APRIL YARD NATURE STUDY

Squirrel nest post back here.  Why not combine #naturestudy and gardening? Builds character too.

Spring? Well, Almost

Week Eleven in our Happy Little Nest (NOT) History Ch Ten SOTW3 and Chemistry

Everyone is practicing their music for homeschool band and enjoying the challenge. Bet ya never thought I'd say that?!  We're beginning a new cycle of describing each country in our FLAGS (Human Geography) binder. The topic of who a country trades with or fights against has come up and I said that we should really delve further into why a neighboring country should fight at wars with said country.  The Daddy is headed to Africa next week and we're excited, but praying about it.  G#1 is enjoying the Fallacy Detective book and discussion of logic with the Daddy.  All three Gs were outside with me to clean up the garden and put everything away for winter.  The ceiling fans are cleaned and turned, and electric blankets are being used. 

No more mountains of zinnias and marigolds.  The seed heads were collected for next year's garden and bird feeder.  The trash cans serve as a raised garden and are cleaned up.  The hoses are drained and put away.  All because the kids worked with me to get it all done. 

School Stuff:  History

Far East of Europe

SOTW3CHChapter 10, begins on page 99.

Japan's Isolation: Closed Doors in the East
Guerber Story of the Thirteen Colonies:  Puritans, John Eliot, Roger Williams, Providence,, Ch. XXXIII, Stories of Two Ministers,
Japan. 1631-1638, 1633 The Story of Japan chapters about daimyo persecution of Christians
The "Foreign Conquest" of China: The Rise of the Manchu
Guerber Story of the Thirteen Colonies:   Puritans, Connecticut, Ch. XXXIV, Williams and the Indians,
Japan, China. 1635-1643, 1661-1722
(PAST FACT:  1368 and The first Ming dynasty emperor rules in China)
The Story of China.   by R. Van Bergen

School Stuff:   Science

READ and SKETCHaRESPONSE

Tiner, Exploring the World of Chemistry Chapter 5: Electricity to the Rescue  36
Kindle:  Wonder Book of Chemistry, Chap 19 (A Drop of Water) and Chap 20 (A Piece of Chalk)
Hands of a Child Notebook: 
Read sections *California Gold Rush, *Magnetic, Where in the World is Metal?, *How Plumbers Got
Activity 8 – Precious metals.
Activity 9 – Objects made with alloys.
Activity 10 – Where are certain metals found?
DK Chemistry pages 24-25
Investigate Periodic Table Construction handouts

Nature Study and Transitions

After removing a yucca that insists on crowding the lilac bush at the corner of the house, G1 and I cleared the native perennials that were already processed by the various forms of insects including bees leaving very little COLOR left.  The orange bush I bought from the County Forest Preserve several years ago was fascinating to examine.  The bush looked like this during the summer. Their catalog calls it Butterfly Weed Asclepias tuberosa, and it sits on the east side of our house receiving full sun most of the day. 

 

Above is what it looks like in the Preserve's catalog when at its height of beauty in the summer.  We didn't get to see any orange yesterday and all the seed pods made the stalks heavy.  We trimmed the leaning stalks and found the seed pods could be opened.  Below we wanted to take special attention to the feathery wisps attached to each seed in the pod.  The seeds were lined up like a peacocks feathers.  This plant is native to the area and these wispy seeds help it get around. 

 

The transition part of this post relates to the fact that the math hurdle or vexations are past for now.  The long weekend found each G getting special math attentions from the Daddy.  Each student now is ready and willing to finish math expeditiously every morning after breakfast and Bible study. The rest of the day goes so well and tasks were finished in order to examine NATURE.



Last Artistic Pursuits Project

Officially, we finished Millet from the last chapter of the Artistic Pursuits book.  The assignment asked for a diorama. I pictured a painful ocean box with lots of blue for water and fish and other squiggly things. But, another idea from the crowd suggested the back yard. We look out at it from our "classroom" and it is pretty easy to break down into pieces that each person could work on by themselves. G3 took on the storage shed and compost bin. G2 did the fence all by herself, except for the part about gluing it to the base which took some folding magic.  G1 was in charge of the non-scalped tree and the greenery behind the tree. The twins took on the garden plot and hostas that surround it.  I think they also had the job of the boat and trailor too.  All in all, each learned lessons about teamwork, 3 dimensional work and scale of each piece.  The tree stood up with a corndog stick behind it. You can see the white fence thermometer that I got for Christmas last year. And you can see the green trash cans that have part of our raised garden in them. Soon, I'll post pictures of the real garden all planted and growing.

3G Landscaping

BEFORE                                                                      AFTER

More Good Things

Seedlings from the gomphrena, zinnia, allysum, pansies, rutger tomatoes, cilantro, basil and green pepper packets are growing under the special bulbs in the basement ready for the garden soon.

Good Things

Spring is sprung!

Another G used various vegetables to create a spring scene. I'm glad for bunnies and squirrels at the bottom of the page too.

Crocus just popped too :-)

GARDENING IN THE BLEAKNESS OF WINTER

The alyssum and pansy seeds from last year are in startermix and there's nothing winter can do about it! I took some crazy "What flower are you quiz?" AND it turns out that I'm a canna. Seems appropriate too in that I plant and dig my canna bulbs/corms every spring and fall with the utmost care b/c I live in Zone 5 and that's the only way to even start with cannas.  But, it'd be ok to have a bit more winter b/c I've no idea what to do with my landscaping challenges and no money to throw at them.

So, it's back to homeschooling and its challenges ...
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul.
It is well, with my soul, It is well, with my soul, It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control, That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

New Views

As my soccer kids (G#1 & G#2) work diligently 3x a week on the pitch, I watch my third ride his bike or hit a bucket of balls with Dad at the courts. But there is a new view from the tennis court sideline (as tennis lessons began for G#3):





New views from the back door to the house (as each of the junior gardeners used a shovel to help me remove a 30 year old juniper stump from in front of a basement window):


It's amazing what directed digging can bring about for dedicated diggers.
I may be viewing the sanctuary different in the future as I serve at church.
PS. Sunday sailing for Daddy and G#3 found them viewing the sail boat from the water. The gusting storm blew in and blew them over. Both are well, but learned many lessons and had new stories to tell.

Oooh la la

Spring is sprung!

I just saw bulbage sticking through the frigid wet ground yesterday on the way home from piano lessons! AND, my seedlings on the grow-light table are coming along too. Well, except for the red salvia and jalapenos. I started more jalapenos in different soil and set them in a warmer location. Not sure there is hope for the red salvia. I will start zinnia, zucchini, coleus, squash and green pepper soon too. I'm thrilled that the tomato, lettuce, impatience, basil, coriander, sage and alyssum seedlings are still growing. We may even be able to work on transplanting lettuce seedlings into clay pots too.



Speaking of piano lessons, G#3 began violin lessons from someone we know from new church. He did so well and liked the 1/4 sized violin much better than my full sized one. On the cultural note, I've not done history for a couple of weeks and don't miss it one little bit. We've worked through several Magic School Bus books on Earth Science AND we're working through the Zoology I book on flying things. The kids are looking forward to the scavenger list at the end of chapter one that helps us identify all kinds of insects and birds. The 3Gs enjoyed watching several library videos about flying dinosaurs too.

G#2 & G#3 finished Explode the Code 4 today and start the next book on Monday. We're in the final 10 lessons of First Language Lessons for both first and second grades. Spelling Workout B and C are in the final 10 lessons along with Handwriting for a Reason. G#1 will finish MUS Beta for 2nd grade and it'll be easy to move him on to whatever math we choose for 3rd grade. Things are busy and my favorite part of the year is almost here, Easter!

Fun Reading leads to Fun Gardening

I was looking for books by J. Arnosky and found this about worms by C. Arnold. It was the perfect read for my two younger kids! I'm ready to garden tomorrow after a visit to the home store for supplies!

The map of state birds showed many insights into bird migration and an introduction to the Zoo I book on flying things. The handwriting example is from our G#2 who, added a nice coloring job to finish if off.

Oh the fun of planning for next year... NOT!

In his free time, the nuclear engineer Daddy taught our budding plumber how to remove the blue 1970's sink from the guest bathroom and replace it with a 25$ one piece used sink from the Habitat For Humanity Re-Store shop. I keep trying to explain that learning a trade is the best way to pay your own way through college.

We reviewed Uranus and Neptune today and introduced Pluto and the Kuiper Belt from Apologia Astronomy. We've built a volcano to demonstrate the largest volcano in the Solar System from Mars and soon we'll explode a rocket to demonstrate the space exploration to Saturn. The topic of science keeps getting more and more interesting as I consider that the Well Trained Mind formula asks me to take my kids into chemistry next year. I've looked at at book called "Real Chemistry" and continue to explore other options as well. But for now, we will move from the Astronomy topic into the Flying Creatures Zoology I book from Apologia as well to discuss habitats further in the context of birds, insects etc. I'm an Earth Science geek and will do whatever necessary to get the kids outside and explore during all this craziness.

I was so pleased to hear about the amount of stars in the sky when we were out on the southwest Iowa farm over the weekend. The boys have learned to look up and enjoy the night sky without all the lights of the city. BUT, when we come back to Chicagoland we also look up to count how many planes are lined up for landing at O'Hare. Amazing!

But for now, the seed trays are clean and ready for seed-starting mix. It's past time to get the garden growing and I'm finally ready to put it together with my junior gardeners. They've been ready for a while to get at the digging part. They've been diggers for most of their lives come to think of it. Speaking of digging out, this is a picture of our efforts to clean up the driveway during January.

Snow and snot, but let's read a book

Hey, Alice in Wonderland was fun/ weird, but done and now it's Black Beauty. Got the idea while in Chick Fil a TN where the kid's meal included a condensed version of the same. Number One enjoyed it so much. And I'm a sucker for a horse story anytime any place. It's that whole farm girl thing... So, we're more than half way done with reading for the year and will broach the precipice of same with math. Discussion of reptiles is underway and listening to a kid's story about a private eye named Chet Gecko reinforces my attempts in two ways. A trip to the aquarium is still on the calendar soon. We are getting to some lessons in Story of the World that I'm looking forward to; i.e. Phoenicians, Assyrians and Babylon again. Once we get to Greeks it's all down hill toward summer.

Speaking of summer, Dora gardener in the house helped me plant globe amaranth and two colors of alyssum 2 weeks ago. Those are now ready to transplant into plugs which all three junior gardeners roled from uncolored newsprint. Many other seeds were started yesterday while the three were working on AWANA Pinewood derby entries. AND prior to shopping for the superbowl gorge, Daddy registered little boys for park district soccer.

Tomorrow is a visit to the dentist for a field trip. I keep praying for a kid-friendly family dentist on our dental plan. I've already tried 2 different dentists. This third one should be the charmer. Then a playdate for our little girl. I get to visit with the mom too, so that's cool. More piano lessons for Number One who isn't hating it completely. Doesn't hurt that the family where he takes piano also has a drummer and a huge drum set to mess with each week. Plans are in the works for a late February trip to Utah and a national park or two. We'll see how the wind blows.