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.

I ❤ Chocol-8

In Math-U-See, W is currently solving for the unknown in Chapter 8. He is halfway through the chapter, and is finding the blocks to be useful tools to help him figure out the problems. C has been enjoying counting blocks and building things with him while his brother works away. Last year I worried about him with the smaller blocks, but he is great with them now and even likes playing with little legos.


M-U-S now has t-shirts, so an elf may be delivering some pretty soon to our household. (Shhh... don't tell W! I will make sure and post photos after the holidays.) The "I ❤ Chocol-8" shirts are too sweet, and MUS-ers will be able to recognize us in a crowd. The "Can you tell me how to get to Decimal Street?" shirt is pretty cool too.


W has been continuing with Story of the World this week, with reading and projects Mon & Tues and listening to the CD for review today. He has been doing some Explode the Code 1 1/2 and lots of lego creative play & playing UNO. We are rowing a couple different books at once over the past couple of weeks including A New Coat for Anna for our FIAR group. He has been reading a lot of seasonal books lately. 


C has been a bit grumpy but he took a big nap today. I think he still needs naps, although some days he goes without them. He will be 3 next week, he is growing up so fast.


Today we raked some leaves outside and they played on the swing set. Then we went a little bit into the woods (with orange hats on this time of year) to see the seasonal stream that has developed. It sounds like a babbling brook and there are a few large rocks nearby to sit on and enjoy it. This weather has been really warm lately but I know before long the snow will come again.

Photos and Fall Poetry

View of the fence Jacob built in our back yard, decorated for the season.

I have been wanting to read some poetry with W so I found a couple of autumn related ones online. I printed them on cardstock. This can go along with nature study and appreciating all the sights, sounds and smells of outdoors in the fall. Here is a nice poem for the season by Robert Frost.

Gathering Leaves

by Robert Frost

Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.

I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.

But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.

I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?

Next to nothing for weight,
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.

                                                   Next to nothing for use.
                                                   But a crop is a crop,
                                                   And who's to say where
                                                    The harvest shall stop?

Raking Leaves

W asked to rake leaves the other day. I couldn't deny him that, so I went into the dusty old shed and found it. The only problem was that there weren't really that many leaves yet. Boo.

Probably by the time there are he will give up all interest. ;)

C, on the other hand...

Watch out! I've got a rake and no idea how to use it.

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.

Cape Cod Memories

C hopes a wave will fill his bucket

The boys always enjoy going to their Grandma's house on Cape Cod. They recently got to visit while all their cousins were there as well. We fit in a trip to the beach at the knob, a visit downtown while a car show was going on, and a hike at the Ashumet holly wildlife sanctuary. We are looking forward to our next visit later this month. 

the holly trees are quite impressive

my inquisitive boy

the swallow society barn

a rare Franklinia blossom at the holly preserve

one of the many paths

FIAR: Miss Rumphius

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney was our first Five in a Row book this fall. W made a lap book which he will keep in a binder together with other FIAR related stuff, so once he has enough material he can make a table of contents to find it. Miss Rumphius traveled the world to places where the snow never melted (like the Alps), deserts where she rode a camel, and ultimately she found a home by the sea in Maine. We used maps and geography puzzles to locate the places she went. 


Ms. Cooney’s artwork is just beautiful in this book. She also illustrated Ox-Cart Man which we are familiar with (and it is set in NH). For many of the printable resources we used for the lapbook this week, check out Homeschool Share.


Our garden is winding down, but W decided to plant lupine seeds next year so we will add it to a list for a garden plan for the spring. He also learned about different ways that seeds travel. He got to see that up close as well during a visit to the Ashumet Holly Preserve on Cape Cod this past weekend, as he had a few traveling seeds stuck to his sock.


Miss Rumphius plants many Lupine seeds to make the world more beautiful much to the delight of future generations of children. This book asks a thoughtful question to children and adults alike, what will you do in your life to make the world more beautiful?

excerpt from W's lapbook

This would definitely make the world more beautiful!  It took him all week to think of this, but it is sweet for sure. Future mission trips, perchance?

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. 

Watching the Garden Grow

It's been a while since a garden update, but a lot has changed in the past few weeks. We just took a long weekend trip up to the White Mountains so we were pleasantly surprised that no animals had eaten the fruits of our labor so far. I had spotted a deer shortly before we planted the garden and we have also seen our local wild turkey family checking out the pumpkin patch. As long as they stick to eating ticks and bugs they're cool with us. 

Oh, hai turkeys.

July 1st.. lettuce and carrots beginning to pop up.

and July 10th.. as you can see we need to do some thinning out, but the lettuce is starting to look edible and the carrots are pretty hearty now. We also have seen several blossoms on the squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, and pepper plants. The eggplant hasn't changed much since planting. The herbs are thriving and we had fresh basil on our tomato & mozzarella sandwiches last night.

I see baby lettuce salad on the menu in the near future.

A cute cucumber flower.

Yay, tomato!

Our Garden 2011

Garden beds! Excuse the camera phone photo.

Saturday was a fun day spent at a local farmer's market, strawberry picking, and errands ending with some ice cream. We also worked for a while on the garden beds and bought some plants. Last week we rowed Paddington's Garden by Michael Bond, which was sort of appropriate as we made rock lined garden beds. After church on Father's Day Jacob went to work on our garden, and then on the last minute idea of a pumpkin patch in back. In one bed we planted tomato plants, pepper plants, eggplant, acorn squash & herbs. In the other raised bed W helped plant carrot seeds, lettuce seeds, and cucumber plants. I may move around the herbs to their own area once we see what works, but we have heard it may help dissuade the deer and other animals from eating the blossoms on the vegetable plants. 

We are getting a pretty late start this year due to weather, and it took a lot of hard work on Jacob's part to make the rock lined raised beds. Jacob would also like to add another raised bed or two and extend the garden back, eventually even putting a bench in that area, and fencing in the yard. So for now we will see what works, but this is a big experiment. Jacob used some of his leftover container gardening filler, a mix of vermiculite, manure, and peat moss. See last year's post for more about container gardening. He also made a few trips to the store to get enough materials to fill the two beds.

Our local family of turkeys made a cameo appearance yesterday as well, and Jacob got to see all the little ones which were MUCH bigger, and actually flying up to the trees to roost. This time it appeared that the Daddy turkey was there too. 

More (better) garden photos coming soon and of course updates to see what's growing! :) As you can see the yard is very filled out with hostas, ferns, and lilies. I am hoping to thin these out a bit. One of the next yard projects will be  shuffling a few plants to new locations. I planted a couple of flowers in the yard, and they add a nice splash of color.

  

Monticello

C at the fish pond in front of Monticello

We were able to visit Monticello, home to Thomas Jefferson, on the day we spent driving from SC to VA. We enjoyed getting to see the beautiful Virginia countryside. It was late afternoon, around 3pm when we arrived, but we were able to take a tour through the house and walk around the grounds before closing time (6pm). Sadly, we didn’t have enough time to peruse the Visitor’s Center but we will be planning to take the boys back when they are a bit older and can appreciate and understand the history of Jefferson.

The fish pond outside of the home was used to keep fish until they were ready to be served for dinner. Pretty much every detail was well thought out! Thomas Jefferson was very detail oriented and a logical thinker, and even had his own version of the Bible in which he clipped out parts that he did not agree with. Of course he is best known as his role for founding father and president, or as W knows him, the guy on the nickel.

It was interesting to learn how much the French culture made an impact on Jefferson’s life, including many things which he incorporated into Monticello such as built in bedsteads with closets/walls on the side of the bed to take advantage of the space in the room. He was a tall man and the bed was built just tall enough with a couple of inches to spare. They also have displays dedicated to the Lewis & Clark expedition which Thomas Jefferson sponsored. In the foyer there is an interesting mix of Native American relics and inspirational artwork. 

one of the many butterflies we saw

The grounds of the home include impressive gardens and a walking trail to the cemetery where Jefferson and his family are buried. It was a hot day but the shaded paths were a welcome place for a walk. There are foundations of slave cabins along the garden path, and I was glad that they included this important history in the tour and didn't gloss over it, despite Jefferson's many accomplishments he was a slaveholder his entire life not to mention his connection with the Hemings family.

W views the garden after cooling off in the sprinkler

Charlottesville, VA is a college town, home to the Jefferson-founded University of Virginia, and we drove by and saw his statue there on the way to the hotel. We took the boys swimming at the pool there and then had another early start the next morning to Pennsylvania Dutch Country, aka Lancaster County. More on that in the next post.

    

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. 

nature walk

Well, we took a rail trail nature walk yesterday. W and his friend gathered many leaves to put on sticks, and loved seeing all the acorns and little empty acorn shells. I will have to incorporate them into some kind of craft today. The stretch of rail trail that we walked was beautiful this time of year, you can look into the woods and see the leaves floating down.

After reviewing our route on google maps, it seems like W must have walked about 4.5 miles yesterday, of course taking some breaks here and there to rest and play. No wonder he was so tired. :) It is more difficult pushing the double stroller and taking 3 kids out, but it was such great weather yesterday I am glad we all got outside for the better part of the day. C was very laid back and content in the stroller so that made it easier than it could have been.