Spring Nature Table

Happy Easter, a few weeks late.

Oh, why is it so impossible to get them all to look the same place at the same time?

Whoo, whoo!

Field Trip: Camp Susque Soapmaking

One rainy March day, we went to Camp Susque for a soapmaking workshop. The original plan was to make soap outside over an open fire, but since it was rainy and cold, we had to settle for melt-and-pour over the woodstove in the Lodge.
We're always happy to run into old friends! For all the complaining people do about homeschoolers not being socialized, we certainly run into other unsocialized homeschoolers we know often. Here is Katie Grace and her buddy choosing their molds:
and pouring their soap:

And Michael, too!

Nicholas adding color to his soap:
And Daniel, just being cute:
The final activity of the day was to decorate sticks and rocks. I'm honestly not sure what it was all about. I think it was kind of a filler since they couldn't go outside. Regardless, here they are with their creations:

Winter, Goodbye!

This was a favorite circle time. I love that Daniel is starting to get involved in circle, and I love that I'm using some of the same songs and rhymes with Daniel and Nicholas that I also was able to use with Michael and Katie Grace. And what is especially sweet is the fact that some of these songs, I sang as a child.
Nicholas especially enjoys being King Winter, although he plays him a little meaner than I would.

Next we have two of the sweetest seed babies ever planted, waiting to be woken up by Mother Earth.

And finally, ringing the bells as the seeds grow up, up, up!

Deep in the cold, cold winter ground,
Seeds are sleeping, safe and sound,
Waiting for the sun to glow,
Then up, up, up, up, up they’ll grow!

This circle time, as well as a host of others, can be found in my Spring Seasons of Joy activity guide.

Earth Day

Happy Earth Day from my Little Treehuggers to you! We celebrated by going to see DisneyNature's wonderful new movie, Earth. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it.

Michael's Pennsylvania History Main Lesson

Earlier this year, Michael had a main lesson block focusing on the geography of Pennsylvania. For the past month, we've studied the history and people of PA. Our cumulative project was a timeline.
We found information on the First Peoples of Pennsylvania at the Explore PA History website. We were able to learn a little bit more on our trip to the North Museum. We found a very useful timeline of Pennsylvania history here. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission website had some good information on famous Pennsylvanians. As we learned about pivotal events in PA history, Michael added them to the timeline.
My favorite entry had to be this one:
2009: Michael Frontz makes this worthless timeline. Sigh.

March was hectic and April didn't turn out to be much better!

But lucky for you I will be serial posting tonight to make up for things, LOL!

Happy Spring!

Wishing you a blessed Good Friday,,,

I know things have been quiet around here lately-- in the best of times, Holy Week is extremely hectic around here, and we've had some sturm und drang from unexpected quarters. I've hoping to have the blog back in order come Easter Monday. Peace to you on these Three Great Days.

Maundy Thursday

And the space between ourselves sometimes is more than the distance between the stars...