Thursday, May 31, 2012
Trampoline Boards
We actually had a day that allowed for us to be at home, to just hang out!! The kiddos were playing on the trampoline and came in to find some games they could do on YouTube. From that the Trampoline Board was created! Both children did this activity unassisted and really had a blast playing with them once completed!
Nature Study ~ Iris
We looked at Irises this week as they are blooming in our area. The Iris is named after a Greek Goddess and is also the word rainbow in Greek. We were lucky enough to have some growing in our neighbours garden so we did our Nature Study in our own back yard!
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| Our neighbours lovely Iris |
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| A nest found at the park after Nature Study :) |
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Nature Study ~ Ferns
Today we went out in search of ferns!! Our usual roaming spot for the nature study has an abundance of them and different varieties, not that we realized that prior to the study. One fern looked much like another until today!
We used the link provided in the Handbook of Nature Study for viewing the Lifecycle of a Fern.
One thing we found when we actually got out there was the spores, which are located on the underside of the frond, we not as plentiful as we thought they would be. It took us quite a bit of searching before we located one with the spores intact! It was worth the search though, they are pretty neat looking!
We used the link provided in the Handbook of Nature Study for viewing the Lifecycle of a Fern.
One thing we found when we actually got out there was the spores, which are located on the underside of the frond, we not as plentiful as we thought they would be. It took us quite a bit of searching before we located one with the spores intact! It was worth the search though, they are pretty neat looking!
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| So we tried the suggestion in the book to print the leaf using ink. I didn't have any so tried paint LOL Huge FAIL! Next time, INK! |
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| Did a rubbing instead LOL |
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| We finally found one with spores, click on the picture to enlarge! Very cool! |
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Pioneer for a Day!
The children and Dad went on an excursion to the the Simcoe County Heritage Museum to take part in the day in the life of a Pioneer. They got dressed up in the official garb of the time and took part in activities traditionally carried out by people in that time period.
Some activities were: locating the kitchen in a typical home, the washroom and the fridge. All of things were located in places the children would not have thought of. They got to make butter in the Stone House. They went outdoors to the oven to see where the baking was done. Surprising to everyone was how they took temperature of the oven. They would insert their arms into the oven and based on how long the could keep it in they new how hot the thing was and how long it would take to cook the food. To keep food cold they would cut ice from the lake and cart it, by horse, to the ice house and stack it on the inside of the walls to keep the stone cold. This was the only stone building everything else was wood. Butter and cheese and anything else that would spoil was kept here. Oh as a side note, after the winter season the first fresh food, not salted or preserved, that they could eat was rhubarb. It was what grew the fasted during their growing season!
Lastly was the school house. They would line the children in two lines boys in one girls in another by height, shortest to tallest. She told the kiddos to go play for a second and once she rang the bell they needed to promptly get back into their lines in the shortest to tallest order. Girls would enter the room first and go to one side of the room and the boys would do the same there after. Slates and slate pencils were passed around by a volunteer from each group, boys and girls. She had a cow illustrated on the board and had children label the each part and the children needed to spell the words on their slate. Any child misbehaving needed to sit on a latter type apparatus and face the corner.
Some activities were: locating the kitchen in a typical home, the washroom and the fridge. All of things were located in places the children would not have thought of. They got to make butter in the Stone House. They went outdoors to the oven to see where the baking was done. Surprising to everyone was how they took temperature of the oven. They would insert their arms into the oven and based on how long the could keep it in they new how hot the thing was and how long it would take to cook the food. To keep food cold they would cut ice from the lake and cart it, by horse, to the ice house and stack it on the inside of the walls to keep the stone cold. This was the only stone building everything else was wood. Butter and cheese and anything else that would spoil was kept here. Oh as a side note, after the winter season the first fresh food, not salted or preserved, that they could eat was rhubarb. It was what grew the fasted during their growing season!
Lastly was the school house. They would line the children in two lines boys in one girls in another by height, shortest to tallest. She told the kiddos to go play for a second and once she rang the bell they needed to promptly get back into their lines in the shortest to tallest order. Girls would enter the room first and go to one side of the room and the boys would do the same there after. Slates and slate pencils were passed around by a volunteer from each group, boys and girls. She had a cow illustrated on the board and had children label the each part and the children needed to spell the words on their slate. Any child misbehaving needed to sit on a latter type apparatus and face the corner.
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| Too funny! |
Nature Study ~ Dogwood (or so we thought)
I was away last week in Cuba with my mom so the husband having 3 days off did the homeschooling :)
I decided to do the Dogwood Study at this point as the flowering would be done before we got to it in the book and we didn't want to miss it. We will do Ferns next!
I armed them with their Nature Study booklets and told them of a Dogwood down the street and off they went. Rand took his iPad for pictures, so I could blog about it (such a good guy)! Upon their return they looked next store in the neighbours yard and saw the EXACT same tree and this one we know for sure is a flowering Crab Apple Tree LOL So much for the Dogwood, but they look so much alike it worked out anyway!
I decided to do the Dogwood Study at this point as the flowering would be done before we got to it in the book and we didn't want to miss it. We will do Ferns next!
I armed them with their Nature Study booklets and told them of a Dogwood down the street and off they went. Rand took his iPad for pictures, so I could blog about it (such a good guy)! Upon their return they looked next store in the neighbours yard and saw the EXACT same tree and this one we know for sure is a flowering Crab Apple Tree LOL So much for the Dogwood, but they look so much alike it worked out anyway!
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| He's Flying!! |
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Nature Study ~ Spring Flowers
This week we did Spring Flowers. They have Poppies and Buttercups as the ones to use for this study. Unfortunately that is a no go as we don't seem to have them around our area. So instead we did Trilliums and Trout Lilies!
Both are members of the lily family and in the forest we've been visiting they are abundant!
Some cool points we learned were: Trillium's ARE legal to pick in Ontario although many of us out there thought is was illegal, it is our provinces flower, the white ones with a pink tinge on the pedals signify an older plant, and any Trillium with a green tinge on their petals has a virus and will eventually stop producing seeds to reproduce.
The Trout Lily is pollinated by ants and it takes 7 years for it to grow into a mature plant. It closely resembles Bellwort. The bulb of the Trout Lily is edible and apparently tastes like cucumber, we will be giving that a go when we go back. We thought they were Bellwort when we went out but after looking again we realized they were not! So we didn't sample them this afternoon.
It was a wonderful day for a hike!
Both are members of the lily family and in the forest we've been visiting they are abundant!
Some cool points we learned were: Trillium's ARE legal to pick in Ontario although many of us out there thought is was illegal, it is our provinces flower, the white ones with a pink tinge on the pedals signify an older plant, and any Trillium with a green tinge on their petals has a virus and will eventually stop producing seeds to reproduce.
The Trout Lily is pollinated by ants and it takes 7 years for it to grow into a mature plant. It closely resembles Bellwort. The bulb of the Trout Lily is edible and apparently tastes like cucumber, we will be giving that a go when we go back. We thought they were Bellwort when we went out but after looking again we realized they were not! So we didn't sample them this afternoon.
It was a wonderful day for a hike!
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| About to bust open! |
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| The centres are different than the white Trilliums |
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| Trout Lilies |
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| Oh! We also found this on our travels, we did our Robin Study last week and it looks like the babies are out and about as well! |
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