Day 2 Examination

Last night I did a lot of examining as I am now over today. It was another "Awesome Day!" but we had a hard time fitting in all of our subjects between 8 and 12. I had an idea that was going to be a problem but I was hopeful. One of the reasons is because I have little blocks of time set out for family time and learning "breaks" between our harder subjects, which you will see in our daily schedule when I get around to posting it. I thought maybe we need to get up earlier but we are good to be making it by 8:00, 8:00 is good, actually perfect for us so that will not change. I guess I will be forced to move some subjects into our "rest" time in the afternoons. I am also not sure what to do with T-Rex, my 4 year old, who just can not and will not sit still long enough to do anything. Tomorrow, I am planning on closing our closet door which is the flood gate to all or most of the toys in our house. After trying to do a set out curriculum with him I think I am realizing that it is just to much for him and me so I am going to have to figure something out tonight or by the end of this week. I personally can not allow him to just wander and play all day while I actively pursue Superman's education. Some thoughts I have are to just have some things available throughout the week to do with him, with the idea that I would steal a few moments here and there to spend with him learning. I don't want to push him to much, he is only 4 but I do want to engage with him in some way through out the 3 hours.

We finished today around 1:45ish and entered our my sacred rest time, oh how I look forward to this time each afternoon, though I am hoping not to lean to much on it in the future because I would really like to take advantage of the majority of that time with Superman... and I do sometimes but honestly I allow the time to overtake me and my desires to just be in my own space.

Superman was so excited yesterday when Classically Cursive came in and he wanted to start it right then but I swaded him to wait until today. When we finally rolled around to our time he begged me to do more of his cursive, I orginally said no but after continuous beging I gave in and he did it for at least an hour covering many pages. I wasn't sure about letting him do it but I was watching him and guiding him the whole time. It was exciting to see him so eager to learn and today while we were in the middle of our lessons he told me that "School was fun".

Yes...

JOYfully in Him,
Kelli

Green Hour Challenge #8

Our Sweet Gum

We set out in our front yard to examine nature and find some real treasures to bring in a study more about. I told them to go look around our yard and find 3 things that you think look interesting and would like to learn more about. They came back with a Sweet Sum ball in our front yard, another little thing from the Sweet Gum tree and a little wild flower. We anxiously went inside to learn more about the little nature treasures.

We found out that the Sweet Gum balls that are so fun to play with in the front yard but not so much when you step on one were actually the fruit of the tree. From it come little winged seeds. We immediately ran outside to find these little winged seeds and sure enough they were everywhere. We took a few inside and compared it with a huge one we found a few days ago outside.

They then found that these little winged seeds made good "spinners". When they are thrown into the air on their way down they spin making them "spinners" They had a blast.

We enjoyed learning about our Sweet Gum tree. This week we have had many wonderful encounters with nature that have been very exciting. I hope to share all of these later. We did not make a journal entry this time unfortunitly. Last week I made a little nature shelf to display our collections from nature, I am glad to say it is growing quickly. Find more Green Hour Challenges at Heart of Harmony.

The Green Hour, Challenge #2

So we didn't stay in our back yard this week we decided to venture out there and go to a near by park. It was an absolutely oddly gorgeous day, 80 degrees! We were outside all day long, after my miserable visit to the dentist.

Now relax and join us in our Nature Walk highlights:

This was a funny little guy, he unexpectidly jumped on Superman into the water. He surprised us all. We lost him for a minute in the water but soon found him snuggled up under a rock. I moved it and he allowed us to snap a few pictures of him. We found out he was a Plain Leopard Frog, very cool!

A hole! What the imagination can think of when one sees a hole in the ground!

Superman speculated that lightning struck this tree causing the split down the middle of it, as for all the holes in it, he is stumped.

Interesting and a little scary was to find a large cage out in the trees, some sort of trap we all concluded. T-Rex and Superman assumed to catch the wandering Lions, Dragons and Hippopotami.

These, whatever they were, hurt.

Here are Superman's Hairy White Flowers.

The thorny tree that lead us into a discussion about the crown of thorns that Jesus wore.

Clover with purple marks in the middle of each leaf, we searched for a 4 leafer but left empty handed.

A cluster of berries on a bare bush.

A slippery slope into the mud shed a few tears from T-Rex.

On our drive down our street I noticed some blossums and thought Superman would enjoy looking at their faces. I reminded him of the closed flower, Daffadil, we saw last week and showed him what they look like when they are opened:

And then on the way back to our house he accidently disturbed a big hill of ants with his foot and we watched as they frantically searched about in the devastation:

We had a truly amazing experience in our Nature Walk today! After we finally got home I began dinner and encouraged the boys to journal about their nature walk:

Superman's Journal is above and Momma's is below, I am working on helping T-Rex with one of his own. He has a journal but I am trying to assist him.

At dinner we all discussed our words of description.

Our 1 word to express what we "heard" on our nature walk: tweet, splash and snap.

Our 2 words to express what we "saw" on our nature walk: berry tree, underwater frog and thorny tree.

Our 3 words to express what we "felt" on our nature walk: White hairy flower, inclined uncomfortable bench and rusty old branch.

I leave you with a picture of my handsome boys and myself together after our excursion!

Green Hour Challenges can be found at Heart of Harmony! Thanks Barb, you are an awesome encouragement!

Right up our alley!

Our nature walk that is....we stepped out our back door into Nature to enjoy His creation! Really that is as far as you have to go sometimes, very exciting and dangerous! Posted on almost every chain length face we read this: Beware of Dogs, and the sounds of thunderous barking followed us like a wave, I tried to shut my mind off my fears and imagine that their bark is probably worse than their bite.

It wasn't a long journey just around the block but we did find a lot of interesting things to ponder at. Superman was on a search to find a stick bug while T-Rex was looking for roley poleys, beautiful Butterfly was just along for the ride and I was just delighted to enjoy His creation together. I had to re-focus little eyes and minds off of little "treasures" and onto leafs, sticks and trees in search of intrigueing creatures and mysterious wonders of plant life.

Superman carried the bug habitat just incase we found an interesting creature to bring home, like a stick bug. T-Rex was packed with a clear back pack to collect objects of interest and to make him feel very important! Under each picture are the curious questions and statements that the object of interest brought about from little or bigger minds.

Want to see what we saw...

I wonder what type of weed this is? It is very interesting.

Wow... a HUGE ant hill.

Does a squirrel live in that hole?

What kind of flower is that? It is my favorite color.

Look at this! Feel it, it is soft, I have never felt a piece of wood soft like this before!

Hey, look what is that! A snake, I wonder what kind he is? and where is his head?

My little T-Rex holding a stick he found and a flag!

Okay so the water meters in front of everyone's house was the most interesting place to find hiding bugs! Go figure.

Here is our complete collection after we go home. The big piece of wood was a home for a lot of roley poleys.

Superman decided he wanted to learn more about the snake we found and the piece of wood that mysteriously feels like a sponge. He can not understand how it is so soft unlike any pieces of wook he has every felt before. :0) Thanks Barb for the encouragement in the Green Hour!