Yosemite, Here We Come!

By nature I am a planner. That is how I am most comfortable. But every once in awhile I like to be spontaneous. Yesterday was one of those times. I wanted to have a fun learning experience away from our textbooks. I called the boys in & asked them what they were interested in learning about. One said Indians & the other said science. After searching Netflix for Native American documentaries and coming up empty on anything that would hold the interest of a 6 year old I stumbled upon National Geographic. After using this as my search term I had a wealth to choose from. We chose Yosemite.

After watching the documentary all snuggled up in my room we were ready for the next part. BTW, Elvis gave the film 10 out of 10 stars & Bugsy gave it 1 million! Lol. I think they liked it.
I looked up some information on the Internet & decided we needed to take a quick trip to the store for some ingredients for later. We all piled in the van & off we went. A break for a clean-up of neglected chores & then I gave them the challenge of packing their backpacks.

They were allowed 5 items to be found in 5 minutes. These were items they would take on our "trip" to Yosemite. Our specific destination? To climb El Capitan! Elvis insisted on taking his biggest pillow.

Sweet Pea helped Princess pack. She wasn't going to be left behind!

All packed & ready to roll!

While they packed I re-heated the grub Sweet Pea had cooked earlier. After all you have to start a hike with a filling meal.

Perfect camping food. If we could I would have cooked them over an open fire.

We ate our grub outside on pie tins to get that 'camping feel'. Oh and of course we used our water bottles!

Someone was very happy when Bugsy accidentally dropped a piece of his hot dog.

The girls shared some grub. Sweet Pea's choice.

Once we were done our grub it was time to make a snack for the trail. Hikers can get very hungry & need energy. We talked about the ingredients & how each would help us on our hike.

Now it was time to make it! Everyone wanted to help & we took turns.

Plenty of raisins!

Adding them into the bowl is fun!

Princess wanted a turn too. She likes to keep up with her older siblings. No treating her like a baby! Lol.

I got Sweet Pea to join in after a bit of coaxing.

Now for the cereal to be added in to the mix.

Princess wanted to stir.

Mama decided to add a secret, surprise ingredient. Chocolate chips!
(Scary how much she looks like her Daddy here! ROTFL!)

All mixed in & ready to go!

Doesn't it look yummy?

I had the kids help me scoop it into small plastic bags & we sealed them up. We discussed how this snack is perfect for hiking. Light, easy to eat on the go, easy to carry, healthy (for the most part), etc.

Elvis started goofing off & in the process spilled his trail mix treat all over the floor. While he had a little pity party on the floor Bugs made the most of the opportunity. He took one look at the spilled treat & yelled, "Trail mix!" and dived on the floor. What did Mama do? Well, like any good mama I took pictures. Hee, hee. Hey, what's a little dirt, right?

A quick sweep of the rest of the spilled treat & we were finally ready to head out.

Another distraction awaited as the neighbor's playful little doggie came over for a quick visit. He wanted to "play" with our cat Sky.

Okay, now we're off & hiking! Yes, we are hiking through the forest. Can you see the tall trees, hear the birds, smell the woods? Did you see that Bald Eagle flying overhead? That was amazing!


It took the kids a little while to jump into my imaginary world I was painting for them. But they came. They laughed as we passed by a "wildcat" (neighborhood cat) and I cautioned them about getting too close. Then they joined in when we spotted a bear (little neighborhood dog on his front path). We discussed what kind of bear it was and what we should do yet it come closer. We learned last year how you need to react differently depending on what kind of bear it is.

We soon came upon our destination. But first there was this wild creature to dodge! I was shaking with fright so much that my camera wobbled! Ack!

Finally! El Capitan!

The boys scrambled right up! I was going to have them climb with their backpacks on to keep the feel of our imaginations going but the cautious mama in me had them shed them for safety.

Climbing, climbing, climbing. Princess desperately wanted to climb too but I wouldn't let her. There are some things a Princess can not do yet. She had to settle for the slide on the swing set.

Way up high!

While waiting below Sweet Pea was attacked!

She bravely wrestled the beast off of her!

Princess was beyond brave chasing it into the "forest"& protecting her sister.

Bugsy way up high on El Capitan.

They had a lot of fun & so did I. It's fun to let your imagination take over. So what adventure will YOU be embarking on?

Turtles, Simple Machines, Soap Carving & Printing ~November 19th

I know I keep saying it but I love our co-op. My kids are getting so many opportunities to do hands on things that I simply would not have time to prepare for at home. By splitting the work we are able to cover many subjects & therefore many experiments & experiences. And there is the added benefit of being with friends! Yay!

Science Class

The girls put a teaspoon of vanilla in the balloon. The test is to see if the aroma of the vanilla can still be detected when it is inside the blown up balloon.

Next they were divided into 2 groups to make a sea turtle. It is one of the sea creatures we have been studying.

The children used rulers to measure his proportions & then used masking tape to make his outline.

This is one of the teams with their turtle. I never realized they could be so big!

Next it was my turn to teach Prairie Primer. After going over our questions & reading we started in on our hands on learning. First we talked about Simple Machines.

The children took turns hammering nails into a board & pulling them out. Do you know what the simple machine is & what type it is?

We also did an experiment with a fulcrum, board & weight as well as an experiment with a wheel & axle.

Our next project was carving. As we all know Pa Ingalls did a lot of this & was very talented. We used Ivory soap, cookie cutters for the outlines & butter knives. Of course there was plenty of newspaper to keep the mess in check. I found directions in a book but liked these from Ivory even better.

Elvis made a snowman.

Some of the children made full shapes and others carved it into the tops of their soap making more of an outline. Both came out fantastic! Sorry I didn't get more pics. I was busy helping & teaching. =0)

I was in nursery during Geography but came back out for History. The children learned about the printing press & did their own experiment using Alpha-Bits. As you can see Bugsy & his friend couldn't resist a little snack time too. Lol!

Each child spelled out his/her name & then placed the letters backward on their paper. A mirror image if you will. Then we blobbed the paint on the top of each letter. After that we took another piece of blank paper & carefully pressed it on top of the painted letters. Lifting it off showed it had printed their name! I can't show you the finished result due to privacy. {real names aren't used on my blog} But it was neat! I encourage you to try sometime. Not only does it show how setting up a mirror image works to make it print forward but it shows you how much labor went into setting up the type! They had to do a lot of tedious work to print newspapers in Ben Franklin's day!

Boo Bear works carefully on hers.

Mrs. Jody helped Bugsy out. I just love her!

Another successful day!