Field trip and then some...

Four and five year old need hands-on activities, right? They loved writing and playing in shaving cream the other day. It gave us a chance to practice writing some letters, numbers, and shapes, but it also cleaned my table ; ).
We love to bake at school, too. The girls are the perfect combination. Sophie likes to keep her hands clean and Bethany loves to get hers dirty. Bethany loves to grease the pan for me. She did a great job...the cake came out with no sticking! We made this chocolate chip cake for Joe a little over a week ago for his birthday. It's his favorite : ). When he came home for lunch, we surprised him with the cake. It was great!

I ordered a kit online that would give us the chance to see caterpillars grow, turn into a chrysalis, and hatch as beautiful butterflies. This is when we first got them...they were so tiny! They ate the food that came in the bottom of the container and got really big. Then we got to see them starting to form their chrysalis at school one day...it was amazing. Now they've broken free and are butterflies. We're feeding them right now but will probably release them next week. It was a great science project. I also read the girls "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle...one of my favorite children's books. It tied into our real-life experience perfectly.

We have also been studying the northern US border states. I have a geography songs cd that teaches the girls how to remember each of the states along the borders. So I thought it would be a natural order for us to study them. One thing several of the states we started with have in common is the fact that Lewis and Clark explored them. So we decided to do our own "exploration day". We went down to a pond not far from my house and had a little outdoor snack. Then we looked at the fish in the pond and walked all the way around the pond and gathered leaves, acorns, pine straw, and other "samples" that we saw. The next week at school we made an "Exploration Notebook" and the girls glued their samples on the pages along with some nature pictures I cut out from a magazine. They turned out really well.

Here's Bethany standing by the edge of the pond feeding and looking at the fish. She told me some of the different types of fish that were in the pond...I was impressed!

Here's Sophie scanning the area with the binoculars.

About a week and a half ago we had our first homeschool group field trip this year. Our local veterinarian, Dr. Jim Rahn, led us on a tour of his office and showed us the different ways that he cared for his patients. We were able to see a puppy, a cat that basically lives in the office, and some other animals. All of the kids enjoyed it. I'm so glad that we have a homeschool community here in our town. We all work together to try and provide fun and educational field trips for the kids, which I'm also thankful for.

Sophie is allergic to cats and dogs, but she was able to hold a baby squirrel that some of the workers at the office found outside. Isaac was even able to hold it, although I did have to supervise him : ). The kids loved this little guy.

We had a week off of school last week...Sophie was sick and so we just decided it would be a good time for a fall break. Next week we'll be back into action. Some of the things I hope to do in the future include finding a pumpkin patch close by and also making contact with a Mennonite community to see if we could do a field trip there. I would love it if they could show us how to make some homemade bread, life on a farm, or how to make some other homemade things. I could probably do some of that myself, but I think it would be fun to learn from someone who does it on a regular basis! Plus we would be able to get out of the house ; ). Our homeschool adventure continues!

God bless!