Alpaca Farm Field Trip

I set up a trip for our homeschool group to go to an Alpaca farm in our area. The kids were shown what machines are used to prepare the wool from the Alpacas.

She showed them some types of yarn and felt that have been made.

 The kids were shown things that are made with the wool. Here are some felted items that were made by hand. If you want a good blog that features alot of home-made felting projects a good one to visit is The Magic Onions. She also sells felted toys and other items.

 These are the boys. They are kept on their own.

The kids got to go into the barn with the animals and outside with them. The animals seemed so friendly and many of them were timid.



Math is different

 What may look like a regular math worksheet to one person is something completely different for someone working on RightStart Math. In fact, someone came over and saw what Austyn was working on and proceeded to show him him the procedures she was taught in school on how to do the worksheet, but this is not the intention of the program. This program isn't about memorizing and learning proceedures to do math. It's more about TRUELY understanding how math works. It's hard to understand this, for some, especially if they were good at memorizing and learning proceedures (were good in math).

This lesson was taking two 4-place numbers and adding them using the base ten cards and trading with a bank. So, instead of learning to carry the one or two or whatever, he is truely learning that there was a place value to it that is moving along. Here is what the book says about this lesson: "This purpose of the leson is not to teach the child paper and pencil procedures, rather she is to experience trading on a more abstract level."

While Austyn worked on math Zoe had a snack that turned into an art project!

Hugo!!!

Austyn can't wait to see this movie!

We read the book after being told about it from Alex who publishes the Canadian Home Learning blog and it was amazing! I recommend it to anyone with a child who loves suspence and adventure. An obsession with tinkering with things couldn't hurt either.

I wonder if the movie will be as good as the book. If you have seen this movie and want to comment, please share!

Nature Behind the Farm

 We went back to the bush behind the farm where we are currently living.

 

 

 Zoe and I took the golf cart and Austyn drove his dirt bike. I explained that with all of the noise the animals won't be out for us to see, but they insisted. After all, it is a very long walk to get all the way back to the trees.

 

 

There were deer tracks everywhere and we saw some close to the farm as well, which surprised us.

 

 

 This little guy stuck out like a sore thumb on the dull ground.

 We looked at different weeds of the area.

The cat tails were spreading their seeds.

 

 

The milkweeds were fluffy as well.

 

 

We helped spread their seeds by making wishes and blowing them toward the ditch.

 We looked at different leaves and tried to identify which trees they fell from. They decided to make leaf rubs from some of the leaves.

 We looked at the shapes of the trees.

 After spoting a hunters tent we decided not to enter the trees incase someone was there hunting.

 

 

 We spoted a sea gull and these Canadian geese.

 

 

 This Queen Annes Lace had an insect nest in the middle of it.

 This fungus looked bright on the dull bark of this tree.

 

 

 We saw many kinds of nuts. Here is an acorn that lost it's cap.

 

 

 There were many berries. Some looked like a dark purple/black, as well. We liked how these berries were so bright.

 

 

 This flower was still alive.

 

 

 I'm not sure what these marks on the ground are from. Maybe deer antlers rubbed here? There were many tracks here and an opening into the bush where it looked like the deer frequented.

 Zoe grew antlers.

 

 

 We found this balloon.

 

 

This is a spot where a tree fell and the combine ran over it. The beans here were still on the plants.

This grasshopper looked pretty healthy.

This one didn't look so healthy. Zoe was able to pick him up without a fight.

 I thought it was cool how this maple leaf fell right in the middle of this large weed.

It was a great day for some nature. I think that if we ever own land and have a bush we would make it free of hunting so that we could explore the trees without having to worry about being mistaken for a deer.

Book Sharing Monday - Creature abc

A simple book with a few words from the animal kingdom and the alphabet.Creature abc by Andrew Zuckerman is full of stunning, close-up photography of animals.

Because of the photography, I'd say that this book is interesting for young and old. 

Simple, but beautiful!