We started out the weekend on Friday with beautiful weather. We headed to the beach for our second science class. (The library we were doing it at is across the street from the beach). The "scientist" had a line marked with the "to scale" distances for the planets and then balls that showed the sizes. (We did something similar to this when we did the planets at the beginning of the year.) The kids had fun "learning" about the planets. Yes, I put that in quotes for a reason...this class was supposed to be an hour long, but ours ended after a half hour. She would start to talk about something with the kids, one of the planets, gravity, the Earth's rotation, etc. and the kids would finish her sentences for her. They already knew all about that stuff! How great is that...I love homeschooling. I also love the groups that we have here, it is wonderful being around other people who take as much interest in their children's education as I do. It is wonderful to see their kids and how much knowledge they have on subjects that most kindergartners don't have. Hailey got to use her gravity knowledge in class. =) When they were discussing the model of the sun with the earth and moon that rotate around it, they were also talking about why the moon shines if the sun is the only thing giving off light. Hailey raised her hand (which, in itself, is amazing to me!) and said, "It's because the sun reflects light off of the moon." Of course, I was a beaming mother! The fact that my five year old knew the sun reflected off the moon is just too much. Ok, I am bragging a little, but mostly...when we read this years from now, I want to remember how proud I was of her for knowing little things like that!
The line of planets...
The kids checking out the "planets" (Hailey is there...behind the kid in the plaid)
We decided against camping since I wasn't feeling that great and just picked one day to go hiking. We spent all day Saturday cleaning - I cleaned out the upstairs and Heath had the kids out front with him and was working on the vehicles. It was glorious being able to clean without kids running around! I will have to say though, for the hours I spent cleaning, I am rather disappointed in the amount I got done. I thought, surely, I would be able to clean the whole house in this amount of time. Not even close! Oh well. The kids were very excited to go hiking on Sunday...we took them out to First Landing State Park, which is at the beach...I love being able to hike at the beach =) (I am realizing more and more just how much I don't want to leave this area =( We are spoiled here, SO many family activities and festivals, I LOVE it!) The two trails we decided to do were actually through the marshy area of the forest...we thought there would be a lot of interesting things to "study" and we could take advantage of it being only March...so there are no bugs or mosquitoes out yet! We had a fabulous 4 and 1/2 mile nature hike. We strolled along at the kids' pace (yes, we made them walk the whole way =). We pointed out all kinds of things (mostly, the importance of paying attention so you don't miss things). We saw the rare chicken turtle sunning on a log in the marsh (actually 4 of them). They only live in this area of Seashore Park. We spied a lot of salamanders running through the leaves (they were hard to spot!), which, of course, means we took the opportunity to teach the kids about amphibians. (This was daddy's favorite part of the hike). Drew's favorite part was finding spiders...also hard to see. The ground was covered in leaves and pine needles, so you really had to just stop and look to find things. Hailey loved all the spanish moss hanging from the trees and I loved how so much of the marshy water looked like rainbows later in the afternoon (another teaching opportunity too! =) Everyone loved the intermittent bridges through areas that normally we would be wading through. It reminded me very much of the swamps in movies...just waiting for an alligator to jump out at you any second! I love the peacefulness of hiking, so we stopped to listen quietly a lot. The kids soon grew to love this as they were hearing birds and woodpeckers off in the distance. Heath and Hailey stopped a lot to count rings on fallen trees and Drew just couldn't pick up enough pine cones. I only had to carry Drew the last mile, they really were troopers.
Having a picnic lunch
Helping daddy wash the car
Washing the car
Ready to go hiking at First Landing
Looking at the turtles sunning
The turtles...
Discovering some mushrooms growing on a log.
All the beautiful spanish moss...
Looking at nests in the trees
Finding things in the forest.
Taking a break.
I was there, I swear!
I was there, I swear!
It seems that everyone had brought their dog to the park that day...and except for the couple little ones we saw, they were all labs or golden retrievers! These are the 2 dogs we are debating against. I want the GR. Go figure, the hairiest one! I told Heath that I wanted to "test drive" our friend's dog to see if I could stand the hair. He doesn't think that is a great idea. (What does he know! =) I don't know, I am going to try and stop worrying about it for a while...it is not something that is going to happen soon. The kids loved to stop and ask the owners all about the dogs. They are so cute! Both of them would walk over to someone (or ask as they were passing by) and say "I like your dog." Then they would ask what kind it is, boy or girl, and what the name was. I think it is so cute how they "chat" with people. They are getting better at it! I am so happy that Drew has a great example to follow after, he would definitely not be like that on his own!
We got home, surprisingly, feeling like we had been ahead of the game. We still had a couple hours before the kids were off to bed, so I went up to our room and read a little. It was what I call one of my "perfect scenarios". These usually have to do with the weather and everything clicking into just the right place. It's kind of like a combination lock and when all the notches are lined up, it unlocks this peaceful sereneness in me. We had the windows open, so I had the fresh air blowing through the room, plus the fan for a breeze (plus the noise of the fan-this reminds me of Twister in that scene right before the tornado hits Wakita and aunt Meg is watching the news...yes! I know I am weird!). The neighborhood was also pretty quiet (which is rare)...it was just perfect! I relished the 10-20 minutes of (almost) total quiet I had to just sit there and read =) (Yes, I do have quite a few of these "scenarios" that I can just tell when everything clicks just right...so what? =p ) The one thing I did like about DST is that it was still light out at 7 o'clock. I told Heath that we should start a ritual when DST ends by bbqing that night. It would mark the start of the time when I can actually see what I am cooking on the grill at dinnertime so I don't burn it (like I did the night before =)
Today was art class day. We must have exhausted the children yesterday, because they slept for almost 14 hours last night! You would think this means they were little angels today...HA! Hailey was great, but Drew was taken over by demons early this morning. (I don't like using that word, but all day I just kept thinking "exorcist"). He gets cranky in the afternoon, but it is rare that he is bad in the morning. He was grumpy with me even in art class when we were painting. The kids were making a scene with a bear walking through the woods. He had just woken up from hibernation and was looking for food and water =) I took the kids home with the promise of a playground after lunch hanging in the air (on our last perfect day =( You think this would keep them in check!) Drew started right away, he was doing a lot of screaming. I finally just told him he needed a nap and took him upstairs. Oh, the hyperventilating. After a long struggle (and me sleeping on the floor) he took a nap, and woke up his normal self. What the heck?! We took Hailey to her drawing class. Today they were making a "Running Man". It was a stick figure that they traced the contours with marker until they covered the whole page. It was pretty cool. Drew and I hung out in the hallway playing a little alphabet game I made up. I brought ABC flashcards with us and put about half of them on the floor. I also brought a bunch of his cars with us and then I would tell him to drive one of the cars and park it on the letter "_". It kept him occupied the whole 45 minutes! I was impressed! When I put the letters out, I would show him the letter and tell him the name, I would sometimes trace it with my finger to explain it's "features". I noticed that whether I traced the letter or not, he liked to trace it with his finger. For some reason, I was amazed by this. Hailey never did that. I am so curious to see how differently Drew will learn from Hailey. I notice so many different things between then two of them! I am pretty sure that Hailey learns well with all the methods of teaching (auditory, visual, and kinesthetic), but I don't know about Drew yet. I would guess he will probably be more kinesthetic. I'm not sure, but I am anxious to find out. Children's minds are amazing to me...I love watching how they work!
Drew's "Brown Bear"...he still had a lot of snow on him=)
Hailey's brown bear was walking through a dense forest
Hailey's running man
After class I took the kids to the "tire swing playground". Oh, they were so happy! We played until about 7 o'clock before heading home for dinner and bed. I am glad that I didn't have to disappoint them completely today. They had a great time running around and playing. Ahh, the joys in life =)
We also spent a lot of time talking about Jesus today. I was teaching them "This little light of mine" earlier today, and I even introduced the second verse (won't let satan blow it out...) I have been debating for a while now whether (or how much) I should explain about "the bad guy". So I finally did it...it went "well". (haha) They seem to understand at least...then Drew started acting like that when we got home...any guesses? =) Later, I forget exactly how we got on the subject, we were talking about why we celebrated Easter. Well, this brings up interesting questions in the mind of a little person...he died and then came back to life?! Yeah, well...that went pretty well too! I sat down and was reading them the Bible stories of this and they were fascinated. Hailey just wanted to keep hearing more. I think this is the first time I have sat down to read passages from the actual Bible to them (and not just edited story versions) - how sad is that! I could feel God with me all day...I even dealt with Drew earlier in a very calm, loving manner...and there is only one being that could help me do that! Thank you, Lord, for giving me the strength to be patient and loving with my children!
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