Our First Field Trip!

I love when things just come together and work out perfectly!  A sweet friend of mine invited us to join her and her [homeschooled] daughter at our local zoo this week.  We let our membership lapse and I've been too cheap  frugal to renew it since we would not get a full year's use out of it.  So, I happily made plans and today was the big day.

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is the flexibility.  I switched our lesson plans for this week and am doing Z is for Zoo.  Then, I decided to officially tag the trip to the zoo today as our first official homeschool field trip. :)

I have been using this fantastic and FREE preschool curriculum called God's Little Explorers*, so "Z is for Zoo" is Week 4 if you follow the link and look for it.  Her plans are great and I find there is little that I tend to add to supplement.  She does have a link at the top of the page where you can purchase a more in-depth version of the curriculum for a very budget-friendly price.  But, I have found that the free version suits our needs just fine for now.

*Disclaimer:  I am not following the curriculum in chronological order by week numbers.  I am picking and choosing based on other factors.  It works well since there is no carry-over week over week.  There's that flexibility factor, again.

In preparation for the zoo trip, we did some letter work this morning and made zebra's out of the outline of letter Z.  The younger diva required a little more assistance with the activity, but the older diva completed almost all of it on her own.

The older diva cut her own paper strips and glued them down while I was helping the younger diva.

 The younger diva had a lot of fun gluing down her zebra stripes and googly eyes.

They were both pleased with their finished products!

At the zoo, we participated in the Wildlife Detective Training Academy and the clues this month were all about zebras!  The divas had a blast going around with their friend, figuring out the clues.  Since the older diva is not yet writing, I wrote the answers to the clues and then had her copy the beginning letter sound of the word next to the box.  Even the younger diva wanted in on that activity, so our answer sheet had some amazing scribble marks on it that were her "letters", too! :)

We did encounter some students from area elementary schools who were on field trips, as well, and they all had on school t-shirts.  That gave me the brilliant idea of making our own field trip t-shirts for the divas.  I will have to blog about it once I settle on a design.

Be blessed, y'all!

Why Cleaning Is Part of Our School Day

Yep, you read that correctly.  Cleaning is part of our school day.  Go ahead, take a moment and let that soak in before you read more!

In subscribing to a Montessori-inspired approach to not just schooling but home life, as well, cleaning is an obvious component of Practical Life skills.  It actually seems too obvious.  But, putting it into motion wasn’t nearly as easy as embracing the concept was – at least not for this momma.  Let’s face it, life with 4 kiddos is mostly [dis]organized chaos peppered with a few peaceful reprieves.  I jokingly confided in the older mancub the other day that I sometimes feel like the human version of saltwater taffy when all 4 of them are clamoring for my attention.  His oh-so-loving response was to chant, “Mom, Mom, Mom,” for the next 60 seconds.  He’s lucky I love him. ;)  So, I often kick into “survival mode” and do the tasks myself to get it checked off the never-ending To Do list that loves to haunt my waking hours.

Enter my New Year’s Resolutions.  At the top of the list?  Engage the kiddos in more household tasks, of course!  I spent the first full week of the New Year organizing and deep cleaning the house.  How else could I justify pinning all of those lovely home organization pins on Pinterest? Then, I formed my plan of action. 

Toys:  True to Montessori method, we now clean up each activity as we complete it.  It was bad form on my part for allowing slack in this area previously.  It teaches proper care of toys and orderliness.  It also cuts down on the number of toys that go missing.  I was amazed at how quickly the divas embraced our new system.  I thought for sure I would meet more resistance, but they seem to intuitively understand and appreciate the need for orderliness.  Whew! 

Kitchen:  With the addition of our Montessori-inspiredsnack station, all 4 kiddos have become more independent with snacks and breakfast/lunch.  I have been working with the divas on setting and clearing the table and will introduce dish washing this coming week.  The older mancub is responsible for unloading the dishwasher.  The younger mancub is on garbage and recycling duty.  I have also enlisted the older mancub’s help with dinner once a week, on average.  I love that he loves to cook! :)

Household cleaning:  I have followed this cleaning schedule for a while now and like the simplicity, as well as the way it breaks the chores up over the week.  Like the toys, though, this is an area where I have been inconsistent about engaging the kiddos.  One of my reasons for slacking was the fact that I did not want them exposed to the cleaning chemicals.  Another nod to Pinterest; I was inspired by all of the DIY cleaning products that have been filling my news feed.  I found this great link for recipes for cleaning products and she includes an awesome (and FREE!) printable for labels.  I followed her advice and affixed the labels to the bottles using packing tape and it worked perfectly! 

Here is my version.

Now, I can incorporate more lessons on cleaning without worrying about the products I am putting into the divas’ hands.  Yay!  Plus, what kid doesn't love a spray bottle?!  So, I’m pretty sure they will be content to spray and wipe to their hearts’ content. ;)

Momma feels less like saltwater taffy and the kiddos gain valuable practical life skills that they will {hopefully} carry with them into adulthood.  Now, to go tackle that mountain of laundry in the garage…

Nature is a Great Teacher

We are on the tail end of our Winter Break, so I took the mancubs and divas to a local nature boardwalk over the weekend.  Because, where else except Florida can you take a nature hike in shorts during Winter Break? :)

We had a great afternoon, although the kiddos (ok, and Momma, too) were all disappointed that the nature center was closed.  So, we will be taking a trip back soon to explore the nature center.  The younger mancub did make sure that I didn't leave until we had one copy of every informational brochure they had on the stand outside the nature center, though. lol

We saw some really cool things during our hike along the boardwalk.  God's creation is always amazing - the way it displays itself, the evidence of surviving damage, the harmony of working together.  There is beauty in all of it and I love teaching our kiddos to appreciate it.

Here are some of the neat things we saw:

I love the learning opportunities that nature so readily presents, as well.  As we were walking, we noticed a teeny tiny caterpillar descending on a silk thread from the tree canopy to the boardwalk below.  Once it made it to the ground below, the perfect opportunity to discuss camouflage in nature presented itself. 

I should probably brush up on my knowledge of caterpillars since finding baby caterpillars seems to be our thing. We didn't touch this one because I couldn't identify it and I didn't want to risk getting stung.

The younger mancub and older diva both enjoyed getting to touch some lichen that was growing on a lot of the trees.

Red blanket lichen

We also got to hear a variety of birds and saw a ton of spiders.  I tried to get a photo of one particularly colorful spider, but it started jumping towards me when I got too close to the web.  I guess he was camera shy. ;)

It was an awesome day and I'm glad we were able to get out for a quick "field trip" with the mancubs before they go back to school.

God bless!