Week 4, end of June

A tree frog was hiding in our mud kitchen supplies! We studied his suction-cup feet & yellow legs then watched him climb/hop all the way up the giant oak tree! We talked about camoflage, amphibians, & hibernation....

This is a mystery bug - he was huge

This fabulous shady spot is perfect for volleyball & badmitten

I love that they all have each other to play games - sometimes it's hard to find enough people at home to play

Bry got to visit this week & was so helpful with the younger ones :0)

Bry's cousin Ruth also got to visit this week! One family was on vacation so we had a few openings :0)

Week 3

Fort building with Analiese on Tuesdays!

Just add water ;0)

Friday easel time

Auberon & Malachi studying the electric board from a DVD player

Henry's robot invention - with those awesome tiny hands!

Whoa! A bit too high!!

Ben helping his pal Auberon climb a tree

Wild Indians last week! They were all over the place with swords & teams & plots....reminded me of Roxaboxen

Hopefully that video will play.....

Week 2

The Tuesday class made Father's Day crafts with nature finds!

We had a parakeet for a few days....My grand idea of starting a "pet library" fell through.  It would be SO fun to have a variety of small pets to rotate around so that everyone could get the experience of a pet without the commitment & expense....but a law-savvy friend strongly advised we not proceed, for liability reasons.  I would have loved to have this kind of program continue through our homeschool co op as well, but alas!  Not meant to be.....Tweaty Petey has returned to Petco if you are interested!

Major fascination with the old DVD player....I reminded them several times not to do this at home!!

We made s'mores in our solar ovens - much yummy-ness

Found this handy dandy cart for $1 at a yard sale - makes hauling water to the mud kitchen much easier.  Ezra was our water man on Friday...with heat index around 100F it was GREAT to have cold water & lots of shade so we could still play outside

Henry & his Hobbit feet

Malachi following in his brother Ben's tinkering footsteps....we go through a lot of tape!

Josie made this from the cattail leaves!

Everyone's a chef! Just like tinkering with old appliances, exploring in water & mud appeals to a very wide age range!

Laying out the leaves for her weaving project

Week 1: Summer 2018

Our Tuesday class this summer is for ages 7-12 & we are delighted to welcome Anneliese Lindberg as our teacher!

Self defense/martial arts time with Anneliese

The children found 5 red-winged blackbird nests in the marsh❤❤

Our Friday class is for ages 2-12 - inspired by the birds we saw on Tuesday we painted goose feathers!

Using several nature books as inspiration for our feathers, we decorated them with both real & imaginary designs

As always, our tinkerlab is a constant outlet for these creative engineers!

Ben found a couple of empty bird nests & wants to make them into a little house for mice! We are toying with the idea of having a pet library where families can borrow small pets ie mice, hermit crabs, etc. for a week. 

Team work!

We need some rain for our creek! All this dry weather makes cooking in a mud kitchen kind of hard!

Mud lady ;0)

Painting with feathers!