Weird Science Night

One of the things I love about being part of a home school co-op is having the opportunity to do 'group' learning activities that we might not be able to do at home with only 3 students. In the co-op setting we can practice persentations, public speaking, team sports, and other activities. But just last month we were able to participate in a "Weird Science Night" at our co-op!  Each kid got to choose a scientist to learn about, dress up as, and do an experiment or research project about.

Of course, Jefferson choose to do something Myth*busters related!  He has been obsessively watching that show on net*flix every chance he gets. I love how it stretches his imagination as to what he can figure out if he wants to set his mind to it - those guys never give up on a hypothesis! It always amazes me how my kids can be so self motivated IF they are interested in their subject matter. For his science project, Jefferson basically took a MB kit (he got for his bday in Sept) and ran through the experiments (all related to AIR PRESSURE) himself. Then he used his mad glog*ster skills (taught to him by his wonderful Mrs. Third Grade Teacher a few years back) and started slapping out his "lab write-up" pages on MB designed pages (that HE put together - glog*ster is kinda like an online scrapbooking or blogging arena). He poured every minute of his school day into it for 4 days while I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get display boards, display board decor, help the 3rd & kindergartener with their projects, and cater to Jefferson's demandingness (he hasn't quite adjusted yet to NOT being the only child - sheesh!).

I was really thrilled with his effort, his hard work, and his end product! He dressed up like Adam Savage to show it off at Weird Science Night (and I'm happy to say that although he's growing like a weed - I still had to draw his beard onto his face - lol!).

Reagan (3rd gr) took a different approach to her science project, choosing to build on the science that we were already studying this year. Since we have been focusing on ornithology for weeks, she choose to dress up as John James Audubon, a famous naturalist and artist known for his work with American birds. [We later visited his early American home in PA] She added her journaling pages to her display and added different 'habitat' scenes as a background for her display board. I took her to the library to do some more research on Audubon and she decided to try to copy one of his painted birds. The green parakeet at the top of her display (as well as the flamingo in the frame) is the beautiful result!

And as usual, Adam wanted to participate in all the science hooplah that was going on around the house.  So we turned him into Archimedes since that's what was fresh on my mind from Jefferson's history studies and we could make some of his concepts understandable to a kindergarden kid. We tried an experiment with aluminum foil to show how density affects how objects float. It didn't work well but he was super excited about his foil boat - lol! We tied a string onto his display board to show that the shortest distance between two points in a straight line. And he colored, traced, cut & paste bits & pieces to tell others about this ancient Greek. Although he wasn't too thrilled with wearing his adorable toga, he had a fun time & was so happy with all the work he did on his first science project!

What a fun & interesting time the kids had! They still pull out their display boards to enjoy their work and would love to do this all again!

Jefferson & Magnetism

Jefferson is currently studying science in his second trimester at away school....and loving every minute of it!  Not that I'm surprised by that - he has always loved science.  And this year is full of new stuff (as opposed to my nature walks and sketches - "Another drawing? Awww, Mooooom!") with a new (and well respected)teacher.

His longterm science assignment this trimester was to choose a scientific principle, find sources from which to study it, write a paragraph about it, and find a way to demonstrate it. 

He choose magnetism and a demonstration of a home made compass.  I will admit that I was a bit nervous about this assignment since I am clueless not well informed about magnetism and didn't know quite where to start helping him (not mention the rest of the 'chaos' around here with their fat little legs and loud little voices).  Nevermind that this was in the Sonlight plan for his 3rd grade year at home - if I haven't taught it, I haven't learned re-learned it. So I diverted to my oh.so.smart mechanical engineer educated (but working software engineer) hubbs (there has to be some kind of info about magnetism in those degrees and experience, right?)!

Nice thing about homeschooling is that one can always find a book (or two or three) with information about magnetism and compasses around!  Who needs the internet when one is a bookaholic??  ;-) 

Hubbs helped him learn how to copy the reference information from the books and summarize the information about magnetism given in each book so that all Jefferson would have to do for his sloppy copy is to pull his summaries together into a paragraph.  There ensued much arguing at this point as Jefferson has trouble listening (to us, mind you, not to Mrs. Third Grade Teacher!) and seems to know everything already (is this just age 8 or is it MY kid?  LOL!).

Once he had read from his sources and discussed the principle with dh, he chunked out a sloppy copy which dh didn't have time to help him refine.  So I sat to help him fix spelling and chop any extra stuff.  He was so durned excited the whole time I worked with him that I thought someone might get throttled - lol!

Here's the end result for "Magnetism" by Jefferson:

"I would like to know more about magnetism.  The main people who discovered magnetism are Nicolas Tesla and Michael Faraday.  Some vocabulary words that you might need to know are: magnetic field, which means the field surrounding an object, magnetic domains, which are atoms that all have the same magnetic direction, and magnetism, which is how materials respond when exposed to a magnetic field.  That ends our vocabulary words.  Now on to the background information.  There are many uses for magnetism including electric motors, bicycle lights, and compasses.  The compass involves magnetizing a piece of metal.  This makes the metal align with the earth's magnetic field.  Since we know that the earth's magnetic field goes North to South, this then helps us with navigation because the magnetized piece of metal will tell us which way is North.

Magnetism is when all the magnetic domains in a material are aligned.  To align all the magnetic domains rub a magnet on a piece of metal in one direction.  Use metal because magnetism will not work with insulators, like cork.  The magnet will align itself with the earth's magnetic field just like a compass."

For his demonstration of a home made compass, he was required to explain a bit about magnetism and the compass without his report.  Holy smokes, did this makes him nervous!  He thought that he'd have to write something else out in order to memorize it.  But I reminded him that he had clearly explained it to me (who had not done the research with him) and that he already KNEW the information from his research (which was the point - not that he realized that he actually learned in this process - lol!).  And after a bit of practice, he was ready to take on the third grade class!

DH went to watch his presentation (leaving jealous momma at home) and take photos.  Jefferson did very well and hardly stumbled - even when Mrs. Third Grade Teacher asked him questions and got up to check his home made compass with a real one (I hadn't thought of that!).  He later told me that it helped that he had something in his hands to talk about (isn't that the truth for most of us?).  His overall grade was excellent - better than even he expected.  We're so proud of our boy!  I continue to be amazed at how he reaches and exceeds the bar that is set for him.  His motivation may be that of pleasing his teacher (insert envious momma sigh here) as well as his excitement for learning (every momma's goal) but it's so exciting to see how fast he's learning! I hope that he remembers this project because we certainly will....

 

"Peh-tih-ser-nates?" A Weather Unit

This week we finished up a small science unit on weather with Reagan. I don't have a good plan for her this year for science since Jefferson, who read and helped her with Son*light lessons, is now away each day. I don't really know whether to go with the animal study I've used before or a new workbook based on the six days of creation.


So I just opened up one of our Son*light books, a wonderful DK Eye Wonder book of weather and started teaching her about lightning. What a great book! It has just enough info to hold interest but not overwhelm and has wonderful photos. Add to this "The Weather Book" by Michael Oard, a more advanced book but one with wonderful diagrams and a biblical perspective, and I felt like I had enough to keep her busy for a while.

She really, really enjoyed learning about the different kinds of weather and it was obvious that she learned a lot about the magnitude of God in seeing this powerful part of His creation. This is such an exciting part of home schooling! My favorite part was how she would re-tell all that she had learned that day to her daddy or grandparent or anyone who would listen! I'm finding that if the information is presented in the right way for her, she will just soak it all up, remember it, and ponder it for days. And because she is loves to narrate what's she's learned, I can always get a better idea of how much she comprehends. The word "precipitation" for instance is just NOT sticking and always comes out as "peh-tih-ser-nates?" or just "the water stuffs that come from the sky." LOL!


So after learning about the evaporation cycle, precipitation, wind, lightning, and storms, we made a "cloud" in a mason jar (ice on top and hot water inside), a weather vane to observe wind movement, and a precipitation poster showing vapor, rain, and frozen types. And I still feel like we could do so much more! But for now I'll just post the few photos that I have and plan on moving to a new exciting science unit...

(3 types of clouds on the left, rain & flood in the middle, snowflakes, frost, & hail on the right)

Baby Chicks - Fun project!

I love the little things that God brings to our home school experience to make it more interesting and exciting for the kids (and me too)! At the end of our hs co-op, we got an email from a hs acquaintance asking if anyone wanted to try incubating some chicken eggs. Sounds interesting but I didn't think I had time to figure out how to make an incubator.

Thankfully someone at co-op offered to lend us one! Awesome! I mean - how hard could it be to turn some eggs a couple times every day, right?

So the kids helped me to label the eggs so that we could remember to turn them and then they learned that we needed to keep the incubator between 98 and 103 degrees while keeping water in it to maintain humidity. Someone also told us to keep the eggs slanted with the big end slightly upward - haven't figured out if that was needed but we did it.

The egg part was easy (although it has taken us a huge part of my kitchen counter space for 3 weeks) but I worried about them getting turned when Jefferson and I went to Phoenix for a week. But dh turned out to be a good egg turner - even with 3 kids, 2 hermit crabs, a garden/flowers, and a fish to take care of also!

Jefferson and I got back from Phoenix just in time for them to start hatching - 21 days exactly! They waited until evening to do it so I had to video much of it for the kids (and you!) to see. It took each chick about an hour to get itself our and start flopping around. I stayed up late to wait for them to dry before I moved them over to our brooder. We somehow managed to throw it together last minute (typical of me!) with one of our heated lamps, a box and aluminum foil.

Hatching Chickens from DNAC on Vimeo.

We hadn't been looking at the calender closely enough and weren't ready for them to hatch. So we had to wait until the next day to run to a friend's farm to get feed for them. It has been harder to keep the temp in the brooder steady for them since it is an open box but using aluminum foil on top helps.

The baby chicks are very cute and fluffy! They peep and peck and hop and then spontaneously sleep. The kids love to watch them in their box and keep asking me to keep them. It stresses them to be handled but it is hard to resist doing so. Unfortunately, we let some little friends hold them and one got dropped! I was hoping with would be okay but it seems not to be using it's right leg. :-( Future reference for anyone else - chicks ARE breakable!

Here are some cute pics! Glad to have been able to do this project but now that they are smelling up my kitchen, I'm ready to get them back to the farmer - lol! Don't think my neighborhood association would care for any livestock in our backyard (not that I wouldn't mind the healthy, soy-free eggs!)......

How does that garden grow?

I've been a bit bummed about how we've only covered half of our planned science lessons this year for Jefferson (and Reagan too - although not officially in her K program). It just seems to me that when the weather gets warm, one MUST be outside showing and teaching them the wonders of God's living creation while it blooms instead, right?

So I'm thankful that I've had the time to start our small garden this year as well as add some houseplants to our lives. And I'm super excited about flowers too! It gives me such great joy to watch the kids learn to observe and appreciate the vast varieties as well as the needs of all these plants.

Over the past few weeks (we are in a 3 week break right now - these were our last weeks of the past term) we've watched the garden boxes grow by leaps and bounds under the influence of bountiful rain. Here is ours before (4 weeks after planting):

And here is our most recent (2 weeks ago):

We have discovered that the lettuce varieties we planted, Romaine and Summertime Lettuce, are fast growing, hardy, and NOT bitter. ALL four of my kids will eat an entire bowl full of salad with these leaves! They love to pull and wash the spring onions so we can have them chopped up on top (I've been told to thin out my onions and use some early so that the others will have room to grow nice and large).

One of Jefferson's strawberry plants has 4 berries on it, after showing him some pretty white flowers (I forgot to have him sketch them) and he is hopeful his other one will bloom soon. These were his request and his responsibility and so, will be his harvest as well (albeit, a very small harvest!). And our sweet peas have flowers all over so we are anxious for some produce soon.

The plants we choose to start from seeds, heirloom tomato and sage, are teaching us a lot as well! I have no good indoor lights so we've had them under our kitchen counter lights for the past couple months. They seem to be taking a long, long time to grow. *sigh* I want tomato plants already! Jefferson and I replanted them into larger pots to put outside but only used the plain inert topsoil I had. At Mrs. Weaver's farm today, she told us that we needed to mix that topsoil with some of our manure (well duh? Where did I think this poor little stalk would get it's food? I should've figured that much out myself, but am thankful once again for her help!) and use some Epsom salt at the roots, as well as using fish fertilizer about weekly. She also told us not to put more than one in the pot (I guess I have no good eye for how big this thing is really gonna get!). Jefferson said, "Well maybe it won't look so sad and droopy if we do what she said, Mommy? Her garden looks good...." Thanks, J - I know that you are 7 and you know all about gardens too already.... :-)

But while the poor "droopy" things were still inside, I had Jefferson and Reagan draw both the tomato and the sage seedlings (and their seeds). Reagan (1st drawing) took note of the difference in the shape of the leaves as well as the shape of the main branches while Jefferson was more concerned with learning how to draw the little planter pots in 3-D. Aren't they nice drawings for a 2nd grader and Kindergartner? I was pleased with how much they enjoy this type of work though and need to make sure to incorporate it more often in our weekly assignments (especially since J complains about how hard it is to make them look real!).

Our final sketch (just last week) was of our new Wandering Jew (didn't get them scanned :-(). We were given some clippings from a friend and it was fun to see how fast they grew! Jefferson and Reagan both like how unique this purple, hairy plant is but they each drew different aspects of it - Reagan the purple leaves and Jefferson, the angular branches. Reagan loves how it looks like "God put glitter in the leaves" when we look at them closely in the light and Jefferson just likes the hairs all over it.

All in all, I'd say that I'm learning as much as the kids are and we are totally enjoying this spring! I'm so glad that Lincoln is old enough for me to have time to expose them all to more of God's beautiful springtime this year (even if it doesn't fit the plan I had for science this year!).

Painting my thumb green

So anyone who knows me know that I have a LOT of learning to do to be considered a 'green thumb' - lol! But really I'm just glad to be learning anything at all!

Wednesday I had the opportunity to attend a meeting at an Amish farm about gardening. The scheduled speaker did not show up to answer my millions of questions (didn't he know that I was going to be there??). So the group moved into more of a question/answer discussion mode. This worked out so well for me! I soaked in the info and varied processes of these experienced women and tried to write it all down so that I wouldn't forget it all the instant I stepped foot back into the chaos that I call 'home with four kids.'

One of things I figured out is that the white 'lime' type powder my farmer friend, Mrs. W., had me use was Aregonite and is used to add calcium to the soil and lower the acidity of the soil. I sewed this in with the seeds and not into the entire beds.

I will admit that one of the things which overwhelms me is the topic of soil composition or acidity. So far, I have no idea how to tell whether my soil is balanced with the minerals and nutrients that our veggies need or not. But from listening to these women, I am feeling better about looking at this as a learning process. Something is bound to grow, huh? I just hope that I can start to get a better feel for what it is that I need to add to the soil over time to improve it for improved food results (or lower bug results).

While all the women use some type of fertilizer (I will be using fish fertilizer - peeeeeuuuwww), some use compost and some do not. Some use the dead and dying leftovers from the garden and till them back into the bed to decompose while others use composted grass or leaves. All of them recommended that manure be let sit for at least a year before use (don't think I did this!) so that it will compost also. Epsom salts and kelp were also recommended to nourish the soil but I will stick to the guidance of Mrs. W for this season or until I know better what I need.

We discussed organic bug repellers (I've made a note to look up something called Bullseye) and beneficial attractors - a.k.a. "good smelly plants." I heard the word "Tansy" enough to know that I will be planting a ton of it to attract lady bugs (aphid eaters) and that I should plant a diverse selection of herbs for other good bugs. Marigolds will keep slugs away (although I don't know why they'd invite themselves to my garden in the first place?) and are edible as well.

I will be attempting to grow two heirloom (50 years or older) varieties this year - tomatoes and green beans. I know that they have better nutritional value and draw all their nutrients from the soil (rather that relying on plant food) but heard many times in the discussion that the soil must be very good for them to produce well. They will not look nice and pretty (like grocery store produce) but should taste wonderful, even if I don't get many this year. This weekend is when I'll get a moment to start the tomato seeds (inside) and sunflower seeds (another request from Jefferson).

I would like to say the Jefferson sat on the edge of his seat with excitement upon learning so much from this discussion. But at only 7 years old, and with the beautiful spring weather calling him, he only made it to lunchtime before running out to muck around with the baby pigs and the chickens and the Amish children, whom he couldn't understand. All in all, he would say he had a great time, but at the end of the day couldn't tell me why it's important that we feed our soil good things. *SIGH* Hopefully, he'll pick up the bug for gardening with me and will soon be painting his thumb as well? He's sure to learn something from his gardening unit eventually!

In the meantime, he and Reagan continued their science lesson this week by working on copywork for their gardening notebooks and making these cute garden dioramas. They always love the hands-on projects! Jefferson had wanted to use the veggies on stick as puppets but was pleased with his finished box instead. We still need to hang our butterflies from the top and glue soil on the bottom (it's been too wet to gather dirt). They did a good job reminding and helping me with watering the garden and helping me weed around the house as well.

We are on our way....getting greener every day! I've never been so anxious for the warmer weather to arrive!

Excited about Gardening!

I love to work out in the dirt and sunshine. Pulling weeds makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something. I love plants and nature.

But I don't have a green thumb nor do I know much about gardening or planting flowers. So when dh built me a little (and I do mean 'little') box garden in which I can grow vegetables for us this year, I was both excited and nervous.

Every year I feel like I have time to get my planting/seeds figured out and then - BOOM! - it's May and I've got nothing planted once again. So this year I prayed specifically that God would give me the guidance and time that I needed to fill our new vegetable boxes since March is halfway over and I hadn't even planned anything.

And I'm excited to say that He very specifically answered me! Last week my good friend, Joyful Mama, gave me a call and told me to get in touch with our farming friend who would be willing to help us both with our gardens this year. And when I called her, she was gracious enough to talk me through planning and timing for my boxes. But the most wonderful part is that she went with me to the nursery to get the seeds and supplies I would need AS WELL AS coming over to my house to plant it ALL with me (in the cold drizzly rain while her husband watched her 6 kids)!! I don't know if she realized what kind of gift this was to me. I never learned anything about gardening growing up and tend to be slow at learning from books. So to have her SHOW me was worth far much more than anything else she could have done!

What a blessing and answer to prayer! I couldn't believe how much I learned and got done in just one day!

(Don't know the name of this, just that it is the same as lime for the soil)

The other exciting part about our garden is turning it into a fun unit for the kids. Jefferson and Reagan went to the store with us and helps with the soil prep. Jefferson has requested strawberries and got to plant his own planter box with them. He helped me sow the peas, lettuce, carrots, and spinach while Rae helped with the onions and carrots and watering.

(Jefferson with his two strawberry plants)

(Jefferson's garden diagram with labels)

It was exciting for them to be doing something different than their lessons and reminded me that I need to throw interesting unit studies into our curriculum more often than I do. Jefferson soaked up all the info on the back of the seed packets and is now continually reminding me of when each item should be appearing while Reagan is already thinking about the food our efforts will produce (hopefully - lol!). This was all accomplished on Thurs instead of heading to our homeschool co-op (after all, she knew the right timing for the season and weather and I would give up anything in our schedule for her help!).

(Reagan's coloring sheet)

On Friday, instead of our history, Spanish, or astronomy lessons, we spent the afternoon starting a gardening notebook for each of us (myself included so that I can keep track of what works for us, what materials I need to have on hand, which veggies I like, etc., etc.). They both drew out a plan of the boxes with the veggies we planted labeled and worked on a cover sheet for their books. Through this I have discovered that Reagan is ready for short copywork and was excited to put her own title on. Jefferson kept reminding me of how much fun they were having (thus also reminding me again that we need a break from our regular studies).

(2 boxes of sweet peas, 1 box of lettuce, onion, and carrots)

(Edging my tiger lily bed so the grass doesn't grow into it)

And looking at the forecast for the week, I'm glad we skipped our planned break (2 weeks ago) so we can use this week for some great outdoors time and garden note booking! We are all just so glad for the arrival of spring!

Time keeps on slipping, slippin, slippin.... into the future!

Got a post or two or three swirling around in my head. Need to get some things down in this journal about school and schedule and science.

But there's just.not.enough.time!!

If only I could figure out how to produce extra hours in a day. Or if I could just get rid of all my kids! But I guess that would negate the point, huh? :-)

So in this tiny snippet, whilst half the kiddos are sleeping and the other half are running around outside, when I should be preparing dinner or at least getting myself ready for my women's group, I'll just drop some photos on here for ya'll to view.

Hey - at least it's something!

(Science - observing and writing about a robin's nest from the yard)

(Reagan - always pretty in blue!)

(Lincoln - caught just chillin' with the remote and a battery in his mouth)

(Jefferson and I)

(Lincoln doesn't like the red pre-flash on my new camera)

(Playing with my new camera)

2nd Grade Science

We are finally feeling more in the groove about science around here. I hadn't gotten our astronomy lessons planned when we started in August so we were just working on finishing up our plant lapbook from the summer.

But four weeks ago we finally started in on Exploring Creation with Astronomy (Young Explorers Series) by Apologia. Initially, I thought that it was a little too heavy for 2nd grade and that we would have to spend 2 weeks on each chapter. But I have been pleased to discover that it fits Jefferson perfectly this year! He is interested in the topic so he is listening well and understanding most of it. I am finding that we hardly have to review our vocabulary cards - the book reviews many terms as it goes and builds upon previous concepts.

As for projects, the book offers from 1 to 2 per chapter, some some quite easy and some more in depth. Each chapter also has an assignment for the student's 'Astronomy' notebook. We have been using the blank sheets from History Scribe for these assignments. Jefferson illustrates what he las learned and then writes his narration (with my help still). So far he has in his notebook, the sun, Mercury, Venus, and a mnemonic sentence he made up to help remember the order of the planets (My Very Easy Motorcycle Journey Seems Uniquely Normal Presently).

We've blown up balloons and hung them so he can see the difference in size. This was time consuming and then they didn't stay inflated for more than 2 days, but we had fun doing it and seeing how the planets compare. We've made a Mercury out of flour and craters with pebbles dropped into it. This week we poured hot butter over a mountain of flour to show how the lava on Venus flows and then hardens. We skipped the solar eclipse viewing box until we are ready for an actual eclipse. And we looked through The Astronomy Book (Dr. Jonathan Henry) from the Wonders of Creation series for more creation based info - nice book but a little over his head right now.

Can't wait to continue our exploration of God's universe! After our next week's break, it's on to Earth, Mars, and beyond.....

I just LOVE spring!

Dh was mowing this week when a flurry of baby bunnies went running forth in front of him. Apparently our grass was long enough that the momma rabbit felt it to be an appropriate place to build a nest! We found 2 babies sitting still in the grass and thought they wouldn't be safe to leave there (no - we didn't let the kids see the one that got 'eaten' my the lawn mower!).

So I picked one up to let the kids see it before I put it someplace safer. It was calm for a bit and then freaked and started screaming (literally) for its momma. Sure enough she shows up from next door to rescue her babe. In the mean time, the kids got to see these beautiful, and intricately delicate little creatures!

Simple & Slow Fridays - Nature

Nature


I've been wanting to post for Becky's Simple & Slow Fridays for a while - but I just can't seem to slow down or simplify! :-D I think I'll just stay up tonight and think on this for a little while.

I've been especially looking forward to this spring since Jefferson (1st grade, 6yo) is learning so much in science this year and is soooo aware of God's creation around him recently. He has read the 1st half of Genesis on his own. From there we also looked into Noah's ark. Boy - did that get his mind going! He just loves to think about the huge number of animals that God made and could sit and flip through our Animal Encyclopedia for hours. But due to winter, we haven't really spent much time slowing down and enjoying nature until recently.

It really is amazing what can be discovered and observed about God's creation in just our own back yard. We have a tiny yard, but when the weather warmed up last week and we started looking closer, we have found it brimming with interesting things! Jefferson and Reagan have dug up numerous earthworms (which we studied this past fall) and grubs, roly-polys (sp? proper name?), slugs, and ants (also studied). He squeals with delight as his apple core is gobbled up and carried away by ants or as he stares as the slug long enough to see it's eyes poke out. He loves to tell his little sister the things he knows about these creatures.

His favorite discovery so far has been a mama robin keeping a nest full of eggs in a nearby tree. He says the 4 eggs look like plastic and he knows not to bother her in his observation in order to not scare her away. Our kitchen table and lesson area look out toward her tree and he and Reagan often observe her with a worm in her mouth on her way to the nest.

All three of the kids love to get down close to the earth and pluck different plants to bring to me. Usually dandy lions, but they are noticing the difference in tree leaves and pointing out the new buds that are abundant right now.

And he loved it last week when a white butterfly perched itself upon his finger long enough for him to explore with his eyes (which were gleaming with excitement).

That look is the one that I so enjoy watching as he learns. It's lovely for me to take time to be outside (which I have to slow down and force myself to do) not just to see these wonderful things also, but to experience the joy and amazement of a 6-year old's discovery of the world around him! I've always loved nature but sharing that enjoyment and seeing their discovery is what I love most about nature these days!

So my plan, as the breeze flows through the curtains on these spring days and as summer approaches, is to use the time when Adam and Lincoln are sleeping in the afternoons to leave the dishes and get outside more! Let the laundry wrinkle - the birds are calling us! The magnifying glass needs a grasshopper under it's gaze! The sun is good for my skin condition and my mood (I tend to get seasonally 'low' in the winter months) and the children have so much to learn and enjoy right now. I'm going to encourage Jefferson's love for spontaneous artwork by starting a nature notebook for him to display his discoveries. I can't wait to see how much they learn when we take the time to sit down and look!

Just thinking about nature as I write makes me thankful!! God's amazing creation can not be kept in a book or even encompased on the internet. Nature is just one of His gifts for us to enjoy!

UPDATE: All 4 robin eggs have hatched! What a fun thing to see!