Letterboxing

Well, we attempted our first "letterboxing" search on Monday January 12th. We spent several days putting together a journal, picking out our special stamp, and generally getting ourselves excited to go. Our co-op that was scheduled for Monday was cancelled so I thought this would be a great time to go on our hike. So we printed out our clue and piled into the truck. We had no problem finding the park which was very close to home. It was absolutely freezing. As we were following the path my husband noticed a group of people off in the distance and decided to go off and see if they needed help. While the girls and I found the spot the box was supposed to be, much to our disappointment, we found no box. We started to walk back to where daddy had gone only to see him driving away in the back of a truck and returning a few minutes later with our truck. What he found when he walked over to the group of people was a young man, who happened to be a friend of ours, stuck in the mud up to his waist. He was able to lead a rescue. We were very concerned because our friend had been in the mud for around 25 minutes before we arrived and it was very cold. We were afraid of hypothermia. They group that had been trying to help had placed a call to the fire department but it took them 10 minutes after we got there to even sound the siren. (The fire department is across the street from the park) So... no letterbox but we were there to help a friend in need. We will try again soon. We are also working on putting together a letter box that we will be hiding. Maybe our next trip will be more successful and less dramatic all at the same time.

Off to a good start

Well, we started later than planned but amazingly got every thing finished. The most impressing thing was that we all remembered the poems we had been working on but haven't looked at in six weeks. One nice surprise adventure I have planned to introduce the girls to later in the week is something called "letterboxing". I recently found out about this fun, free, pastime on a friends blog. It involves solving clues that lead to a location where the "letterbox" is hidden. You can go to http://www.letterboxing.org/ to find out more. So now it is your turn.... share with us how your first day back after Christmas break went.

Our Nature Notebooks

This is a sampling of our Nature Notebooks. We have been reading through Karen Andreola's book 'A Pocket Full of Pine cones' and then drawing what we read about. This has been helpful during the winter months when we either can't spend a lot of time outside or when there are limited things to draw. We try to make Mondays our nature study day. I found that if we didn't do it early in the week we would usually miss the opportunity to enjoy and learn about God's magnificent creation. I want the journals to be personal. An expression of the owner. To do this the only requirements I make are the date and that the Latin name accompany the drawing. Until recently Britni chose to only draw with a grey art pencil. She is just beginning to add some pastel pencil drawings. I love to add poetry to my journal or write about the place where I am drawing, or add scripture.



The picture above (left) is a coloring book that I bought to use with Abi because she is not drawing things on her own yet but has fun coloring the pictures like the pictures in the field guides.

To the right is a woolly bear caterpillar that I drew and Abi colored.

This is Britni's custom made cover for her Nature Journal (left).

And this is an excerpt from her journal. Pictured is a bumble bee on a flower.

And here are a couple of entries from my Journal: A Ruby-throated hummingbird on the left and a wildflower - Cosmos below.

Nature journaling is also a great way to learn some basic science. I am amazed at the different birds my three year old can identify. It is so exciting to watch the children learn about the habitats of different animals or types of clouds. How many three year-olds know what a contrail is? What I have come to enjoy most is spending time with the girls, quietly enjoying the beauty of God's creation.

Nutcracker 2008

Flowers	The Nutcracker
Snow	Snow
Arabian	Britni & Abigail
Russian	Reed Flutes
Papa Baker	Lead Toy Soldier
These are pictures of my beautiful dancer in the different roles she had in the Nutcracker. This was her last year dancing with the ballet company..

Morning Time

This past year we added something we call "morning time" to begin our day. We try to start our school day at 9:00 am. Every day we open with a prayer and say our memory verse. I then read a portion of a book series Chronicles of the Kings, by Lynn Austin. We are each memorising a poem which we practice out loud. Then one day we read a page from a H.C. Hollings book, one day we sing the hymn that we are working on that month, one day we just read a poem. This has been an enjoyable way for me to motivate myself to start our day, especially on those days that I just feel like having a movie day. I also think it helps the girls prepare themselves for the tasks ahead. I have also added a daily walk down our short street around 11:00. It only takes about 10 minutes but the fresh air clears our minds and is good exercise for all.

What we are reading

We are avid readers in this house. This month we will be finishing up our unit on the Civil War with Britni. Before the Christmas break we were about halfway through Across Five Aprils and Uncle Tom's cabin as our read-alouds. I loosely read some of the Before Five in a Row books with Abigail through our last school year. Tomorrow we are going to start again and add all the fun activities! Abigail will be reading Jesse Bear What Will You Wear. It is one of her favorites.

Nature Study

One aspect of a Charlotte Mason education is Nature Study. We have been inspired to keep nature journals. We purchased spiral bound sketchbooks and covered them with pretty paper bought in the scrap booking section of our local craft store. For added protection we put a layer of clear contact paper over the paper cover. After going for a walk in our neighborhood, the park, on the beach etc. looking for something that peaks our interest to draw, we sketch the specimen into our notebooks. Britni usually draws hers in pencil. I prefer using color pastel pencils and Abigail is currently using crayons. We add things to our entries like the date and place or a selection of poetry that fits our drawing.

Blog "Grand Opening"

Well this is my first attempt at creating this blog spot. It is Sunday January 4th and I am home with a sick little one. I say attempting to create because I am not very good doing things like this without out help from my computer experts. (husband and daughter) So needless to say this will be under construction for a while. Please be patient. We are going to get back to our normal school schedule tomorrow after a long Christmas break which started in November with Thanksgiving. We school all year round. Years ago I decided that I would rather have a longer break during the busy month of December than to stress about how much schooling was not being done on top of normal Christmas stress. So this weekend we organized books and thoughts, prepared lesson plans, and are generally excited to get back to the business of education. In our family we don't separate "school" and "life". We believe in the Charlotte Mason principle that Education is a life. So although we did no formal instruction in December, our children learned quite a bit. Our oldest daughter is a dancer and our local ballet company does The Nutcracker every year, which she dances in. This was a great opportunity for our youngest to become familiar with that wonderful musical score. They also had the experience of helping with the backstage experience because I am the props manager and Dan is the sound man for the company. They got to help create new props and learn how the stage is set up. After all that excitement Britni had her first go at making Christmas cookies by herself this year. She did a great job. Abigail also learned how to help mom make cookies and that it is "really hard to get them on the cookie sheet" and not quite as much fun as she thought it would be. Britni also decided to make some beautiful calendars for some of her friends that involved lots of research on the Internet and learning the computer skills to get the calendars ready to print and then the process of using a self service printer at the copy store to get them printed. Who says learning has to take place at a desk!