Writing!

So we have been taking it easy around here. E has almost memorized " The Crocodile"! Also today, mom send me something from Highlights. You have to match the sticker to the right shadow and by each one is a letter. On the other side of the page there were lines on top of the picture of fish. You had to find the match and write the approiate letter above it on the line. I tried this a few months ago with lots of opposition. Today was different, he jumped right in and did the whole page by himself as I sat there and watched. I got kind of teary, my baby is really getting big, where did that newborn go? I know this is just the beginning of my proud mama moments. but it blows my mind the edge of learning that he is sitting on.

Schnappi die Kliene Krocodil

So Easton today during J's nap wanted to work on some school. I thought I would see if he might be up to writing since he has been against it recently. I was shocked that he said yes, but he wanted it to be in German. We have been learning Schnappi and he LOVES it so I asked if he wanted to learn how to write Schnappi and Krokodil, he jumped on it and I was so proud! He still is stuggling alot with them but he was not as resistant to help today so we were able to make some progress and he ended up doing wonderfully!

Mrs Lindell gave him some of these very cool animals information pages and there was one on crocs and gators and we read the whole thing today. It was great in showing him the difference in the two animals and where they live. I really want to get a big world map and when we learn stuff get stickers for that and place where needed.

MUSEUM OF DISCOVERY

I have known about this place for a few years but find it hard to support a child geared place that charges more for me than for my kids. Big pet peeve, don't want to get started, I have said enough to get my point across. It happened to work out that it was free the second Sunday of the month so we thought we would give it a go. It was okay, but maybe because of the crowds I was a bit turned off, ( free stuff can't be easy, I know) E started stimming even before it was crowed, we had to leave within 30 minutes. It was good to get out of the house on a yucky day and try out somewhere new, even if it is not what we are going to do again. He had fun I guess but it didn't seem to knock his socks off, you know? I think if I am going to shell out that money we will go to the Wonderplace or something else. I might try on a day without crowds and school groups but we will see.

Where do Crocs and Alligators Live?

In the water! So what do you think or art was today? Watercolor! Talked about you can make art with anything. We then talked about how crocs and alligators are reptiles and what make a reptile a reptile and the difference in mammals and reptiles. To help him with the scale concept I had him cut a sheet of green construction paper into all kinds of small little pieces. He then had to glue them all over an alligator to show him how scales work. He loved it and it was great therapy for him. As you can see, Junah was very active in it all today.
Also they are both learning and loving Schnappi, die Kliene Crocodil, the German kids song about a baby crocodile and how it is born from an egg and goes looking for his mama. So that covers our German lesson. We are going to work on handwriting again Monday I think, if he isn't to resistant to it again. Working on some math games we can tie in with it.
Oh, and he found a shirt at the store the other day I had to get for him! We found it very fitting for this lesson we are on.

The Barefoot Boy

I came across this poem in E's new book the day I got it and it is a large part of how this book unfolds inspiration into our lives and learning. It has also inspired a photo project I have for the coming year. I am going to take a picture of there bare feet in each season and then at the end of there year, create a wall of there feet, though the seasons. I just love everything this poem touches, hope you can get delight from in as I have.


BLESSINGS on thee, little man,
Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan!
With thy turned-up pantaloons,
And thy merry whistled tunes;
With thy red lip, redder still 5
Kissed by strawberries on the hill;
With the sunshine on thy face,
Through thy torn brim’s jaunty grace;
From my heart I give thee joy,—
I was once a barefoot boy! 10
Prince thou art,—the grown-up man
Only is republican.
Let the million-dollared ride!
Barefoot, trudging at his side,
Thou hast more than he can buy 15
In the reach of ear and eye,—
Outward sunshine, inward joy:
Blessings on thee, barefoot boy!

Oh for boyhood’s painless play,
Sleep that wakes in laughing day, 20
Health that mocks the doctor’s rules,
Knowledge never learned of schools,
Of the wild bee’s morning chase,
Of the wild-flower’s time and place,
Flight of fowl and habitude 25
Of the tenants of the wood;
How the tortoise bears his shell,
How the woodchuck digs his cell,
And the ground-mole sinks his well;
How the robin feeds her young, 30
How the oriole’s nest is hung;
Where the whitest lilies blow,
Where the freshest berries grow,
Where the ground-nut trails its vine,
Where the wood-grape’s clusters shine; 35
Of the black wasp’s cunning way,
Mason of his walls of clay,
And the architectural plans
Of gray hornet artisans!
For, eschewing books and tasks, 40
Nature answers all he asks;
Hand in hand with her he walks,
Face to face with her he talks,
Part and parcel of her joy,—
Blessings on the barefoot boy! 45

Oh for boyhood’s time of June,
Crowding years in one brief moon,
When all things I heard or saw,
Me, their master, waited for.
I was rich in flowers and trees, 50
Humming-birds and honey-bees;
For my sport the squirrel played,
Plied the snouted mole his spade;
For my taste the blackberry cone
Purpled over hedge and stone; 55
Laughed the brook for my delight
Through the day and through the night,
Whispering at the garden wall,
Talked with me from fall to fall;
Mine the sand-rimmed pickerel pond, 60
Mine the walnut slopes beyond,
Mine, on bending orchard trees,
Apples of Hesperides!
Still as my horizon grew,
Larger grew my riches too; 65
All the world I saw or knew
Seemed a complex Chinese toy,
Fashioned for a barefoot boy!
Oh for festal dainties spread,
Like my bowl of milk and bread; 70
Pewter spoon and bowl of wood,
On the door-stone, gray and rude!
O’er me, like a regal tent,
Cloudy-ribbed, the sunset bent,
Purple-curtained, fringed with gold, 75
Looped in many a wind-swung fold;
While for music came the play
Of the pied frogs’ orchestra;
And, to light the noisy choir,
Lit the fly his lamp of fire. 80
I was monarch: pomp and joy
Waited on the barefoot boy!

Cheerily, then, my little man,
Live and laugh, as boyhood can!
Though the flinty slopes be hard, 85
Stubble-speared the new-mown sward,
Every morn shall lead thee through
Fresh baptisms of the dew;
Every evening from thy feet
Shall the cool wind kiss the heat: 90
All too soon these feet must hide
In the prison cells of pride,
Lose the freedom of the sod,
Like a colt’s for work be shod,
Made to treat the mills of toil, 95
Up and down in ceaseless moil:
Happy if their track be found
Never on forbidden ground;
Happy if they sink not in
Quick and treacherous sands of sin. 100
Ah! that thou couldst know thy joy,
Ere it passes, barefoot boy!

So Excited!

I am quickly finding again my love for poems and art. I found a book today at TJ Maxx and call me crazy but I want it to be the base of our learning for the next year. A Child's Book of Poems by Gyo Fujikawa is going to be one of my favorites books for poetry right now. The pictures are so divine and the poems are so classic and sweet. They touch on everything and...AHHH it just makes me flutter with joy and anticipation of seeing the boys learn them and grow in the knowledge they can learn from such poems that have been read by children for over a hundred years. I think that is something that is really connecting with me in this homeschool journey, is connecting to the past. Not just for the boys for myself, to maintain a sense that we are very connected to the past, the love and joy that I feel was felt by mothers 200 years ago is what I feel today. That children 200 years ago, learned the same way that I am hoping my boys learn. Through life, family, friends, nature, neighbors, the market, the forrest, the fields, the streams. It gives my soul sense of peace and grounding. I want to be able to have the boys know this. They are not all there is, or was, or shall be. They didn't just show up here. I really hope that we are going to be able to live somewhere soon that allows us to get back to nature and the basics. Living simply, learning simply, eating simply, love with all. It is going to be through this that we learn and live. Crazy how a little book of poems can stir so much within me, but that is what it is all about to me. I want my boys to feel this. And that is why we do what we do.
My plan the more I look at it and read it is that this is what we will base our learning off of this year. I want to take the seasonal ones and use them as the fit. The rest we can tie in day by day, if it is A Sea Song From the Shore we can talk about beach ecosystems, the tides, animals, the tale of mermaids, so on and so forth. Maybe some explorers that were famous sailors and how they did it. With that one with all the S's in the title we would cover S and things that start with an S that are nautical. Some might be a week in learning, some a day. I am very excited by it all. So my plan right now, is to post the poem that we are reading, post pictures of what we are doing with the learning within it as well as our narration of the lessons learned.

OUR BIGGEST SNOW YET!

We were SHOCKED to wake up to this!!! THey said that we MIGHT get a dusting, an inch at the most last night. When E woke me up to come cuddle at 2 there was already about an inch and change and then we we woke up....

It snowed snow globe snow all day, and hard. I can't remember the last time I saw flakes this big...

I think Junah had been jaded from the last 'snow' outing. The ice would hold him some steps but not others and he was an unstable mess on it and had no trust of the good stuff we got this time. E on the other hand, ran full tilt out in the yard and threw himself face first down in it and started rolling around and making snow angels and snowballs. He was in heaven!!! I had to make my boy a snow man and I have to admit, I wanted to make him HUGE, like taller than me. Well I forgot how hard those balls are to roll once they fain some girth. Either way E loved it and has been viligent to make sure no nar-do-wells or malcontents take him down.
After about an hour and half we were all frozen and done and had to make it back on in. It did not take Junah long to pass out.

That afternoon our best friends called to tell us of there experiement they were doing with the different states of matter and the water cycle with the snow. I remembered doing this when I was little and loved it so we followed suit. FIrst we got a bowl of snow.

Easton then had to guess where the water would melt too. Would it take up more room or less? He was so close! Within a quarter of an inch!

We then brought that water to a boil to see the gas form. The whole time we took temps to show that it all ties together.

We ended a great day with more snow! Nick grew up with snow ice cream. His de dad and his dad both made it when it would snow so he wanted to carry that on with the boys. Junah could NOT get enough of this stuff!!

It was a very good day. By the end of the day we had 8 inches!!!