First Day of T-Ball

This picture is priceless!!

Two Sides to Every Story!

The great thing about my kids is that they really do love to read! And one thing about that is that I can organize books so that we can learn life lessons through books. We can read two sides to the story or different versions of a story to do a little bit of critical thinking and come up with our own understanding about that story. Here is an example of this.

Today we listened to a CD and read the book of The Three Little Pigs. After it was finished I talked about how there are many versions of The Three Little Pigs and why that might be. I gave some examples of the different versions I can remember from our reading and from my own childhood. 

After that we read this book. The True Story of The 3 Little Pigs! by Jon Scieszka is a story of the Three Little Pigs from the Wolfs' point of view. It's a different story all together and we can see after reading the first book how some of the things that occurred in the story could have been taken differently.

Once finished, we talked about how they were different stories and how the Wolf could have been correct about how the story could have been twisted around to make him look like the Big Bad Wolf. And we talked about how sometimes when we read something, see something on T.V. or get told something by people around us we might want to make a judgment right away. We talked about how there are usually many sides to one story and that it's not fair to judge someone, because no matter what there could always be more to the story than what we see or are told.

Our Backyard in Spring!

Look closely... there is a bee in the above flower.

It's hard to tell since I made this image smaller, but there is a small insect on one of the pedals and under the petals to the bottom right there is a Asian Beetle (the ones that are taking over ladybugs).

I opened the clothes line to use and to my surprise we had a fresh yellow jacket nest. This picture shows how it's held on by a thin stem.

Spring is my favourite season. I love new discoveries and many new flowers and how everything is so green and fresh in spring.

Race Season!

For my kids, race season means seeing race cars almost every weekend. It means playing around them. It means seeing work being done on our race car. Normal life for them is being witness to engine work. Here the kids are playing while daddy works away in the background. 

Race season means helping with the car and learning how it works and how to put it together. Here Austyn is using the air gun to tighten some bolts on the transmission.

Race season means watching cars that most people never see. This is a jet dragster.

Race season means meeting new friends, seeing old friends, and trying out other cars.

Race season means time with family!

Bird Watching

There was a very interesting bird making a nest in this bird house. Austyn noticed it because he was hanging around this tree and the bird got very close and made the most interesting sound. It's too bad I didn't get a picture of the bird. It was so tiny! I couldn't identify it.

Tent Caterpillars

Zoe and Austyn came inside with a caterpillar they found on the ground. Without telling me where they found it, I went to work trying to identify the insect. After asking them where they found it I realized that just above that spot on that windy day there was a nest of them. These are Tent Caterpillars. I showed the kids and they picked up more of them to play with. 

This one is Austyn's caterpillar. We talked about what they eat and he had me pick a leaf from the tree that we found them on. 

Publish Post

Here is Zoe with her caterpillar. It's very ticklish!

Reading her books again...

Here is Zoe reading her books again, out loud, to Austyn while they enjoy a snack.

Drawings that change...

Right away after looking at and talking about the cracked ground in the field with little holes (see last post), Austyn went to work drawing what he saw on the cement with sidewalk chalk.

Then it changed into a person.

I made circles for Zoe to draw faces in.

Here is another person Austyn drew.

Our Cracked Earth!

While playing in the country the kids discover so much! In the field Austyn noticed that the ground was cracked. We started a conversation about how the earth's crust also has cracks and as the cracks shift it creates earthquakes. We then talked about why this ground cracked. He then noticed that there were little holes and decided that they were from an insect. 

In this picture you can see some sort of tracks that were created when the ground was still wet. We figured that these had to be worm marks.

Gardening!

Helping Nanny with her garden.

It is an absolute must for Zoe to pick a flower while gardening.

It's also very important to play with worms while gardening.

Blocks

Austyn hasn't played with blocks for a long time. Here is something he built. I got a quick shot before it was toppled.

Slugs

I don't know why, but our backyard is FULL of slugs. They are everywhere! We can see where they have been because there is a shiny sheen left behind wherever they go. Zoe likes to pick them up and watch them move around.

Lego Quest - Metamorphosis

We have started a new challenge that I think will not be ending anytime soon. Austyn absolutely loves Legos. I can see him doing each challenge from here on. This was Quest 17 on their blog. Here is the blog if you want to learn more or join in on the fun.

http://legoquestkids.blogspot.com/

Planets hanging from the light

The ideas that Austyn comes up with on his own are always such wonderful ideas. This is a project that he undertook to start to decorate his room with planets.

Our Maple Trees are Growing!

Every year the trees in our yard get bigger and as they get bigger so do the leaves. The kids decided to pick a bunch of them after a rainstorm one day.

I showed them how to do leaf rubs.

Book Sharing Monday

You should read Is "There Really a Human RACE? by Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell". It's a nice spin on the words "Human Race". A little boy doesn't understand the meaning and takes the word "Race" as a literal race of some sort. He is asking questions about it and wondering if he has to try and win. 

Is there really a human race?

Is it going on now all over the place?

When did it start?

Who said, "Ready, Set, Go"?

Did it start on my birthday? 

I really must know.

Is it a spring? A dash to the end?

Am I aware of the time that I spend?

And why do I do it, this zillion-yard dash?

If we don't help each other, we're all going to...

CRASH!

The mom sits him down and tells him that it's nice to slow down sometimes and that it's about helping others and making our world a better place for the whole human race.