Category: Homeschool

Friday

Life lesson for Drew: The Mule doesn’t work in snow, the 4-wheeler can also get stuck, and Dad doesn’t like to stop what he is doing to help dig you out! After a lot of shoveling and some pulling, Drew now knows how to get things unstuck!

It’s hard to believe February is almost over. It always amazes me how quickly time flies. We decided to do our phenology wheel journaling for February today. It’s fun to see what each of remembers most from the month. We pulled out our nature journals too and went through them to remind us what we observed and what we studied on those days we couldn’t get outside. (Which was most of the February as there was just too much snow and too many cold cold days.) We are starting to really enjoy these phenology wheels now that we have two months filled in. Our nature year all in one picture!

It really hit home today that spring is on its way. Along with a wonderful warmer week, today Drew spied our resident chipmunk out running around. Hibernation must be over! We noticed him last year living around the oak trees and today he was out running all over the cave and around the yard and trees. Drew and Possum would go from one dining room window to the other watching him run around. Drew was entertained and Possum was wanting to eat him. It’s a good thing there was a window between them! And he was a great addition to our nature journals!

Gone Again

It’s cold here in my neck of the woods. And snowy. We have lots and lots of snow this winter. I just came in from taking care of the chickens and my toes are cold and my cheeks are cold. I was doing pretty good until I decided I needed to shovel off the patio as we got another skiff of snow this morning. I love love love winter and snow but these zero and below temps are not fun. It’s even cold in the house since I refuse to turn the furnace up. We just layer, pile on the blankets when we’re sitting down, and this year I’ve made rice bags and boy do they help!

Last week was tough as Joe was gone most of the week. And this week is the same. We have gotten so spoiled over the past year as he hasn’t had to travel. Last week he was only 45 minutes away which even though he’s not home, we at least know if absolutely necessary he can come home or we can go to him. This week he’s out of state. The only positive to that is he’s there to hand over the account to someone new so he shouldn’t have to go again. Yeah! The last time he was there was last year. We weren’t sure he would be able to get home due to the quarantine and the state shutting down. He made it home and the next day everything shut down. Scary times!

We had been so used to him traveling. He had slowed down considerably over the years but he still was gone quite a lot. But over the past year, he’s been home. All the time. And after an adjustment period for all of us, we settled in and loved it. He’s slowly been going out and to accounts and been gone during the day for part of the week and that’s as it should be. But again, it was an adjustment as we had gotten to used to him being here all the time. There have been so many negative aspects of this pandemic but being able to spend so much time together has been a blessing that I have cherished.

Another positive of the pandemic has been homeschooling. Something we had been thinking about doing became necessary at the end of the last school year and then we decided to carry on this year. While challenging, very challenging some days, it’s been fun. A fun new project we started at the beginning of the year was a nature journal. And then the darn winter weather hit and getting outside and exploring really isn’t possible right now. There is just too much snow and it’s too darn cold. So, for now we’re taking what we study in Science and our Mammals unit and we’re transferring that into our nature journals. As you can see, Andrew drew his food chain but then he decided to embellish his journal with a turtle with a food bowl in its shell. I never know what he’s going to come up with!

Candlemas and Groundhog Day

We celebrated Candlemas and Groundhog Day yesterday. I surprised Drew with a day of celebrating mixed in with school work and I think he enjoyed the day. He asked if we would celebrate Candlemas every year! I found it interesting that he has never liked Groundhog Day and never wanted to talk about it or know if the groundhog saw his shadow or not. But he was open to studying it yesterday and he even chose to draw a groundhog in his nature journal. A groundhog with a top hat on!

For Candlemas we talked about what Candlemas is and how we’re halfway to spring. That seemed to excite me more than Drew! I had not ever heard of Candlemas so it was interesting for me too. We brought out the beeswax candles we poured awhile back to use in our celebration. We did some fire experiments using the candles and for supper we ate pancake stacks by candlelight. We had just read the chapter in Farmer Boy about Almanzo’s mom making him pancake stacks so that made it even more fun! It was nice to have a little celebration on a cold winter day.

Homeschool Fun

We’re trying something new on Fridays. Copy work. I’m hoping to get Drew to slow down, concentrate on spelling and punctuation and actually writing the letters correctly. I know at school they don’t put as much emphasis on these things as they feel it will come together eventually. I’m not seeing that happening, so copy work. Today was the first day and I was shocked at how hard he tried. Of course, being told he would have to erase the whole thing and start over if there were mistakes probably didn’t hurt either! And maybe, just maybe, what he’s writing down will sink in!