Nature at our house!

I renamed this one and added some text and new pics.

Over Spring we've done many things at our house that the kids have been witness to. Probably the most notable was trying to fix our lawn. As you can see from the photo our lawn was dead from grubs. Robins were attracted to our lawn for the grubs and became our friendly neighbours. I've added a couple of pictures to show the one baby robin who hung around. We think he died in our garden and are not sure what happened (we don't use chemicals). We weeded, put compost and seeded all of our lawn outside of our fence. We sprayed Nematodes all over the lawn and re-sodded the whole backyard (still working on the side). We planted a vegetable garden in the back (it's not doing so well) and some flowers. The kids have seen how the bird seed falls and grows. I added composters on the side of the house and we will be using the compost in fall and spring. We are currently trying to grow an avocado pit into a plant on our kitchen counter. Austyn has started a journal (on Nature and plants) of what he has learned about plants (we discuss it and I write it down). This will continue over summer and fall.

Last Month (June) I asked the kids where strawberries grow. They thought they grew in trees so I took them, as a surprise, to a farm to go strawberry picking and that evening we made jam. The jam didn't work out as planned but I've improvised so we don't have to throw it all out. My excuse: I've never done jam before! LOL!

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.”, Buddha

Farm Trip

We went to Thibert Farm near Comber with one of our homeschool groups on June 29th. The kids had a good time. They showed how they bake bread from growing the wheat to making flour to mixing and baking the bread. They showed the pigs, cows, chickens and the rabbits. They don't use any genetically modified plants in their gardens and fields and their livestock are not fed genetically modified feed. They showed us their pond (a half a mile walk each way) and the kids played on the play equipment. Zoe cried after stepping in Chicken poop and the cow took a liking to her once the other kids backed away. Austyn enjoyed the company of his friends that day and the openness of the yard was great for racing and running. The family was very hospitable and we'd recommend others to visit that farm. Their website is www.thethibertfarm.com.

"The one thing genetically modified food is not is natural. Farmers are in some cases purchasing genetically modified seeds unbeknownst to them. At the very least, people need to know what they are purchasing." Sarah Johnston.

Archaeological Dig

For our first week of Well-Trained Mind Grade 1 we learned about history and how we know what happened before our grandparents were born. We went to a Homeschool Park Day on June 23rd, with one of our homeschool groups and took advantage of the fact that it had a beach. This is where we had our Archaeological Dig. It was set up a bit like Archaeologists would do it but in a much smaller version. I had buried old items and made a printout for them to draw the items in the correct square, but the kids ended up exploring the beach and digging up whatever they could find including rocks, shells and a decaying fish skeleton. Austyn asked if we could bring the specimen home like real Archeologists do. LOL!! I said "No". LOL!! Ewww!! He had fun touching it and checking it out. Oh! And we also learned, with little effort, that we could burn twigs and leaves with our magnifying glass. I'm ashamed to say that the town Librarian recognized us and saw what we were doing. Try to explain that one... He he he!!!

"There is a history in all men's lives." William Shakespeare

Ojibway for Earth Day

For Earth Day 2009 we went to Ojibway Park in Windsor Ontario with one of our homeschool groups. It was a great day. Not too cold. We went the day after Earth Day because the weather was too unpredictable. It was a great trip and the kids just explored. There was a good deal of water because of rain previous days. Luckily during the long walk nobody fell in the water. We saw many insects, flowers, birds, a gofer, squirrels, turtles and many other things. The kids had a great time! The main coordinator of the day gave out some small trees for us to plant at home. "Thanks Neely!"

"You need nature as your teacher to help you re-connect with Being. But not only do you need nature, it also needs you." Eckhart Tolle

Starting out

Well, life has been busy and in the midst of it all I have managed to keep up with purging our things and planning our homeschool semester which started this month (June, 2009). We recently have entered a situation where we may have little to no income in our home for a while and purging will help us make a few bucks as well as help me stay organized. We are pursuing a different route with our business and are hoping that it will work out for us. Having this contract loss happen unexpectedly actually could be a blessing since we always wanted to just have our business at home and Kev and I could both be home with the kids. We hope that this will free us up for some cool road-schooling whenever we want and maybe we could promote our business on the road and road-school at the same time. It's scary but exciting. We've always been the type of people to take chances/risks. This could be the start of another big adventure!

We are also a racing family. Drag Racing is something that is a part of our lives especially when it's not snowy outside. This would be another reason to travel in the future. I guess we just can't know what the future holds. At this point the road might end up being paved for us. We are our own creators but what we create sometimes produces the results we don't expect.

www.loopspin.com is our company website.

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” Buddha