Quiet on the blog-front!

Our summer has been wonderful...but I've been a little slack on posting to this blog. I guess I'm so busy being outside with my 'nature loving kids' that I haven't made much time to blog about it!

I have started a second blog www.primarylearninglogs.blogspot.com that you may want to check out. It focuses on learning activities (mostly with my 5 year old) and lots of early math information!

Hope you are getting to spend lots of time in nature this summer too!

Lessons from our Maple Tree

We had heavy winds yesterday as a quick storm passed through the area. The winds knocked down a large branch from one of our maple trees. After the storm passed we talked to my son about how the tree is slowly dying and explained that is why it's losing branches.


After breakfast this morning he went to the fallen branch, bucket in hand. He collected all the maple seeds that he could find. He loves finding the "whirlybirds" and playing helicopters with them. As he was bringing his pile onto the deck he explained that he wouldn't  be playing with these seeds but instead would be planting them, ALL of them, so he could grow more maple trees all around the yard.


Sadly, I don't think the seeds are fully matured since they are quite plump and green. I guess time will tell us if they will grow or not. I have read that most maple species require stratification in order to germinate, so I will explain that process to him and we can experiment with his new seed collection. 


Over the last few months he has become quite the horticulturalist. He is very proud of the apple seed that he has gotten to sprout. Now to see if we can get this large pile of maple seeds to sprout as well. Wait....this could turn into a HUGE project! I do love to see his empathy for the dying tree though...what a sweet boy I have!

"He that plants trees loves others beside himself."- Thomas Fuller

Recipes from Nature

Who's ready to come over for some of our nature inspired recipes?
This particularly yummy looking concoction the kids recently made is their very own version of  'Cake and Apple Pie'. When I suggested we call it 'stone soup' I was told, "hula hoops are pie pans and you CAN'T make soup in pie pans!" (Duh, everyone knows that!)

So I asked about the ingredients and this led to writing the recipe out. Now we can remember how to make it again! Don't you just love the added illustrations!

Garden Fence

So it serves no real purpose but isn't my son's garden fence just perfect. We bought this little white picket fence at Home Depot and he decorated them with permanent markers. The plan was to paint them, but when you have a two year old sister "helping" markers seemed a bit more practical.

Gardening with kids is so much fun. He is so proud of his own little garden...and it's growing beautifully. I know he's learning all kinds of life lessons in the garden...just as I did in my mom's gardens and greenhouse! xoxox

Dinosaur Egg Hatching

For my son's 4th birthday a few years ago we had a big Dinosaur Dig Party. One of his favorite parts of the party was the dino egg hatching center we had.

About two weeks before the party we made up a batch of fossil dough (see link below). We made the dough into egg shapes and put a small plastic dinosaur inside of it. Each day for about a week,we turned the eggs over so that they would dry evenly. Most of them dried in 5-6 days but the really big ones took 10 days.

Once dried they were as hard as rocks. We hid the eggs in a "nest" which was a turtle sandbox lid that was filled with straw. The kids at the party each got to find 2 eggs. Then they took the eggs to the "Egg Hatching Station" to see what was hiding inside. At the station we had protective eye wear, small hammers, rubber mallets, metal scrapers, and paintbrushes. As the kids opened them, they squealed in delight at their baby dinosaurs!

The project was a huge hit but it was very messy. (Definitely not an indoor project!) To make clean up easier we laid a large canvas drop cloth down first. After the party we just took the canvas in the woods to shake it out since everything was biodegradable!

I'm going to surprise David this doing this project next week. I know he will be excited!

This link has a recipe similar to what we used to make our dino eggs!
http://www.amazingmess.com/2011/06/fossil-dough.html

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

When her pockets get full...she borrows mine!