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.  

Winter on the Plains

recently we spent a Sunday afternoon doing one of our favorite family activities.  Going shooting; which generally means that we go for a drive, look for prairie dogs and coyotes around some of our family's farmland, and just enjoy nature and being together.  The kids love the chance to get out and explore, and we love the chance to be together out of the house and, well, go shooting.  :)

I really enjoy the chance to get away from my usual haunts and snap some unusual pictures.  Isaac's Grandpa has a pasture where they have, for generations, 'parked' things.  We love to look around, and it is a great place for the kids to play.  

Old Wagons

Old fences.

Some people say the prairie is brown in the winter.  I think it is gold.  

The End.  

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!

Wordless Wednesday- Roastin' ears!

Wordless Wednesday- Summertime!

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!

Poor little cricket...

I heard the door slam and I could tell right away it was Baby Girl from the pitter-patter of the little feet. "Mama! Mama! Gug!"

"Oh, you found a bug?" She came running in, and her fist was tightly squeezed... I knew there was little chance of survival.

She was so excited I had to pry her little fingers up to see.... poor little cricket. It had lost several of its legs and was obviously dead. But to her, it was a wonderful treasure!

I exclaimed over it properly, telling her how great it was, and how smart she was to find it! She wandered off then, and I figured that was that. Poor little cricket.

Suddenly she was back, holding this....

Oh, so nice! A home for the cricket! Hmm, she must have been watching CJ all those times he captured little bugs... only his were alive when he put them in the jar. Poor little cricket...

She carried it around for several hours, keeping it away from all the kiddos who wanted to see. "No no no! My gug!" It lost its other legs and never moved, but it was her gug! ;) Poor little cricket.

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!