Journey to Excellence

It feels so good to be back into a regular schedule of nature study. We had good intentions last year, but it always seemed to get dropped when we got behind. To remedy that situation this year, I have planned for Fridays to be solely about art and nature. I have several goals for nature study this year, but the biggest one is to participate in Barb's Outdoor Hour Challenges through Handbook of Nature Study . I receive the monthly newsletter by e-mail (and you can, too, by going HERE ). She really makes it ridiculously easy for you and me to participate. All you really have to do is grab a nature journal and get outside. This week's topic was Ants. We definitely wanted to make our own ant farm, so prepped a mason jar. We looked and looked for an ant hill, but couldn't find one. Instead, we disturbed a nest at the base of one of our trees. The first thing the kids noticed ... ants scramble when their nest is disturbed! We didn't dig for the queen. We just put some ...

This week was a designated "unit only" week, which means that it was one of the original weeks we had planned to take off this year with our previous schedule . I intended for it to be an easier week. But, goodness gracious, we were busy! We did find ourselves having a difficult time getting started in the mornings because of our most recent distraction ... It thrills me so much that my kids love The Brady Bunch that I haven't even freaked on those days when we haven't started school until 11:00 a.m. or so. The kids watch an episode we have DVR'd while they eat breakfast. But sometimes that leads into two or three episodes. Or, like today, a total of 4 ... well, we had to see if the Bradys got out of jail in the ghost town and whether Bobby and Cindy ever got rescued at the Grand Canyon! ~ Penguins ~ Our unit study this week was "Penguins". My kids absolutely love penguins, so it was definitely an interest-led week. We used a video that we ...