We're starting a nature study :)

Here's a free nature study challenge.  I'm so excited, we need to do more outside, but I have not been able to really find the time to put something together.

Here's the first Challenge.  If you go to the blog, there's a Mr. Linky, so you can post your finished challenge blog.  Btw, the link for "The Handbook of Nature Study" goes to a site with free downloads.

Outdoor Hour Challenge #1


Let's Get Started!



1. Read pages 1-8 of the Handbook of Nature Study. Highlight or underline anything that you as the nature study teacher find will help you in your guiding your children. If you read a sentence that you agree with, mark it so you will remember to come back to it when you need some encouragement.



2. "In nature-study the work begins with any plant or creature which chances to interest the pupil." So here is your challenge this week. Spend 10-15 minutes outdoors with your children, even if it is really cold and yucky. Bundle up if you need to. Take a walk around your yard or down your own street. Enjoy being outdoors. After you come inside, sit the children down and ask them one at a time to tell you something that they saw on their walk. Ask them what was interesting to them. Maybe they picked up a leaf or a stick and brought it back indoors and now they can really take a look at it. Make a big deal about whatever it is that they talk about.



3. After your discussion, come up with two things to investigate further. For instance, if they saw a bird on their walk and they came inside and talked about it, ask them if they want to know more about that bird. You have a whole week to spend some time looking it up. Maybe they found an acorn or a berry on a bush that they were interested in. That could be your focus for the week.



4. After your nature study time with the children, pull out your Handbook of Nature Study and see if the item the children are interested in is listed in the index. If it is, look up the information for yourself and then relate interesting facts to the children sometime during the next week.



5. Post an entry on your blog listing out what you did for your Outdoor Hour. I would also love to see the list of the two things that you are investigating further. Come back to this post and add your blog link to Mr. Linky. Please do not link to your blog in general but to the entry that you make about your Outdoor Hour experience each week.

Week off!

This was our week off!  It should have been a great deal of fun, what with all the snow and Valentine's Day.  Drew was grounded, though.  So, it was a pretty lame week.

I ordered Singapore 3a on February 4th from bestedusource.com.  Drew can do some crazy calculations and love 'fun' math (see Geometry, Algebra) but still panics when he sees a page of simple math.  I gave him a placement test last week, for giggles, and he tested exacted where we are.  However, I went into a tizzy realizing that his standardized testing is coming up in May and ...  he freezes when he sees too many simple problems set out for him.  So, we're going to do some Singapore and see if I can't get him over this fear of basic math.

As of today, my Singapore is still sitting exactly where it was on February 5th, when it was "processed" at the post office in California.  I'm so glad I payed extra for expedited service.

I ordered Spelling Workout D on Monday, we should have that today.  Thank you Amazon shippers.  I didn't even realize we had finished C until I went to set up our work for the next few weeks.  Surprise surprise!

Luke has had a fun week, driving everyone insane.  He ate some espresso beans Dad left on the counter yesterday...  that was fun too ;)

I'm going to look into Alfie Kohn's books.  There has to be some way to raise decent human beings without all the stress.  There has to be.  I finished reading "Uncle Tom's Cabin" this week and was struck by how kindly the Quakers were.  There are times when I really wish we could live in the middle of nowhere.  There has to be a better way.

I took too many pictures today........ here's some more :)

Drew decided to build a sledding hill...

Luke thought it was a great idea...

Little Drew and his friend agreed.....

It worked well...

My poor cherry tree...

The first star of the evening.  Goodnight Snowmaggeden.

Last Sunday versus Today!

Last Saturday we went sledding at the beach (only real hills nearby).  You can see the Potomac at the top right hand corner.

This was how our yard looked.  Plenty of the white stuff:

Sledding, fun fun fun.

This morning snowmaggedon was in full force: 

I tried to take a picture of a cleared walk, to give an idea of the depth, but it's not very useful ;)  Take my word for it, foot and a half in the low spots upwards of two feet elsewhere and........  it's still snowing.

Shark Bait! Another field trip, thank you HEAV!

Home Educators Association of Virginia sets up these wonderful homeschooling days and today we got to enjoy one!  The discount was great, the drive was a little much (3 1/2 hours one way), but it was SO worth it.

We went to the Virginia Aquarium.  The volunteers were so nice, and they knew everything!  The exhibits were fantastic and the boys LOVED it.  You know what though, I loved it too.  You know it was a good trip when, after 7 hours of driving, you can tell your kids you had a wonderful time with them.

Now for the pictures:

Andrew loved the stingrays.  He wants to write a report on them.  I think we'll try to make a lapbook together.

They have so many hands-on exhibits.  Here's Drew petting a variety of crabs.

Luke was more interested in looking.  These little bubbles are a riot.  They put the kids into the exhibit.  Just behind the log, peeking over if you can see her, is a komodo dragon.

  That's her in the next picture.

Eek!  Sharks!

Andrew was followed by one fish.  He did not notice, although Luke and I both thought it was hilarious.

Luke loved the turtles.

He also liked the sea horses.  You can't see them, but Luke did.

Here we see a caiman:

At this point, Luke is just starting to get comfortable with the tanks, but that comfort did NOT last long...

The caiman woke up!  We all three were amazed when it finally moved, okay and a little frightened.

We had such a wonderful time.  Thank you HEAV!  Thank you Virginia Aquarium!  Thank you all you wonderful volunteers, you really made the day special.

Andrew getting help stretching a penny.  Always a fun souvenier.

The results are in, 91% in Spelling and 97% in Latin!  I cannot believe he retained so much after the week we had!  Way to go Andrew!

On Thursday we'll be doing homeschooling day at the Virginia Beach Aquarium.  Another exciting bit, as neither boy has ever been to an aquarium before and dd will be skipping school to join us.  I've sort of decided it was time to start taking advantage of homeschooling days, so this is my not quite New Year's resolution.  Next month we'll head out to the Science Museum in Richmond and in March we'll be going down to Jamestown and York.  The prices are good (Virginians, head to heav.org) and it's about time we started doing something fun :)

Week 19 in Review

Is it over yet?  Great.

Okay, it's not really over, but I'm posting, because we have to get to the library and ....  I've had enough of this week already.

Andrew has managed to keep up with most of his work.  We fell behind in grammar, but the plan is to catch up today and tomorrow (Saturday school?!?  You bet!).  His spelling is getting better, his writing is getting better, his Greek is getting really phenomenal (love Hey Andrew, but modified and now we're declining and conjugating ala Latina Christiana, instead of one at a time like they recommend), Latin continues on (we can almost converse now)...  What else?  He's reading "Stuart Little" as our library STILL hasn't gotten "Through the Looking Glass."  Oh!  History, Andrew made salt dough yesterday and then breached the walls with his Sea Beggars.  That was fun.  For science, we did not do Chemistry, but we've been doing some really interesting stuff with plants.  We disected celery that had soaked up some dye for 24 hours.  Then the boys ate it.

Luke is working on his plant book.  He's made a little book, cut and colored some "vegetable soup," made a plant time-line and other such stuff.  We'll keep working on plants next week, he's really enjoying this.  The picture is Luke making dough seeds and planting them in his little dough garden.

Now, I'm going to bed...  er the library...  what a week.