Thursday, March 29, 2007

George's Marvelous medicine

by Roald Dahl
Oh my what a hit!
They had me read the book in one sitting:)

Now ezra wants to make a "medicine".

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Monday 26, 2007

Nature Center- Wildflower trail with Katie and her kids. A little over a mile. Kids whiny at first...1st real hike of the season.

Beautiful flowers. Lots of lesser celandine, white trout lily, and salt and pepper.

Some mud, not bad.

Fynn and Clover came home with us. Inside/Outside...games, walks around the yard and creek.

Looked and saw lots of Forsythia on the way to drop off F & C.

Terje is now pointing them out to me:) and saying their name. Call it a flower and they call it a flower. Call it a forsythia and they will too!

Snake

*SNAKE! They found a snake in the backyard. killed it (chris) and put it in a plastic bag (we thought it was dead and this would be a cleaner way for the little ones to check it out.) It was alive still. so i say it once on the side of the tree....that'll kill it. Inside it popped out of the bag
and everyone went running! It died though. Then tossed it into the creek to float away.

*ezra has the snake on the end of a stick...OPPORTUNITY called...impromptu science class. I disected the snake for the kids. Karissa, Ezra, Terje, and Sammie watched as i cut into it pointed out different parts. Then Sammie used a stick and pulled at the intenstines... THEY FLEW UP AND HIT HER IN THE LIP! She was cool about it. We wiped it off and continuied. Ezra wants to keep the skin so we (okay me) skinned it and he is going to try to tan it. I found some directions online and i think i have the ingredients. Nobody wanted to cook and eat it. Good thing it's only a garter snake and i don't know how to cook snakemeat. well i didn't know how to skin one until today. slice it lengthwise , cut off the head, and the skin peels off like a pair of nylons

I wrote that about 2 wks ago. We soaked it in 1/2 rubbing alcohol and 1/2 gylcerin for 4 days. Rinsed it and viola! we have snake skin on our back porch adn we don't care now! But it was a very cool experience that I don't feel the need to do again.

Last week

Ezra-
We temporarily finished our Ohio study. We talked about the flag. Colored the flag and created an Ezra of Ohio flag:) We discussed the Indian story of the Ohio River. The Legend Of Ohio
Dandi Daley Mackall

Ohio-beautiful river.
Then we found the beginning and end points of the Ohio River. Ezra wants to drive it. Then finish with following the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. I'm up for that someday. Instead we drove down to the Ohio River near our house. We drove for 3-4 hrs. We stopped at the Chilo Locks, no longer in existence but a beautiful park, paddle boat to explore, play structure, and visitor center. The center was closed but we read the outside tour guides and talked to the naturalists.
We also stopped at Mendahl locks, they took over for Chilo in the 60's. A stop in New Richmond, a riverfront town, a ferry boat ride across the river to Kentucky, and we were headed home. It was a beautiful day filled with experiential learning.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Attic Pulley

So Ezra and I did a project/adventure in our attic. We put a pulley in the rafters so we can pull heavy items up into the attic with-out having to carry them up the ladder. Ezra has always been fascinated by pulleys and attaching things to ropes, and stuff like that. So I figure this was a great way to build on his desire to use this kind of a resource. The funny thing is we didn't have to really use it for anything that heavy on this day, but everything still had to be hooked-up and pulled up into the attic on this day. Gotta love the little guy and all his passion! :o)

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

remember to trust not doubt

Today was one of those days. A day I doubt my home school approach. Only because I want to sit down and do some "work" but they are too busy "working" outside. We watched a reading video, The Electric Company, we read books, we played a round of the Amazing Race Game (geography), and they played outside. I know they will become readers and writers. It's just some days I want it to be NOW! The ability to express their energy, openly explore the world around them, and interact with kids of different ages is perfect but not when i want worksheets:) They played with boys, girls, babies, preteens, and peers today. Whew!

Together Ezra and Terje cleaned the guinea pig cage! That is a lesson in itself.
Ezra wants to study geography in the morning.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Library

Terje got his first library card today. He choose 4 books and 1 movie. All Dora the Explorer books. He didn't want to watch Bob the Builder with Ezra instead he wanted me to read his books to him!

Last night he "read" Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton.

He is generally listening to the chapter books I read aloud. However he never seems that interested. He is into short books like Dora, comic books (but only certain pages), and batman books!

Thursday, March 15, 2007

flew by


this week has flown by! it was beautiful weather that was warm. it called us outside. the nature center, building stories in Abner's Cabin, staying the night at Jacob's house, playing, investigating, and exploring the creek, the woods, and our yard. digging in the dirt, seeing flowers spring up, digging up bulbs just to see what they look like, snakes, dirt bikes, building a raft.

Last night we had our water tested. Terje lay in the bedroom "reading" cat woman. Ezra joined the adults for the experiments. a few drops of this and that in our water and her purified water...what water would you want to bath in? drink? our water is horrid but it's not great. Ezra finished the evening by creating his own samples and experiments using healthy liver tonic, soap, and water. he actively participated in the conversation. the sales woman was amazed by his ability to communicate with her. I use the word communicate because that is one of Ezra's favorite words right now!

Today we got 2 guinea pigs. after considering and reading about hamsters, turtles, chinchillas, ferrets, lizards, and hedgehogs we went with the guineas. although i plan on getting a hedgehog. Their names are Linny and Ming Ming! The wonder pets!

We finished reading Stuart little. Terje was only half interested. Ezra listened intently until the last chapter. i think, I'll ask tomorrow, he was slightly disappointed by the ending. It had no closure. Now we must make something fun to show that we read and understood Stuart little. a discussion for tomorrow.

Make time for 1 on 1 conversations with each boy.

Also the boys were making music on multiple instuments this afternoon. Ezra wrote down the music, in his own way. He also had Austin draw pictures of the instruments he used.

A few days back the boys were doing yoga and Ezra drew poses and had me write down the names. I have got to can those. they were cool.

rain coats march 9th

Friday March 9th was warm.
We played outside all day!
Glutz family came over.
We sat in the sun, played in the bus, and something else that is escaping me. heavens i wish i would have written it down sooner than march 15th.
fed ex delivered the boys' new raincoats!