Learning Happens

Here are some of our most spontaneous moments of learning from January and February.  I am constantly reminded that sometimes children learn best when we just get completely out of the way and let them do what they do best.  Young children's brains are made to be little sponges, and they are constantly looking for information and facts.  I just love to watch this happen, and once in a while I get lucky enough to snap a picture of it!

Hailey making paper dolls

Cutting practice.  

The grin is due to the fact that I didn't exactly want this particular piece of paper cut up.

Playing our new favorite game, Blokus.

Drawing a labeling a scene.  

Interesting spelling like "dofin".

Playing outside.

The Karate Kid

Watching the geese eat.  

We have thousands of snow geese here every winter, but getting to see Canada Geese is more of a treat, especially when they are right outside out back door.  

Playing with a block puzzle that Aunt Rachel made for Christmas.

Exploring Grandpa Great's old wagons...

and other things.  :)

"Come, children!  Look at the yuccas!"

"Ouch, Mom!  It's pokey!"   

Tee hee.  :)

But this has the be the highlight of it all. 

Visiting what they call the "cow graveyard".

"Ewww!  A spine!"

On the way home we stopped to see 

grandpa's newest baby calf. 

It was almost dark, so this is the best picture I got. 

It was just having it's first meal.  

Of Habits and Jungles

Inspired by Charlotte Mason and my husband, I have decided to start learning a new habit every month, one for me and one for the kids. Last months habit was a great success, so I think I will try to keep it up! It is not hard if you do it one day at a time!

The connection to Charlotte Mason is obvious, I think, but why Isaac? My husband decided to start living a healthier lifestyle, and to start he went cold turkey off all pop. (Soda, coke, whatever you call it. ) He came in one day and said he is marking it on the calendar, and he is not having any more pop. Those first days were hard for him and he checked off every one in triumph. As it got easier, he would forget to check off several days until now he is not checking them off at all. What does that mean? It's a habit! Now he has not had a drop of soda for over 2 months, and he feels great. What's more, he has lost over 40 lbs!

So, what is my habit for October? Playing with the kids. I am going to check off every day that I remember to play with them for at least an hour. Not playing games, not taking a walk, sit down on the floor, do whatever they are doing PLAYING.

Today, we played like we were in a jungle.... CJ killed a giant snake (a tree branch) because he is "a good 'ttacker"... we built a fire of sticks and cooked it... we ran from mountain lions and the 'king of the jungle' (Whatever that is, they never would tell me).... we spent the night in swingset and we woke up frightened because our fire had went out and animals were closing in.....we made a huge iguana for breakfast, and covered it with delicious spices.... in short? We had a lot of fun. Even me. :)

Nature Study Tuesday- Silverleaf Maple

The other day when we had to run into town, I decided to take the kids to the park. Since we live in the country, we don't get to the playground very often, and it's a treat. It was a beautiful day, not hot at all, and the hint of fall hung in the air and danced through the leaves.

After we ate our lunch of cheese and crackers, we wandered around for a while, enjoying the weather and each other's company, chatting about the things that we saw. The kids were especially intrigued by the tiny maple suckers that were popping their heads up all over the lawn. (It seemed to have been awhile since they had mowed. )

We talked about how the Silverleaf tree makes 'baby trees' from it's roots, instead of from seeds, and we were all amazed (Yes, even Mom) at the SIZE of that tree's root system! Then we decided to see how far away the roots really did go, and we found a sucker about 75 feet from the parent tree. Wow!

While we were looking for baby maple trees, we noticed some locust tree suckers as well, and so we got to see how this tree has a MUCH smaller root system. The kids thought it was so neat to see that not all plants grow from seeds.

A tiny white eggshell

We also found a bunch of pinecones and juniper berries, so we got to see the difference between pines and ceders. Later at Grandma's, Bop can RUNNING in, all out of breath and excited. When I finally got her to calm down, I realized she had found a Silverleaf in Grandma's yard, and she had recognized it herself, from the velvety silver leaves! Yay her, yay me!

I snapped this one of Baby Girl watching a road grader go by. :)

Fun!

Do you Know What an Entomologist Is?

en·to·mol·o·gy

(nt-ml-j)n.The scientific study of insects.

I may be raising future little entomologists here... they all three love bugs. Bop is scared of spiders, but they enjoy catching crickets to feed to the salamanders. (Yes, we have salamanders... we caught them in our basement when it flooded. )

Well, for my little entomologists, guess what we got in the mail today?? A gift from my friend over at HomeschoolShare:

Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches

They are babies, only about 3/4 of an inch long. My husband said "Quick! Squish them!" But, of course, I didn't. I made them a nice little home in a plastic shoebox. They will have to get something a little roomier as they grow... and grow they will! I read that they will get anywhere from 2-4 inches long. How FUN!

In case you are worried about my sanity, these cockroaches are tropical, non-invasive herbivores. What does that mean? It means they will not escape and take over my house. They will not become pests, since they would die as soon as it got cold. And, they do not carry any diseases since they eat only fresh plants. They like carrots, apples, lettuce... they are regular little vegetarians.

And the kids are delighted. :)

Hey, maybe they will have babies later, to feed to the salamanders!!

Weekly Wrap-Up 7/21/10

Elephants!!

We has so much fun this week learning about another zoo animal. We continued with our regular math and phonics of course, and Bop worked on lesson 5- Adding 1. She didn't quite finish the lesson and I am hoping she gets it before her worksheets are used up. She is only having trouble with 6, 7 and 8.

She is doing 'L' blends in Progressive Phonics, and moving right along! I am excited to get to the long vowels, because that is when she will really start learning something new. CJ is still working through series 2 in the Alphabetti level, and I am trying to s l o w him down a little. Series 3 isn't ready yet and I am not sure what to do with him next!

And Abby learned a new word!! Eh-phant! She loves to watch the eh-phant movies and read the books. :) And she STOMPS around the house trumpeting and yelling "EH-PHANT!!" :) Every new word is a celebration with her. She has also started saying her name when she sees herself in pictures.

Elephant Masks from SparkleBox!

Painting Zoo Animals

CJ decided to play elephant with crayons for tusks. :)

Our fun elephant snack

You take refrigerated biscuits and cut them as shown.

Cover with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. YUMMY!

Gluing in the lapbook pieces

TaDa!! Another treasure from Homeschool Share!

Letter of the Week

'C' is for Caterpillar!!

How many caterpillars on the leaf?

Color Matching

Hmmm. I wonder how the pom-poms taste?

Learning Happens Weekend # 4

I didn't get a lot of learning pictures this week, but I wanted to share these from our nature walk the other day.

See her grey eyes?

Kicking the dust

My handsome boy

Playing in the corn... he was a little lost creature looking for him mommy. :D

Mad because we told her to come back.

And a bunch of crazy, silly, wild moments!

Want to show us what YOU did this week? Post your "learning happens" moments here and add the button to your blog!

Look what we hatched!!! (Buggy things...)

After reading Charlotte's Web, the children were aghast when we attempted to throw away spider egg sacs found under an old table. "There are 514 baby spiders in there!"

So in a jar they went, and they were added to the row of never -hatching critters behind the kitchen sink. Hooray.

After I was thoroughly sure they were dead or already hatched, and I was just procrastinating about throwing them out, they actually hatched!

They were so cute and AMAZINGLY tiny. (I don't like spiders, but these were cute. )

This was the third spider egg sac we have attempted to hatch, and we were just SO excited to see them!