Getting Their Hands Dirty

The kids had a field trip to a greenhouse planned through their preschool today. Despite the rain, we bundled up in sweatshirts and raincoats and made the long drive to the nursery.

When everyone first arrived, the kids were in constant motion and anxious to get started. Joyce, the wonderful woman who led the group, heard a bird whistling nearby and gestured to the class to calm down a bit. Then, she explained to the children that if they could be still and quiet they could go see a bird nesting in the rocks a short distance away. As the kids nodded, she led them across the parking lot to a place where a killdeer had a tiny nest among the rocks.

The small eggs, nestled in the rocks next to the white water pipe, are light gray with black speckles and blend in so well that most of the kids could not even see them! When the male and female both began squawking at us, we quickly moved the kids over to the greenhouse to begin the tour.

After admiring many beautiful plants and flowers, the kids had the opportunity to plant their own flowers. They each picked a lovely, decorative pastel flower pot and lined up at the planting table to wait for instructions.

Next, they filled their pots with soil.

After making a hole in the soil, they placed a pretty, red begonia into the pot, filled the remaining space with more soil, and patted it down.

The whole class had a great time and learned a bit about plants, too. I think we'll be making a return trip in a couple weeks once we put in our garden, so we can purchase some vegetables as well. I hope the kids will be just as excited to help me with our new garden. Maybe they'll even like weeding...

March Comes in Like a Lion But Goes Out Like...

A couple years ago, my parents purchased a beautiful cabin in the woods, about halfway between Philadelphia and Ohio. We love to meet them there for weekends and enjoy spending time outdoors. Last weekend, now that the threat of surprise snowstorms and dangerous driving has passed, we made the trek for the first time this spring.

The kids love being outside and exploring, but our urban backyard near a busy street limits their freedom quite a bit here at home.

They poked sticks in the pond...

collected pine cones and floated them in the stream...

and ran around to their hearts' content!

We even caught a small newt near the pond. After everyone examined it, we returned him to the water where he would be safe from little fingers. Becca still affectionately talks about the "nude" we found!

On Saturday evening, despite the slight, misty drizzle, my dad suggested going on a "bear hunt" referencing one of the kids' favorite books. The kids jumped up and down excitedly, as I snapped raincoats and my dad passed out flashlights.

We walked back past the pond and into the woods, which largely consist of widely spaced evergreen trees and acres of rhododendrons. The kids ran ahead, shining their flashlights behind trees and under bushes, looking for bears.

The closest they got to a bear was a "scary" old rusty pipe that they thought was a bear until they ran up and touched it. Good thing we didn't expect to find any real bears!

The next morning, my mom pulled out two kits for planting sunflower seeds. We filled the pots with dirt, and the kids put seeds in the little holes we made and then soaked the soil with water. Even Becca joined in the fun. My parents and I each took a pot home to sprout, and then we will plant the sunflowers in our yards once they are big enough.

We always hate leaving, but we had a beautiful drive home. The clouds looked spectacular, and at one rest stop, the sun peeked through the clouds in the middle of a brief rainstorm and created the most beautiful rainbow. Ben yelled, excitedly, "A rainbow tells us about God's love!" I am glad to know that he is learning from our family Bible time and from Sunday School... and that he gets the important ideas and not just the stories.

About an hour from home the snow started... perhaps spring has not quite arrived after all!

Stormy March

Today we began a two week unit focused around spring and Easter. Somehow, I ended up with a copy of a wonderful, out of print children's book called "The Story of Easter for Children" by Beverly Rae Wiersum. It begins by describing spring and the coming of new life, and then it ties spring and all of the Easter symbols into a beautiful description of how Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and his gift of new life. So, we are going to use the book as a starting point to discuss the coming of spring, Easter eggs and new life, and, most importantly, Jesus' death and resurrection. If we have time, we'll also look at some of the other Easter symbols.

Because of our rainy, stormy weather today, I decided to focus today's lessons around rain and the water cycle. I found some wonderful ideas at http://first-school.ws/activities/science/drippy.htm, including links to a story about "Drippy the raindrop" and several good coloring pages at Kidzone.

We started by reading the Easter story, and then talking about spring rains washing the snow away. Then, we looked at the story of Drippy and discussed the water cycle. Hannah learned the word "rain," and practiced writing it several times. She also drew a picture of rain on the paper.

To illustrate the concept of the water cycle, we used one of the suggested activities at First School, soaking cotton-ball clouds with water and watching them "rain" into a bowl. The kids loved doing it again and again!

Then, I continued the illustration using the wonderful Kidzone worksheets. I boiled water in a teapot to show the four stages: evaporation, condensation (on the lid), precipitation and collection (water dripping from the lid and falling back into the teapot). Then, the kids colored the corresponding worksheet pages. They seemed so excited, and even Ben understood at a two-year-old level. He kept telling me over and over that water is "old" because it keeps going up and down, instead of being newly created water.


Hannah was very proud of her finished work. Her fine motor skills (writing and coloring) are improving every day!