Lots of Learning~

Calla got a set of Lola book for her birthday and one morning she woke up wanting to make her own Lola book~

We had such a fun lesson one day with directions and went outside to play a simon says game of walking in a certain direction~

Our hymn gave us the wonderful activity of reading Saint Francis and then writing a biography narration~

Amelia found a dead female cardinal beside the road and brought it to Ella who proceeded to pick the bones for her nature shelf. She amazes me~

This was our very first year ordering a butterfly kit and boy were we blessed by it! 2 cups of caterpillars arrived still as could be but in just a few minutes were crawling all over the place looking for food~

Only about a week later, they began to make their chrysalises on the top of the cups~

So we moved them to stands then placed them inside the butterfly house~

Another week passed and we woke to 10 beautiful Painted Lady butterflies~

It was SO wonderful to have the boys here to expeience this with us!

They were amazed although BC said they did it at school, he was able to see close and hold one~

We took them out to our butterfly bush, put our hands in to allow them to light on our hand, and watched them fly away~

What a gift to witness the miracle of seeing caterpillars to butterflies~

God is SO amazing!!!

We are reading through the Beatrix Potter series so we nature journaled squirrels~

AND one morning Evie was standing at the kitchen sink when all of a sudden a huge bee flew to the window. I assumed it was a Cicada killer but Ella said NO Mom, that's an Eastern Hornet.

After I recovered from the shock of capturing it to protect us (and observe), we spent the whole morning researching and sketching it~

Pretty awesome sketches I think~

We tried to save it but it passed so now it's on our nature shelf in all its beauty~

 Lot of learning here EVEN in the summer!!!

Sweet Days with the Grand Boys~

Josh was out of town for a week and the boys were a little under the weather
so we went out to spend a few days with them~

We took our school with us and BC joined right in~

 All about maples with Playful Pioneers~

 BC and Calla LOVED all the painting~

 We natured sketched~

Read Ming Lo Moves the Mountain and sketched 3 kinds of mountains~

 Matt 17:20~ I tell you the truth. If your faith is as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there.’ And the mountain will move. All things will be possible for you.

The kids had dreaded Wednesday afternoon all week because they had to get fly shots~

Shots went well although SJ came down with a virus
and Thursday, we took Calla for her surgery preop which you can see she was completely happy about!

Afternoons Pour into Mornings~

Afternoons after snack, the kids head outside to play outside and swim.

Today Evie was out in the backyard catching tiny frogs and happened up on a snake skin taller than her~

She also saved a butterfly from the pool so everyone wanted to measure the snake skin and butterfly wingspan~

 The next morning we chose a nature book to draw from~

and drew all the wonderful things we have found in our yard~

 Nature Journals~

It will be so wonderful to look through these beautiful journals one day when they are big!!!

Tree Frogs~

Every night we are amazed at how loud the tree frogs sing around our house
and just yesterday EK wished she could see them.
This morning when she went to the skimmer, she was able to rescue a common tree frog~

She created a terrarium for him so she could bring him in for observation~

 Everyone scattered to find the magnifying glass~

 And lots of our favorite nature books~

 Found specific pages to gather information and read~

 Then we watched a frog drawing YouTube video~

 and drew in our Nature Journals~

Seriously! Rabbit trails are just what keeps the spark alive when schooling.
Tree Frogs today!!!

A Rabbit Trail~ (pun intended)

This morning we read another chapter in a little book we have been reading, Little Pear and the Rabbits
and the chapter was called The Singing Cricket~

We began our Poetry Time and everyone began looking for cricket poems
 because we had been comparing this chapter to Cricket in Times Square~

Which prompted EK to pull her animal books and Evie wanted to draw one
so we found a You Tube video to watch~

 So what started as just read aloud rabbit trailed to poetry, science, art, and nature journaling~

Beautiful crickets kids!~

 Rabbit Trails are pretty awesome!!!

Schooling at the Beach~

The only things I brought to the beach were a few ocean books, new watercolor pencils, two pocket microscopes, and nature journals
then left it up to them~

 Finding treasures on the beach is always the best~

 SJ drew us on the beach when we first got here~

 Crabs and sharks teeth~

 New lego kits~

 Crabs and jellyfish~

 Shells, shells, shells~

 Drawing in nature journals~

 And an afternoon with The Wizard of Oz since it's cloudy and we just finished this read aloud~

I'd say they are capable of schooling themselves her at the beach!!!