Ryan's Reading & Numbers

So far, we have been really happy with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Ryan is on lesson 6 (we don't do it every day) and actually asks to do the lessons. It is so easy! You can see the little red octopus lying on the other pillow. He "helped" teach Ryan today.

Here Ryan is tracing numbers in a cute book I got from Dollar Tree (Disney's numbers and counting/ Winnie the Pooh). We also have one to trace letters. They are a great value since they cover the basics and have bright, colorful pictures. Best of all, they only cost us $1!

Eventually he will move on to Italic writing like his brothers, but for now we are just getting the basics down.

Nature Walk

We took a nature walk today. I was pleasantly surprised that we were able to find some nice "specimens" to study.

In front of the big maple tree... getting ready to explore and collect and observe. Some of these pictures are things we looked at and talked about.

Woodpecker holes

Sitting in their home-made fort (in the back yard)

Ant holes (under a rock)

Honeysuckle

Bees!
These mushrooms were growing in the mulch at the park

"Here's something, Mom"

I am hoping for them to start nature journals. They will draw and label, and any misspelled word will be practiced in their journal along with their own musings & observations.

We walked around our yard and the little neighborhood park

The American Robin: a Nature Lesson (we could not ignore!)

Some of the best lessons are spontaneous...........

Jonathan is such a mess. He is always trying to chase birds and I don't usually think much about it because he isn't usually successful. Well, today when we went outside for "porch school" he caught a baby bird! I snapped pictures quickly so we could let that poor baby go. Somehow Justin didn't get in it but he was there trying to pet it. Those eager hands on the last picture are Ryan's. He wanted to hold it!!! :-)

I couldn't figure out what type of bird it was because of the color and spots. After looking up "Indiana back yard birds" in my search engine, we found that it was a baby robin. (And yes, the parents were nearby flying around so I wondered if it was a robin. I wasn't sure because the markings and colors were so much different than the parents.)



This website has a picture that looks almost exactly like our baby bird.

http://www.slivoski.com/birding/birds/robin.htm

This video showed robins singing, foraging, and building their nests. The boys instantly recognized the robin's song.




A mini documentary: