Outdoor hour: Autumn Canyons

Last Friday Jeremy came home early from work and we went up into the canyons. They are, of course, glorious this time of year. The kids were thrilled with the snow, despite being mitten-less. We have been SO incredibly busy lately that moments of togetherness are rare (I'm sad to say). One thing I really miss about homeschooling is the ability to just pick up and go to the mountains to explore whenever the weather is particularly cooperative.


(yep, it's gonna be a while before those bangs grow back)


Throwing rocks is our favorite!

We found lots of interesting nature tid-bits. Check out the crystal structure. Sam was fascinated by this.

Elise is our rock hound. She was curious about what minerals might be in this colorful rock.

And this one.


Claire helped me find tracks. Snow makes them easy to spot. We found these deer(?) tracks and also what we think might be cougar tracks.


The trees seemed to be talking to us.



Their colors are just gorgeous.



Anna had fun with my scarf. I watched her try to wrap that thing around her neck for about 10 minutes.


This was, perhaps my favorite part of the day.


Just watching the people I love, loving each other.

Hours and Hours Outdoor

Oh glorious spring! How do we love thee? Let us count the ways:

We love the way you cover the bushes and trees with buds and blossoms.

We love working the land in our little yard.
We've been preparing our mud farm for hydro-seeding and
hope that it works and we have grass soon!

Ok, maybe not ALL of us love yard work.

We LOVE planing a garden and watching
the seeds and starts grow.

We love the surprises you bring.
We watched this little mother guide her 10 babies
through a couple of yards and into ours.
We don't live close to a big body of water
so we wondered where she might take them.
We never found out because we had to leave.

This was a surprise we found under our wading pool.
We think it's a quail egg.
Poor little quail egg.
For those of you who know Elise,
it's no surprise that she loves worms and
all creeping things.
Spring rains bring us plenty of worms.
Elise and Sam have quite a collection already of empty hornets nest,
various seeds, pine cones, egg shells, and dried flowers and leaves.

Oh! We love the mountains in spring.

We love to explore them.
Who is just waking up there?
A squirrel! We don't see a lot of squirrels in Utah.

We love to picnic under the shade of cottonwood trees
by the rushing spring rivers.
Throwing sticks is fun for some.
Mostly, we love being together.
Spring calls us outdoors, away from distractions,
and helps us to realize once again
our place in this magnificent world
our Father in Heaven created.

Get ready to BIRD!

The Great Back Yard Bird Count is next month! This is what turned us on to birding last year. This and the fact that we watched baby robins hatch in our yard.

This is a fun program the whole family can participate in. Experience isn't necessary but there are a couple of things you can start now that will help you have a successful experience:

1. Get your bird feeders up now.
It helps if there is an established group coming to your yard. Sometimes it takes a while for the message to get out to all the neighborhood birds. You can make your own bird feeders or buy inexpensive ones at any hardware store and even some grocery stores. They also sell bird food at most of these establishments. Once you have bird feeders set up it's important to be consistent about providing food.

2. It is also important to be able to properly identify the birds. Books from the library can help. Whatbird.com is an extremely helpful site. You might want to search for a local web site too. Here in Utah, we have utahbirds.org

It is fun to take part in a scientific study. And rewarding too. It makes us so happy when we can identify birds and their songs. We appreciate them so much more.

Go to the web site, http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc for complete details.

Happy Birding!

Open House: Previously known as "Weekly Report"

Here are a few things we've been doing in school the past few weeks.


Outdoor Hour: Tree study. We've been trying to identify the trees in our neighborhood. There is quite a variety! In our own back yard we have a huge cotton wood tree, several pine trees, an apricot tree, an apple tree, and a few maple trees. In our neighborhood we've seen holly trees, choke cherry, bay, maple, pine, oak, aspen, and apple trees, to name a few. It's been so wonderful to watch all the leaves turn color and fall. It hasn't been so nice to have tons of acorns and cherries and apples on the side walks, though, especially when you are riding your scooter!

Latin: Sam has 25 Latin words down.


Art: We've been studying landscapes and nature.



Claire and Anna have been doing "hand print art." Here are their monsters:


Claire and Elise love to make beaded bracelets and necklaces.



Science: We've done several science projects. This is one Elise did to test the power of the sun:


Math: Just a sampling of the calculating fun:


Story of the World-Middle Ages:
We've learned about the medieval Indian empire, the rise of Islam and the Islamic empire, the great Dynasties of China, the kingdoms east of China, the Maori in New Zealand, the kingdom of the Franks, and this week we are learning about Islamic invasion into Spain.

Sam's map of his imaginary kingdom.


Japanese woodblock. We are going to go to the art museum at BYU to see their exhibit on Japanese woodblocking.



Book Reports: We've been reading A LOT! A few of our favorite books were:
"Prince Caspian," by C.S. Lewis. Check out Sam's review on his blog.

"William Bradford," by Bradford Smith


"The Most Wonderful Doll in the World," by Phyllis McGiney.


Anna's been doing her own reading.

(We're still working on the potty training. I'd say we're at about 60%)

Claire has been doing well with the Distar method taught in "How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." We are on lesson 10, and she is reading two and some three letter words.

Elise lost another tooth! She was so happy!


We've also had LOTS of opportunity to talk about politics, the election process, economics, stock markets, and how the world is connected in so many ways. Everyday in the newspaper there was something we could discuss for...minutes! Sam is not as worried about being the proletariat any more and but he still isn't sold on capitalism.

The kids are adjusting well to the new neighborhood and ward. They are busy in extracurricular activities: Elise still loves karate and will be testing for her yellow belt soon. Claire is loving gymnastics and Sam recently started gymnastics too. He is surprising us all by how well he is doing and how hard he is trying. He is also joining the chess team at the local elementary school. Anna really wishes she could to karate and gymnastics too.

Sam is doing well with piano. It seems to come pretty easy to him. Elise struggles when first learning a song (she's really want's to play it well, right from the start and gets frustrated if it takes a while). BUT once she's learned the song, she loves to play it. Claire started piano lessons today. She was really excited and I think she is ready.

Scripture Study: through Matthew 21
I have loved reading and discussing the Savior's words with my children. I loved that Sam got the parable of the husbandmen. I love that Elise understood why Jesus "cleansed the temple" and "rebuked the moneychangers." I love that Claire thanks Heavenly Father for the scriptures and the bible in almost all of her prayers now. I am so thankful for the scriptures. There are moments, when the children are quiet and we are reading that I really do feel like I'm there. How wonderful it would have been! To see him ride triumphantly and prophetically into Jerusalem. I wonder if I would have noticed the sadness in his eyes. How heavy his heart must have been. How earnestly he tried to teach his disciples and help them understand what was going to happen. I feel the same earnestness in the Spirit's whisperings to me sometimes. Especially when I read the scriptures. And I'm so grateful.

Outdoor Hour

We are lucky to live close to a nice river trail. If we follow that trail for about a half mile we come to a nice playground and park. My kids often ask if we can go to the park. Yesterday was no exception.

The trail, and all of nature, is teeming with life. Every possible thing is blooming right now. The smell is glorious, even if the histamines trifle with my nose and eyes. The cottonwood makes a mess. It's everywhere. It looks magical when it falls through the sunlight onto the green earth.


The bees are busy pollinating the blackberries. We can't wait to pick the ripe berries next month.
The swallows' babies are leaving their nests. There are quite a few nests on the overhang of this bridge along the river. Their nests are fascinating. The birds move so quickly, I couldn't get a decent picture of one.
The ducklings are growing up. They almost look like their mom and dad now. *sniff* It happens so fast.


The park, of course, was fun. Even out in the hot afternoon sun.
And the ride/walk home....