creek school

The weather has been beautiful, but too hot to just play outside without something cool and refreshing, so we declared this week Creek School.

in the creek

We’ve journeyed down to the open space with buckets and intentions to stay all day.

5 year old feet

Logan had the camera for a while.  There were lots of pictures of feet

creek school

because shoes were too big of a hassle.

 creek school

I think my very favorite thing I heard was, “Mom, let me introduce you to Grandpa Tweezers.”

Grandpa Tweezers

Grandpa Tweezers!  Well, can you think of any better name for a crayfish?  Grandpa Tweezers is the embodiment of everything whiskery and pinchy.  I guess there was a Great Grandpa Tweezers, but he was way to fast and tweezery.

caught

But someone’s littered socks did a lot of finger protecting.

bucket full

Hence the bucket full of grandchildren.

Hope you have a great long weekend and squeeze every last drop out of what is left of summer!

 

a post about reptiles

Sorry, dear readers.  Summer has sucked my brain away and I just have not been able to wrap it around actually writing a post instead of just thinking of one.  We have been busy with vacation recovery, growing teeth and fluffy hair on the baby, swimming lessons, a Primary activity that required a life size drawing of Goliath, the diaper saga, and some sewing and crafting thrown in too.  You know, the normal stuff– the kind of stuff that makes actually sitting in front of the computer a rarity, especially sitting down to do something productive on the computer.  So today, I’m starting with the most recent stuff and will work in some highlights from my absence in the next few days.

Now, look what we found on our family room floor:

cute turtle friend

It was Friday night after the afore mentioned Primary activity.  We were unloading the car, we were in and out of the house, all the neighborhood kids (and some of our own) were in and out of the house, the dog was in and out of the house, you get the picture.  There was a lot of choas, and then it was time to send other people’s children home to sleep in their own beds and Jonah found something on the floor.  There was a lot of things being said like, “It’s not mine, it’s Holly’s.” “No, it’s Megan’s.” “What is it?”  Barry decided to intervene and help sort things out when he discovered that “it” was a turtle shell sealed up as tight as could be– with a turtle inside.  Ellie (our dog) dug it up in the back yard and dropped in inside amid all the hubbub.  Now, how random and fun is that?  We kept it for a day and learned all sorts of things.  She is on Ornate Box turtle and we know she’s a she because she has brown eyes (males have bright red or orange eyes) and a flat tummy.  We’d get her out of the aquarium to roam around the house,

look what we found in our living room!

and then we let her go– in a place Ellie won’t dig her up again.

 ready for the release

back in the wild

Now if that isn’t cool enough for one weekend, check this out:

hatching gecko! hatching gecko!

We watched a baby gecko hatch!  My brother sent us some eggs thinking they probably weren’t any good, but we could try to see if they’d hatch.  Monday morning we woke to a trail of little rocks across the kitchen counter and an empty egg.  I hadn’t snapped the lid on the container all the way and the hatchling escaped.  (I’m still feeling totally sick about that and praying that it will turn up tonight.)  Later that night, though, Barry noticed a little head popping out of the other egg,

all the way out

and then the whole thing!  Oh the wonders of nature.  We are thrilled with our new addition.  Oh, I hope we can somehow find the other one.  I have no idea where or how to look for it with it being so tiny and nocturnal. I just feel so bad that it got away…

all cleaned up

So, there you have it.  We like little cold blooded animals at our house and are so excited that some decided to come and hang out with us this week.  How’s that for homeschool science?

seeing what happens

The first Summer Mom School discussion podcast is posted over at  the Summer Mom School blog for those of you interested.  It was great to meet and chat with Carol and KateHow Children Learn was a book I loved revisiting.

Jonah has been wanting to make an invention for quite some time.  After rummaging through the garage and basement he knew just what he wanted to make.

inventing

The kids rigged up a pulley off the deck down to the lawn, complete with a bell to ring when things were ready to come down.  Then one day the whole contraption mysteriously disappeared.  I figured they were just ready for something new, but then I noticed a big scrape on Brenna’s shoulder blade.  “What happened there?” I asked.

“Um,” she said sheepishly, “I was standing in the pulley bucket and pulling myself up with the rope.  Then I got so high I didn’t know what to do.  I was  totally stuck.  I held on for a long time, then the bucket tipped backward and I still held on, but finally my arms gave out so I went crashing down on the rocks.”

“Oh, so is that why you guys took the pulley down?”

“Yeah, it was just too tempting!”

I guess it was a first hand experiment in  gravity and that sometimes self control entails getting the temptation totally out of sight.

Summer Mom-School

 So, I think our computer is back for good.  Yay!  I’ve had a project in the works for several weeks.  I’m a little late in getting it going, but better late than never!  Here’s an e-mail I just sent out: 

Hi friends!

I’ve been working on a project.  For my Ohio friends– do you remember the book group I started where we read books about educating our kids with a few literature classics mixed in?  I’ve been desperately missing those discussions and need some ideas and reminders so I came up with a plan.

books.png

Anyway, I’d like to get people together to read homeschooling books this summer and then we’ll discuss them via conference call.  Here’s the schedule I came up with:

June 27– How Children Learn by John Holt
July  11– Leadership Education: the Phases of Learning by Oliver and Rachel DeMille
August 1– The Well Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer
August 22– Teach Like Your Hair is on Fire by Rafe Esquith
September 12– The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto

The calls will take place at 8 AM Western, 9 AM Central, 10 AM Eastern.  We’ll try to keep them to an hour.  The beauty of the discussions being via conference call is that I can chat with some far away friends and do some discussions while I’m on vacation!

Here’s how to participate:

Send me an email at jessica (at) seedpodbooksandart (dot) com with the subject “Summer Mom-School Sign Up” and tell me in the body of the e-mail which books/ dates you would like to participate in.  You don’t have to commit to all of them, just those (or the one) that you really would like to read.  Then I’ll send you an e-mail with the conference call phone number and access code.

Barry has also set up a blog at www.summermomschool.org where we can write about and discuss the books.  I’m also going to post pod-casts of our discussion calls so that we can add some inspiration and thoughtful discourse to cyberspace and maybe help other parents out there.

I know summers are crazy– but when you get a second go through the book list, read book reviews on Amazon, check your library’s availability, and give it some thought.  Then write me be back if you want to join in.

You all are so inspiring!!

Love,
Jessica

(And thanks to my friend Jessica for the cool logo thing.  She should be playing along and I’m super excited!)