Life Is Good!

My husband pointed out to me that I had not been blogging lately... which I did know! We have been so wonderfully busy with so many various activities and as we head into the holiday season I know it becomes even harder to stay on track. But, I did want to share school is happening and we are having a great time!!

Our days have been filled with a lot of lessons, hands on learning, lapbooking, cooking, experiments, Camp Fire, crafting, play, celebrations, reading like crazy, choir, art, music, library time, outings and friends! We have enjoyed field trips to a coffee roasting plant, Rainforest Cafe, concert, The Nutcracker performance in Seattle, kids museum, nature trails, drum circle, parades, and more. A very good time indeed!!

I will be back to post soon and share more! In the mean time, enjoy a couple photos of the kiddos during our drum circle visit -- which we will be doing once again soon!

Skeleton Leaves

We met with some friends from our Nature Club for a fun experiment of creating Skeleton Leaves. A wonderful friend guided us through the project perfectly!! I know there are different ways to accomplish this activity, however this set of directions is very similar to how we created them -- we did a final step however of soaking them in pure bleach for about 5 minutes to whiten them, rinsing in cold water when done and patting them dry. Directions: How To Make Skeleton Leaves. It was fun!!!

They turned out beautifully!!

Water Color Painting with Bob Ross

Holly adores watching Bob Ross on our local PBS channel, she is mesmerized by him and his painting skills. I understand this because as a child... I was as well.

The other day after our studies she had some free afternoon time and turned on the TV to find Bob Ross 'just starting'. She quickly squealed with delight to please help her get set up as she wanted to paint with him! So, we moved a table over and broke out the supplies for painting. I was worried she might become frustrated in her ability to keep up with him but boy, was I wrong! She kept up beautifully and the results of her painting... amazing! Truly, I am very impressed with the final work, she created a stunning piece of art.

Winter barn scene!

Chorus

Holly's music class for the time being is her participation on a local youth chorus. The youth chorus is made up of children from a bunch of local towns. About a week ago they held their first small performance to demonstrate how their sessions are held, a few songs to share and learn to sing in a larger space in preparation for an upcoming holiday concert! She is really enjoying this program and I am so happy we decided to try it out this year!!

Lemon Battery

Holly has been enjoying her science curriculum, Real Science for Kids, with Daddy this year! I love watching them spend some learning time together and she adores having this one on one time with him doing something she really enjoys!

This week they worked on a fun experiment regarding chemical energy. They have worked through all different sorts of energy with experiments, but I'd have to say this has been Holly's favorite by far, a lemon battery. And, I have to admit... it was pretty cool!

She pretty much did the entire assembly as she worked through her directions. The only two places that Bryan helped out was stripping the wires and then slicing a small slice into each lemon for the pennies to be inserted. Other than that, Holly built the whole thing working through her directions and the lab. Fortunately, the experiment worked... always a good thing!! She hooked a little LED up and it lit up -- success!!!

Leaf Man

One of our favorite books for fall is Leaf Man by Lois Elhert. This is one we started when Holly was very little and is a tradition to read each fall and then create our own leaf creations. This was Hudson's first year creating with leaves.

We start by collecting leaves in the yard and drying them out as the weather has been damp. Then they enjoy sorting and inspecting for awhile. After reading the story together and really taking a fine look at all of the leaf creations we sort through our collected leaves and play with them to see what kinds of creations we can make. Then to finish up they glue some down and create a leaf masterpiece.

Simple but fun!

Lattin's Cider Mill

Last week we visited one of my favorite fall farms, Lattin's Cider Mill. We started a tour in the market house to learn about the apple cider they make and sample both cider and an apple cider donut... good stuff! Then we headed outdoors to take in the farm, feed and pet animals, enjoy some fun with friends and finish up with a little animal train tractor ride! It was a wonderful day and a perfect ending to the week - a week packed with several field trips, outdoor adventures and fall fun.