Outdoor Time and Other Activities

I really try to make sure the kids spend time outdoors. We don't have a playground, but they manage to find things to entertain themselves.  It's been a funny winter here with lots of mild days and only a bit of snow now and then.

A couple days ago the kids decided they wanted to do some "hard work." (I kind of wonder if that is because of all the books we've been reading together about life in the American West.) They all got saws and spent well over an hour cutting off branches.  Since we had just talked about first aid, I asked them what they would do if they cut themselves badly on the saw. We talked about putting pressure on the wound and getting help from Mom immediately.  A little while later they all came tramping in and demanded band-aids and other first aid gear to take out with them. Since then, they've been carrying around their own make-shift first aid kits whenever they go outside! 

My sister and brother-in-law sent a really great gift to the kids for Christmas. It's called a Gibbon Slackline. Since the weather has been so mild we put it up between two trees in our backyard.  It is a essentially a balance beam made of webbing that you attach between two trees. LD has made it across numerous times, but DD and I have only made it about half-way. ED makes it across, but holds my hand for balance.  Anyway we have all had lots and lots of fun with this!

Naturally we've had to re-read Mirette on the High Wire (a Caldecott winner and a terrific book) to go along with our new-found outdoor fun!

The kids are still pretty involved in other activities besides the homeschooling life which I talk so often about here on the blog. They play with each other lots and lots.   ED is now old enough that even she and LD play together well. Beyblades, stuffed animals, the Littlest Pet Shop and the PlasmaCar are the current toys of choice.  All three kids still love gymnastics. LD has become impressively strong. He also really enjoys singing in the children's choir. DD started Irish dance lessons and loves, loves, loves it!  She's also doing a Girl Scout sampler (6 weeks of Girl Scouts). In addition to gymnastics, ED has a music class with friends (much like Kindermusik).

The kids put on a gymnastics show for Grandma and Grandpa last weekend when they were here for a visit!

Our Move: On another note, next week, the week of Valentine's Day, our blog will be joining the Parent's team over at Parents.com/blog.  I'll have a link from this address to get you there.  I hope you'll check in on us there!  We've done some great experiments and will be sharing more about our geography, history and preschool activities in the next couple of weeks.

Out and About

We still love going hiking along the trail that heads off into the woods behind our house.

 

Summer Fun!

We set up two slip-and-slides on the "not so steep" section of our yard.  The kids had a blast! LD went so fast he'd shoot past the the end of the second slide and continue onto the grass another 7-10 feet! And by the way, LD is blurry because of speed!

Preparing our Salads

DD has been devoted to harvesting the garden.  She goes down almost daily to gather lettuce, carrots and snap peas. She washes everything, cuts it up and makes us a salad.  It's so sweet -- and wonderful to get them so excited about eating veggies!  She makes ED wash her hands to come eat a salad.  "It's like I'm the Mom," DD told me proudly.

Look how tall the sunflowers are.  DD is standing underneath it.  They are close to 9 feet tall now!

Training -- Week 2

What inspired me to train again:

My kids are such an inspiration. They have boundless energy.  I have been amazed and proud at how much they have grown this year as individuals.  LD has such amazing strength -- I find it astonishing for a seven year old. (That's LD at the top of the rope. He went zipping up really fast! He has more arm strength than I have ever had.) Watching all of them grow in their sports -- gymnastics, soccer and dance -- I've recognized that I too want to feel a sense of accomplishment athletically.  It isn't feasible for me to play soccer at the moment. The commute would be too much. And we as a family have too much going on outside of the home already.  But I do have a treadmill and my kids are old enough that I can consistently finally find that half hour or hour to run. 

So here's what I did the past two weeks (Sun thru Sat) in miles:

Wk 1: Rest  3    4   Rest   3   2    6
Wk 2: Rest  3    5   Rest   3   2    7

I'm feeling good.

In the meantime we're active in other ways (and pretty much taking a total break from school as we know it, though I have some old posts still scheduled to roll out).

We've been spending lots of times in the woods. LD found a fish hook and weight at the State Park and decided to try his hand at fishing in our creek. Mind you, we've only ever seen a few teeny, tiny fish!! I've been trying to get logs cut up every few days to stock up for the winter. The kids usually come and explore while I'm working.  They also enjoy swinging on the tire swing Daddy put up for them.

 

 We spend lots of time in the water since it's so hot these days.

 And I spend lots and lots of time still working in the gardens.  I have hauled probably 40 large garbage of mulch and spread it over our various gardens.  We have a huge strawberry bed that was inundated with weeds. It's now mulched and week free. Hooray! Of course, the kids and I still work steadily on our veggie garden too.

 We've thoroughly enjoyed the nature program at our nearby park. Last week they learned about bees and made a little bee craft.  Below they could see why honey combs were in the shape of a hexagon since each cell fit so much more closely together.

Pretty soon the kids will be doing the Junior Ranger program too, which they are both looking forward to immensely.

Hope you're having a good summer (or winter for my friends overseas)!

Outdoor Time

 We're enjoying lots of playdates and time with friends this summer.  What a beautiful park!

On another note, I think I'm going to train for a half-marathon in September. I'm excited to have a big goal -- just for ME!  :-)  It has been years since I last trained for anything.  My last marathon was on the Sydney Olympic marathon coarse... and I finished in the Sydney Olympic stadium with a personal best of 3:25... obviously that was a long time ago -- before I had kids!

Does anyone know what this interesting bug is?

Listen to Frog and Toad Calls

I was so excited to find this website -- enature.com. It lets you listen to the sounds made by frogs and toads. Since we have a symphony of frog calls at night it's pretty neat knowing which one's which! Here are the frogs and toads we've come across (in the hundreds) here in our neck of the woods:

 
Pickerel Frog:

Fowler's Toad:

Northern Cricket Frog:

Cope's Gray Treefrog:

Our Backyard Classroom

The past week we had a wonderful time with our friends. We took them on a short hike through the woods and spent a lot of time looking for frogs and things.  LD couldn't get enough time down at the creek and spent a couple hours each afternoon hunting things down.

We found a bunch of new (to us) critters! How exciting!

I think this little guy is a Northern Cricket Frog.

We also came across this treefrog -- which we think is the Cope's Gray Treefrog.

LD caught a salamander and a couple of crayfish.

Crayfish breathe through gills, so we took this picture quick and put it back in the water.

 

This is the small creek that runs winds it way through our property. It is wider back near the bridge, but this area is nice because it clears out a bit like a little meadow.

We've seen these 5-lined skinks a lot, but I couldn't resist including yet another photo! They have such bright blue tails.

LD found a turtle

Today LD found a turtle out in the yard. We think it is an Eastern Box Turtle.

We learned quite a bit about these critters:

*Turtles can live 50-100 years.
*Turtles as a species have been around for 250 million years.
*Turtles eat insects, earthworms, millipedes, beetles, caterpillars, fruit, mushrooms, berries and vegetables.
*The plastron or lower shell of the turtle can help identify its sex. Male turtles' lower shells are concave (goes in) while the females' lower shells are flat or convex (rounded).
*90% of the time, males have red or orange eyes while the female have yellow or brown eyes.
*The approximate age of a turtle can be estimated by counting the growth rings on the plates (best done on the bottom shell or plastron).
*Turtles "brummate" or hibertnate in the winter by digging into the dirt.
*Turtles are territorial, so if they are removed from their territory they will try to return to their original site (aimlessly if they are taken from the area).
*Turtles lay 1-7 eggs in their clutch.

We think this box turtle is a male. We're guessing this is a fairly young turtle (6 years or so) after counting the growth rings.

Last week we found this small snake (the dandelion shows how small it is) while weeding. I think it is a Rough Earth Snake. I'm certainly no expert on snakes, though and it could be a Smooth Earth Snake.  Yesterday we saw a huge (well to me that is -- it was about 3 feet long) Black Rat Snake in the grass.

Gardening and our new gardening science curriculum

Gardening continues to be a rewarding part of our home life.  We all have an incredible enthusiasm for our new gardening adventures!   

Here's a glimpse at our veggie garden. I put in planks to keep ED and the others from wandering all over the garden. They enjoy balancing along them and have claimed certain sections for themselves!

We already have quite a large number of lettuce plants (since that's one of the first things you can plant!) I wonder how much we'll actually eat and how much we'll try to give away!

We also transplanted some tomato plants and hope it's not too early for them. (The milk jug is there to help protect it.)

While we were working in the garden, ED was digging in the dirt and uncovered a toad!

A little while later we spotted another toad when we were moving a rotten log.  The kids made a habitat with tissues, grass, sticks, etc.

While still working in the garden I moved some weed cloth aside and LD saw a snake. We took a picture and then I managed to get a shovel underneath the loose dirt and flung it into a bin to take it away from the garden.

I believe this is a northern brown snake -- non-venomous.

The northern brown snake eats things like earthworms, slugs and spiders.

LD spotted this bug. I don't know what kind it is, but it sure is bright green!

 It's now been a couple of weeks since we planted our 50 strawberry plants.  All but one of them survived and are doing really well.  Since we eat a lot of fruit -- we're pretty excited about this.

Last weekend I planted two apple trees and a peach tree. And -- I also managed to get the five raspberry plants planted as well.  The raspberries just look like sticks in the ground at the moment, so they aren't worth a photo!

We have a lot of garden areas and I have probably spent 10 hours carting and spreading truckload after truckload of mulch.  Whew!  Hard work, but it sure is rewarding!

Yay! The strawberry plants are thriving (so far!)

LD has been interested in plants for well over a year now -- closer to two years if I think back about it.  I came across a gardening program/curriculum and decided to give it a go. It's called the Junior Master Gardener Program. It is designed for kids in grades 3 to 5.  It incorporates lots and lots of hands on activities, songs, science experiments, writing and more.  There are individual activities and community oriented projects. It just came in the mail and I am absolutely thrilled (and LD is beside himself too. He jumped right in!)! Here is their power point tutorial from their website if you are interested in learning more.

Since I knew little about it, I didn't know whether to buy just the handbook or the instructor's guide as well. I'm glad I got both. The instructor's guide has lots more of the hands-on activities.  The instructor's manual is 365 pages. 

Chapters include
1) Plant Growth and Development
2. Soils and Water
3. Ecology and Environmental Horticulture
4. Insects and Diseases
5. Landscape Horticulture
6. Fruits and Nuts
7. Vegetables and Herbs
8. Life Skills and Career Exploration

Each chapter of the Junior Master Gardener  workbook begins with a colorful picture and discussion of the topic.

The activities are quite varied -- observing and drawing, planting, exploring & looking for things, doing experiments, doing crafts and on and on.

Here are a couple examples from the beginning of the workbook:

Create a craft
Find plants with different types of roots
Count the rings on the stump

Find different leaves outside
Draw them in the boxes on that page

I was going to share our first couple activities, but I'm out of time and need to save that for another day/another posting.

If you are gardening with your preschooler and are interested in a preschool curriculum -- be sure to check out the wonderful activities over at homeschool creations.  She made a wonderful Garden Preschool Pack. 


I learned about the HSV Garden Challenge and have been thoroughly enjoying checking out other people's gardening progress. There are links to more than 100 people's gardening adventures.  Thanks to the people who organized that -- how amazing to link in with great community of people!