A very long overdue post

It's been months and months since I've blogged. We switched things up a little last year with the kiddos going to a Montessori school a couple of days a week. It was a good fit for them, but it caused a real time crunch for me, trying to cram five days of lessons into three days. I felt like I didn't have time to do anything extra, so the blog got put on the back burner. I regret not having blogged much last year because I really enjoy going back through my old posts from the first couple of years and seeing what we did.  It's a homeschool diary.

Today was a beautiful day here in OK so we headed out to the nature preserve this afternoon. It's one of our favorite local places to hike, and every time we go there, I wonder why we don't go more often.

While we were hiking around, 

looking for letters in nature for art projects for the kids' rooms, 

enjoying having our pictures taken,

and watching butterflies do their thing, 

I had a moment of clarity. 

Lately, I've been feeling like I'm at a crossroads with this whole Otherwise Educating thing. This is our fourth year, and I've loved it. I haven't loved everything about it. There have been days when I have not loved it at all. But overall, it has been a wonderful experience for me and for my children. I wouldn't care if they hadn't learned anything (they have), I would not trade the time I have had with them for all the money in the world. However, we are quickly approaching the high school years with Thing 3, and Thing 4 has been telling me she wants to go back to school. She doesn't want to go back to any school. She thinks she might want to go back to public school. You know, that place from which I rescued her over three years ago. 

I've had many conversations in my head, with my husband, with my neighbor and favorite homeschool mom about whether or not to continue on this path. I wonder if my children would be learning more in school.  Would they be better off socially? I have doubts about my ability to homeschool high school.  It's one thing to homeschool elementary school kids. Anyone can teach state capitals and multiplication tables. But how will I teach geometry, chemistry, writing? Can I do this for the long term? Do I even want to? Should I have done this at all?

And then, as she often does, Thing 4 said something that brought me back to the moment. She has been learning about food chains and food webs. Before we headed out today, we covered (for the third time) the various parts of the food chain...producers, consumers, scavengers, decomposers. As we walked past a log that had been eaten by termites, I casually mentioned, "Oh look. Termites have been eating that log. Where do you suppose termites fall in the food chain?" She looked at me, looked at the log, thought for a minute and shouted, "Decomposers! They're decomposers. And look, Mom! You can see how they're breaking down this log. It's turning back into soil." Then, "Wow. You know, it's one thing to read about decomposers, but when I can actually see and touch what they've done, I really get it." 

And that's why I do what I do. I'm doing it again tomorrow. After that, who knows? For now, I'm just going to enjoy the moment.

Biomes and Deep Thoughts

Thing 3 is learning about the Earth's biomes so last week we headed out to Red Bud Valley Nature Preserve to do a little biome study. Red Bud Valley is interesting because in one relatively small area, you can observe both forest and grassland biomes. Because of the different conditions, the variety of plant life is vast.

I love nature walks because they offer so many opportunities to learn. On the cliff side of the preserve, we talked about rock formations and the different types of rocks we saw. My child who loves textures had to touch them all.

The kids did a little nature journaling.

Thing 3 did lots of observation and made many notes.



My hunter hunted.



And my gatherer gathered.


As I was walking behind my children, watching them experience their science lesson that day, it hit me that *this* is why I homeschool. Sure, the flexibility is great. No homework is great. I love that we don't do fundraisers anymore. Doing school in our pajamas is fun. But for me, it really all boils down to days like this...days when my children can spend time learning by doing, touching, seeing, hearing and smelling.

I'm so thankful for that I am able to spend this kind of time with these sweet children and I know that I will never regret a moment of it.

Nature Study and Nature Journaling

It was beautiful today and it's supposed to rain for the next two days, so we cut our school day short and took a quick trip to the nature center. We even took our expensive purple plastic binoculars.

We saw this sign in the visitor center. While these are the words of an adult, I think they describe the nature of most children perfectly. How wonderful it is for my children to have the time to wonder why.

We took a little time to do some nature journaling. Nature journaling is such a great way to get kids to pay attention to the details of nature. We don't do this nearly enough, and every time we do it, I think we should do it more often.

Here are photos of just a few things the kiddos noticed today on our walk. Much to the relief of Thing 3, we did not encounter any snakes or bears on the trail. Whew.

Our Official First Day of School!

Much to the dismay of my older boys, we have a tradition of taking pictures outside our front door on the first day of school. It's a fun way to see how much the kids have grown from year to year by checking how tall they are compared to the door.



After taking pictures, we did a little math.



For some, math can be a bit of a challenge.



But she got it!



We met some other OE friends for donuts and then headed out to the Oxley Nature Center for a first day of school field trip. We thought it would be fun to take a little hike on the nature trails.



(My daughter is quite the fashionista with those arm warmers, doncha think?)

But approximately 30 seconds after I took that picture, it started to rain. Then it started to pour. It poured for an hour. We poked around the nature center waiting for the rain to stop...but it didn't stop.

There is a lot of cool stuff to touch in that nature center! The working beehive is particularly interesting.



The staff there was great! They answered all the questions our kiddos had, and our kiddos had a lot of questions!

We had such fun! I think I'm going to like this!

Nature Study

Thanks to my daddy, I love nature. He instilled in all of his children a deep sense of appreciation for the natural world. So it's not surprising that one thing I love most about the Charlotte Mason approach is the emphasis on Nature Study. Miss Mason believed that adults should nurture a child's love of and curiosity about the natural world through nature walks with children and close observation of things discovered in nature. Keeping a Nature Journal is a key part of the nature study.

After some looking, I found these really cool supplies at Tuesday Morning for our Nature Journals. Each child has a journal and a set of black pencils and colored pencils. I got them each a nifty little pencil box just for their Nature Journal pencils. I love these materials because they look so organic and they're made from recycled materials.





We've had a couple of opportunities in the past week to do a little nature study right in our backyard. Tonight, we looked out and noticed that we had a rather sizable mushroom growing beside our pool. We left the dinner dishes on the table, grabbed our Handbook of Nature Study (which is some of the best money I've ever spent...it's an amazing book), Nature Journals and pencils and went to check it out.



First we read all about mushrooms in our Handbook.

Then we observed.




We contemplated.



And finally we sketched.






And that was Science...and Art.