Garden and Botany

Since my last post we have dedicated our school time

to a couple of outdoor adventures.

~ The garden ~

Planning

 We planned out the garden.  We talked about companion planting, 

how high different plants get,  and the sunny spots.  Matthew

liked writing it all out himself. 

Wesley drew his garden plan

Cultivating

With dad's help we tilled, turned and dug in the soil.

This might be their best part.  :)

Planting

We planted all of our plants and seeds.

As lightly as I could I discussed soil and 

what each plant optimally needs.

Hopefully this will be our most abundant year!

After the garden was all planted we moved into wildflowers.

We expanded our research at the beautiful

Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden.

Though our local library we got a pass for a 

free study guide.  It was such a fun 

scavenger hunt.

We found the unusual ~ Jack in the pulpit

Wild turkey

Wild geranium

Yellow Trillium

Everything was so gorgeous we went multiple times.

We then brought our knowledge with us and took 

long hikes looking for these new plants.  Matthew is 

so observant he notices all the details.  I am learning so 

much from him.

Wesley is very patient trying to catch dragonflies

We found phlox blooming with Monarchs sipping

All of the wildflower hunting has inspired us.

Now we have been discussing wild foraging.

We will work on that more this summer.

The boys came up close with many animals too.

We found frogs and toads.

Dad brought home tent caterpillars this week too

We have ended our current curriculum now.

I think we will continue on with review for a few weeks.

I haven't decided where to go next.  All I know 

is they are having fun and we really want to keep up our 

"school" all year.  I will update with more when I decide.

one last big thing in Matthew's life is he finally 

learned to ....

tie his shoe!!!

I will update soon and let you all know what we 

are up to. 

until then

~blessings 

Nature study

This week we are focusing on nature study.

It is turning into late spring/early summer and we 

are turning toward our busy pond and the garden.
We have been reading many stories to match our theme.

We are still spending our time outdoors as much 

as we possibly can.  Watching and discussing all the wildlife.

The geese had their babies, but wouldn't let me have a picture.

 Tillie received this beautiful violet from her Grandma Spike.
This flower inspired us to celebrate May day with our neighbors.

 The kids picked out these flowers and we made cards.

Then, they secretly placed them on doorsteps :)

Happy May Day!!!


We also worked on penmanship.

Matthew still needs a little practice on some of
the letters.  We are still going to practice them as often
as we can.  I tried to tie it together by using spring words
and making a springtime word find too.

We also did an unusual art project this week.
We used very heavy painting paper, then
collected dandelions, flowers, leaves and grasses.
Taking these natural items and rubbed them on our paper
to do a "painting".

We also made dandelion crowns and felt very festive.

Tom made a lot of tree house progress!!

He created these little perches in the branches

Matthew was asked to play goalie during his hockey game.
He loved it and got to wear this very cool helmet.

next week is more nature/science

until then
~blessings

Language Arts

For these two weeks we finished our last 

block of language arts.  This time was dedicated 

to word families and consonant blends.

I brought this to the children through 

fairy tale stories.  We did our traditional rhythm...

We start out our days with a big walk or bike ride and explore 

our natural world

New Blooms

Exploring the creek

biking around the lake

 We have been keeping a keen eye on all the wildlife.

The geese and loons have all laid their eggs and 

have been incubating for these weeks.  We watch everyday

for signs of new ones.  We are also watching the turtles, a

muskrat we named "Lucky"

and trying desperately to catch an elusive bull frog :)

After our walks we really work on the phonics of 

the word families and blends.  We listen for beginning

sounds like SH and CH.  Then, ending sounds of 

IP and OG.

 Some examples..

Frogs on a log

We played games with all the phonic sounds we learned.

For added lesson we did paintings these weeks too.

 

 Really big news around our house is the 

tree house Tom started!!

Our baby

 

Next two weeks are nature study and the last two weeks of 

our curriculum!!

until then

~blessings