where does the time go?

Okay, so maybe me posting every day was a bit unrealistic. Oh, well. Here's what I remember from the blur that was the last week:

We discovered two caterpillars had turned into chrysalises and got to watch one go through the transformation.

Lots of arts and crafts, as always.

Spent time with my nieces. Yesterday I took all three kids to play at the park until they got too hot, then to the nature center, then on a walk through the woods. They had fun looking at flowers and squirrels and cool fungi and stuff like that.

Worked our way through more of our pile from the library. Samuel really likes Tomie dePaola's "Pancakes for Breakfast". I think he likes that there are no words, so he can narrate it however he likes. We've noticed more little details in the pictures than I normally would. We also got every book the library had on both guinea pigs and caterpillars/butterflies.

I am probably forgetting something momentous, but that's the way things go around here.

Pumpkins, squash, and gourds, oh my!

Also on Saturday, we went to a local pumpkin patch. Calling it a pumpkin patch hardly does it justice, though, as they grow over 200 varieties of pumpkins, squash, and gourds. Amazing! It was so fascinating to see the varieties, learn what they are used for, what countries they come from, and select our own to try. We got a nice jack-o-lantern pumpkin, but also a big pie pumpkin, a Japanese squash that is supposed to taste similar to hash browns when fried, a butternut, some sweet potato squash (Samuel's favorite last year), and some spaghetti squash, which I've been wanting to try for some time now. I'll post how they turn out as we cook them!

Stargazing

Thanks to a friend who took it upon herself to organize this, we were able to participate in a 2-part astronomy field trip last week. On Wednesday, we went to the local planetarium and saw the Fall Prairie Skies show, detailing the stars, planets, and galaxies that are currently visible in the night sky. Then on Saturday night, we joined the local Astronomical Society for their weekly viewing and got to see the moon up close, as well as the Andromeda galaxy, twin star clusters, the ring nebula, and all the constellations that we had learned about earlier in the week. We had a great time, and learned a lot. We will definitely have to do more stargazing - we were surprised at how much you can see with a simple pair of binoculars - not to mention your own eyes, when you leave the city lights behind!

a record....

My original blog was intended to be in part a record of what we do for homeschooling, but I don't really like cluttering it up with mundane details. So, I am going to keep those here. :) I don't expect that anyone will want to read this, but if you happen across it, you're welcome to follow our mostly-unschooling lifestyle! I hope to update this blog pretty regularlyas we go along, but I wanted to write down some of our past endeavors as well, so I'll add them to this post as I think of them.

Places visited up to October 2007:
Saint Louis zoo
Saint Louis Science Center
Missouri Botanical Gardens
Magic House
Grant's Farm
Indianapolis Children's Museum
Indianapolis Zoo
Bloomington Children's Museum
Bloomington Zoo
Decatur Zoo
camping: Turkey Run SP, IN; Geneva SP, OH; Salt Fork SP, OH
hiking at Turkey Run
Curtis Orchard
Great Pumpkin Patch
Rockome Gardens
a local Amish farm

Academic endeavors:
Working through the Little Stories for Little Folks phonics program
Math concepts: counting, addition and subtraction, simple multiplication and division, fractions

Books read:
too many to name! I will have to come up with a system for keeping track

Creative exercises:
Building with Legos, wooden blocks, Kugelbahn, Thomas trains
Puzzles
Creating countless costumes and accessories from paper, pipe cleaners, and other household objects
Painting with watercolors, acrylics, and poster paints
Modelling with clay and beeswax

Nature walks:
Spotted deer, rabbits, squirrels, lizards, spiders, insects, and lots of birds
Collected variety of leaves for study, crafts

more to be added...