Butterflies and Space

Zac's sister was in California (home from Oregon) last week and wanted to see the kids.  So we met up in Santa Barbara and took the kids to the Museum of Natural History.  I'm REALLY trying hard to do school with them every day so that when the baby comes in October, I can take at least a month off and not have guilt issues.  The Museum was a GREAT field trip!

 We are currently doing a Solar System unit in school right now.  The museum had a tiny, but very cool planetarium.  The highlight of the planetarium was this globe hanging from the ceiling.  The children could operate the controls and turn the globe into any of the planets, the sun, or our moon.  They could see it rotate and even control how fast it rotated.  On the view of Earth, they could watch storm systems and change it to show the heat of the planet's surface in different locations.  On the screen, they could watch all the planets orbit the sun.  This was amazing because they could SEE how much faster Mercurey orbited the Sun as opposed to Uranus and the other farther out planets.  They could also watch how the Earth orbits around the Sun, but at the same time, our Moon orbits around us, and at what speeds.   It was really fun to hear the kids list off the planets from memory, and hear Logan spout off facts he'd retained. 

"Mom!  There's Jupiter's spot where the big storm is!"

 Our next unit will be on butterflies and the kids can't wait because my friend sent them one of those habitats to house the caterpillars and butterflies in, before releasing them.  Well, the museum had a HUGE butterfly exhibit to walk through.  It was so much fun!  Outside the exhibit, they showed us caterpillars making their chrysalis.  When we went inside, one was just getting ready to form its chrysalis and by the time we came out of the exhibit, the chrysalis was fully done.  I had NO idea they did that so fast.  The kids and I are looking forward to doing our butterfly unit and releasing our own butterflies.

 My butterfly loving girl even had a new Grammy made butterfly dress to wear for the trip.  She was so excited!  We were told not to touch the butterfly's wings, but Felicity SO wanted to hold a butterfly.   She ever so carefully would put her finger next to the butterfly's feet as they sat on flowers.  Most of the time they flew off, but she was determined.  Finally this buckeye crawled on her hand and sat for a while.  She was so excited!  We were given an identification chart and after I showed the kids how to use it, they excitedly did so themselves.  It was so fun to watch even Kian get just inches away from a butterfly, really getting a chance to study it, and then identify it on his chart.

Kian watching a butterfly that sat with Aunt Rachael for a bit.

 The butterflies and planetarium were hits, but the kids also LOVED all the taxidermied animals on display.  There were large halls of mamels and birds which we didn't get as much time in as we'd like.  We hope to take another trip after our butterfly unit, to see the butterflies again, and to take Daddy with us. 

They also got a private tour of a hands on bug display by the sweetest lady who took the time to let the kids handle bugs, and teach them LOTS of interesting facts about them.

And to top off our wonderful day, this sweet girl started thinking pretty deep on our 2 hour drive South.  She started asking questions about heaven and salvation and eventually decided she REALLY wanted to ask Jesus to come live in her heart.  So in the mountains above Santa Barbara, I pulled over, and she and I prayed together.

God is good!

All the time!

The First Weekend of Summer

 A solar system was made...........

 ..........new bike hooks were installed (just like Daddy's).........

............ house paint was tested out and decided upon.........

 ......and we spent a WONDERFUL evening with my high school Ag teacher and her family, where I FINALLY got to meet her new little one (and she got to meet the belly).  I gave her newest little boy a quilt I'd made while pregnant with Felicity.  I brought all the fabric home from Maui on one of our pre kid days adventures.  It has sat on my shelf for years needing the perfect home.  I'm happy its finally getting some love!

At 24 weeks today, the children felt their baby sibling kick for the first time!

And the new season was embraced by bringing touches of Summer inside, and doing a few Summer crafts.

And I slept.

A lot!

:)

Kindergarten

Some how, it seems very huge to me, that Felicity is officially "at the table" for school with us now.  Monday marked her first official day of school!  It feels kind of funny to call it her first day of Kindergarten as we don't pay too much attention to grade labels around here, but, for the sake of journaling, that's what it is.  Felicity is now in Kindergarten.  I don't quite know how that can be!

This seemed like a bigger milestone than when Logan started his first official day.  Maybe because with Logan, I technically did homeschool preschool with him, so a bit of a routine was already in place.  But since then, my feelings towards that have changed and I like the idea of just letting kids be in those early years.  Letting them PLAY.  Besides, she has the benefit of jumping in to "do school" with her big brother whenever she feels like it.  Lately that's been more and more, which is what prompted this official start.  We plan to take October off for the birth and babymoon of this sweet one in the belly, and it made no sense to start schooling her in September, school her for a month, and then take at least a month off.  September?  That's just a date the school system uses.  Oh, its so ingrained!  :)

We started down ANOTHER new homeschooling path this week.  A path I've always wanted to try, since before I started schooling Logan, but one that I lacked confidence in.  Basically, we are doing Mama made unit studies.  Some direction, some unschooling, some paperwork, some "free" work, but all "organized" by me.  Funny how I feared my lack of ability in this area yet I pick a time where I'm throwing in the new aspect of now schooling multiple kids, while pregnant, to really finally go for it.  Well, all I can say is we've tried many roads (as you know if you follow this blog), and I'm just trying to embrace where we naturally go.  Logan is currently interested in the solar system, and of course, whatever big brother is into, the others follow.  So everyone is quite excited to be learning about the planets.  Imagine that.  We'll see how this Mama "organized" plan goes.

 It occurred to me that not only is Felicity old enough for Kindergarten, technically, Kian is old enough for preschool!  Again, how does this happen?!  But, like I said before, I really just feel like play is very important for these little ones.  They soak up so much without any effort anyways!  But he asked to "do school" so I made him up this little sensory tub so he could sit at the table with us and feel included, but still get that play in.  I didn't know how long he'd last with this and was shocked when he sat there absorbed for nearly two hours!  And he's learning right along with the big kids just by listening to what they're doing.  He knows all the planets' names and I wouldn't be surprised if he'll be able to recite them in order once this unit is done.

 I have to say, it was very sweet having them all at the table together, focused, and ENJOYING their work.

 As you can see, I have one proud Kindergartner.

And since she loves that label, we'll go with that.  :)

I'm really looking forward to schooling her.  I've felt distant from her lately.  She's a very independent one, and even when she's in need, she often won't admit it.  She's not one to seek out snuggles, for example.  Logan needs me to help him with school, and Kian needs me because he's still little, but Lissy hasn't seemed to need me for much lately, and I feel there's been a distance placed between us that I've been fighting to get back.  I think school will allow us time to fill that gap, and I'm really looking forward to it!