Hiking around the Sugar Bush…
Visiting the Native American camp setup…
Enjoying the smells of the Sugar Shack…
We have been reading a lot of books on Maple Syrup right now, since it is Sugar Season, and I wanted to share one of our favorites that wasn’t on our scheduled reading list… "Sugaring Time" by Kathryn Lasky.
The kids enjoy the black and white photographs with lots of ‘pony’ pictures. The text is beautifully descriptive and the process is outlined thoroughly. If you are interested in the Maple Syrup process, I highly recommend this book.
We were supposed to have a Sugaring Field Trip today, but it is just too cold so it has been postponed. I will be sharing photos sometime over the next couple weeks when we are able to visit the Sugar Shack.
Recouping from nasty colds this weekend, all we managed today was to spent the better part of the morning working on Valentine cards for all the grandparents. While everyone was busy working on their cards, I read about Saint Valentine. What a beautiful book! I think we might try a mosaic craft latter in the week to mimic the illustrations in the book.
I’m not going to kid myself into thinking that Spring is here. I am fully aware that we still have a full month or two of winter left… BUT we are coming out of the bitter cold and we have had proof that there still is a Sun! If nothing else, this past weekend was rejuvenating in its teasing sense of Spring. What struck me most were the sounds!
Little joys of the day…
We spent over two hours at our favorite farm were there was an adorable litter of 5 day old piglets. What a noise they made at feeding time.
The sky was filled with birds. Swooping, diving and chattering up a storm. It must have felt nice to stretch their wings.
There was a constant sound of running water. The streams were vigorously flowing… icicles dripping. And who could resist the splash of jumping in all those puddles… oh so tempting.
Gone was the squeak of stepping on super cold snow, replaced instead with a satisfying crunch. We trudged through the 2 foot deep mounds without feeling cold just in our fleece coats and stocking caps. It was the perfect wet snow for packing to make snow forts and for throwing snow balls that landed in a thudding splat.
Once inside, hot chocolate was served by Gammy in English Garden tea cups that made such a delightful clinking sound.
We had a glorious weekend. It actually hit 45 today! While we enjoyed being outside for a few hours… we took some time to catch up on our Nature Studies.
Here is our entry for squirrels. This is a mammal we are able to observe daily at our feeders. We read about squirrels a couple weeks ago in the Handbook of Nature study as well as the fun book Nuts to You! We also enjoyed the You Tube videos Barb posted. After teaching the kids what to look for… searching for squirrel nests in the bare trees has become a fun game in the car. They are so easy to spot this time of year.
This weekend we were finally able to get some photos to share. Here are some squirrely photos…
Here are some photos of squirrel nests…
And here is Fairy Girl’s journal entry (that is my messy handwriting that she dictated)…
Join in the Outdoor Hour Challenge!
I don’t think any Groundhog in his right mind would be poking his head out around here yet. There must be at least 15 inches of snow on the ground… probably more. (I’m guessing Phil sees his shadow next week.)
The above photo was taken in late September. We had a groundhog who loved foraging in our compost pile. He made a daily appearance for a couple weeks before settling in for the winter. We loved watching him from the window but he was very skittish and took off the minute we tried to get a closer peek.
Today we watched the You-Tube videos Barb had posted on Handbook of Nature Study, colored one of the Groundhog coloring pages she also had listed and then read our Rookie Read-About Holidays: Groundhog’s Day book. The kids really liked the video with the wrestling Marmots… of course my TaeKwonDo kiddos argued that they were sparing not wrestling.
We made some basic pine cone bird feeders this week. We took several of the pine cones we gathered and cleaned this fall, spread peanut butter on each of their scales and then rolled them in shelled sunflower seeds.
The older two kiddos each made a couple but as most of these types of projects go, Pixie was the one who insisted on finishing every pine cone I brought to the table. Hehe, I’m glad I didn’t bring in the entire bag full… but rather just a couple hand fulls.
We hung several on the tree outside the kitchen window not far from our other feeder and plan to take the rest to Gammy’s house. The birds don’t seem to have discovered them yet… but I’m sure they will enjoy them once they do.
BRRRR! It is so cold outside right now that basically all of our Nature Studies are being done at the kitchen window. Fortunately the bird feeders really provide a lot of Nature Entertainment. When we have gotten outside over the last few weeks, we have been collecting snow track photos.
I believe the above photo shows tracks from our neighbor’s cat who likes to hunt our birds (devastated a nest this past spring) and uses our sand box (insert snarl on my part here). I tend to send the dog out when I see said cat.
One of our dog’s prints. Four toes front and back indicate canine or feline family.
The above two photos show squirrel prints from under the bird feeder. Four toes in front, five in the back indicates rodent family.
Bird prints across our deck.
The deer, rabbit and raccoons that are normally found in our yard in the warmer months… move on in the winter. I am assuming this is due mainly to the water source (pond across the street) freezing. They will definitely be back when I fruitlessly try to plant our garden this spring 😉 .
I am not in the mood for any more baking… especially considering we still have tins of Christmas cookies left. So instead of the Snowballs I had thought about making this week… we instead made stuffed apples/apple dippers.
I do not have an exact recipe for this. It is more of a ‘to taste’ sorta deal but super easy and I highly recommend it! This was a childhood favorite of mine.
Apple Dipper Filling: Mix approximately 1/2 a stick of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of peanut butter and 1/4 cup of honey.
Core an apple (if you do not have a corer – just slice the apples and serve with dip on the side).
Stuff the apples with the filling.
Slice the stuffed apples in thick slices.
Serve with extra dip.
Enjoy!
We will be starting up our next term after the holidays… Jan 5. In Term Two we will be focusing on the animals in the winter, their survival skills (migration, adaptation, hibernation), plus reading about some of the winter holidays. Nature study will continue to be a big part of what we do… although it may be a bit more at the kitchen table watching birds at the feeder. I also want to spend some time introducing poetry… beyond the nursery rhymes.
We will be loosely following a Weekly Schedule (Preschool and Kindergarten)… with my general outline being:
Every Day: Pledge, Calendar, Days of the Week, Weather, Poem of the Month, Circle Time (songs & finger plays), Bible Story, Free Art Time (play dough, water colors or colored pencils – their choice).
M: Read Story of the Week, Introduce an Art History Image, Introduce the Letter of the Week
Tu: Read Story of the Week, Handwriting, Craft/Directed Art
W: Read Expansion Book, Read Flower Fairy Alphabet Story and color Alphabet Book Page
Th: Read Story of the Week, Handwriting, Do an Illustration and a Narration in Our Story Journal about the Story of the Week
F: Baking Time, Nature Study/Science Theme/Field Trip, Finish Craft if Needed
Daily (Kindergarten only)
Phonics & Math (We are using Spell to Write and Read and Right Start Math)
Art History: You can choose an individual artist to study for a term (like recommended by Charlotte Mason) or use the Come Look With Me series of books to focus on a theme instead. We will be using Come Look With Me for now starting with World of Play.
Bedtime Reading: We are going to tryMy Side of the Mountain. I think my adventurous little guy will enjoy it. Farmer Boy was a big hit. We tend to mix up a couple chapters in a ‘big’ book one night with the kids’ pick of picture books the next.
Term Two Book List
Baking Activity: Russian Tea Cakes (Snowballs)
Baking Activity: Babies in a Blanket
Baking Activity: Bear Claw Cookies
Baking Activity: Sunflower Carrot Muffins
Craft Activity: Clay Birds
Baking Activity: Bread
Baking Activity: Sugar Cookie Hearts
Week Seven:
Baking Activity: Hot Chocolate
Week Eight:
Baking Activity: ?
Week Nine:
Baking Activity: ?
Week Ten:
Baking Activity: Maple Candy
Week Eleven:
Baking Activity: ?
Week Twelve:
Baking Activity: Pancakes and Maple Syrup