Lady Bug Release

This week we hosted a lady bug release with several homeschool friends at a local park. This is our second year doing this and something the kids really enjoy! Holly made a comment that usually she is out looking for various critters to catch and observe, but this time she is setting them free. True!!!

We got a couple containers of lady bugs to release. The kids all shared the knowledge they had on these little beetles, we discussed a nice way to release them and then the kids got to work. We spread them at a local park (with permission). After releasing the ladybugs we spent a beautiful afternoon enjoying the park with our friends. A walk around the pond, a splash in the creek and then a lot of time playing. The day was wonderful!!!

Hand Print Lilies

We are bringing a lot of Spring arts and crafts to decorate our wonderful learning wall... as well as every other surface of our dining and kitchen areas. These projects go perfectly with our Spring reading, studies and science plans that are coming up next week. Plus doing some beautiful Spring art helps to muddle out the rain looming just outside our doors!

Today Holly enjoyed creating Hand Print Lilies. I found this project at Family Fun, here is a link: http://familyfun.go.com/spring/spring-crafts/spring-flower-crafts/handprint-lilies-675224/ This was a very easy project, we had all the supplies on hand and it had pretty quick results that she really enjoyed!

Cherry Blossom Tree

Spring is here and with it comes some really fun projects, gardening, science fun and more! This week we enjoyed some great books on Spring, poetry on spring, various art projects, garden exploration, garden planning, outdoor time, car hunts for cherry blossom trees, a movie on seasons and a movie on weather and changes in spring. A fun week for sure!

A favorite project Holly enjoyed is her Cherry Blossom Tree art project she created at home. We have done a few variations of this however this particular art project was her favorite one... mine too (I think because she slowed down and did a complete project versus a rushed one). She painted the trunk and branches of the tree with brown paint and then dotted paint all over the tree in which she places crumpled bits of pink tissue paper. The final look is a sweet tree, perfect for Spring!

Nature Walk - Signs of Spring

Spring is just around the corner... we are much, much too excited! Excited to get back outside comfortably, excited to do more outdoor nature studies again, excited to get our garden seedlings started, excited to spruce up Holly's exploration garden and playhouse area and excited to hit the park a ton. In the mean time we braved the cool, windy and wet weather of our final days of winter in search of signs of Spring. Guess what? We found some!

As we were walking Holly noticed the lively song of several frogs in the background - they were very busy calling out to each other. The trees were a flutter with several different kinds of birds tweeting about. Buds were popping out on several trees along the way. And, we even found a couple of little flowering plants... all great signs that Spring is just a matter of days away.