Maple Tree Study and more signs of Spring

We're having so much fun with the notebooking pages from Harmony Art Mom at her Handbook of Nature Study blog. Yesterday the weather was gorgeous and we got outside and did the maple tree study. Here are their notebooking pages:

Our trees are still only just budded, so we will have to keep an eye on them and watch for blossoms. We noticed that the small red buds were fuzzy on the very ends, and when we started peeling layers off we found a fuzzy layer, and in the center we found tiny red seeds (?).

 Isaiah always has fun in the stroller!

We took a short walk and noted lots of Canada Geese in the cornfield. There are some pretty big mud puddles in the field too, and we had hoped to see some ducks (sometimes we see them when we're driving past) but there were none.

There was lots of outdoor time yesterday before and after swim lessons.

And a couple more signs of spring were spotted: a papa Redwing Blackbird, high in the top of one of the maples, and some pretty moss, which I think is some sort of hair cap moss.

Signs of Spring

 

The kids completed the Signs of Spring notebooking page from HarmonyArtMom:

Not sure what's up with Lydia and her parentheses!

Lydia also worked on some review of fractions, addition, subtraction and multiplication with the old Horizons workbook. I think she's a little tired of Math-U-See and times tables. She used to say math was her favorite subject... I'm not sure what killed it for her. We've tried a variety of things, but I'm obviously not on the right page. And she's so GOOD at math, that's what is really getting to me! If she stunk at it, I could understand more readily why it is she dislikes it.

On the literature front, we're in the middle of  The Twenty-One Balloons. It's a fictional account of a man who flies over the Pacific in a balloon and ends up landing on the island of Krakatoa. At least that's as far as we've gotten... It's a Sonlight book (we're not doing Sonlight this year, but they have fantastic books in their curriculum). Lydia is enjoying it.

Lydia also began working on a pink wool felt kitty from The big book of soft toys  by Mabs Tyler. At $0.01 you can't beat it! It's full of great little projects, many of which are appropriate for small hands just learning to stitch.

Tonight we'll be heading into town for Sacred Dance. The kids are practicing songs for a Mother's Day program at church.