Green Hour Challenge #9 One Small Square

I can't tell you how much we are enjoying nature study these days. I had printed out all the green hour challenges at least 1 1/2 years ago and never really did much with them. Right now we are trying to do 2 a week and finish up alot of them over the summer before we go back into our regular science material. The top and bottom picture is the area we were in today. Only 100 feet from our local park is this back woods trail and meadow, following along the Soque River.

Along the river bank we discovered this hole that we believe to be the den of a ground hog. We have alot of ground hogs in our area.

The next two pics are of our actual small square area. We kind of cheated a little. At the beginning of the trail we looked down and saw snake skin and immediately declared this our small square. We also found an ant, leaves, earthworm and a egg sac of some sort. When we went further down the trail we found more snake skin. Brought some of it home and glued into our nature journal.

Here is the first one we found.

Good Weekend

Just some random thoughts to pass along:

Mom and dad are doing better. Dad is visiting a chiropractor three times a week for his back and has pulled himself off of the pain killer and muscle relaxers that were making him just not act like himself in so many ways. Mom has not had anymore chest pains and is tolerating the low dose of her chemo pill well. Hoping and praying that everything continues to stay on an even keel.

Friday - Went over to a good friends house for a playdate. Grace and the other girls swam all afternoon. Also got to visit baby chickens and a baby goat that looks like a skunk in coloring and named Flower. Lots of good conversation and visiting. Hubby met us at the Mexican restaurant for dinner afterwards.

Saturday - Me and mom went out in the morning to do some shopping and just be together. After lunch went to a family graduation party for my cousin who is graduating with a masters in art from Georgia State University. Good to spend time with all the family. All the kids and hubby played croquet all afternoon.

Sunday - Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there in blog land. My son gave me a wireless printer. Yeah! We have been without a working printer for more than six months. Grace gave me a ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. She knows they are my favorite. My sister's family and us went to my moms after church for a mother's day lunch. Yum! Fried chicken. Mom actually got to go to church this morning, it has been awhile. I know it was good for her.

This Week

In one way this has been a busy week and in another it has been like any other week. Finishing up the Fine Arts classes for the year with our final performances next week. It will be good to have Tuesdays and Thursdays back for some academics and just relaxation. School is going right along, working in some of the new items that I purchased at the convention this past weekend. Grace gets to go to her first private art lesson today, she is very excited about it. Health issues still abound with mom and dad. Dad is still in pain so has started with a chiropractor three times a week but feels it will take up to six weeks to see some results. Mom had two episodes this week that are like chest pains, just like the one that landed her in the hospital a couple of months ago. She decided to plug along with the medication and didn't have any problems yesterday or today so far. Scott is getting put back on the day shift/5 days a week, for the past year he has worked the night shift/4 days a week. He is not really happy about it, it really decreases on the time that he can work on his art. Grace volunteered at the library yesterday, normally we go on Monday afternoons but not much going on during that time frame. Decided to change it and go right after story hour each week and help clean up. Grace is working really hard at learning how to shelve books - dewy decimal system and alphabetizing fiction books. It will take time but each week she gets a little better at it.

Artist Study

Just like in composer study we have been woefully behind in artist study. I really love the postcard size paintings that you can get from www.doverpublications.com. I picked up the two pictured above to use over the next couple of months and today at a used book store found one on Van Gogh. So if we do one artist a month I will be covered until August. Really Charlotte Mason recommended to study them longer than a month, but Grace starts get bored with just one artist for any longer than that time frame. Tomorrow we will start with Whistler.

Treasure Trove

Even with all the rain we have had over the past couple of days we decided to do our nature walk this afternoon. I am sure glad we did. In one small area of about 3 x 3 we found a treasure trove of God's handiwork. The above pic is a wolf spider with egg sac. Kind of creepy but fascinating to see from a distance. Can you imagine how many baby spiders there are in this egg sac. For obvious reasons (Grace does not like spiders), we did not choose this guy for our focus today.

Now this guy is a different story. Grace was thrilled to find a land snail and immediately picked it up to bring in for a pet. She did draw him in her nature journal and added some details about what he likes to eat and if they give live birth or hatch from an egg. They hatch with just one spiral on their shell, and continue to get more spirals as they grow. So we currently have Gary in a small pet keeper for Grace to observe for awhile.

All of our honeysuckle bushes are about to open up.

Queen Homeschool Products

I was excited to see that Queen Homeschool was at our convention again this year. Always love their products. This year I decided to add From Egypt to Canaan book and study guide to our Bible curriculum. Right now we are in the Greenleaf Guide to the Old Testament but once we get to the book of Exodus we will take a break and switch over to From Egypt to Canaan. Also purchased the new spelling book we needed. Probably will review on spelling city all this summer the spelling words we learned this past year and then start the new book in July or August. If you are not familiar with Queen Homeschool's products you really need to jump over to their website and take a peek. www.queenhomeschool.com.

Composer Study

Up until about three months ago I was teaching an art/composer study co-op at my house twice a month. Due to my parent's health I had to stop teaching the class. I have woefully been neglectful since that time with us doing composer or art study on our own. While I was at the convention the past couple of days I made it a priority to get some materials that would ignite the fire again. In the picture above is the items I choose for the next few months for composer study. I am truly excited about starting these. This is a series by Opal Wheeler. I choose Franz Schubert and his Merry Friends and The Young Brahms. Each book comes with a small study guide and a companion CD with music and other printables on it. I think we will start one of them on Tuesday. Tomorrow I will share some of the materials I purchased for art study. For those of you who read my blog and don't home school, I am sorry just bear with me and soon all these curriculum posts will be over.