this week's walk, enjoy!

Folksong: Waltzing Mathilda

The unofficial Australian national anthem...

Including fun new vocabulary like, swagman, billabong and coolibah tree...

A whole new definition of waltzing, that doesn't mean dancing...

and a Mathilda that ISN'T a girl?!

Are you curious?

Check out this term's folksong: Waltzing Mathilda!
Listen to it as you read along HERE (includes Australian and American lyrics).

Oh. my. Listen/watch this video... does he not have the nicest speaking voice you've EVER heard?! oh. second only to my husband's of course. :)

Ah. ah. ahhh... PLUTARCH!! ...bless you!

Plutarch.  On list there has been some discussion about Plutarch.  It wasn't long ago I had no idea what Plutarch was... and I probably couldn't have cared less.  But now, the enriched homeschool mother than I am; I have discovered something worthwhile.  I mean after all, it's been rated one of the top 20 books that nobody reads!  heheh. See the helpful links below if you too would like to be enlightened on Plutarch.  :)

Anyway, on the AO yahoo group (where there is almost always some interesting discussion going on), someone was looking for reasonably priced audio version of the book (specifically the life of Caesar). I looked around, and the prices range from $25 for only a few chapters of the book all the way to over $100 per volume for a 3 volume set!  Yikes.  Now, I see this is a problem and I half considered for a very brief millisecond making a recording of the book myself!!  Uh.  I don't have time for that.  SO, I had to keep looking.

Well, I have to share what I just found... 

And I think it's a secret.  I mean amazon doesn't even have the right stock photo up!  I think they're trying to keep it a mystery!  But you cannot fool me when it comes to finding a great price!!!

Plutarch's Lives by Audible Audio books only $17.30!  - ($7.49 if you have a membership)

**(editor's note: it's NOT such a great deal after all!  there are only FOUR lives included!!! see comments for details on how I could make such a nonsensical mistake... uh. sorry. I hope none of you have gone out and BOUGHT it!  I promise to check better next time!!!!)  Now, there remains the possibility that this recording does NOT contain all the lives... but MANY of the books you'll find are not complete either (my paperback copy doesn't have ALL the lives). It has a few to get you started though! ...and to me, that's perfect.  You choose. I just had to let you know ;)  **(editor's note: the following link contains 6 lives and so is a better deal, more specifically, it has Caesar, which is actually what the AOer was looking for.)  Roman Lives - unabridged (for around $20).  You'd have to find the Greek Lives somewhere else?  But it's still WAY cheaper than the Blackstone version!


Of course you can always get the audio free at librivox...
and in print for free here.

I love free.


You may be wondering...
"Why study Plutarch?  ...what in the world IS it?  All this time I thought you were sneezing..."  
You'll find the answers if you really want to know at the following links...

Helpful links:
Ambleside Online's Plutarch page... basic info and schedule.
Why Study Plutarch by George Grant... an article.
One lovely family's experience with Plutarch... a blog post.

**(This post has been edited to reflect new information.  The price I found ($17.30) is still a little better than many options available, but it has so few of the lives that it doesn't make it worth the price, UNLESS you are only specifically looking for a few lives without having to make the bigger investment.  The second option listed would be a better option in my opinion as it costs $2 more but has 2 more lives as well!) 

**(Oh and one more thing.  I enjoy reading Plutarch WITH my kids.  I think it is one of those books that I personally wouldn't really like to set my kids loose with.  I've read several warnings on the AO list that many of the lives have inappropriate themes. I think I want to be able to talk things through with them... so in this case, we would listen to the audio together.)

A digital homeschool magazine for less than $8?!

Hey friends!  Check this out!  

**Attention all international homeschooling families!

(psst!  Lisa, Sarah CT, Martine, Techy, Jeanne, Sarah, DeeDee...

and all the rest of you, please chime in in the comments if I accidentally overlooked you!)

The Old Schoolhouse is having a Labor Day weekend sale on their magazine subscriptions.  And you just can't beat the price for the digital edition!  $6.95 for international subscriptions!!

Go here to read more!!

Even you US dwelling homeschoolers get a super deal too on the printed version for only $7.95!
That's awesome!!

"We are offering a one-year print subscription for just $7.95 or a one-year plus current issue print subscription for only $12.95!  Plus, you can get a digital subscription for just $6.95 for 4 issues. It's perfect for international homeschooling families."

I'm also going to check out the Homeschool Expo (an online homeschool conference) scheduled for the first week of October! Look here for more details on that...

**This has been an official Fisher Academy International Teaching Home announcement... ;)

I hope you very much enjoyed it.

I gain absolutely nothing whether or not you buy anything... so feel no guilt!! 

Hymn Study: I am Resolved

Yesterday I posted how we do hymn study. Today, I'm posting some fun links that we are using this month as we study the AO selection for September, I am Resolved.

Video for your enjoyment:

We enjoyed this one as a whole family.  We LOVED it.  It is sung by a church in Harlem.







Performed on a mountain dulcimer:

Here's an entirely different style of music... same hymn :)  Also VERY nice.  Get out your hymn book and sing along!



Sheet music and mp3 file:

At timelesstruths.org you'll find the sheet music, midi and mp3 file for free download.  woohoo!!

Hymn Study: Our method

Studying hymns... this just cracks me up!  If you would have told me when I was a small child that I would someday enjoy studying, let alone singing hymns, I think I would have thought you were crazy. for sure!

photo courtesy of Martin-ko

Well, here I am some 20+ years later doing that very thing...  heheh.  Not only that, but I am making my kids study hymns too!  hahahahahah!  Well.  Fortunately, they ENJOY it even NOW, even though they are still kids.  :)

Knowing hymns provides the believer with SUCH a rich background... presenting theology in a poetical way... bringing joy to the heart when one least expects it when some happy tune gets stuck in the head...  Precious.  But in order to have this treasury to draw from, one has to have some knowledge of the hymns already there.  It gets there by becoming familiar with the hymns.  We don't have the added benefit of having hymns sung in English every Sunday at church (it's all in Spanish!).  So, what my kids learn of hymns is what Micah and I will teach them.

There are so many!  Where does one begin?!  Well, AmblesideOnline does give suggestions, and that is one place to start.  OR you could just make a list of all your favorite ones and concentrate on one a month.  I do both!  ;)  One a month isn't enough for us, we'd get kind of tired of singing the same one over and over again (though we do sing hymns occasionally as part of our family worship).  But, either way, we plan to study 2 per month.  One from the AO Hymn Schedule and one of our own choosing. I feel all the liberty to substitute hymns from the following list.  After all, I don't know all of those, and there are others that I like more, etc.

Here is the AO schedule for this year:
(click over to the AO site for links to the cyberhymnal pages)

September: I Am Resolved 
October: To God Be The Glory 
November: The Love of God 
December: Tell Me The Story Of Jesus 
January: O God, Our Help In Ages Past 
February: I'll Fly Away
March: At Calvary 
April: Am I A Soldier Of The Cross? 
May: I Know That My Redeemer Lives (Wesley/Handel) 
June: 'Tis So Sweet To Trust in Jesus 
July: Nearer, My God, To Thee 
August: More Love To Thee, O Christ

So, once I've chosen my hymns, I google the title for more information.  I'm only partially interested in the history and the writer information.  Sometimes it is interesting, sometimes not.  Mainly, I need an audio file of the song to sing along with, since none of us can play an instrument (yet) and the lyrics. If you play the piano and have your own hymn book, you could skip this step :)

Then I print off a copy of the music/lyrics for our family hymn book (a 3-ring binder) and several for each of the reading kids to use (4 total).  You could either take a copy from your hymnal, get hymnals for everybody, or print it off from the internet like we do.

photo courtesy of  anissat

Our kids keep their copy of the hymn in their 'everything' notebooks.

At lunch time on Tuesdays I put the music on the computer on repeat, and we sing along once before we eat and pray, then I just let the music run in the background while we eat.  Thursdays I do the same thing with the other hymn that we are studying for that month.  This month for example, we are studying 'I am Resolved' from the AO list, and 'We Rest on Thee', my choice.  Tuesdays we focus on the former, Thursdays the latter.

It's as simple as that!  :)

Helpful Links:
You can find LOTS of hymns sung in different styles on Youtube.  Just search using the title.
Timeless Truths has a lot of resources including the music file and sheet music.
igracemusic.com also has overhead files, sheet music and the like.
Here's an excellent post from AmbleLore where Lorraine describes hymn study in her family.


If you haven't started, I encourage you to pick some hymns and start a new tradition in your family! 
Stay tuned because tomorrow I'll be posting links for this month's AO hymn suggestion  :)

Does your church sing hymns every Sunday?

Do you sing hymns at home?  

How do you do it at your house?  

What does SWR stand for?

Spell to Write and Read.
Where does one begin when trying to describe such a comprehensive language program?!  If you are looking for Spelling/Grammar/Writing/etc program to meet ALL your needs... check it out!  seriously.
I guess the name sums up the theory and very succinctly, the practice too:

Spell (using the 70 basic phonograms + spelling rules)
       to Write (using as many senses as possible, including but not limited to writing)
                and Read (the goal is to have EXCELLENT, well-rounded readers!).

So how does it work?
A child masters the single letter phonograms before beginning the program.
The parent dictates a list of 20 words a week (for the youngest children) or 2 lists/wk with a grand total of 40 words for the older kids.
Dictation includes distinguishing syllables, think-to-spell pronunciation, finger spelling, writing from memory (visualization), seeing it written, analyzing spelling rules and making appropriate markings to illustrate. 
*(Even though you can use the material itself for copywork, I like to use the SWR word lists to select assignments from Spelling Wisdom!)





Ahem.... Here I'm doing finger spelling.I know, you thought I was a rapper and showing my special sign, right? Also, please take notice of my special hair thing...

Which words does it teach?
The lists are arranged from a study of the most commonly used words in the English language.
Each word is accompanied by a sentence from classic literature, the Bible or from famous quotes, in order for the student to learn it in a context.

Parent Support:
There is an e-mail support group, there are workshops for the parent to learn how to better use the program (which I HIGHLY recommend attending) in many different States all year round.

Is it CM friendly?
Hmmm.  If you can assure me that the CM and/or AO police are not reading this blog, then I can say... yes and no.  It doesn't follow her language lessons exactly, but it can be very adaptable.  It would take a whole post to prove that!  :)   If she were alive today, I honestly think she would be impressed with the curriculum!  ;)

Here are several reviews:
Cathy Duffy top 100 picks
Britta McColl - SWR trainer, and my self-proclaimed mentor :)
(Britta also has a blog that has SUPER helpful posts!)






Don't worry... this was their own idea.
They were having some difficulty keeping quiet though ;)
Cost:
The program is intended for use from K-12, so for less than $100 you get the kit that will set you up for life!  The books are available separately, but honestly, you need the whole kit... and it's WORTH it!

Check prices and purchase:

Buy from amazon.com & I get a commission!

Buy from Morning Star Learning and receive support from Britta!

Check out the publisher's website for a list of all SWR materials available!

I posted a LONG time ago about SWR after having attended a Basic Training course in Minnesota with Britta McColl... have a peek of that here.

And just for fun, I took a video when one day when I was teaching my littlest littles how to write their basic phonograms in cursive (yes we use Cursive First as well).  We're doing full body writing of the letters... works REALLY well with wiggly kiddos!  (don't make fun of me!! ;)

Fisher Academy: About Us

Inspired by Heart of the Matter's Not Back to School Blog Hop, I've decided to post a peep into our teaching home!  Fun, huh?!  It's been awhile since I posted pictures of the kids and our schoolroom (click here for post: circa, 2005!), etc. so hold on to your pants I'm gonna try and pull a four-posts-in-one!

First off, in a true about us post, I thought you'd probably like to know who is being taught here, right?  So, here goes...

The students:

We have 2 students currently starting year six of Ambleside Online.  They are 12.5 and 11.5 years old, respectively.  Now, I took these lovely mugs and got all through editing them, before realizing that I have every freedom to take more creative poses in more exotic settings... oh well.  :)  Darcy has good advice in her post Do's and Don'ts of School Picture Day, it is important that as homeschoolers we don't forget to take these monumental photos of our kids so that they can see the sequence of their very own history, how they looked EVERY year growing up.  Of course they don't have to look anything like traditional school pictures, thankfully.








...and then we have our Ambleside Online year two student...   oh wait she was absent on picture day.  She'll be there on 'retake' day though for sure.  :)  She's 7.5 years old:








Our two youngest are in year 0 of Ambleside Online.  It is an unofficial schoolyear, basically not really even preschool per se... but education is a life and life starts before birth and so their education begins as soon as they're out, right?  :)  We read lots aloud, do lots of nature study, hang out with the bigger kids and get in on some of their stuff... you know, the life of a homeschooler's tot.  ;)








The teacher:
Well, that's me up there at the top left of this blog... :) I don't love to post pictures of myself, way too conspicuous. I don't even really like to be in pictures at all except to remember that I was in fact present while my kids were growing up, not ALWAYS behind the camera!

The schoolroom:
We do school at home (literally all over our home) and away from home...

"The world is the true classroom. The most rewarding and important type of learning is through experience, seeing something with our own eyes."

Jack Hanna 

Our curriculum:
If you've read this blog before you know that I'm crazy about Ambleside Online's Charlotte Mason education. We stick pretty closely to AO's recommended curriculum. We use MEP maths and The Easy French and Rosetta Stone Spanish and Spell to Write and Read (thanks Richele)


Our day:
I have posted about how I do my scheduling here and here.  What it works out to be in real life is completely dependent on a 267 variables which in themselves vary from day to day.  :)  However, this is the list that keeps us on task and helps us to make sure we get what we need to get done every day.
We all have our own copies, the boys' is for 4 weeks at a time, and mine covers the whole term.
Basically, we get up between 6 and 7, breakfast is at 8, sit-down-together-sit-at-the-table-school starts at 9.  We do a couple things after lunch and try to be done with everything by 2 or 3pm. (that even happens occasionally! ;)





So there you have it folks!  Fisher Academy International Teaching Home, or life of FAITH as it were :)
I hope you'll be inspired to spotlight your own unique homeschools!  :)  Make sure to link up if you do, so we can all be inspired!   Also, check out the Not Back to School Blog Hop posts for TONS of links to other homeschools over at Heart of the Matter!  Fun, fun.

Book of Centuries and Timelines Galore

Our 'Book of Centuries' (which is actually a Timeline Notebook):
*Update - Timelines are AWESOME fun for younger kids. This post outlines the timeline notebook we use communally when the kids are younger and includes creative ideas and links. Please see this post, and this post for details of the actual BoC that CM used! We will start using a Book of Centuries styled after these in AOy7 when each student will make their own. :) Click here and here to see what we've done.

1) I found a 3-ring binder, well yes, it has been love worn hasn't it...
(if I could get a new one here in Peru and if I hadn't glued the cover right onto the front, I'd say I should change binders already!)

2) I downloaded and printed the free Book of Centuries pages from SimplyCharlotteMason.com
3) I made a collage of clip arts and such for the cover and taped it right on (if I'd had the option at the time, I'd have gotten one of those binders that has the clear plastic cover).  I use picasa to make my collages [read more here]!
4) I put each page in a clear plastic page protector.
5) I made a beginnings page.




Here's the text from that page:

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."  Genesis 1:1

Before there was dirt, grass or houses. When there was no sun, or clouds or oceans - way back then. There was Nothing.

God made Everything.

And time began...

6) I started collecting timeline figures from the internet and here and there and everywhere.  I bought the homeschool in the woods CDs.  The pile of figures below came from some pages I photocopied out of George Washington's world and cut up (AOy4).  The kids like to color these in...




7) In the past, we've been very hit and miss with our Timeline Notebook.  I started it in year one.  But I realized that it was my thing.  Little by little the kids have taken interest.  This year, we are really in earnest.  It actually has its own time slot on the schedule!  Thus the motivation for this post ;) We sometimes paste the figures in, and other times we just slip it into the page protector.  EASY!!  :)  Nothing too fancy or it simply wouldn't get done!!
Here are what some of our pages look like:

If I were a craftsy kinda girl, I'd do one of the cool timeline ideas I've read about, or make up my own.  But I'm not.  So I won't.  To be perfectly honest.  heheh. :)  Here are the ideas that I might do if I had more time, less children... (you may have to join the yahoo group to see the messages?)

Timeline on a string 
{use those little black binder clips (or even paper clips) to hold index cards on fishing line [click here and scroll down, or at the end of the post, click the next entry to read the whole thread]};

 

on a string wrapped around a door; 

or even a Family Tree version.

Below, I've listed some of my favorite links that I've collected over the past several years. Please do share any cool resources you've found or link to your own timeline or book of centuries posts!!

AmblesideOnline specific links:
Common Questions about AO History
The Teaching of Chronology, from the Parent's Review
AmblesideOnline : Files
AmbleRamble : Files

An Island Story:
AmblesideOnline : Message: Re: Island story need timeline figures ch. 22
AmblesideOnline : Message: Our Island Story - Timeline figures

50 Famous Stories:
AO 50 Famous Stories AmblesideOnline.org

Timelines Online
BBC - History - British History Timeline - LOVE this one.  Great for An Island Story, AOy1-5  (use the search option for year or name)
Gazetteer for Scotland Scottish History Timeline 17th Century 
World History HyperHistory - another one with lots of time periods.
Here's a page with a timeline for any time or occasion... http://www3.canisius.edu/~emeryg/time.html

Timeline Figures
TO BUY:  I totally recommend these timeline figures.  They are AWESOME.  They have TONS of figures and are very nicely done.  Easy to search for the person you want... you can also use them as coloring sheets... yes.  I love them.  :)  HTTA - Historical Timeline Figures 

FOR FREE:  There are people studied in the AO years that are not included in the above CDs...
Here are the sites I've used:
Images of Famous British People - British Kings, Christian Heroes, etc, etc. (has almost all the AIS kings, even from the first few chapters, if I remember correctly and lots of figures to use for Shakespeare paper dolls or Little Duke, etc.)
The Famous Kings & Queens of England  (I like the look of these figures best for AIS, but I had already printed the figures from the previous link... :) covers years 872 - 1952.


General Clipart:  (I don't know why anyone would choose to do this... too much time to search and format and print, etc... but here are the links I saved when I was deluded enough to think free made it worthwhile!  :)  Clipart ETC Homepage


Timeline Tutorials
Timelines, Paula's Archives  - This is the single most helpful source I've found online.
History Timelines

Timeline Examples
Book of Centuries - I LOVE this book.  If we advance to the point next year, that each boy makes their own (or if I make MY OWN!), I would like to encourage them to look at this one.  Charmaine did a very nice job.
Timeline Ideas



**Hey!  Don't forget...
please, please share any helpful links!!  that way everyone who stops by can benefit!!  :)  Thank you!

it will not be this way forever...

I did not intentionally plan to neglect this blog these days...

it's just that we're out of town 

and 

on a break from official school 

and well... you know.  

am I right?  :)

I just knew you all would understand!  

We are not taking a break from reading books...

or from noticing nature...

or from learning about relationships...

you know, real life. educational life. 

I do have daily PERU pictures posted over here.  come and take a look!  :)

See you all back here very soon.  :)

amy in peru

Nature Study: Feathers as Clothing

Lora, Lora, escapadora! 
{escapist parrot!!}

I love her colors (or his as the case may be :).  She is beautiful, you'll probably agree.
But she is the most amazing persistent bird when it comes to getting out of her cage.
She spent weeks working away at the chicken wire until last week,
finally she'd managed to make a bird sized escape route.
We'd be all for letting her stay in the tree... but she has her mind set
on finding her soulmate and will not be convinced to stay put.
Her name is Aurora.  She is rather lovely.  :)
Her colors may seem rather attention-getting to N.Americans, but you
should see her in the lime tree...  but that's just the thing.  You CAN'T see her.
Her colors help her blend in perfectly in the jungle trees.
We're told she'll perhaps talk, if we're consistent with her... we shall see. 
When we first got her she seemed really tame, she would stay on a shoulder, or an arm.
But as soon as we brought her home and put her in the lime tree, perhaps she began to
remember her nest, but she has been restless ever since.


"It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds."
Aesop

 

"Birds seem to know perfectly well the beauty
of their plumage. Not only do they try to show
it off, as the peacock when he spreads his tail,
but they seem to feel shame when their feathers
are injured or soiled. One white feather coming
in where it does not belong will make a bird
very unhappy. He will work and tug at it to
pull it out, and often make himself actually ill
over the trouble."

Olive Miller                           
The Childrens' Book of Birds

Different types of feathers:

(We cooked our chickens!  yes. I can't believe I just said that either, but it's true... :S

but before they went, I made sure that we would be supplied with feathers for our bird study... 

I know. I felt appropriately guilty. It was all rather grim. Tried to make the best of it!)

1) Flight feathers - stiff feathers found on wings and tail

2) Clothing feathers - those found on the breast and body

3) Downy feathers - white and downy under the clothing feathers (tighty-whiteys)

4) Thread feathers - among clothing feathers

5) Powder down feathers - particular to some cockatoos & herons

6) Plumes - fancy feathers for dress up :) - seen on ostriches, peacocks, roosters, etc.

Reasons for different colored feathers:

1) Mother birds are usually colored with drab colors to help hide them and their nests from predators!

2) The daddies have special colors to help them find a mate.

Discussion is about to resume on the AOy0 list soon!  Join in HERE.