Postcard Exchange and Learning about the United States

I have discovered an interesting way for the girls to become a little more familiar with the states of the United States.  We are participating in a postcard exchange with other homeschoolers around the country, hoping to collect at least one postcard from each state.  The only problem we have found is that we have had difficulty finding postcards to send.  We decided to make our own.  Madeline and Isabella have been working hard to paint butterflies on cards to be sent out around the country.  Here are some pictures of them painting their cards.

We are doing this through a Yahoo! group.

Tulip Test Garden Planted

Today we planted our Journey North Tulip Test Garden.   We had previously picked out a site.  We decided to plant them around our play structure and sandbox.  Our yard is mostly clay, so we did add some soil to the bulbs as we planted them.  We were careful to follow the Journey North instructions so that we can help announce the arrival of spring in North America in 2010.  Hailey and Isabella were not as interested in the project as I would have hoped.  They actually went down to our vegetable garden to investigate what was left.  Madeline and I dug the holes and placed the bulbs and then covered them.  Madeline actually made her own little area to care for herself, although it is more in the shade than the rest of the tulip bulbs.  I suppose it will be a good experiment to see which bulbs emerge first.

Here is a picture of the site we chose, with holes dug.  We did try to use a tool that dug specific holes, but that did not work very well in our clay soil, so we resorted to using a shovel.  We planted on both sides of the sandbox.

This is the area where Madeline planted her 3 bulbs, which she says she is going to check on daily.  She was very good about measuring the spots to be sure the bulbs were planted 6 inches deep.

Here is the first bulb we planted.  Madeline named it Mark.  She named her other 2 bulbs Emma and Morgan.

We are now going to cover them with some old boards so that the squirrels don't get to them.  We will remove the boards later this winter.

Knitting 101

I think it is interesting that I have recently had the urge to knit and sew.  I blame it on the changes in the weather.  Fall must trigger something that tells us to get ready for winter.  I have not, however, knit or sewn since I was about 15, so it poses a challenge.  It did not help that there was another mother at our homeschooling play group today who was sitting there knitting.  Then, this afternoon I remembered that we had some knitting materials with our craft items because I purchased the Oak Meadow first grade curriculum package when Madeline was younger.  She was ready for some of the materials then, but not for knitting.  So, I pulled out the knitting needles and the yarn and found some online tutorials to help me get started.  Amazingly, it all came back quickly and after I had knitted a few rows Madeline asked if I would show her how.  She took to it quickly, and is now busily working away on a scarf.

Beyond learning the skill of knitting, I believe she is also developing fine motor skills, learning patience, gaining self-esteem, learning that things come from someplace other than the store, and expressing her creativity.  

Here are a couple of resources that I found online to help us get started.

English Knit Stitch

How to Cast on Stitches

Wrap On Cast

How to Bind Off

Mid-Missouri Activities - part I

As a homeschooling parent, I spend LOTS of time scouring resources to find activities that I think would be of interest and value to my children.  I just thought that I would post some of the fall activities I have found for our area here, for anyone reading from our area.  This is by no means a comprehensive list, nor is it a list of recommendations, nor am I certain which of these activities we will participate in.  I am just posting the things I have found.  A few of these are for St. Louis and Kansas City.

Columbia Art League - Exhibitions and Classes
Their current exhibit is the Missouri Watercolor Society Members' Invitational, through October 11.

University of Missouri Museum of Anthropology classes.  4-6 pm on the 1st 2 Thursdays of the month.  October's classes are on Brazil and Novembers are on The Arctic.  The same class is repeated both weeks.

University of Missouri Museum of Art & Archaeology classes.  Their next event is the "Kids Sunday Event: Egyptian Goddesses to European Queens" on October 11.  Pre-registration is required.

Youzeum Homeschool Programming on the first and third Thursdays of the month.  Pre-registration is required.

Laws Observatory open every Wednesday night from 8-10pm.

Walk-About Acres

St. Louis Science Center has many activities, including camp-ins.

Monday, October 5 - Bunraku Japanese Puppet Theater at Jesse Auditorium.  Part of the University of Missouri Concert Series.  Actually there are many concerts this year in a wide range of genres.  Check them all out here.

Union Station in Kansas City has homeschool days October 13-16.  They also have many exhibits that would be of interest to homeschooling families.

Monday, October 26 - "Bowfire" at Jesse Auditorium.  Part of the University of Missouri Concert Series.

I have more to list, but I want to get this posted since one of the events is tomorrow!  I will post more later.

The Seasons of Our Homeschool

All things have their own rhythm, and I definitely have found that this is the case with homeschooling as well.  This summer we worked somewhat furiously on fairly structured, planned activities.  It was difficult to spend long periods of time outside in the heat, so we opted for more indoor activities.  There was more time available for reading books and writing and doing indoor projects.  The workboxes system was very effective during this time.  I have found that as fall has arrived with its cooler days, we are spending great lengths of time enjoying outdoor activities.  We are exploring creeks and meeting friends at the park and taking long nature walks.  We are checking on the fading plants in our garden, looking for the monarchs as they fly south, and getting ready to plant tulips to announce springs arrival.
I am learning to be less concerned about the small picture... how many pages of math did we get done this week, have we kept up with our social studies and science curriculums, how much writing has been done.  I am learning to focus on the big picture.  I can see the year as a whole and in turn the girls' entire education as a whole.  I know that in a month or two there will be fewer nice days to explore streams and be outside.  I know that there is value in the lessons they are learning from their explorations.  I know that soon we will have to turn indoors for most of our time, and then we will return to the books and the curriculum.  I also know that spring will inevitably lead to more explorations outdoors.  I know that when those tulips begin to emerge, so will my children.  I know that, like the tulip preparing through the winter for its eruption, the girls will be learning through the winter so that they can take better advantage of the learning to be had while they are exploring nature.  And in the end, they will all bloom into beautiful flowers.

Soccer continues...

The fall soccer season is about half over here.  Madeline has taken to playing goalie.  She loves the position and is certainly not afraid to jump on that ball to stop it from entering the goal.  Isabella is a little less aggressive.  She is not actually running after the ball, but only touches it when it accidentally bumps into her.   I finally got a chance to take some pictures of Isabella playing this week.

Chasing the ball!

Waiting to play.

Carrots and Beans

We were outside today checking out the site for our Tulip Test Garden, and while we were there we decided to check on our garden.

Most of what we grew this year is done, but we have yet to harvest carrots, and the bean plants just keep going.  The girls decided to dig up some of the carrots.  They are small, but much better than what we got last year, which were basically tiny roots.

They also picked some green beans.  We are amazed that there are still some beans out there that are very tiny and won't be ready for a while.

They are planning "carr-bean" salad for dinner tonight.
We also found a woolly bear caterpillar munching on the carrot greens, so we added him to the container with the one we found earlier this fall.  Of course, we included some carrot greens.

I think we are going to have to vote on the location for the tulips, however.  I had a spot picked out for them, but Isabella has other ideas.  I think we will have to go over the criteria for the experiment and pick the spot that best fits the criteria, or maybe plant them in both locations.  We are excited to start the project, though.  I need to go find a soil thermometer so that we can be sure to plant at the correct time.

Tulip Test Garden

This year we are going to plant a Tulip Test Garden, which is a Journey North project that tracks spring's arrival across the Northern Hemisphere.  It looks like just the kind of project we will enjoy.  We have ordered our tulip bulbs (Red Emperor) and I actually thought we might plant them today, but after reading a bit I decided it might be a bit early to do so.  We are going to hold off planting for a week or two.  There are some wonderful activities on the site though, so we are going to try some of those instead of planting.

Homeschooling Articles

I recently came across a couple of articles about homeschooling which I enjoyed reading, so I thought I would share.

"Confessions of a Home-Schooler"
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2009/09/28/confessions_homeschooler/

"One Good Year: A Look at Short-Term Homeschooling"
http://www.brainchildmag.com/essays/spring2007_brodie.asp

"Confessions of a Home-Schooler" appears to be the first in a series of articles.  I am looking forward to reading the rest!

Enjoy!

Creek Day

The homeschooling group we are members of is having some "Creek Days" for the kids at area creeks.  Today was the first one.  The water was mucky and the creek was running pretty fast in some areas due to a rain storm we had yesterday, but the kids still had a great time.  They found tons of water bugs, one fish, a crayfish, a frog, and many fossils.  By the time we were through they were all wet, but satisfied.

Madeline, of course, had to wear her tiara, but that did not stop her from jumping right in!

The girls all had boots, but Hailey preferred bare feet.  I'm guessing that by next week it will be cool enough that she will need her boots!

 

We found a shell, which Hailey was quite fond of.  She also was not shy about climbing right into the creek.

There were so many water bugs to catch!  I was really glad that I had stopped to pick up some nets and containers before we headed over to the creek!

All of my girls had to sit on this tree and bounce at one point during the trip.  It was irresistible!

Isabella had no fear of the critters that we caught!  She loved this crayfish!

And this frog!

Madeline also liked the frog, but was reluctant to touch the crayfish.

Hailey also made friends with the frog.  Actually, I think she was most amazed by how it attached itself to the side of the stream, in the dirt and roots, to camouflage itself.  It really did just look like a little rock.

A Search for Snails

Friday we sat down with this book,

which I had more as a resource to help when we found critters in our backyard.  Madeline asked if we could read it, however, so we began with the first chapter, which is on snails and slugs.  I was actually surprised at the depth of what was covered by the chapter.  There was even a diagram of the internal parts of the snail.  After reading, the girls wanted to head outside and see if they could find any snails for themselves.  We did find some shells, which appear to be empty, but I did as the book suggested and dipped them in water and placed them on lettuce leaves in hopes that they would be revived.  We are still waiting.

While looking for snails, we also found a woolly bear caterpillar.  We have placed it in a jar with some grass in hopes of keeping it over the winter and watching it change into an Isabella moth.  The girls were also trying to decide what kind of winter the woolly bear was predicting.  They think it is a snowy one.  I guess we will see!

The book suggested using an old piece of pantyhose secured with a rubber band to cover the jar, which I thought was a great idea, and I can't imagine how I did not think of it!  Here is our jar with pantyhose lid.

I think we will soon be reading other chapters, and may be out in search of more critters.  Actually, I suspect after it rains we may be out looking for more snails!

A Final Farewell

Well, we released the last of our monarchs today.  We had 5 that eclosed over the past 2 days, all males.  The girls were all ready to let them go so that they could begin their journey to Mexico.  Here are some pictures from the release.

Madeline was in charge of removing them from their temporary home and passing them out.

Hailey even explained to the monarch that it was time for it to fly to Mexico.

When we were finished, we noticed this hanging above our dining room window.

We will have to keep an eye on it!

Monarchs: Symbolic Migration

We decided to participate in Journey North's Symbolic Migration.  The girls have worked very hard to create butterflies to send.  Essentially, as I understand the process, we send our paper monarchs to Journey North in Minnesota.  They then send them to children in Mexico who live near the monarch's overwintering sites.  These children then care for the paper monarchs over the winter and send them back to Minnesota in the spring.  Then Journey North will migrate paper butterflies (although not necessarily the ones we sent) back to us.  We can also track the symbolic migration online and see exactly where our monarchs end up.

It sounds like a fabulous project, and the girls are very excited about it.  We have a little bit to finish up.  Our butterflies still need the information that goes on the back, such as our address and a message in Spanish to the child who cares for our monarchs.  We will get them finished up soon to have them out to Journey North by the October 13 deadline.

Here is a picture of the monarch Madeline created.  She used water soluble crayons to create it.

It All Starts at Home

I think it s so important for the girls to realize that they need to be good citizens and take action to change the world.  This is a worthwhile cause.  I hope you will join us!  
Join Habitat for Humanity’s photo petition! Habitat needs our help to remind President Obama that human health and well-being starts with having a simple, decent place to live. Join me in reminding the U.S. government that “It all starts at home.” Visit http://www.habitat.org/gov/take_action/WHD_Photo_Petition.aspx, and follow the instructions to post your photo to Flickr.
If you submit your photo by September 25, 2009, Habitat will deliver your photo to the White House in honor of World Habitat Day 2009.
Madeline designed our sign.  Her original design had houses over time drawn on it on a timeline, but they would have just been too small to see.  It was a great idea, though.

Soccer!

The soccer season started today for us.  Madeline had her first game this morning.  Isabella's first game is Wednesday.

I was surprised at how well 7 and 8 year olds play.  It was quite a long time before any goals were scored.  Both teams did a nice job defending!

  
I was also surprised how early the game was - 8 am.  I guess if we were not homeschooling we would be use to being up that early, but we are not.  It was tough to get everyone up and out for the game!  It was worth it, though.  Madeline said that she thinks soccer is her "thing."  There certainly was a lot of running during the game!

Madeline enjoyed playing goalie as well.

A New Place to Explore

Today we took a trip to a nature area we had not been to before, the Grindstone Nature Area.  We started out with a little hike on the path, and saw several things to investigate.

There were lots of butterflies and dragonflies.  We found deer tracks and paths into the grassy areas.  The flowers were abundant.  We saw many different insects, like the one below, that we were unable to identify.

We will be looking this one up in our field guide soon, along with this spider.

We also took a look at some of the different trees and their seeds/nuts.  We found hickory trees and oak trees, among others.

Hailey was not enjoying much of the walk today, as she was having difficulty with her shoes.

So we decide to go check out the creek.

We found many other things to investigate there, including fish, crayfish, a frog, water bugs, and more dragonflies.

We also found a nice fossil.

The girls also enjoyed playing in the water, of course (especially Hailey).

And Isabella and Madeline tried climbing the limestone.

We will most certainly be returning, not only for more investigating, but also for some biking as the paths are so nicely done and so flat.

I really love it when...

everything comes together just right!  On our weekly trip to the library, one of the girls picked out this book

Madeline was reading through it, showing me the pictures and giving me the highlights.  I recognized one of the pictures as something I had seen on our milkweed leaves when we were gathering them for the monarchs.  So, the girls and I went out to look.  We found several of these

which, it appears, is what is left after a ladybug emerges from its pupal state.  The girls were so excited to be able to identify these.