Book Sharing Monday - The Dirty Cowboy

The Dirty Cowboy by Amy Timberlake is such a cute book. It gives the child a peek into the life of a uncleanly cowboy who rarely bathed. His close friend is his dog. He decides one day that he is going to walk FAR to the nearest river to take a bath.

 His trip and bath go well, but what happens next is completely unexpected. 

My kids and I enjoyed this book tremendously. I hope you do too!

Outdoor Hour - Fire Flies

Austyn has been eager to study fireflies since he saw some a week or so ago. In a matter of minutes one night we caught two, but didn't have jars to put them in with us. So, we tried again the next night but it was too hot and humid and there were hardly any out. It's been hot and humid just about every night since until, finally one night while we were visiting neighbours a firefly came flying by us and we caught it. The jar was only a walk away at our house and that is where our captive went. 

It didn't want to flash for us in captivity no matter what we did. We tried out shutting all of the lights off but it didn't work. We did read about it and answered all of the questions. There was so much to write on the notebook page so I took over the writing since Austyn couldn't write out that much. He learned so much and it was easy to know what information excited him the most because he jumped up and told Daddy right away!

We kept the little guy overnight and finished off our lesson in the morning. This way we could see the insect better. I have come to the conclusion that Austyn has great observation skills.

We let the firefly go after we were finished with our study and we observed it's behaviour. It fell to the ground where it was even more camouflaged and it burrowed under the wood to hide away for the day.

Park Day

Only four families showed and one only stayed for a short time, but even with only three families it could end up to be a good number of kids. Our family is small compared to most of the families in our homeschool groups. The kids played a bit on the play area but ended up right in the dirt digging holes and seeing what they could find. 

Zoe loves to swing like this and she sometimes will take a time-out to herself and just do this for fun on her own.

We made our way to the beach and off went Zoe's shirt. In the water the kids all went.

After the water everyone decided to roll in the sand and get all covered in it.

Our teen homeschool friends are a great example of how homeschool teens act. It's never uncool to play with the little kids or talk to the parents. Growing up in a homeschool allows them to be kids as long as they like. What they wear doesn't matter either and they can be friends with all ages.

It was another fun day out with friends!

Recycling Field Trip

We went on a recycling field trip to learn where our recycling goes and how it is treated. We also learned how to recycle properly. Austyn and Zoe were too small so I stayed with them and Daddy went with the big kids to learn more about how things work. 

The kids learned about red and blue boxes and what items can and can't go in each. They learned about how recycling saves our valuable resources like trees and what trees are good for. They also learned about the three R's in order and why they are in that order. They played a game and got a pencil made out of recycled boxes. 

We got to see the huge cubes of paper piled up outside and the inside of the building complete with conveyors and fork lifts.

Our kids are very hands-on and were allowed to touch the cubes of our papers being recycled.

They also saw how the big trucks worked. Even though it looks like both boxes are going in one hole they aren't. There are two compartments inside and the driver can decide which compartment the hole goes to. 

The main benefit we got out of this trip is that we learned just how bad we are with recycling. Our plan is to purchase less of the things that have packaging that isn't recyclable. We are going to continue to reuse jars before recycling. We are going to only recycle what is recyclable items and sort our recycling properly. We also learned that there is another composting system we can purchase that can compost more than a regular compost. After doing some research I learned that there are two types of this composter that I never heard of before and here is the website incase you are interested in living more green.

http://www.greatgreensystems.com/

Outdoor Hour - We've started!

We downloaded this wonderful study from Barb at the Handbook of Nature Study website: http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com. We've been watching everyone else follow along with the Outdoor Hour and decided to join in. There is one difference between us and probably most of the others following this study. We are unschooling, so my kids choose what they want to do. If there is an order, I'm pretty sure we aren't following it. We may or may not cover everything, but it's going well so far. We have studied two insects and somehow one of the insects became our pet on the kitchen table. It's still here and we are feeding it. So, expect a couple of insect studies from this great e-book in the next couple of days.

What we've been up to!

Lately life is all about getting on track and catching up on clutter. I'm still working on catching up, so things may still be a bit slow the next while, but I'll do my best. To be honest "I REALLY MISSED BLOGGING"! So, I must be a blogger at heart. LOL! Anyway, we've done so much and I just want to do a post a recap here of a few things.

The wonderful pill bugs and sow bugs we had all winter long were still in our house until summer. We finally decided to let them free in our flower garden. 

We purchased a used golf cart to get around at the race track and we decided to have a little fun with it at home!

More summer fun at home!

The kids finished the soccer season off with a metal and pizza.

 We have been playing lacrosse games many of our weekends and inbetween games we went to this indoor carnival and a carshow.

We've still been attending homeschool activities. This was taken at a small zoo in our area that we went to with  many homeschool famiies. 

The kids really have been enjoying our local splash pad. 

We've been enjoying social time with friends outdoors.

These are a few of the fun things we've done. Life has been busy, but the kids have not stopped learning. I've not been taking as many pictures of them lately, but will try to start to share more. I've read so much the past few weeks on unschooling and simple living with children. I have learned so much and have discovered so much more through experience. I want to share some of my unschooling discoveries. This is all still new to me, but I think it might be beneficial for others to see what we are doing.

Book Sharing Monday - Can You Make a Scary Face?

Zoe Loves this book. I don't even think I need to show any pictures inside. The picutures are all similar to the cover. Basically this book consists of this funny looking lady bug talking to the child and telling the child what to do next. It's like a mini drama lesson where the child is imagining what they would do if different things happened, like if a bug flew in her mouth. And at the end something silly happens.