Backyard Science

Baking soda rockets and microscopes -----

Sketching at the park -------

Pooh sticks and snake identifications--------

What could be better on an incredible spring day!!!

Deschooling Update - Week 3

As I sit here typing DN is sitting across from me on the laptop excitedly blasting his way through spaceships with prime numbers playing Sigma Prime on Manga High. This is a kid who has said he hated math over and over and over again, yet he has become obsessed with beating these levels and getting a gold medal. I think I have found a key.

We had a really great week. We finished up a ton of lessons and are taking the next three weeks off from regular book work in order to enjoy the season. Saturday we finished up the bio experiments from last week and set up some interesting bean ones for this week -





We also had a lot of fun and enjoyed the beautiful weather before it is gone - of course I keep saying that and we keep having it, so I will just KEEP SAYING IT!!! On Monday we headed over to the courts and played some tennis, before we went to the local herring run to have a picnic, do some nature sketching and play some pooh sticks!

Today (Tuesday) we went to a local DCR ice rink for FREE public skate. DN is building his confidence and doing great. KM has begun skating backward, but thinks we need to go to a rink that skates clockwise so that she can turn to the left better. We also check in on one of the bean experiments and it seems to be coming along nicely.

All and all I would say it was quite the educational, entertaining and enjoyable week! If you want to check out some funny highlights from our day out see KM's you tube channel for - Rock Sliding and Other Silly Stuff and Playing Tennis

Field trip to the South Shore Natural Science Center

KM is far beyond the age that our local science center - South Shore Natural Science Center - is geared to, but she still loves to go and share the space with the Littles. 

I am so impressed with the time that she takes with each of them to help them find just what they want to see. 

It also fills my heart to see the Littles' expressions as they make new discoveries - 

Our deer friends...

came for another visit this morning to munch on our fallen crab apples. Can you find the mama and her two babes?

Jumped the gun a bit

Last week when I said it was the last beach day of the season - I guess I jumped ahead a bit because we were back at the beach yesterday and this time we had CJ along with us! The waves were incredible and the sun felt so nice! It was a really great time.

Last beach day of the year!

Since today appeared to be the last 80 degree day for a while we decided to ditch our plans and head to the beach this morning! It was so beautiful, peaceful and fun! We had a great time!

We usually don't bring much home with us, but this time K really wanted to bring some periwinkles home. She has been enamored by them since we went to a night tidal pool class two years ago. I figured just a few periwinkles wouldn't hurt! 

more Bizzarro Black Birds!!!

Wednesdays must be good for traveling blackbirds as they were all over my yard again!!!

Black birds galore ----

I looked out yesterday and there were blackbirds EVERYWHERE in my backyard! Then we were driving through town and they were ALL OVER!!! It had to have been some sort of freak migration or something!

Herring Run Adventures

We had a fabulous picnic with some friends and the littles yesterday at the Herring Run! The day was gorgeous and the kids had a great time splashing and playing pooh sticks! 

NOT Back to School Day - TAKE ONE!!!

We had planned a NOT Back to School Beach Day for a large group of home learners in our area, but unfortunately we had to postpone it because of Hurricane Irene power outage related issues. We are hoping that it will be able to run later this week, but today we got to take an adventure to a new spot that we have tried to go several times, Ellisville Harbor in Plymouth. We brought a few friends along and ran into some more as well!

It was a really nice relaxing day. The kids climbed on rocks, hunted crabs, relaxed after their lunch and I got to take some interesting photos!

Ironically we had to reschedule our day and our local schools are all had to do the same as well - they won't be going back until next week as they are all in outage zones! 

All alone with little G!

For the very first time EVER I had my niece GC - the younger 1/2 of the Little - all to myself! SC was off on a field trip with the day care and MC wanted to take the Itty Bitties in to have a trial run before she heads back to work this weekend.

It was so much fun to play with her uninterrupted and you could tell how much she was enjoying playing with things without having them ripped out of her hands because it was time to share. She got dress up, we made some scrambled eggs, played outside and then she got the music box ALL to herself! So much fun!

Back from camping

and  boy do I need some sleep!!!

 They set up their tents...

and then went for a swim...

all the way across -

 the lake and most swam back again -

made their own breakfasts - 

had a glow parade -

and made lots of memories!!!

2 parents + 7 teenaged girls = epic adventure!