Hobbs State Park

On Labor Day we spent the day at Hobbs State Park with Papaw. It couldn't have been a more beautiful day!

We even made it just in time for the snake talk! YAY!

Look at the picture below. Which snake is venomous?

Here's a trick to help you remember:

If red touches yellow, it can kill a fellow,

but if red touches black, it's a friend of Jack.

So, you see, the one on the right is venomous.

Other things to look for:

A non-venomous snake has a head shaped like your thumb, but a venomous snake has a more pointed end, and poofier "cheeks" (which is where they store their venom apparently .)

You can also tell by their eyes. Venomous snakes have slitted eyes...although I'd never want to get that close to tell the difference!

Here are my three little guys who got in line to pet the king snake. :D Good times!

Science Fridays with friends

Have you figured out that my "busy" went to "BUSY" when school started back up?
Building
Up the
School
Year

Yeah, we're kind-of happily swamped over here, in science experiments, art lessons, field trips, plus all of my extra elementary coordinator stuff now. Which I love, by the way. :) It leaves very little time for art, though. And very little time for blogging. I'm going to *try* to use the kids' video time for those hobbies of mine. They're allowed to watch a video at 6pm every day. We'll see how well that "me time" goes. It may end up being early morning instead.
I've also been watching my sister's kids every morning, from 6-7:30am, before they go to school. Again, I love that. Great kids, fun times for the cousins, but it means that I moved my bedtime way up. I'm *trying* to get pumped for a 5am wake-up hour, so I can go running before the kiddlings arrive. So far, I only make it to the coffee pot and couch by 5:30am.
Sooooo, here's an attempt to catch up on our days.
We do Nature Notebook every other Friday with our homeschool group, which I LOVE. Last time we had the stories and a talk about hummingbirds and toads + a craft. This Friday we'll have a session on "being a naturalist," led by one of my all-time favorite gals! I'm excited.
The Fridays that we don't have Nature Notebook are our Science and Correspondence days. We meet with friends to do all kinds of awesome experiments & test theories.
Here are a couple of photos from our study on water and air pressure. We watched Steve Spangler's science video about it first, tried the experiment, and then watched the explanation. Cool stuff, y'all.


I'll catch you up soon (whoever might still be with me? Maybe this is just my online record now!) We've done other experiments since then, all kinds of hikes, and art projects. I have things to blog, just not the time to do it! Thankfully, this seems to be our smoothest start to a school year. The kids are adjusted to the schedule now, they like their new materials, and we're all enjoying the extracurricular activities. Win/win

Melted Crayon Art

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I've seen several different versions of this, from leaving crayons on canvas in a hot car (we tried it) to using a blow dryer to running crayons through a small hot glue gun. We had the best luck with the latter. The crayons fit perfectly in the glue gun. Peel them first, of course (my kids did this) and then run them through. You'll need to press on the end of the crayon, rather than relying on pushing the button. This will NOT ruin your glue gun. It works just fine afterwards with glue, but you might have some color residue.


It's now hanging in my living room, awaiting a "cool colors" companion canvas. :)

Self-Portraits

Nature Notebook officially starts

I have been crazy busy, and really am not sure how well I'll be able to keep up with the blog throughout the year. It's usually my evening relaxing time, but that's been taken over with other obligations lately. I enjoy blogging, though, and will try to update regularly. I have so much stuff to share, and so little time to share it! ;)
Our homeschool group's first official Nature notebook session was last Friday. We had a great turn-out, with 60 kids + parents and babies. I'm so excited about the interest in it this year!!-- we had nearly 90 kids sign up for NN at the membership meeting!!! YAY!
Thank you, Dawn Denton for reading your books to us, Oliver and Toad and Ruby and Rocket. Both were a big hit. Check out her books, if you haven't seen them. :D

After reading the books, all of the kids made "toad houses" for their gardens. Lay the pot on its side to paint and, when it's dry, you bury half of it, so the toads will have a cool, dark place to rest.

Thank you, Dawn, for giving us a great start to the year!

Live with Joy

details...

I plan to do this one in watercolor.

It's my new favorite medium. :)

Top Parenting Goals

A friend on facebook asked "What are the top ten parenting jobs?" A vague question. ;) But it got me thinking.
My 10 parenting goals:
#1 Love with God's love, overflowing so that it covers your children completely. This means *unconditionally*.
#2 Encourage kids to grow steady in their faith & their relationship with God. Their life has real meaning, definable purposes. God is reliable in His guidance and support in times of trouble and peace.
#3 Provide basic physical needs: clothing, food and shelter. I'm lumping them all b/c even though they're time-consuming, where we live, what we eat, and what we wear are really very minor.

#4 Teach and train~ education and preparation. Instill love of learning.
#5 Encourage their passions, and provide opportunities to further those passions.


#6 Protect absolutely, from physical dangers and disease (seek medical help when needed) as well as protection from explicit and/or inappropriate material/words/people, etc.
#7 Guide them in healthy relationships, and appreciation for people and the world.
#8 Foster independence and confidence; the goal is to be more capable every year.
#9 Have fun. Be creative. The relationship is important. Memories are important.
#10 Teach empathy, hospitality, generosity-- help others when you can. Grieve with those who grieve. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Pass joy along whenever you can.

There, I think those are mine.

What are yours?