Pack Monadnock

Yesterday Jacob took a day off and we went for a hike at Pack Monadnock. It is February in New Hampshire but the weather was clear and it was actually quite warm while we were walking. Jacob was vague about how far we needed to go, otherwise I doubt I would have agreed to join along. I had a heavy coat on when a fleece would have been a better choice, and I get so winded going uphill so that was tough for me. It was difficult for C as well, who needed to ride on Daddy's shoulders for most of the way. W was a trooper and he was amazed at the view from tower at the top, so that made it all worth it. Sherlock enjoyed it but was interested in sniffing all around the woods instead of staying on the main path.

Jacob assisted with lending his phone when there was a minor accident for a fellow hiker, whose daughter was able to call 911, and we waited with them for help to arrive. The boys were excited to see the fire rescue truck; we hope everything went okay for them. There were several places where there was icing. Even our own yard has been slippery with ice that has refused to melt.

We didn't take Lucy on this outing, since she was at the Vet's office yesterday being spayed. She will be home soon and is recovering nicely.

Sea life field trip

We continued our in depth study of sea life this week at the New England Aquarium on Friday. The boys and I took the commuter rail train in, and it was an early morning for them but they seemed to enjoy the train ride. Then we walked from South Station to the Aquarium. The weather was unseasonably warm for February in Boston! I think it did us all good to go since we had planned this for several weeks and some other NH homeschoolers were going as well.

One of the seals painting.

Shortly after we arrived, there was a seal demonstration in the tank in front of the entrance, and one of the seals painted a picture. They are amazing creatures! They seem very similar to dogs in terms of training, as they use a rewards based system. There is much more to learn about the Atlantic Harbor Seals on the NEAQ training blog.

They have a good life!

W enjoyed learning about the jellies, C liked the shark and ray touch tank exhibit, and both of them loved watching the penguins. W observed and read about the Little Blue penguins from Australia. However, at the end of the day both boys said the sharks in the big central tank were their favorite.

Our special little guy

Our sweet cat Ludwig, also known as Baby Boo, passed away yesterday. We adopted him when he was a kitten, and had many years of joy and love from him. The boys are dealing pretty well with the loss. I know W will have memories of him. We were all able to say our last goodbyes to him yesterday. He was so brave and sweet. I've always said Ludwig was my practice kid, and he will always have a special place in my heart. Although the loss of a pet is incredibly hard, it is all worth it and the memories and love live on.

L and W as a baby

L and C hanging out

at the window enjoying the warmth of the sun

Rest in Peace 

Ludwig 

2002 - 2012

puppy pals

Happy New Year! Our house has had a couple of new additions in December. Of the canine variety as you probably figured out from the title. We have been reading books on adopting a dog off and on for years, and found one on Petfinder that seemed like a nice fit for our family. His name is Sherlock and he is a rescue dog from Alabama. We e-mailed our application and shortly thereafter he was scheduled to be shipped up to New England. He is a pointer shepherd mix. Sherlock is 4 months old and is already a big boy at 32 lbs.

Sherlock on his new bed enjoying a rawhide "candy cane"

One of our friends posted on Facebook about a litter of puppies needing a home, sort of simultaneously as we were submitting our application for Sherlock. We thought about this over a weekend and decided that it sort of made sense to go for it and adopt the little beagle needing a home as if we did get two dogs they would grow up together. So Lucy the pocket beagle joined our little family and the boys adore her. Lucy is 8 lbs and will likely not get bigger than our cat. She is a cute little butterball.

the boys with Lucy

The dogs are quite a pair, we think Sherlock thinks he is a pocket beagle at the way they sometimes wrestle.. play.. fight? They both love going outside for walks. We have taken them in our yard/woods, and on the local rail trail which they had the best time on. We are crate training and Lucy has actually been doing really well, but Sherlock hates his crate so we are trying to make it more appealing.

Since getting the dogs it has been a big adjustment for our schedule, since homeschoolers in general get to sleep in a bit more if they so choose (we did), but it is probably a good thing.

Ludwig playing with a catnip fish from Santa

Oh, and the cat? He is doing surprisingly well with the pups. He has not really hissed, and he knows that he is the real Alpha (ha), his territory is still his, such as the basement and bedrooms. Ludwig has been losing some weight recently, before the dogs arrived, and this is his tenth year with us. We got him as a kitten the year we were married. We changed up his food in hopes he will gain some weight again and hope to have a few more years with our baby Boo, but we will of course monitor his progress and if he gets sick we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

FIAR: Make Way for Ducklings

For our Five in a Row co-op, we rowed Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey in September. Yesterday we had our monthly meeting with four local homeschooling families to read the book together. The kids got to share their artwork and activity pages they worked on. Our friends even brought a real duckling in, it was so cute! We heard it peeping, and they told us the duck parents were very upset that they were taking the duckling since they didn't know it would be right back that afternoon, they were so protective just like Mr. and Mrs. Mallard in the book.

duckling

W worked on some activity pages made by a friend's Mom on CurrClick, and learned about the duck life cycle. He read about the statue in Boston which he visited last March and will see again in a couple of weeks. 

W is working on lowercase letters; every now and then an upper case sneaks in, but there is great improvement already!

W (pre-glasses last spring!) and Mama Duck

He also read a Rivers booklet from CC. This geology/ science study has tied in with where we are in The Story of the World as well, he is learning why ancient cities were located on rivers since not only was it a good water source for drinking and crops but it also gave them much easier transportation on boats compared to crossing mountains or deserts. I love when the stars,.. err... curricula align, much easier for planning lessons! ;) Outside he used sand from his sandbox to make hills and obstacles for his mini river to go around. We checked out a Rivers and Ponds DK Eyewitness dvd from the library as a supplemental resource. They have a pretty large collection of these dvds there so I will try to remember that for next time, he really enjoyed watching it. 

W also read Homer Price by Robert McCloskey as a read aloud and finished it last week. It is a chapter book which reads more like short stories. He absolutely loved it and many of the stories made him laugh. I did get a chuckle out of the doughnut story, although personally I prefer Mr. McCloskey's books for younger readers. 

FIAR: Salamander Room

Salamander diorama (the head is by the yellow leaf)

Last week we rowed The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer. W said this was his favorite Five in a Row book and he really enjoyed reading it to his brother as well. We went on a hike in our woods looking for salamanders but were unsuccessful. Rain put a damper (quite literally) on our plans to try again. So after reading a FIAR message board post I was inspired to go to the tackle section at Walmart and found realistic looking fake ones for cheap. If you do this please, please take out the hooks before giving to your kids! They were thrilled with their creepy crawly little guy and found some leaves, ferns, rocks and sticks to make him feel at home. And I was thrilled that I didn't have to touch a real salamander. ;)


W enjoyed reading this website on Salamanders and Newts and seeing the photos, and in the past when Jacob finds them in our yard when working he has shown the kids so he was excited to see some that looked "just like those". The Salamander Room was also featured as a Reading Rainbow book.

C update: Pre-Pre-K Homeschool

C is often the sidekick in our posts but here is an update just for him. He will turn 3 in a few short months! That is really hard for me to believe, he will always be my little miracle baby to me.  He woke up congested this morning and his little stuffy voice is so cute, but I seriously don't want to catch this bug! He is still not potty trained and is not quite ready for it, he is still in cloth diapers at home. C naps most afternoons for an hour or two. We have a vision appointment in a couple of weeks for him, as the doctor recommended it after seeing W, so it will be good to get him checked out. He loves eating apples and bananas. The photo is him eating an apple from the tree in our yard. He is not a fan of veggies so that is always hit or miss.

His vocabulary is growing every day and he communicates more clearly than a few months ago. He benefits from the many stories that his brother reads to him, and has been exposed to Five in a Row books on his own level. He reads many of the Before FIAR books although we do not have the workbook for that. His favorite books are board books for Goodnight Moon  by Margaret Wise Brown and Yummy Yucky by Leslie Patricelli (which he calls "Baby Soup"). :) He loves painting, drawing, and doing puzzles, playing with his t-ball set outside, and swinging on the swing set. He already loves imaginative play with his brother with legos and toy cars.

C has a deep love of trains and anything with wheels, he has been fascinated when we took him on train rides and to the museum. He tags along on our field trips and co-ops. He plays with W’s math-u-see blocks or duplos while W does math, and already he can count to twenty when counting with manipulatives. He is working on his ABC’s too, but does not recognize the symbols for most of the letters/numbers so far.  

He loves animals, especially our cat and is learning to pet him the direction that his fur goes. Luckily our cat Luddy is very patient with him, and he seems to enjoy the attention despite his expression in the photo. ;)

C loves Mickey Mouse, Curious George, and Dinosaur Train. Occasionally he will watch a Thomas and Friends dvd. I find that waiting as long as possible for TV makes the day flow easier, such as when I am making dinner that is a good time for a couple of shows. I usually will let them each pick one; 90% of the time lately C wants Mickey. I like popping in a Disney movie or musical like The Sound of Music on a rainy day after we do lessons, but since he naps most afternoons he usually sees the first 30 minutes. 

W and C don’t always get along and certainly have their moments like any siblings, but they are best friends and I think W really loves having the company of his little brother each day. 

Some Pig!

W finished up Charlotte's Web by E.B. White as a Unit study last week, so to celebrate this weekend we took a day drip to our local county fair. He was very excited to see the pigs, and we also saw sheep, goats, chickens, a turken (who knew?), a calf, a horse show, and rabbits. W and C were enchanted by the enormous pumpkins. 

Pigs feast at the fair

what a great pumpkin! Over 1100 lbs.

my little lamb!

We would like to get involved in a local 4-H chapter this year so hopefully next year W can participate and submit some of his home grown veggies and crafts. W did a couple of rides at the midway, and C went on the merry go round with me. 

For Charlotte's Web activities, W composed an acrostic poem about Wilbur using the printable from abcteach.com. This was a great excuse to learn about adjectives and make his grammar lesson fun as the book is so full of delightful adjectives. He colored in Wilbur with a white crayon with touches of pink since in the book he is described as white with pink ears and a pink snout. He also made a Pig Book. I had been afraid that the ending would be too sad for W to handle. He was moved by the story, but I was the one tearing up as we finished the last chapters. W took turns reading chapters independently and aloud with me for a family read. In many parts he laughed out loud and seeing the book fresh through his eyes brought me back to my days of reading it when I was a kid.


On Friday night we watched the 1973 cartoon movie which surprised me with the details and actual quotes from the book. Maybe sometime I will add the more recent Dakota Fanning version on our Netflix queue. We will also be looking for some other works by E.B. White at the library next trip. 

Animal Adventures

A couple weeks ago we checked out a presentation on animals at our favorite library. Animal Adventures is a small zoo in Bolton, MA, and we have been to a couple of their presentations in the past and they always do a great job safely presenting various animals to the kids and answering questions. And getting peed on by animals. Ew! :) The kids had a great time. Here are some of the lovely creatures we met.

A very cute de-skunked skunk

An albino hedgehog. It was prickly. And yes, it has reddish pink freaky eyes.

My brave boys pet this alligator. eep!

Jumping into First Grade

Our first day of first grade in our homeschool was an unusual one yesterday. We had lost power from Tropical Storm Irene passing through, but luckily our family was safe and our house was unharmed so we were extremely lucky to only experience a temporary power outage. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the folks in our neighboring state of Vermont and to all those across the east coast affected by the storm.

the crafty little chipmunk 

Without the lights on, W made a list of all the things we use daily that need power to run. It was quite a long list! Certainly it was an interesting project to relate to the “olden times” we are studying in Story of the World. W & C had a fun day with a lot of outside play time in the garden and on the swing set. W began a nature journal as well and observed a chipmunk up close. Those critters are pretty used to hearing the boys play. This I believe is the same chipmunk that I saw trying to roll an apple into a chipmunk hole. The crafty little guy was outfooled by the apple, which did not fit. Today we observed the same apple half eaten with numerous bite marks left by a certain chipmunk which probably had a tummy ache today.

We are getting back in the swing of Math U See Alpha & Five in a Row as well as introducing new elements to our learning materials such as The Story of the World. W mentioned to me that maybe we shouldn’t have stopped lessons for writing & math over the summer so it may be something to keep in mind for next summer. This summer was more of a “read a lot, work on some projects, and do workbooks when you want” approach. He is having difficulties with writing lower case letters so this year he will work on that and we will also be getting C better acquainted with the alphabet as well.

W picked a carrot for snack time.

Today the power is back on and we did some sit down lessons before lunch and then were outside for a few hours. C is now napping and W is playing. Earlier we looked at web sites about butterflies and hummingbirds to identify those we saw outside and learn a bit more about them. When reading about flowers that draw hummingbirds, W recognized Lupine as the flower featured in this weeks' Five in a Row book Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. (That book deserves its' own post! One of my favorites so far out of the world of five in a row.) Sadly we will have to take the hummingbird feeder down once the fall settles in, as we learned the ones we see now are probably just migrating south, but hopefully they will remember our house and be back in the spring.

Caterpillars pt. II: Butterfly release!

Yesterday we freed our 4 painted lady butterflies that had emerged from their chrysalides and had enjoyed feeding on the nectar we deposited on some flowers for a few days. Rainy and busy days delayed us in setting them loose, but the whole family enjoyed seeing them get so excited about being free to fly in the real world and get out of their mesh world.

But first, let's revisit our little friends. Here Jacob gently moved the paper insert with attached caterpillars to the mesh habitat.

Then we waited. Within about 5-7 days, all of our butterflies had "hatched".

It is difficult to take photos through mesh and plastic! But here are two of the butterflies. The bottom of their container was brightly decorated, and real flowers at the bottom held drops of syrup (we used hummingbird nectar, sort of the same as sugar water). This made things pretty sticky in there but it will wipe up well to use again next year. We may even gather our own caterpillars next time since we have seen some pretty cool looking ones in the garden and around the yard. Here is an interesting web site on identifying moths, butterflies and caterpillars in your area by country, state, and county.

The big moment!

We had never seen the butterflies bounce around so much in there until the last few moments when I moved the container from it's temporary home (our porch) outside. They must have sensed it was finally their time. It was very cool to see and they were gone in a shot, flying straight up in the air. I hope they were able to find some flowers. 

Aquarium Day Trip

We recently signed up for a membership for the New England Aquarium in Boston. My family has some fond and funny memories from our visits to this aquarium, and W had been once when he was 3 but didn't remember it. This was C's first visit and we went with Grandma and Grandpa visiting from the south, my sister, and our cousin. It was a fun day trip! W & C even got to see some moonjellies up close which he had read about in one of the FIAR books we did last year, Night of the Moonjellies by Mark Shasha. We will be planning to go again soon to utilize our pass as much as we can this year.

enthralled watching the sea lions by the entrance

giant sea turtle in the large tank, and shark tail in the background

Overhead shot of one of our favorite exhibits, the penguins!

at the seal statue near the mammals exhibit

We had watched an Animal Planet show on penguins growing up the day before we went, and W recently read the Magic Tree House book Eve of the Emperor Penguin and is currently reading the fact finder. W was impressed to see the models of the penguin eggs and watch the penguins in action as they waddled, groomed and swam. The caretakers were scrubbing the penguin habitat while we were there, and next time we may plan our trip around the penguin feeding time to watch that.

 
  

Caterpillars part I

Our current summer science project is watching caterpillars change into butterflies. We ordered a painted lady caterpillar culture through Insect Lore, and it arrived last week. The first couple hours, the caterpillars did not move at all so I was hoping we didn't get a dud culture, but the insert said it is common for them to take a couple days to move. Soon they started crawling all over it and they have been busy ever since. The culture contained all the food they needed for this stage of life.

Today all 4 of the caterpillars are on the top of the container and forming into the pupa stage. Once they are all attached, we can move the cover into our bigger mesh habitat for the butterflies to hatch in. W & C enjoy seeing them up close and are excited to see their metamorphosis.

See the two pupa hanging down and a fuzzy caterpillar on top?

We wanted to do this during the summer so that we can release the butterflies outside when they are ready. More pictures to follow in part II.

    

ten turkeys

Taking a break from our trip recaps, I wanted to share a photo I snapped of a mama turkey and many of her little ones (we counted eight in this photo but there was a straggler that didn't make it in the picture). W first spotted her in the yard so we loved seeing all the baby turkeys. Click on the photo to see it larger and see how many babies you can spot.

Middleton Place

While visiting the South we just had to visit a Plantation, so we went to Middleton Place. No relation to the newest British Princess that we know of. Near the entrance there is a large rectangle reflecting pool where a couple of swans reside. 

The “big house” had damage during the Civil War, and was rebuilt only to burn in a fire a decade or so later, so there are piles of crumbling brick but the surrounding gardens were kept up and there are nice walking paths leading to secret gardens and too many varieties of plants to count. Some of the gardens showcase beautiful statues which were donations to the plantation in later years. Along some of the paths bamboo was growing. It is a great climate for it, where rice used to be the primary crop.  

The hydrangeas were in bloom and we saw cranes and turtles as well as a couple of baby alligators. They also had several farm animals on the grounds, a safe distance from the alligators. Spanish moss hung from many of the trees.

look closely... is that a log or an alligator?

We visited the chapel which was built for the slaves and open to the entire community. It was extremely small and it was moving to think of the people that were so grateful for that meager space to worship. There is an area where a house was built during reconstruction for former slaves to live and it is fascinating to think about how the way of life in the region changed so dramatically during their lifetimes. 

Overall we would recommend visiting Middleton Place to learn not only about the history of plantation life but to get lost in the beautiful marriage of European inspired gardens and the nature of the low country.

wildlife

Here is a baby porcupine we saw in our yard this evening. The quills still appeared very soft but we did not want to get too close to find out. The mommy is nowhere in sight, so I am hoping this little one can avoid the predators and go back into the woods. It is still out on the same tree over an hour later. 

Other animals we have seen recently are frogs, a salamander (Red spotted newt), squirrels, chipmunks, wild turkeys, various birds and our resident hummingbird. No bear, owl, or deer sightings recently. We have however heard coyotes so it makes me glad we keep our cat indoors! 

A couple of weeks ago W read the book Owl Moon by Jane Yolen for Five in a Row, and we found a great website on Owls as a supplement to learn about different owl species. Both the boys especially enjoyed listening to owl calls. The book gave W some good food for thought as well about nature, bravery, and peacefulness. 

EcoTarium day trip

I forgot to post some photos from our visit to the EcoTarium in Worcester, MA last month. We met up with most of Jacob's side of the family so the boys enjoyed spending time with their cousins, uncles & aunt. It is a nice little museum which I think would be even more fun in the summertime when more time can be spent at their outside areas as well. We got to see the polar bear Kenda who was happily napping in the snow.

              Polar Bear! She was not too excited to her picture taken.

They also exhibit animals of the non-living variety. This used to be a mountain lion.

The iguana demonstration was neat, the handler put a bunch of unlucky crickets in the pen for a snack.

 The EcoTarium seems to be expanding as the upper level of the museum was closed and under renovations, so it would be fun to go back on a warmer day when there is more to see.