The brook has been a fun place to play lately. The boys enjoy netting crayfish. There are little brook trout swimming around too. Yesterday Benjamin was asking for "teatime". This is something we have been doing this year out of our BraveWriter activities. We decided to sit down for a time together and read about crayfish...which lead to thinking about drawing crayfish, and then they boys had to catch a few...
Once we had 2 in a couple of jars on the table we all were able to do some Nature Journaling about them. It's fascinating to see the boys want to do schoolwork during summer vacation. Okay, maybe schoolwork is a harsh word, as with BraveWriter they have not felt so much like they were doing schoolwork: just loving writing activities. I did a nature journal too. Reading aloud from Anna Comstock's book Handbook of Nature Study we learned the names for all of the parts of the crayfish. Andrew was taken with the swimmeretes under the tails. These are missed on first glance...but noticed and drawn when carefully observing. Benjamin was happy to learn that all of the pieces of crayfish which he had been finding were not from dead crayfish, rather from molting ones! He kept a claw and examined it under the magnifying glass. We learned that one of our prisoners was female and one was male, and that the male's missing claw would grow back. We released them along the bank to watch them move awkwardly across the ground on legs and pincers even. Then so gracefully through the water with their swimmerets.
I hope the boys continue to enjoy the natural world their whole lives. What a great way to grow up.
~Rachel
4 comments:
What a creative teacher and mom! Those sound like such neat projects. I've never heard of BraveWriter. I'll have to check it out! The boys learned stuff hands-on that they'll never forget! Cool!
Jason and Geneva
Geneva,
Brave Writer has totally transformed our homeschool Language Arts (bravewriter.com). Writing is a natural process now. We also do a book club through her site. The Boomerang. This year we are adding a discussion group with local children to the online group. What fun!
It's so nice to keep in touch with you this way. Thanks for posting!!
~Rachel
You should be so proud of yourself! It makes me wish I was thirty-something again and participating in all your fun and educational activities. The pictures are priceless. Thanks so much for sharing these wonderful moments in your lives. "I'm green with envy".
We have some new inhabitants at Hidden Brook Farm. 6 young chickens (hopefully all hens), 5 are 3 weeks old and 1 is 6 weeks old. It will be awhile before we will be gathering eggs!!!
Have a great Fourth of July!!!
Lyn M
Lyn and Ron,
Glad to hear you enjoyed the blog & pictures. What breed of chickens are you raising at your new "eggery"? Our boys really enjoyed having the chicks in-view during the first month. The second month was less dramatic for changes, but nicer for the house as we transferred them into the garage at that time. Looking forward to some pictures of the new additions.
-John & Rachel
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