Home Education . . .

Opening: Read 3 Nephi 27-28, C9 Old Testament Reader, C8 New Testament Reader, learned some new Christmas carols

Spelling: C9 just completed lesson 49 and C8 just completed lesson 10 in Word Lessons.

Reading: Both C9 and C8 have read through their readers to lessons 21. They both read a few articles from The Friend. C9 is reading Matilda and C8 is reading Indian in the Cupboard.

C4 is doing great with letter sound recognition and when she sees a letter that she remembers she always starts with the sound of the letter first. She has even started to recognize letters in words and started to sound them out. Hurray!!!!

Family Read: We continued reading A Christmas Carol and are almost finished!

Copy Work: They are continuing to copy the Articles of Faith with #9 last week.

Math: C9 did decimal multiplication and did a great job. C8 worked on decimal subtraction and addition. C4 is working on number recognition with flash cards and counters.

History: We started reading about the Puritans and their experiences in England and journey to Plymouth in American History Stories.

Take Five: C9 and C8 worked on information about the solar system and have loved it so much that we are going to spend another week or two on the subject. They learned a lot of information about the parts of the solar system and did some basic drawings. They spent time studying solar system flash cards that we picked up from Target for $1.

Music/Picture Study: During the winter, we are going to focus on a composer and an artist every week. We will learn a little about the artist and study a piece of their work each day. With music, we will study a composer and listen to their music throughout the week.

This week, we learned about Antonio Vivaldi and listened to a cd of his concertos while doing binder work, chores, or playing.

Antonio Vivaldi

We also learned about the painter, Giotto di Bondone and studied some of his works. C9 & C8 were very interested in the paintings and amazed at the level of details.

Other: C9, C8, & C4 all helped make some yummy rolo cookies. C9 & C8 also helped sew a crayon roll for their cousin for his birthday. They did a great job and really enjoyed it and so we will try to find some more fun sewing projects to do.

C9 & C8 also attended their weekly piano lessons and practiced every day. They are each practicing a few Christmas songs and we hope to have a small recital for family in a couple of weeks.

C8 sewing lines.


C9 helping to put crayons in the roll.

Nature Study, Outdoor Hour Challenge #7 . . .

Your Own Field Guide:

We were able to get outside, finally, during the Thanksgiving holiday. A tradition of our family's is to go find a real tree on my grandparents ranch for Christmas. There was a few inches of snow there waiting for us, but the weather cooperated and the wind, for once, was not blowing. The climb was a little steeper than other times, and the snow made it interesting for those that did not have good boots on. What made this adventure even more fun for the kids was the fact that their cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents were there with us!

There had been a fire in the area a few years ago, and it was sad to still see the damaging effects. We saw many different types of trees; douglas fir, ponderosa pine, quaking aspen (leafless, of course), etc. It was hard to find any pine cones to add to our collection, as the ground was covered in a blanket of white, but we did have luck with the tree we chose, it is a beautiful ponderosa pine and it is covered with pine cones. It is fun to get out and see nature in all its seasons.

There seems to be such a stillness and calm in nature during the winter months. We were also able to see a few animal tracks here and there in the snow, but were unable to get any viable pictures. One set we knew was a deer track and most likely from a white-tailed deer, as that is the kind that populates the area.

We have started on our Mammals Field Guide. I was able to start with items that I had around the house. The little binder was home to periodic table flash cards that I put an elastic around and will store until we need them. The index cards were from a grandparent that did not need them anymore and gave to us, thanks Grandma! I love this size because it is easy to take with us on our Outdoor Hours. I am having a hard time finding binders this size and type in stores though, so if anyone has seen them recently, let me know.

We used the field guide example from here as a base for the information needed. The kids are very excited to help with this fun project and add to it in the future.

Home Education . . .

Opening: Read 3 Nephi 23-26, C9 Old Testament Reader, C8 New Testament Reader, "The Books of The Old Testament" song

Spelling: C9 just completed lesson 48 and C8 just completed lesson 10 in Word Lessons.

Reading: Both C9 and C8 have read through their readers to lessons 19. We started reading A Christmas Carol by Dickens.

Copy Work: They are continuing to copy the Articles of Faith with #8 last week. They are doing much better in their skills.

Family Read: We decided to save Hiawatha for later and read some classic Christmas stories.

Math: C9 started on division and took to it great. C8 worked on decimal subtraction. C4 is working on number recognition, but she has her counting down!

History: We finished out book about the Jamestown colony and we all enjoyed it very much. We learned so much! On to our next chapter in American History Stories.

Take Five: C9 and C8 learned a little more about measuring with the US Customary system. They reviewed inches and feet and leared about sixteenths and eighths. They measured things around the house.

Other: We had a lot of fun this week decorating our tree. We decided to do all out decorations made from food. It was fun to think of some ideas and the kids had a lot of fun making them.

marshmallow snowmen, nuts, gumdrop wreaths,
fruit wedge flowers, popcorn and cranberry garland.

Thanksgiving Week . . .

Since the holiday this week made the learning week shorter, I decided that we would just forgo binder work and learn about Thanksgiving. I found some great information online including a brief description of where and why we have Thanksgiving. It included the original proclamation and one from George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I was also able to find some word searches, cross word puzzles, coloring pages, etc.

C9 and C8 each wrote a letter a day, to someone that they were thankful for. We will deliver or mail them today! We watched a video about John Bradford and the first Thanksgiving by Living Scriptures that was fairly accurate. They read a nice poem about being thankful and then each of them wrote a poem of their own. In the spirit of the holiday, I wanted to share them. (everything is EXACTLY as they wrote, for C4, she narrated and I wrote for her)

C4:

I'm thankful for Mommy because I love her.
I'm thankful for Daddy because he's my Dad.
I'm thankful for food because it's good.
I'm thankful for my house because it's my house.
I'm thankful for books because I like to read them.
I'm thankful for drawing because it's fun.

C8:

Thanks for the birds which we love.
Thanks for the sun that shines up above.
Thanks for the garden which we shall feast.
Thanks for all Life and our trees that give least
Thanks for my family that takes care
And the world, We live there.

C9:

Thanks For Many Things

Thanks for the corn, Cobs all bundled up.
Thanks for water, That I sip from my cup.

Thanks for fire, To keep me warm.
Thanks for family, To keep me safe from harm.

Thanks for a bed, That keeps me asleep.
Thanks for a pillow, To rest my head while counting sheep.

Thanks for many things, and last but not least,
The turkey, We'll have at our feast.

_____________________

I just want to add that I am very thankful to all those family and friends that help and show support for our home's school. Happy Thanksgiving!

Nature Study . . .

We have not done the next challenge yet, but are continuing to study mammals and our pine cone collection. Recently, the kids read and learned about wolves, goats, rabbits, sheep, and white-tailed deer. They have really enjoyed reading about these mammals in the Handbook of nature study and from information we have found online or in other books. They have made a few journal pages to go along with some of them also.

We have really enjoyed our pine cone collection. As strange as that may sound, we happened upon an unusual event with the pine cones. We first heard some popping or cracking noises coming from the box. When we looked at them, we noticed that one of the pine cones, was opening. It was a green one that looked more like a seed pod than pine cone.

We watched it over a week and a half open and transform into a pine cone.

The kids have really loved getting up each morning and looking at it to see the changes.

We were able to take some pictures of the changes to share.

As time goes on, it will be interesting to see how it progresses to look like the other cones in our collection.

We have so many questions that we hope will be answered. Will it turn completely brown? If so, how long will it take? And more . . .Nature is so amazing!!

Home Education . . .

Opening: Read 3 Nephi 20-23, C9 Old Testament Scripture Reader, C8 New Testament Scripture Reader

Spelling: C9 just completed lesson 46 and C8 just completed lesson 9 in Word Lessons.

Reading: Both C9 and C8 have read through their readers to lessons 17. They finished their "Star Wars" books. C4 and I have been reading from Story Wagon. We have also been continuing to work on the sounds of letters and letter recognition.

Copy Work: They are continuing to copy the Articles of Faith with #6 last week, still working on spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.

Family Read: We read more of Arabian Nights and are going to start on The Song of Hiawatha.

Math: C9 did great with double digit multiplication. She continued with a review of that and did a worksheet of triple digit decimal addition and subtraction for my benefit. C8 also did a worksheet of decimal addition and subtraction. C4 is working on number recognition, but she has her counting down!

History: We read about the beginning of the colonies in our American History Stories. It introduced the kids to the story of Captain John Smith and the Jamestown colony. We found a book called Pocahontas and Captain John Smith by Marie Lawson, that we have been reading together. It has been very interesting to learn more about the early settlers and their experiences.

Take Five: I have forgotten to post on this the last few times. Both C9 and C8 have really enjoyed the last few assignments. They got to learn about maps and their legends, keys, and rose compass. They learned how to use a compass and how to tell directions and learn distances from maps. They also did one about secret codes and how they are used. They got to make a few codes of their own and decipher each others codes.

Other:The service project of raking leaves went well. Now C9 is focusing on the "t" party, getting all the details taken care of.

Nature Study, Outdoor Hour Challenge #6 . . .

Collections:

Finally, after getting everyone over what fevers, stuffy noses, coughs, etc. that they had, we were able to get outside for a while. We decided to check out some of the parks in the area. Since we have only lived here for just over a year, we have only been to a few. The one we went to today is close to the hills and a couple nature trails. It was small, but had a lot of trees and that is exactly what we needed to look for items for our collection.

C8 already has an infatuation with rocks and has a substantial collection of those. It finally came to a point that I had to say NO to gravel or rocks that resembled gravel, because she would fill her pockets with it. She has collected quite a few and between grandparents, parents, and Christmas, she has gotten quite a collection.

C8's rock collection, also some from C9

Because she has already gone to rocks on her own, I wanted to start something new that the whole family could appreciate. So we decided on pine cones.

These are interesting and everyone, from Dad to C1 can appreciate them and collect them. While at the park, we were able to find a few different kinds, large and small, new and old. Staying true to collecting, we only took the ones that were already on the ground, none plucked from the trees.

C1 finding a great pine cone

We also saw a bird's nest that had some kind of blue string weaved into it. It was quite a ways up in a tree, but a bird landing on it and adding to it, confirmed our theory.

The kids played for a while in the leaves and even said that next time we should bring our own rake and make a big pile to jump in. It was nice to get out, but I think next time, we will try to find something a little more out of town and secluded. When we did our listening time, the noise of nearby equipment working drowned out anything possible to hear.

No one can resist throwing leaves

Home Education . . .

Opening: Read 3 Nephi 17-20, Article of Faith #10 song

Spelling: C9 just completed lesson 45 and C8 just completed lesson 8 in Word Lessons.

Reading: Both C9 and C8 have read through their readers to lessons 15. They finished Charlotte's Web and said that they did enjoy it. They said that since they had seen the movie that there were many things that were not surprising, so it got a little boring. They are now each reading "Star Wars" books that they got from the library.

Copy Work: They are continuing to copy the Articles of Faith with #5 last week. They do a good job at remembering the words, but need to be more vigilant at the spelling and punctuation. When they paid more attention to this, their dictation was much better.

Family Read: We were able to get Arabian Nights from the library and have been reading this together. I have, however, had to "edit" some of the stories because of some content I think is too old for them. Interesting that I got it from the children's section of the library.

Math: C9 started with double digit multiplication. It took her a few problems to understand the concept and when to multiply and when to add, but she picked up on it and will do one more worksheet just to solidify the method. C8 has been going over triple digit addition and subtraction. She has done a great job and we will start on multiplication soon.

I picked up a beginning math program for C4. I found it at a local store on clearance for $3! It is by DK and we are both excited to get started with it. I was going to make number and counting flash cards, but these are a little cheaper, so why not!

History: We finished reading about early explorers and will now move onto the colonies in our American History Stories.

Other: C9 is in charge of arranging activities for her Activity Day group for the month of November. She decided to do a service project, racking leaves, and a Manners "T" Party. She is very excited to plan and get all the details taken care of. I like that they get to do things like this. She should learn a lot about planning, preparation, and entertaining.

Arguement for Creativity . . .

I really enjoyed this article and talk. Please take the time to watch the talk, it is about 20 minutes long. This gentlemen makes such a great case for creativity. Bravo, Ken Robinson.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/11/03/robinson.schools.stifle.creativity/index.html

Pumpkins . . .

We have been disappointed that there are not a lot of pumpkin patches in the area. A tradition of ours was to go to a patch as a family and enjoy all the fun that goes with it; hayrides, pumpkin picking, corn maze, etc. Since moving, it has proven hard to find such a place, so we had to get pumpkins at the local grocery store, definitely not as fun.

The girls did decide that this year they wanted to paint their pumpkins instead of carving them. So I found the paint and they got the table ready. They each did their own designs and had no help from me. Here they are:

C9:

C8:

C4:

The finished products!

Nature Study, Outdoor Hour Challenge #5 . . .

Keeping A List:

Since deciding on mammals for our focus, it has been a little difficult to decide where to start. Everyone has different mammals that they would like to learn more about. Since there are so many choices, C8 suggested that we write the names on separate pieces of paper and then draw from them. So, I listed the names of each mammal found in the Handbook of Nature Study and added a few more from our area on pieces of paper, cut them into strips and put them in an envelope. Each week, the kids draw 2 or 3 names and those are the mammals we will learn about.

The first chosen were the raccoon and house mouse. It was interesting and yucky to read about mice. We all agreed that there is a small need for them to be here, but don't like them anyway. We were all very interested in what we learned about the raccoon and when we are out on our nature walks, we will pay special attention around muddy or wet areas to look for tracks.

Both C8 & C9 drew pictures of the mouse and raccoon

Creativity . . .

A couple of weeks ago, the kids learned about poetry in their "Take Five". They learned some of the different methods of poetry, from Haiku to Limerick. They were challenged to write some poetry of their own, following some of the method guidelines. I thought I would share some of their original works.

From C9:

There once was a limerick queen,
Who tried to paint a perfect scene,
And then that night,
It came to her sight,
A thought of a scene that was keen.

From C8:

I love to see the flowers bloom,
And their lovely scent fills the room.

Catching Up . . .

We have really enjoyed school the last few weeks. We, as some of you, have been fighting illness and once one child is better, another starts. It has been nice for the kids to work on their binders or reading when they feel good and be able to rest when they need to. Here is a quick update:

Opening: we have been a little lazy with our calendar, so need to get back into that grove. We have perfected the Books in the Book of Mormon song and took some time to review the songs the kids will sing in their Sacrament presentation.

Spelling: C9 just completed lesson 43 and C8 just completed lesson 6 in Word Lessons.

Reading: Both C9 and C8 have read through their readers to lessons 13. They are almost finished reading Charlotte's Web. They haven't seemed as excited to read them as I would have hoped, so I asked them why. They both said that since they have seen the movie, it is not as interesting, they know what is going to happen. Hmmm . . . interesting. C4 has been working on recognizing letters by sound and seems to be picking up on them quickly.

Copy Work: The kids spent the time copying and memorizing their parts for their Sacrament Presentation in church.

Family Read: We spent some time reading poems by Edgar R. Quest. They are so fun and the kids love trying to figure out what it is he is trying to portray.

Math: We have had a lot of fun with games and worksheets helping the kids with their math. They love to find out when everyday things involve math and solve them. Next, onto new methods.

History: We have continued reading in our American History Stories and learning about early explorers. We have just finished John Cabbot and son and are now into Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh. The kids find it fascinating that the world was so unknown for such a long time.

Great biographies from the library.

Another fun thing about having everyone home, is we get to come up with some pretty fun things for lunches. I decided to introduce the kids to pigs in a blanket. They LOVED helping make these and eating them. There have already been requests made for them again. They love helping out in the kitchen and I love teaching them to cook and bake.

The finished product, Yum!

Nature Study, Outdoor Hour Challenge #4 . . .

It is Coming into Focus:

We had a very interesting week and learned a lot. We took a road trip, as a family, and followed closely the Lewis and Clark Expedition trail. What a great and hard adventure that would have been. Along the way, I would tell the kids facts or quotes about the journey that happened at the location we were at. It got us all excited to learn more when we get to our state history.

Snow dusted trees at the top of a summit

We had the opportunity to see a lot of beautiful country and spend some time admiring the nature around us. The area we were in was covered in tall mountains and lush vegetation, including evergreens. The tops of the mountains were dusted in snow and we could see signs of Winter coming to the area. Also on our trip, we were able to see an abundance of wildlife from birds to mammals. This being the case, we decided to make our focus for the next few months on mammals.

While on our trip, we saw many mammals. Antelope, deer, moose, coyotes, just to name a few. We also spent time in a visitor center and learned about some other mammals that they had stuffed examples or pelts for those particular mammals. Some of those included, elk, mink, badger, bear, bobcat, beaver, and more. They had some information sheets there to take that had brief descriptions and pictures of various mammals.

Info sheets on mammals free at a Visitor Center

** I found a great Nature Study Schedule here. Thanks Barb-Harmny! **

School at Home?

I haven't been posting as regularly because I think things have been going smoothly and we really have just been doing the same things as usual, with one exception. For the first few weeks, we tried to approach our "schooling" at home as just that, school. We have a room set aside for school with bookcases full of books, school supplies, maps, reference books, etc. We would begin our day with the regular things that you would find going on in a public school like the pledge, calendar, weather, etc. We also added singing, prayer, and then moved onto our subjects. Everything ran smoothly and went as planned except when we had something like library, field trip, or other things that just seemed to throw us off.

So I decided to take the approach of home educating instead. We still get all of the things done that we did before, but it is in a much more relaxed way. C9 and C8 can now get there binder work and reading done wherever they like whether that is downstairs in the "school" room or upstairs at the dining table or on the couch. They say they like it better this way because they don't feel as much pressure that it is a "school" thing, just that they are learning. They also said they don't get as distracted this way. I also think, that it feels more like a way of life and that is exactly how I think it should be. We'll see how this goes, but so far so good! How do some of you go about your "school" at home?

Nature Study, Outdoor Hour Challenge #3 . . .

Now is the Time to Draw:

What a great week for a new challenge! We decided to take advantage of the first day of Fall (Autumn) on Tuesday and get out to see all the changes of the season. We went to a local nature area armed with the wagon, snacks, paper, crayons, camera, and an excitement to see everything around us.

The first thing the kids noticed was the colors of the leaves changing from green to yellows, reds, and browns. They also commented on the amount that had already fallen to the ground and were now, crunchy beneath us. They worried that the crunching of the leaves would scare away any potential wildlife in the area. We saw a lot of new flowers that we have not seen before. We also saw three different kinds of berries that we will be looking up. I think the most curious thing was a plant that had HUGE leaves. It was much bigger than our hands, and tucked nicely under the shady trees and bushes.

The girls had fun watching leaves and sticks float down the stream from a small bridge, and having them disappear beneath the water or overhanging trees.

C9, C8, and C4 collected leaves that were on the ground throughout the walk and when on our way back, we found a nice meadow area with a picnic table and sat down to do some leaf rubbings. Some of the leaves proved difficult to do, but they did a great job nonetheless.

C9 doing some leaf rubbings

When we were loading into the car, C8 noticed a small praying mantis on the walk and we spent a few minutes observing it. It was a little skittish, every time one of us got within a few feet of it, it would take off quickly. On the drive home, we passed a home that had two deer in the yard eating the grass. We thought this was a perfect end to the day.

Week Three . . .

A pretty normal week, and that is not a bad thing! Here's how things went:

Spelling: C9 did lesson 39 in Word Lessons, C8 did lesson 3 in Word Lessons, C4 is working on her name

Reading: C9 read Titles 4 & 5 in McGuffey's Fourth Reader, C8 read lessons 4 & 5 in McGuffey's Third Reader, they both finished Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson and wrote in their reading journals, C4 continued with letter recognition with phonics cards and a few Dr. Seuss books

For our group discussion on the book, we took a comfy seat on the couch and chatted about the story. We all agreed that David was a very honest boy. He took his relationships seriously and was very loyal and good. C9 and C8 thought it unfair of him to have to struggle so much and I explained to them that sometimes, sadly, even though people are good, bad things can happen because unfortunately not everyone is honorable. We also talked a little about the downtrodden lives of the Scottish and Irish of that time. We all really liked the book and would suggest it to anyone young and old!!

Copy Work: We decided to take a little different approach here. Instead of a new "quote" each day, we are going to work on the same "piece" each day and then on Friday, use this "piece" for dictation. This way, I can gauge a little more how they (C9,C8) are doing with spelling and grammar. It was very helpful. I also think that it meant more to them and could retain the info from the "piece" a little more. C4 continued to work on line tracing and some letter copying.

Family Read: We finished with the book on myths and returned that to the library. I would recommend this book as a very interesting and entertaining book. I think the thing I liked about it the most, is it encompassed myths and legends from all around the world. We all liked it very much!

Math: C9 continued working on multiplication facts with worksheets and flash cards and C8 focused on double and triple digit addition. I think C4 is almost done with review on colors and shapes and will be moving on to counting and numbers very soon.

History: We started our next chapter in American History Stories Vol. 1. It tells us the story of Christopher Columbus. We were able to find a very interesting biography on him at the library and have started on that as well.

For an extra bit of fun, we headed to a fun filled, "Fancy Nancy" party with Grandma. It was held in a library and we were to all go dressed in our fanciest attire. They had so much fun! The kids got to make very fancy hair bows and the Moms, fancy watches. We listened to the story, Fancy Nancy, Explorer Extraordinaire and enjoyed every minute! We took the opportunity to practice letter writing skills and sent Grandma some thank yous. Happy Schooling!!

Nature Study, Outdoor Hour Challenge #2 . .

Using Your Words:

We decided to kill two birds with one stone this week, and try doing our field trip and nature study at the same time. We chose a local Nature Area complete with paths, bridges, stream, wild flowers, etc. The field trip part was to find a letterbox that was supposed to be in that area. No luck there, I'm afraid, it has not been found for a year and we didn't find it either. So on with the Nature Study!

It was a very interesting area and we were all very intrigued by everything around us. First, I will tell you the challenge part and then explain what we saw.

**One word to describe something they heard: crunchy (C9), tweeting (C8), bzzzz (C4)

** Two words to describe something they saw: blue stream (C9), brown grasshopper (C8), hopping grasshopper (C4)

** Three words to describe something they felt: happy about nature (C9), bumpy, dirty ground (C8), poke, orange weeds (C4)


We started out with a walk through an area out in the open surrounded by weeds and wild flowers. There were a couple of small foot bridges to cross that went over little streams. We came across a grasshopper that must have fascinated the kids because we spent about 5 or so minutes just looking at it.

Then onto an area that was surrounded by big trees and smaller willow type trees. There was a small river that ran through this area with some nice, small rapids. It was fun to see the different kinds of trees and bushes that live on the banks of the river versus the types that are out in the fields.

For the last leg of the walk, we went through a garden of wild flowers and berry bushes. It was interesting to see the different types of flowers and the butterflies, bees, and other insects that were busy flying around and on them.

For further study, we will try to identify some of the specimens that we were able to get pictures of. For more about the Nature Study Challenges, see here.

Week Two . . .

I think we are really loving this! It has been nice to do things the way we like. If we want to spend some extra time on a specific subject, we can! If we are having a hard time really getting interested in something, we can move on and possibly go back to it sometime. Here is how our week went: (Note: this may seem tedious to some of you, but I want to be able to use these posts as a reminder of what we did, what worked and didn't work, etc.)

Spelling: C9 continued in Word Lessons with lesson 38. She focused on her cursive writing with this lesson and is really doing amazing. C8 did lesson 2 in Word Lessons working on sentences.

Reading: C9 read to chapter 23 in Kidnapped and did lessons 2 & 3 in the 4th McGuffey's Reader. C8 read to chapter 25 in Kidnapped and did lessons 2 & 3 in the 3rd McGuffey's Reader. C4 continued letter recognition with flash cards and stories.

Copy Work: C9 & C8 copied the 2nd Article of Faith, 2 other scriptures and a quote from Charlotte Mason, "I am, I can, I ought, I will." This has become a sort of motto for our home. C4 continued working on line tracing and circle drawing. She is also working on her name.

Family Read: We continued reading the myths and fairy tales book. The kids are really getting a kick out of some of the ways people make up stories to find the reason behind things that happen in our world.

The Usborne Book of Myths and Legends

Math: We focused on Money this week. Recognizing the differences and counting change back. Our "Take Five" focused on this as well, so it was great to do both together. We played a couple of games, including Monopoly, thanks Grandma and Uncle for help with that. They had a lot of fun.

History: We finished our biography about Lief Erikson and learned so much!! Such an interesting tale. We filled out info in our Book of Centuries. We also did a lot of map work to go with this story. I learned a lot too!!

"Leif and the Norseman on an exploration"

We took a fun "field trip" to explore a nearby nature area. It was a lot of fun and the kids were so amazed by the things they saw. We did our next nature study challenge in conjunction with this (see a future post). They loved watching the insects, looking at wild flowers, checking out a stream and the baby got a treat when a train passed by blaring it's horn. He was in heaven, saying, "choo, choo, chuga, chuga, Mom, look!" (repeat) It was a lot of fun!

We also took a little trip to the state fair. The kids loved looking at all the animals; cows, horses, roosters, turkeys, bunnies, etc. We also tried a lot of yummy food and got to learn about wildlife from the fish & game booth, trains from the Operation Lifesaver booth, and got some free, fun info from the National Weather Service booth. I found out that they have a local station and would love to have homeschoolers come by for a field trip!! Happy Schooling!!