I've been a snail or a slug!

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I blogged last. It has been a busy couple of months for us. I did some traveling, my dh did some traveling, my kids did some traveling. We're all back for a few weeks then dh is off to Europe for ten days. Then the holidays hit! Where does the time go?

So, I can't think about all I haven't blogged about in the past 6 weeks. What is going on in our lives now?

I just made a bluebird Halloween costume for Thing One. He wants to say "Trick or Tweet"! I took some of his falling apart onesie pajamas, cut them up to use as a pattern and turned a couple of yards of blue felt that I bought for another unfinished project into a costume. I made some simple "wings" that I attached to the back of the arms, and I attached a simple tail to the back below the zipper. I used a helmet pattern from a knight costume to make a hat. I sewed a blue feather boa onto the helmet and onto the edges of the wings.

Thing Two is either going to be a pumpkin (borrowed costume) or a ghost (hand-me-down from Thing One).

DH and I? who knows. We usually throw something silly together at the last second.

School is going fairly well, although it has been somewhat inconsistent with all our traveling lately. I have workboxes out in the classroom, and downstairs as well. They are varying complexity, so some are good for each child, and some are good cooperative activities and games for all of us to do together. I've been letting the boys pick when they're ready.

I also ordered a new curriculum that arrived yesterday. I will have to report on it later, but the one lesson we've done from it today went well and was engaging, except for the "practice writing letter B" page. It's called Moving Beyond the Page. I ordered one unit (environment) to see how we like it.

We've been doing lots of Halloween activities. We did a cool painting technique called watercolor and ink resist. It made a nice Jack-o-lantern painting.

I have tons of beautiful photos from my trip to Santa Fe, and our trip to Ocean City while the kids were with their grandparents. That will have to wait for another day!

Snail and Slug Week

Thing One has developed a fascination with slugs. We have found some real doozies around our house lately. He asked to learn more about them. Unfortunately it's hard to find much about just slugs for young kids, so we broadened our topic to include snails (and we touched briefly on mollusks in general).

We read:
Snails, Clams and Their Relatives by Blaxland
The End of the Beginning: Being the Adventures of a Small Snail (and an Even Smaller Ant) by Avi
The Snail and the Whale by Donaldson
The Snail House by Ahlberg
Mr. Carey's Garden by Cutler
Some Smug Slug by Edwards
My Buddy, Slug by Krosoczka

We tried a couple of experiments at attracting slugs. Several friends made suggestions and we tried most of them. We set out canned catfood (and attracted nothing, that we saw anyway). We set out a dish of beer (again, nothing). I also heard that wet sisal mats attract them but we didn't try that. We had the best luck just looking under big rocks or bricks, and checking the sidewalks early in the morning and after rain.

Plant week

So I've gotten a little behind in blogging! We've been out enjoying the gorgeous weather.

A few weeks ago, we studied plants. We did several science experiments. We did the classic cut a stalk of celery and put it in water colored with food coloring, and watch the leaves turn colors. we did this with white carnations too. Oddly, the blue worked well with the carnations, but we noticed almost no difference in the red carnations.

We put some damp paper towels and lima beans in an empty jar and set it near the window for a few days. When some of them had swelled up and split open, we looked at the inside of the beans and named the parts. When they started sprouting, we planted a couple of them.

We also put some grass seed in an old pizza box. I cut half the lid off the box. Then I closed the box lid. Supposedly, the grass seed would come up on the side where it was exposed to the sun. Actually, it all grew on the side that was covered. I often have luck like this with our science experiments!

We went on a nature walk and tried to find as many different kinds of seeds as we could. Then we took them home and examined them closely, and compared and contrasted them. We talked about how each of them served a purpose in helping the plant grow new plants.

We read:
A Parade of Plants by Stewart
From Seed to Plant by Gibbons
A Seed is Sleepy by Aston
Plants by the Ontario Science Centre
Plants Grow! by Wade
How a Seed Grows by Jordan
A Tree is a Plant by Bulla
Ten Seeds by Brown
Oh Say Can You Seed? by Worth
Plant Life Cycles by Ganeri
Flip, Float, Fly: Seeds on the Move by Macken

Autumn is in the Air

Last week, the weather was crisp, cool and perfect. We turned off the air conditioner, opened up all the windows, and had long leisurely play days and picnics outside.

We spent a day at our favorite park, and lucked into a long, leisurely lunchtime hayride.

We made apple pie with the first tart apples of the season from the farmers' market. This may be the best apple pie I've ever made. The crust was perfect. I'm drooling just remembering that pie.

Mama's dreaming of planting fall bulbs and what beautiful blooms they will bring in the spring. She's also envisioning big bouquets of chrysanthemums in front of the house. She's planning Halloween parties and costumes, ordering corduroy jackets off the internet, and remembering cool weather treats like constant comment hot tea, and oatmeal with buttered toast. She dug out her slippers, and moved a quilt to the sofa downstairs for cuddling under.

All from a bit of a chill in the air.

Pre-History Week

We had another really laid back week this week. I feel extremely guilty because I didn't prepare workboxes, but we still did a lot of learnin' 'round here. I'm trying to get past that guilty feeling. It helps to blog because then I remember all the fun educational things we did all week!

We discussed more from Story of the World about nomads. We pretended to be nomads this week, and went around the neighborhood pretending to hunt for food. We also talked about how nomads would gather food. We gathered some figs off a neighbor's tree.

We made cave paintings.

This idea is from the Story of the World Activity Book. You crumple up a brown paper bag, then draw your painting in charcoal, then paint the image if desired with brown, beige and black paint.

Then we gathered some long sticks, and some "animal hide" (fabric out of mom's stash). We built a hut in the back yard.

We made clay pinch pots. We studied prehistoric mammals, like mastodons, mammoths and saber-toothed tigers. And a lot of other ones with names like platybeladon. Thing One reads this stuff for fun. That's my boy!

The boys "camped out" in the back yard. This was a private party, no parents allowed. Even daddy's storytime was rejected. Thing One took care of it and read to Thing Two instead.

You can imagine how long they actually lasted. There was no actual sleeping accomplished.

We read:

A Wooly Mammoth Journey by Miller

Choose Your Own Adventure: Indian Trail by Montgomery

Will's Mammoth by Putnam

Outside and Inside: Wooly Mammoths by Markle

The Mammoth Academy by Layton

The Legend of the Cranberry: A Paleo-Indian Tale by Greene

Wiley and Grampa #10: Jurassic Grampa by Scroggs

We watched:

Ice Age

We listened to:

Sunset of the Sabertooth by Mary Pope Osborne audiobook

Then, we did our usual, after-hours aimless learnin'. Thing One found a new pet, a tomato hornworm. He has cared for it very gently, feeding it fresh leaves at least twice per day.

Thing One loves to draw. Today, he tried to draw the United States from memory.

See you next week for Plants and Seeds!

18 Days and Counting

My sister and I are attending a yoga, art and hiking retreat in New Mexico in a few weeks. I'm getting SOOOO excited! I've never been to that part of the country. I've never been in a desert. Our agenda includes yoga every day, plus exciting day trips.

Places we’ll be visiting:
Downtown Santa Fe www.santafe.org
Tent Rocks www.explorenm.com/hikes/TentRocks
Ojo Caliente www.ojocalientesprings.com
Georgia O’Keefe www.okeeffemuseum.org
Taos www.taoschamber.com
Kakawa Chocolates www.kakawachocolates.com

I'm a bit nervous about the elevation. Hopefully it won't affect me too much.

The trip organizer is my former yoga teacher who moved from Maryland to New Mexico last year. She still comes to Maryland regularly to teach various trainings. She is someone I try to emulate. She has such a profound aura of peace and joy about her that I envy.

Wordless Wednesday: Obscene Mushrooms

We found this mushroom in our back yard today. I've never seen one before. I think it's a mutinus elegans.

These are from across the road.

Who knew you could find so many interesting fungi in a densely populated suburban neighborhood?