Spring, Sweet Spring

Suddenly, this past weekend, the lamb of spring arrived and chased away the lion of winter. In fact, after such a snowy winter, this March has been remarkably mild. On Saturday, the sun shone and a warm breeze blew, rapidly melting the large piles of snow and transforming the landscape into a mess of muddy ponds and tiny leaf-filled streams. Even the first tiny crocuses appeared in the only part of my garden not blanketed with snow.

On such a beautiful day, the annual Maple Sugar Festival lured us out of our house to brave the crowds at Malabar Farm. We were fortunate enough to arrive early and get parking, since they had to close most of their parking due to the mud and turn many cars away. After quite a long wait in the mud, we finally reached the front of the line for the wagon ride up the road to the festival.

As we climbed into the wagon, the assistant asked if Hannah and Ben would like to ride up front with the driver. They loved it!

In spite of all the mud and snow, the kids enjoyed trekking from station to station, learning about maple syrup. A Native American man explained how the first people in this area processed the sap to make sugar.

Using sticks as tongs, he removed very hot rocks from a fire and placed them into a log trough filled with sap. This kept the sap boiling, evaporating the water and leaving the sugar behind. The kids enjoyed smelling the steam, with its appetizing cotton candy scent.

The next station demonstrated how early settlers in this area made maple syrup and maple sugar.

Afterward, each person could taste a tiny amount of maple sugar.

Finally, we visited the "Sugar Shack," where they still make maple syrup today.

Inside, a large vat full of sap simmered and boiled, as steam billowed up to the ceiling and out through the vents.

The kids look forward to this part each year, because, after waiting patiently for the end of the presentation, everyone got a small taste of fresh maple syrup.

Before we left, we purchased our yearly gallon of maple syrup and a few maple candies, and then we rode one of the horse-drawn wagons back to our car.

Although the kids wailed and yawned and squabbled from exhaustion the whole ride home, we all had a wonderful day together. We look forward to the Maple Sugar Festival each year as one of the sweetest signs of the coming of spring. Well... perhaps with the exception of those first lovely flowers!

Bones and Stones

For Thanksgiving this year, we traveled to visit my dad's family in Pittsburgh, PA. In contrast to our very rustic Thanksgiving last year, we stayed in a hotel with my parents, my brother, and his girlfriend, and we ate our meal in the comfort of my aunt and uncle's home, driving to my grandparent's house for dessert. We had a wonderful time visiting family, many of whom the kids have not seen in a couple of years.

On Saturday, we decided to enjoy Pittsburgh a bit, so we headed across the city to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. What a wonderful museum! I knew they had a great dinosaur exhibit, but I never expected the kids to get so excited about the gems and minerals exhibit. All three kids were completely enthralled with the beautiful rocks and crystals.

Hannah thought they were beautiful and suggested that maybe she would rather be a geologist than an entomologist when she grows up. When we asked Becca about her favorite part of the museum later, she told us, "The rocks. They were pretty and shiny and sparkly and glowy in the dark..." She was adorable!

As I expected, the kids loved the dinosaur exhibit as well. The display had full skeletons of all of the dinosaurs most kids would readily recognize - apatosaurus, diplodocus, triceratops, stegosaurus, and of course, tyrannosaurus rex.

The museum also had many lesser known dinosaurs and another gallery dedicated to Ice Age animals, like mammoths and mastodons.

After viewing all of the wonderful skeletons, we arrived at a section geared entirely towards kids - "Bonehunter's Quarry." Many skeleton replicas lay buried in a waxy clay-like substance. Children first donned a pair of safety goggles and then used a chisel and a paintbrush to carefully excavate the bones. All three kids loved this part - especially Hannah! They definitely learned that uncovering dinosaur bones is a delicate and difficult job, requiring a lot of patience.

We spent the majority of our time in these two sections, but the museum had many more wonderful displays - North American and African animals, birds, Native Americans, Egypt, life in the Polar regions. We did walk through most of the exhibits, but by the end, the kids were tired and ready for lunch. We all had a great time and learned quite a bit, and I think if we go back, we will start on the top floor and work our way down so we can spend more time in some of the displays we missed or rushed through this time.

After a nice lunch, we returned to the hotel for a lazy afternoon. Becca took a nap while Hannah and Ben played with Grandma and PopPop in their hotel room. Well, they played for a little while until they both succumbed to their sleepiness and took a nice long nap on my parents' bed.


Aren't they sweet?

I love museums, and I think I will use this one as a starting point for a long unit on dinosaurs. I have a great book full of dinosaur-themed activities for Ben, and I just finished reading him Dinosaurs Before Dark last month. Now I just need find a way to work some geology into the unit, as well!

Learning "On the Go"

Between sick kids and Josh's MBA class, I have not spent much time doing "formal" school with the kids this month. However, we have spent a great deal of time learning.

I have discovered that Ben enjoys when I read the Magic Tree House books to him, since some of the words are still a little difficult for him to decipher on his own. Plus, he likes asking me constant questions while I read so he can understand the information better. After reading the first book in the series, I skipped ahead to Thanksgiving on Thursday, in order to coordinate with the season. Ben and Becca liked the story, but I think some of it may have been a little over their heads. Additionally, Ben practiced reading The Story of Thanksgiving by Nancy Skarmeas. This is an excellent, simple book that explains clearly why we celebrate Thanksgiving. I only had to help him with a few words, like "Pilgrims" and "Plymouth," the first time through, and he read it perfectly to his preschool class a few days later. I was very proud of him. He is blossoming as a reader, and though he does not read as avidly as Hannah, he definitely enjoys it.

For fun, we have watched our Charlie Brown Thanksgiving DVD multiple times this month as well. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving mostly just makes the kids laugh, but The Mayflower Voyagers is wonderfully educational and has helped the kids understand what the Pilgrims faced in order to settle in the new world. The first time we watched it, they marveled loudly over the length of the journey and expressed sadness about how many of the original settlers died. Now, they impress me with the random facts about the Pilgrims that I often do not even remember from the film.

Through the busyness of this season, I have also discovered the educational value of waiting in the car for Hannah's school dismissal. Just while sitting in the car in the afternoons, Ben has learned how to count by tens and Becca has learned about rhyming words and that "ck" sounds like "k" and not "sk." I often spell a simple c-v-c word, and Becca tells me what it is, or I ask her how to spell a word and she spells it for me. She has become quite good at reading short vowel words and even surprised me today by telling me that "oo" sounds like "ew." I don't even know where she learned that one!

So, in this hectic time of year, I am squeezing education into the extra spaces of my day, by reading and talking and answering an abundance of questions. Looking back, though, I am encouraged to see that my kids are indeed learning, even if that learning does not always resemble "school."

Vacation in Bar Harbor

How can I summarize a wonderful 11-day vacation in just a short blog entry? I will do my best, but I can only share the highlights of our trip to my favorite place on earth...

Josh surprised me this summer by planning a vacation to Bar Harbor, ME and Acadia National Park. We honeymooned there, and I absolutely love it! We went one other time, when Hannah was only 8 months old, but we could not do as much with an infant. This time, Josh suggested that we stay in a large cabin and bring along his mom, to help out with the kids and even give us a chance to get out alone once or twice. We ended up having a wonderful time!

Of course, a trip to a national park is both fun and educational at the same time. I bought the kids two books while we were there: Discovering Acadia: A Guide for Young Naturalists and Who Pooped in the Park? Acadia National park: Scat and Tracks for Kids. Hannah fell in love with them and tried to identify many plants and animals we saw. In fact, plants, animals, and the ocean became the overriding theme of the trip.

The first day, we took a whale watching boat trip out into the Atlantic Ocean. All three kids loved it! After seeing boats, puffins, and a variety of sea birds, we finally found a group of three finback whales swimming nearby. The kids squealed with delight every time they surfaced.

After a wonderful three-hour boat ride, we returned to Bar Harbor. Poor Becca was exhausted from the excitement and the cold and slept the whole way back, bundled up in a few coats to keep the wind and spray off of her face.

We also took several hikes while we were in Acadia. The kids favorite trail was Wonderland Trail near Seawall on the quiet side of the island. The first day we walked on it, the kids enjoyed stopping and looking at all of the flowers along the path.

We scrambled over rocks by the ocean, picking up shells, and enjoying the view.

Ben even saw a fox when he and I hiked a little further down the trail. He asked me about the kitty with the fluffy orange tail! We returned on a beautiful morning at low tide so we could see all of the tidal pools. The kids loved climbing from pool to pool looking for snails and crabs among the seaweed.

We also enjoyed driving Park Loop Road. One day, after a morning of heavy rain, we saw dozens of waterfalls pouring over the rocks off of the mountains.

We could even see streaks of white down the mountainsides where additional waterfalls drained away the water from the heavy rain.

Along the road, a turtle laid her eggs in the damp earth. The kids laughed excitedly as we watched her deposit several eggs into the hole.

Another day, we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at the Jordan Pond House. After we ate, we hiked the nature trail through the woods and along the pond. We stumbled across a pair of loons. We quietly watched, afraid to breathe too loudly, lest we frighten the shy birds away. Instead, the loons swam right over towards us and then swam the length of the pond beside us, staying far enough away, but providing beautiful views. They even made their haunting calls repeatedly for us to hear. Even Becca can identify loons now!

Overall, we had a wonderful trip. I could write about all of the amazing birds we saw, from warblers to falcons to sea birds, or about the Margaret Todd, the boat the kids called a pirate ship the whole time we were there, or about the fun ice cream shop we enjoyed in downtown Bar Harbor, or about Somes Sound, the only fjord in the US other than in Alaska. But, I do not have the time or space. However, I greatly recommend Acadia National Park as one of the most beautiful and educational places on earth. It will always hold a piece of my heart!

Springtime Science

Last summer, we raised and released butterflies. This year, with Ben's birthday coming up, I began browsing through an Insect Lore catalog that came in the mail and stumbled across the perfect present. It arrived yesterday.

I quickly removed it from the box and told Ben that it was an early birthday present. "What is it?" Ben asked. Becca excitedly yelled, "Yuck! It's a poop!"

"No," I laughed. "It's a praying mantis egg case." I explained that in a few weeks, one or two hundred tiny praying mantises would emerge from the egg and we would release them in our yard. We already find quite a few in our bushes each spring, so I know this is a good habitat for them, and maybe they will keep pests out of the vegetable garden I am planning.

After the kids oohhhed and ahhhed for a while, they lost interest in the odd-looking brown object, and it currently sits on our mantle waiting for signs of life...

Additionally, as I shopped, I discovered another wonderful project that I remembered fondly from my days as a zoo educator. The catalog sold owl pellet dissection kits, which were somewhat pricey, but it also listed individual owl pellets. Because of my experience with these in the past, I knew I could just buy the pellets and use tweezers and magnifying glasses we already had at home. I ordered two pellets.

My parents recently lent us an old book called Character Sketches, which uses Scripture and animals to teach character qualities. Though it is designed for older children and some of the ideas are a little outdated, it provides a helpful resource for encouraging character in my kids. The first animal in the book happened to be the Great Horned Owl.

When the pellets arrived, I began by reading a bit of the information on owls from the book, and we talked a little about putting others needs ahead of our own convenience, which the owl's nesting habits demonstrate. Then, I told the kids how owls swallow their prey mostly whole but cannot digest the bones and fur. An owl's body creates a lump of bones and fur as it digests the mouse or other animal, and then it spits out the pellet onto the ground. I showed them the small (dried and disinfected) pellets I had purchased. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that removing the tiny bones from the dried pellets was very delicate and tedious work. They watched for a while, and then I finished the job while they played, coming over at various points to look at the different bones I found.

We found a lot of bones in the two pellets, likely from one tiny and two larger rodents.


We found quite a few ribs and vertebrae:


Some leg bones:


And a couple of nice skulls with the teeth:


I had one full skull, but I accidentally stepped on it when I was taking pictures on the porch and Ben kept slamming the door...

Finally, the kids were very excited yesterday because the flowers they planted at the cabin are beginning to sprout. They can't wait until they are big enough to plant outside.


So I guess yesterday was spring science day! We covered insects and their life cycles, owls and their eating habits, and plants and seeds. The kids thought yesterday was just a lot of fun!

A Sweet Adventure

A local farm hosted its annual Maple Syrup Festival this weekend. We missed last year's festival due to snow, so we made a point of attending this year. We knew the kids would love it, and we also needed to buy some more maple syrup, as the gallon we bought two years ago was beginning to run low.

We began the morning by eating pancakes with syrup, and then we headed out to the farm. A tractor drove cart-loads of people from the parking lot to the waiting area down the road. From there, several teams of draft horses pulled people in wagons back into the woods to the place where they made the maple syrup.

All along the road and on all of the paths, metal buckets hung from trees to collect the sap. Many of the buckets were full, with a thin layer of ice across the top because of the freezing nighttime temperatures.

Once we got out of the wagon, we walked through a small trail with a few stations showing the early methods of processing sugar maple sap. At the first station, people wearing period costumes and traditional Native American dress explained how Indians in the region first harvested maple sugar. They collected sap in wooden buckets and poured it into troughs carved into large logs. Then, they heated rocks in a fire and placed those rocks into the sap-filled logs. The hot rocks boiled the water and condensed the syrup, eventually leaving nothing but maple sugar. The Native Americans formed the sugar into cakes and used it on everything until their supply diminished. Unfortunately, this method left a lot of sand in the sugar, which shortened the people's lifespan by wearing down their teeth rapidly.

At the next station, women demonstrated how European settlers later used large kettles to boil down the sap and make syrup.

They needed to stir the sap frequently to prevent it from burning. Many gallons of sap are needed to make a single gallon of maple syrup.

Finally, we entered the "Sugar Shack" where they currently process their maple syrup. Steam filled the room as it evaporated constantly from a large heated vat of sap. In this more modern facility, sap comes directly through tubing that taps into the maple trees, so that people do not have to collect it from buckets every morning.

A man explained the current process of making maple syrup and gave everyone tiny samples of fresh syrup. It tasted wonderful!

After a quick picnic lunch and a stop in another small museum, we purchased some freshly made maple syrup, a piece of maple sugar candy for each of us, and a wonderful smelling maple sugar candle for our house. Once the kids settled into the warm car and the sugar rush began to wear off, they became quite drowsy and literally begged for their beds when we got home! We had a wonderful day, and the kids learned a lot. Hannah and I have already read Little House in the Big Woods together, but I think I will finish off this adventure by reading them all the two chapters from the book that describe how they made maple sugar. Overall, I would say that we had a very sweet adventure!

Animal Teeth and Tales

Now that the holidays are over, we are beginning to get into a new routine for school. Ben is much more interested in "doing preschool" recently, so I have been doing almost as much with him as I have with Hannah. We have had a fun couple of days.

Yesterday, we read One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey. In the book, Sal wakes up one morning with a lose tooth. At first, she worries, but she grows excited when her mother tells her that it means she is growing up. She wonders about different animals' teeth, and she plans out the wish she will make when the tooth finally comes out. The book paints a lovely picture of a family living on the coast of Maine, while also exploring an important milestone in a little girl's life.

At Hannah's last trip to the dentist, the dentist told her that she would likely begin losing her teeth within the next year, and she is very excited about the idea, so she enjoyed this story quite a bit. Several months ago, I saved a portion of a My Big Backyard magazine about animal teeth, so I used those pages to talk about different kinds of teeth and what uses they have. The kids enjoyed figuring out which types of teeth different animals have. Additionally, we located Maine on a map and talked about animals that don't have any teeth at all.

Today, we reread the book Little Beaver and the Echo by Amy MacDonald. This is a beautifully illustrated and adorable tale about a lonely little beaver who hears his echo and goes looking for a friend. Though he never finds the voice he is seeking, he finds three new friends along the way.

We used this book, combined with another My Big Backyard to learn about beavers, which fit very well with the teeth lesson from yesterday. I jokingly told Ben that next year, instead of bringing a saw with us, he can chew down our Christmas tree instead. I chmped my teeth dramatically in the direction of our tree (and yes, we still have not taken down our tree...). The kids laughed and laughed, but I think they will always remember what a beaver uses his teeth for!

We also discussed echoes and how they work. We took turns yelling and pretending to hear our echoes, which the kids loved! Ben tells me now that an echo is when you say, "Hello!" or "Who's there?" and your voice bounces off of something hard and comes back to you, and you hear, "Hello! Who's there?" I think they've got it!

We're also moving bit by bit through Sing, Spell, Read and Write and a few other workbooks. Ben can read short-vowel words fairly easily now, and he really enjoys practicing his new skill. Hannah is moving a little more slowly through her book, now that it consists of more writing and less coloring and other fun activities. We do a smaller amount each day, and I supplement with more engaging reading comprehension and phonics worksheets from a second grade workbook I purchased.

So, we are back to work and getting into a routine. Though have a lot I want to accomplish before the end of the year, my biggest desire is that the kids will love learning! I think we are finding a good balance...

Discovering Lapbooking

I discovered a wonderful educational tool the other day that I think will become a regular part of our homeschooling curriculum. I cannot believe that I never learned about this in my four years as an education major at a college known for its high quality teaching program! It is called "lapbooking."

A lapbook is a manila file folder, flattened and refolded in a specific way in order to make a book. Various colorful pockets, pictures, and small books are glued to the inside of the folder, each item containing pieces of information about the lapbook's theme. At the kindergarten level, the information is usually fairly simple, but high school students put together lapbooks containing essays, charts, and much more complex information. Seem confusing? I, too, needed pictures and examples before I figured out exactly how it worked, so I will share our first lapbook with you.

Because of Hannah's current fascination with scorpions, rattlesnakes, and animals that live in the Grand Canyon, I was thrilled to find a free "Desert Animals" lapbook at Home School Share. The pdf's on the site included printables and instructions to make a detailed lapbook about animals that live in American deserts. I did find that some of the information included was incorrect or incomplete, but for the most part, all of the facts needed were included on the webpage. If Hannah were older, I would have taught her how to look up facts about the animals by herself, but instead, I printed off the infomation, read it to her out loud, and had her pick out the facts we needed to make each booklet or activity. I wrote the details for her most of the time, but she wrote a few of the pages herself.

Hannah really seemed to enjoy lapbooking, especially since this lapbook focused on something that already interested her. Her love of bugs runs so deep right now, that when I showed her the photo labeled "scorpion," she announced that it was actually a giant desert hairy scorpion. I looked it up in our Audubon guide, and she was correct!

Here are a few pictures of the lapbook we finished yesterday. Ours actually ended up being two folders glued together on one side to make room for all of the little books and pockets.

The cover:

The inside:

A close up of one side: