Fall Colors and Pumpkins

We've had some fun fall activities and outings recently.

This is only first because it was the order my pictures were in, and it's not really fall related.  It was a great activity, though!  I pulled out our (very out of tune) Music Maker one day.  We'd been to a string quartet concert the day before, and the kids were fascinated with the music and the instruments.  So I thought we could make our own string music.  They loved it even though I couldn't tune it.

I finally pulled out my camera to capture some of the fall colors.  All of these are views from my house.

Actually, I can't see the river from my house, but it's very near.  The rest are from my house.

We had a totally unguided activity in the backyard one day.  Some of it was play time, some was picture time, and most of it was discovery time.

This was the discovery.  I turned over our sandbox that we'd used as a wading pool this summer, and we discovered lots of worms.  These two spent most of the time examining, and then gently trying to move the worms to where they could find better mud.  They had all sorts of questions about worms.

This little guy was cracking me up.  I love his sweet face.

He kept making this face over and over whenever he thought I was going to take a picture.

Another day we had a field trip to a pumpkin farm. 

Checking out the honeybees.

A little climbing.

Alex enjoyed the little games they had out.

Annie and Logan really enjoyed choosing their favorite pumpkins.  These pumpkins were on a hill, and Alex created a new game: pumpkin rolling.  He thought he was hilarious.

We discovered a John Deere tractor!  (When it pays the bills, you quickly become a big fan!)

My friend, Jamie, came with us.

The pumpkins there were much more expensive than the ones at the grocery store, so we only bought this small white one.  Then we bought a bigger one from the store.  Annie wanted Snow White on "her" pumpkin.  So I printed a picture of her, and meticulously drew her onto it.  This was no easy task!  I have never been much of an artist, so I was very pleased.

After the effort I put into the drawing, I came to realize that this was really my pumpkin.  I just couldn't let it go.  So, yes, I painted it.  Annie was happy to blow dry each color as I washed my brush, though. 

Then, I let her help paint after I assured Snow White was as perfect as I could make her.  She was thrilled for the whole process, so maybe it wasn't so bad that I took over.

Ta da!  This is easily the masterpiece of my life so far.  It sure is a shame that I put it on a rotting pumpkin!

We did "Logan's" pumpkin second.  They helped scoop out the guts.

Then I carved it.  I just couldn't bring myself to give Logan a knife, plus he'd picked a pattern that definitely required an adult.  So I guess this was actually my pumpkin too.  Next year, we need to get a pumpkin for each of the kids and one specifically for me.  Then I need to give them the paint and not touch theirs.  Lesson learned.

After carving the pumpkins, but not the same day (same day as the worms, though) we cooked and pureed part of our pumpkin remnants.  Then we made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  They were delicious!  I think I have a new favorite treat.

Alex surprised me by getting sleepy while we were cooking.  I guess all that fresh air wore him out.

We finished the batter, tasted it, and put them in the oven.

Meanwhile, Alex took a nap.

Autumn

"Leaves are falling all around,

On the housetops, on the ground. 

Leaves are falling on my nose,

On my head and hands and toes."

The fall colors here have been gorgeous!  I promised the kids that we'd go back to the arboretum once the trees started changing, and we managed it on a perfect day.  The trees had so much color, and only a week later a lot of them had lost their leaves.

We were much more methodical on this trip.  I actually came prepared with paper, pen, and baggies, so we could label our samples.  Once at home, we laminated and labeled some of the leaves, and then hung all of them on our paper tree.

Check out these huge Catalpa leaves!  I thought it was interesting that this tree had the biggest leaves, but wasn't a very big tree!

We also collected a whole bunch of buckeyes, AKA horsechestnuts.  I was hoping we could eat them.  It turned out they are poisonous, though.  Bummer!

Here are some close ups of the colors we found.  The laminating was an experiment because I wanted to see if the leaves would stay nice longer.  I should have realized, though, that I was cutting off their oxygen.  Now, two weeks later, the laminated ones are all brown, but still nicely shaped.  The others are shriveled, but still have most of their color!

Today I hosted a little group with a few kids Annie's age, and we learned why leaves change color in the fall.  That really left an impression on Logan, and he was very creative with his art project to show just how that happens!  We also went outside and played in the leaves some.

We've been doing this little group for a few weeks now and it's going well I think.  At this point, I'm not sure how I feel about co-ops or what my plans are for the future with them; this fits with our goals for now, though.  It's mostly a play group with some fun learning activities.  There are four kids in it (except when it's my turn to host because my boys gets to join in those days) and we actually drop the kids off, so most of the moms get a break during that time.  I'm liking the chance to get to know other families better, one of which also homeschools, and it's always nice to see other ideas for inspiring learning!  

On to another topic.  This isn't autumn related, but we did do it during autumn!  :)  I found myself feeling very patient one day last week, so we finally made the sun.  It was very messy and big.  It's dry now, but I haven't been brave enough to try to remove it from the big ball we used to form it.  Maybe we should add another layer for strength first...

Here are some after pictures of my messy kiddos.

A Positive Learning Environment

As I looked through some newly uploaded photos today they made me think about what kind of learning environment we have in our home.  I hadn't intended on capturing it, but I did in a way.  I hope we have a positive learning environment, and I think we do most of the time.  Some of the important elements for us are: 

WORK
I think learning to work hard is invaluable and working as a family even more valuable.  We do a lot of housework together in our home.  Once a week, we have a cleaning race where rooms are scrubbed, polished, and vacuumed, and everyone pitches in.  It helps everyone take responsibility for our home, and we get the hard stuff done quickly!  The kids actually look forward to these races!  Most evenings we do the dinner dishes together, and when we fold laundry everyone helps.  The kids are happy helpers when we're in it together!  They also love it when we all work in the yard together.

PLAY
Play is very important, too.  Bear in mind that I was a recreational therapist before having kids, so I really believe this (even if no one believes me)!  :)  Even as adults we need time for leisure activities so we can have a healthy balance in our lives.  For kids, play is even more imperative because they learn so much from it.  Mine are all very young still so they have lots of play time every day, and we definitely incorporate play into kidschool.  Yesterday just before schooltime Annie was blowing bubbles in her milk.  Unexpected inspiration came.  So we made a bubble machine for our first learning activity!  (dish soap+water+a few holes in the lid+a straw)  Warning: When using a bubble machine, do NOT suck in!  Unfortunately, all three of them found this out the hard way! 

Alex was pretty covered in bubbles by the time we were done.

BOOKS
What can I say?  We love books and they love us.  I could really use more bookshelves.  A lot of our books are in random cupboards and one bookshelf is stacked three deep.  Anyway, I think this one is a no brainer.  If you want to learn, you need information.  Because we always have books around our kids have loved them from day one.  They always want to know what I'm reading too.  It cracks me up when they 'read' over my shoulder even though my book has no pictures. 

MOM and DAD
Perhaps this is the most important element?  I don't know.  I do know that my attitude and what I am doing greatly affects their attitude and what they choose to do.  I need to be there for them and with them when they are learning.  That's difficult and mundane sometimes, but oh what a difference it makes!  Yesterday after our bubble machine, we stayed outside and studied more on space, and then read for a long time.  It was such a simple school day, but an incredible one!  They had so many questions, and I was very focused on them; we really learned a lot together!  I enjoyed seeing the wheels turn and connections happening.  I would have totally missed out (and possibly they would have too) if I'd instead asked or assigned Logan to study his space cards and looks at books on his own.  I read this quote today:
"Give your children the gift of character-be someone they can admire."  Sandy Hotchkiss
I would love to be good enough to be my child's hero. 

Jim already is.  :)

A New Challenge and a Project

This school year I have a new challenge to deal with.  Here he is:

Last year he was always napping during school time, but he doesn't take two naps anymore.  If the rest of us didn't benefit so much from quiet/nap time I'd think about moving school to then.  I don't think it's worth it though.  I have found that I either have to involve him somehow, or I have to distract him some other way.  Otherwise, he is on top of everything we are doing.  I've definitely had some moments of frustration with this little guy who wants to do everything his brother and sister do.  We're all getting used to it, though, and it's definitely getting better.  For example, I've put my foot down about having him on my lap during story time because he always pulls at the book we're reading.  So now he's getting used to sitting next to us during story time.  He did do well with this project, though.  I put an art shirt on him just in case, but he obeyed about keeping his hands out of it.  

This project was/is a solar system.  Logan is particularly fascinated with space, so we've started making our own model.  So far we've created all eight planets, plus Pluto and our moon.  I'm waiting for a day where I'm in a really patient mood to create the sun which will be the size of a large bouncy ball.  Maybe that will be this week.  Then I'll need some more very patient days to pull out the paint.  This has been a fun project so far, and the kids are really excited about it.  We're constantly reading books about space, and I'm excited to have a model that we can manipulate. 

As I typed this, Logan was actually making a solar system out of balloons and balls, and orbiting them along with his space shuttle.  He makes me smile.  Since the camera was handy, here's a picture.