Field Trip: Learning Tree Farm

We are fortunate to have several friends who also homeschool and we decided it would be a great idea to organize some field trips together.  We had our first one last week at Learning Tree Farms and it was so much fun for all of us.  Learning Tree Farms is completely hands on and the wonderful ladies working at the farm that day were so helpful and patient with our kids.

 We got to hold chickens....well, not me.  Didn't volunteer for that one myself, but my son did!

 This is the farm's only black sheep.  Guess what it's name is?  That's right, it's Mattie.  We were dying laughing!  My Mati thought it was cool that the sheep had brown skin like he does.  

 Coolest part of the visit was the baby goat that was born while we were there!  This little guy (who we got to name- we picked Gibson) is minutes old in this picture.  

They also had two little goats that were only about a week old.  The moms couldn't get enough of these baby goats!

 Best buds with the donkeys; we learned that male donkeys are called jacks and females jenny. 

 We took a hike through the woods on the property and were rewarded with a clearing and a tire swing.  Also swarms of mosquitoes, but that didn't bother the kiddos!

See, I was there!  That's me and baby Casper, the goat.  Oh they were cute!

This was a great place to have our first field trip.  It was such a joy to see all our kids of various ages interacting and playing and learning together.  And it doesn't hurt that I got to hang out with some of my favorite women in the world.  We had such a great experience at Learning Tree Farm and I hope that this was the first of many visits there!

Owl Day

We have had fun with our owl theme today.  We read some good books...

We especially loved the illustrations in this one!

And we took advantage of a new-to-us feature available through our library called Scholastic BookFlix that pairs a fiction book with a non-fiction book about some of the same things.  So today we "watched" Owl Moon and then they listened to a Scholastic book about full of facts about owls.  It was fun!  You have to access the site through your local library and with your library card so check and see if your library is part of the system.  

Haven made a torn paper collage of an owl...

 Then she worked away on her first ever graphing project.  I remember loving these when I was a kid and am happy to see that she enjoys it as much as I did.  Can you guess what it's going to be?

This has nothing to do with owls, but we decided to make soft pretzels for lunch.  Wow- they were so good! And so easy!  Which could be a problem now that I know how good they are.  

Now I'm all carbed up and ready for a nap! Did you do anything fun today?  

First week

One week of school behind us and a great one at that!  Last Sunday night we had a special family night.  We created a scavenger hunt for the kids with all their supplies (most of which they'd picked out but they were still thrilled to hunt for them!).  We had little meetings with each of them talking about what to expect and what we expected and we gave them their t-shirts and verses.  They were excited about everything!

 Haven was ready to go bright and early Monday morning.  I kept reminding her school didn't start til 8:30 and she needed to settle down already.  Honestly, I love her enthusiasm!

 Working hard on her spelling...A Reason for Spelling...one week in and I'm a big fan of the format already.

Mati wants to do whatever Haven's doing so this mama needed some activities on the ready for him.  Pretty much everything I'm doing with him is from Confessions of a Homeschooler's Preschool Curriculum.

We are going to read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom every Monday to introduce our letter of the week.  I really wanted to buy this Alphabet Tree (seriously- how cute is that?!), but settled for making my own magnetic one for free (and it's pretty cute, too!).

 Oh, Mati.  I settled him at his table with his Alphabet Books and peeked in a few minutes later to find this.  Roller skates make it easier to concentrate I guess.

Wednesday we had our first meeting of Classical Conversations.  Haven loved every minute of it.  We will be using what we learn here as the core of our curriculum.  I am being educated right along with Haven!  Also can't stop singing the silly songs they have to go along with everything.  We are so excited to be part of this community and think it is a great fit for our family.

Working hard on handwriting and getting some use of the t-shirt...ahem.  We didn't get any pics of us working on math, but that's because it's a bit more work for mom.  I think it will take some time to get familiar with everything, but Haven really likes it already.  She'd tell you math is her favorite.  Although, between you and me, I think everything is her favorite!

It was a great week and I feel like I've already worked out a few kinks in our system.  I know it's going to be a great year!

Character Building

Our happy little homeschool begins next week around here and we couldn't be more excited.  I've been praying for the Lord to give me a vision for our year and for what He wants to accomplish in all of us.  One of the great things (and also challenging things)about homeschooling is that you have the chance, by being with your kids all day, to really work diligently on character issues.  I came across an idea last week that I've kind of run with and made my own that we're going to incorporate into our year.

We have chosen a word for each of the kids that is a character trait we believe the Lord wants us to focus on for the year.  We also have picked verses that go along with the trait that will be their verse for the year.  I went to Hobby Lobby and got t-shirts and with the help of the handy-dandy Silhouette am making Haven and Mati shirts with their word on it.  The t-shirts will always be near by and when a child has a day that they need to be constantly reminded to exemplify that trait, they'll put it on. They will literally clothe themselves with that word, which will hopefully be a great reminder for the kids of what's expected of them. I think Haven will respond really well to this and if she's excited about it, then Mati will follow.  I'm hoping this is the first year of a new tradition for our family

Wonder if I should make one for myself that says Patience?!

Field Trip: Tim Horton's

My lovely friend, J, has got some connections.  And she's a good enough friend to not keep them to herself, but share the goodness with me.  Yesterday she invited us to join her kids on a field trip to a Tim Horton's store where she's friends with the owner.  The kids loved it!

The learned how to make Iced Capps (a very valuable skill!).

Got put in the freezer with the baker.

Frosted some donuts or perhaps dunked them would be more appropriate.

Want some doughnut with your sprinkles?

Sprinkles, sprinkles and more sprinkles!

A box full of doughnuts that she proudly decorated, ready to go home.

And not to be left out, he needed his own box for his doughnuts!

Thanks, J, for including us in your field trip today!  We'll go with you guys anywhere!  Who else do you know?!!