Tuesday

Terje has been all about sorting items. Today is was bugs and spiders.
He is interested in finding the alphabet in the world around him.


Both boys received prize #1 for summer reading program.

Today storytime was all about Germany.

RocketShips

Popular Mechanics for kids is a fun educational show for kids. We watch it on DVD from the library. The most recent episode was on rocketships. So here is our rocketship creations. Ezra led the way in creating these. He gathered all the materials and got us started. Dad helped too.

We ended up spray painting them. The boys choose silver, beige, and black.

Frogs, well Toads

We have been reading a lot of factual frog books, as well as folk tales and fiction. It has been a fun experience to growing our toads.

We collected some tadpoles from a local pond. We set up their home in a 10gallon tank. It had rocks, sand, a live plant, and creek water. We watched them grow and develop. Then they started dying. We read more. Turns out they were toads. Well also tadpoles eat plants, Frogs and toads are canivoruos. So the fat in their tail stump sustains them from the time they get out of the water until the time they start eating meat:)

Once we learned that we let them go as soon as they would hop on the rocks. We are hopeful for their survival. They eat a lot of insects. MAybe they will eat some aphids from the garden. THe boys put several in the shady spots of the garden.

We need to build a toad house for the garden.

Saturday

Terje has been correcting my english and grammar all day! An example: On the water mom, not in the water.

All 4 of us have a Nature Center Thru Hike guidebook. THe goal is to hike all the trails, get a stamp, and earn a water bottle. Last year the boys and I did it together and we earned tshirts. This year dad is joining in the fun! It may make it harder getting there but it will be fun! Plus now when the boys and I go it will be relaxed and we can enjoy other aspects of the center. We hiked the Redwing trail at the nature center. It is about 3-4 miles! It is the longest trail there. The rest should be easy peasy. We did it with a few stops for snacks. Also a coloring break. There was no mud on the trail and this trail in known for the mud. It has been really dry out lately.

Ezra held a corn snake! He handled it like a pro. Terje was hesitant but got right in and touched it. James faced some fears and held it. I stood way back and took video and pictures.

We continued our discussion on erosion, poison ivy, and moles. We also talked about deet, wildflowers (fleabane, wild roses, and ox-eye daisies), and why the creek beds were dry.

It was a lovely time. Terje hiked like a trooper. He had one minor fall with a scuff on his hand. Dad almost wiped out. Ezra had a rough morning. HE got stung twice on the butt (at home). Never did find the offender. Then took a nasty wipeout on the gravel. He bleed deep red blood from his knee, the other was scuffed, and his hand was scuffed as well. He made it through but it was a more challenging time for him.

observing without disturbing

LEarning to Listen, watch, and observe without touching, making noise, and generally disturbing the animals around us.

I made the boys sit on a bench on the edge of Lotus Pond (CNC) for 5 minutes. We were quiet. We watched. We listened. We saw and heard things that we hadn't in the past. In the past they are touching the water, being loud, and scaring the animals away.

We are going to continue this practice. Maybe it will lead to a quiet meditation at home. That would be really useful.


It was also Art on the Trails day at the CNC. SO we packed up our water colors and headed off. We also used colored pencils that they supplied. Terje and I drew a daylily. Ezra drew a frog, tadpole, and eggs, and a pond. Then off to more flowers and the pond. Ezra used muck to paint muck around his pond picture.

We also used the watercolor paints to paint pond scenes.

We saw the toads that are brothers to ours. So we do really think they are toads and not frogs. The boys found a few large bullfrogs, leopard frogs, dragonflies, adn a huge tadpole. We learned bullfrog tadpoles can take a couple of years to mature. They (like frogs) bury themselves in the mud over winter and then continue growing in the spring.