Our spring bugs arrived

Ladybugs and butterflies are Here! We ordered them from Insect Lore. We already had the butterfly house net from last year but the ladybug cage was a new fun adventure. Oh how strange the lady bugs are. Raising bugs is so fascinating for a five year old. Number one, they change so quickly and number two they change so dramatically. We have to make sure the ladybugs have water, but the caterpillars are self contained until they turn into butterflies. The first thing we did after settling our new insects in their habitats was to measure them. Ladybugs were 1/2 cm and the Caterpillars were 1 cm.

adding water to the ladybugs

look how tiny the caterpillars are

one cm long ~caterpillars

1/2 cm long lady bugs

Leap day

Does anyone else's cat attend school too? Our little cat just loves to be involved in school. She always comes when we are reading stories and it's very interesting the look she has, like 'yes, continue...' Today we are working on coin counting. Part of this idea came from the lovely Mailbox magazine. There were addition questions on the cupcakes. That was part A. The second part was the adding the coins to pay for the cupcake. So she had to know what each coin is worth and how she could pay using the different combinations of coins. This game went very well. We used a small muffin tray to sort the coins first then I had made an aide for her to see the worth of each coin, incase she forgot. 

Later we practiced our numbers on the blackboard.

And don't forget talking about Leap Day. We briefly talked about how this day was special because it only comes around every 4 years. We also talked about what leaps. And this is her drawing of a frog. 

Sunny day

Oh a nice sunny warm day! We spent the whole afternoon enjoying the fresh air. There are lots of plants starting to show signs of new life. The rose bush in the from is growing new leaves. We made some science notes and questions while digging in the front garden. Like what color will the roses be when they bloom, and what kind of bugs can you find under the leaves. Then she made a little fairy house out of the fallen branches and even included a bath tub for them:) Later when the leaves and twigs had served their purpose of entertainment we ventured around the neighborhood for a spring scooter ride. Which was a lovely way to practice balance and speed control. 

Sugar camp continued

Here are more pictures from our field trip to sugar camp. We tasted the maple syrup once we saw how it was made, and it was soooooo good. 

Here is an example of the stag horn sumac tree branch. Inside the middle of the branch is a cork like substance the is easily pushed out to create a wooden straw.

kettles over the fire for making the syrup

an old fashioned clamp.

Sugar camp

SUGAR CAMP

This is the season that the sap is running and in the next county over they were providing an incredible opportunity to experience how to make Maple Syrup the old fashion way. We went with other homeschool families and learned how to tap the trees, collect the sap and boil it into syrup. The guides were very wonderful and gave thorough explanations for the children. We  learned that if you tap the side of the tree in the shade there won't be much sap running because that side of the tree is not warm enough. But if you tap the side with the sun by morning you'll have a bucket full of refreshing sugar water. It tasted so delicious. The guides also taught how to make a wooden spile by using a sumac branch. Then they demonstrated drilling the tree and placing the stile (wooden straw) into the tree. We helped collect the sap from the trees they had tapped the day before and carried it to the kettles to boil over the open flame. We also learned how the Native Americans would return to the maple tree area every spring to collect the sap and make sugar discs by boiling the sap until it became grainy. Then they would place the grainy mixture in a mold of a nut shell and let it dry to become discs, a portable way to carry around. We learned so much and couldn't have asked for better weather. 

Gym

Many steps for one food

Bread! warm, homemade bread!

 Reading recipes, measuring volume, understating fractions, delight of watching wheat turn to flour,  science of yeast, commitment of time to create something nutritious for your family. Oh how we love making bread. The best part of making bread (besides the aroma and taste) is punching down the dough. 

Once I watched this movie called How to cook your life, (netflix:)-it was basically showing how disconnected people have become on preparing nutritious food. "When your cooking, your not just working on the food you are working on yourself." One idea I took away from the movie was that our hands are meant to prepare the food we eat, the peeling of potatoes and slicing of carrots and kneading of warm dough. When we start to leave these steps out our hands are left with this empty disconnected experience. What are your ideas on food being  precious.? When you change how you look at food~ precious~ you may see your eating habits change, and therefore your life. 

Which brings on a whole other topic of priority list, what priority do you list whole food on your schedule? 

life Lesson~ Bread doesn't come from a bag:)