THERE IN THE WOOD.... #3

 We went into the woods looking for some empty bird nests. We found a few that were covered with snow but we couldn't get close enough for pictures. It was nice to find them because we are never able to find them during the summer.  While out for our walk we found some Virginia Creeper. We usually see this creeping into our raspberry plants in the spring.

We also spotted some Woodpecker holes in a dead tree. We have often seen a Pileated Woodpecker and heard it's laughter out here. We wondered if this is where it has been feeding.

The Virginia Creeper has been around our yard since we bought our house. At first we thought it was Poison Ivy. As seen in the picture below it has grown around a tree.

This may be the mother plant (I call it that anyway).  It was so large. As you can see this vine becomes woody. It is a very fast growing vine and has five leaves during the summer. The vines just keep wrapping around anything. It is often considered to be a problem plant.  I can imagine a small  structure, with Virginia Creeper planted all around it. As time goes by and it grows the leaves and wood fill in the structure and create a wonderful play place.  I see a future project!

I found this link for further information
http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/pg_paqu2.pdf

I would like to hear about what others find in nature. Exploring, learning,  anything that is nature related.  What kind of bug, flower, animal, bird have you seen. What are you studying for weather etc.

Please join my link up so we all can learn more from nature.

How does it work? Take it apart!

CG and SA wanted to take apart an old toy and see how things are built. 

This ended up being a really good science lesson. They learned about gears, motors, sound, soldering, battery power, electric power, the list goes on and on. They used some problem solving skills to take apart some of the toys. This led to discussions about how the toys were made.

Mom's lesson give a child an old toy and a small screwdriver and they will be happy for hours.

What do you think?

As a Homeschool Mom I always wonder if I am making the right decision when it comes to what I teach. I want to make sure that I feel comfortable, and that CG and SA are interested and learning. I think and rethink decisions sometimes as I am sure most Homeschool Moms do.

I started elementary education with US Geography, State Presidents, and a visual timeline. We also studied 6 events, places and people in history.  I have seen and heard that Ancient history is usually taught first.

Why?

How do children learn about Ancient Egypt if they don't understand Geography and time lines. I felt that it made sense to teach from where we are and then expand out.

Geography
Local community, State, Country, World.

Timeline
Family tree, historic people, inventions.

What do you think? How do you teach History?

Kids Cake Auction

We hosted a kids cake auction at our local library this past year. We had so much fun. CG and SA picked the design of the cakes that they wanted. SA made a lego cake and CG a guinea pig cake.

Children in the community made cakes and bid on cakes. All proceeds went to the library.   

He is being very careful not to spill the sugar.

This was her first time using the mixer!

The lego cake. I failed to get a picture of the guinea pig cake, it was really cute though.

My favorite cake recipe.

Preheat oven to 350 F

3 C cake flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t baking soda
 mix in bowl and set aside

1 1/2 C melted butter
1 1/4 C sugar
Beat in large bowl until fluffy

2/3 C milk
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
4 lg eggs
Then beat all ingredients together when all blended beat for two minutes.

Bake for 18 - 25 min depending on the pan you use.

Mom said yes to painting on the wall!

We are a family that really enjoys art. I try to incorporate a real art lesson a few times a week. I have no background in art so everything that I teach them is from research online and in books. Soon they will be taking a watercolor class, but until then they just create.

This past weekend they wanted to paint on their wall.  Oh no you can't do that was my first thought.  Then I realized that people do have painted murals on the wall and that it usually looks nice. I told them if they painted what they wanted on a piece of paper first then they could paint on the wall. This was just to make sure they had a plan.

Off they went to paint.....In no time they were back with their paintings complete. I taped off a section of the wall and they began. They did a wonderful job. The paintings look great, they had fun and Mom learned its not so bad for kids to paint on the wall.  With a plan that is.

CG's painting on the wall of a bird feeder, bird bath and bird. Original in upper left corner.

SA's painting on wall of a bird house. The original on right.

THERE IN THE WOOD....

We found some holes in our tree. Upon further examination, pictures and exchanging e-mails we determined that it could be Asian Longhorn Beetles ALB for short.  We were very concerned, the State Forest Entomologist came to take a look at our tree. She could not rule it out, so she wanted the US Forest Service to take a look at it.

A month or so past by and then I received an e-mail. The US Forest Entomologist scheduled a day and time to meet.  It was a very informative meeting, we learned about some pests and some new science words like the insect galleries.  The paths chewed by larva in the tree. Our tree had it right under the bark.   Good news was it is not ALB. Bad news.... some thing is living in there. Carpenter Worms a moth was his suggestion. We will have to wait until spring to see any more changes to the tree.


The US Entomologist was very friendly and smart. We spoke about homeschooling, science and nature. I love talking about those subjects. A few days later I received a package in the mail.

Of course the kids liked the tattoos. I know we will be learning from this information all summer.  Thank you to our US Entomologist! It was a very nice thing to do.

I would like to hear about what others find in nature. Exploring, learning,  anything that is nature related.  What kind of bug, flower, animal, bird have you seen. What are you studying for weather etc.

Please join my link up so we all can learn more from nature.

We made BUTTER!

 We made our own butter. I never knew it was so easy. All that we needed was heavy cream and a mixer with a whisk attachment.  First let the cream come to room temperature. Pour it into the mixing bowl and use the whisk attachments. You may need to put a small towel over it because it does splash a little.

This would be how you would make whipped cream, it will look like that. You will go past the whipped cream stage and you will notice that it will start to separate.  When it looks like this then it is done. Buttermilk and butter.

 

Scoop out the butter and pour the buttermilk in a jar. Wash the butter in cold running water and work it a little until the water runs clear.  You can add herbs and freeze it if you want. Use the buttermilk for baking see our Donut Muffin recipe.

We also made some fresh English Muffins to go with the butter.

 This was a website that we found. It also has some suggestions on books. 

http://www.webexhibits.org/butter/index.html This was a fun and easy project for the kids to learn. You can explore history and science.