Week 2 One Year Nature Study Adventure and Weekly Wrap Up Combo Post!

As we planned, we once again took a trip out to our nature center for week 2 of our one year nature study adventure. This week we went to the nature center with our little homeschool play group. While there the kids discovered these little monarch caterpillars. After seeing the beautiful monarch butterfly last week and learning about them the kids were thrilled to see the caterpillars before changing into a butterfly.

Even with only a week, to the day, between visits the changes happening were already noticeable. The grass was already changing colors and the trees had even begun to drop their leaves.

Our tree was still standing tall and quite beautiful. Here we did not see much change just yet. Though we are curious and excited to see how much it changes throughout the course of this coming year.

This week the kids were able to see a few turtles basking in the sun on a rock out in the pond, and a few hawks flying nearby, and plenty of little bugs. We were also able to observe the evidence of the recent flooding of the creek. Of course this opened some good conversations on the effects of flooding to even the littlest creatures.

Week 2 of our nature study adventure was a success. The kids enjoyed the trip as did I, and we are all anticipating our trip this coming week. I wonder what changes we will see this time.

Praying For:
Continued progress for health issues with one of my kiddos. We have seen improvement in the last few weeks and I am praying that we will continue to see progress!

Thankful For:
My family. I am thankful I have a wonderful husband who works so hard to care for us, and so that I can  stay home with my kiddos. And I'm thankful for my little kiddos. Even when they drive me crazy!

New This Week:
The kids have begun Kung Fu lessons two days a week and are really enjoying them. The classes are free though the homeschool enrichment program Lady Bug and Wild Thing go to each week. The free part is mama's favorite! I have been very happy with how much the kids have learned and able to do so far. I really like that they are learning not just the moves but how to use them in a self-defense situation. Even my little one is learning how to defend himself. Luckily, the instructor has made it very clear none of the moves are to be used on siblings or friends. Trust me, with these boys, that was an important rule he gave!

With our homeschool lessons each day, the enrichment program one day a week, Wild Thing's cub scouts, and our homeschool fun club, we are pretty busy. And people think homeschool families are unsocialized!
 Ha!

In Our Homeschool This Week:


(not my picture)


We also had a nice time with our homeschool fun club. We are meeting twice a week and so far the kids have met some fun new homeschool kids. We are planning some great tours for our fun club in the coming months. At the moment I am in the process of setting up tours at a local news station, the newspaper, humane society, and even a local trash company.

We are trying something new in our homeschool for the next few weeks.
Homeschooling has many challenges. Homeschooling three kids has triple the challenges. Most of which are easily dealt with or figured out, but lately trying to get all of our school done each day has been a bit challenging. So we tried something new this week. The kids all did their math and reading then we spent the rest of the day on history. We read from Story of the World, by Susan Bauer, and did some activities to go along with what we read. I think/hope that spending our day on less subjects but more time with each subject we do, will prove to work well for us all.

What were looking forward to:
One last camping trip before the cooler weather hits. Camping may be the one most enjoyed summer activity in our family. The kids have an absolute blast each time we go camping and are always begging to go back! I'm looking forward to sitting on the lake beach and playing in the water with the kiddos, and of course enjoying the late night camp fires and marshmallows.

We have yet another busy week ahead so I am praying for a smooth and enjoyable week ahead.