Today's science "lesson" was about the parts of a tree.
Roots, trunk, branches, and leaves...so just the basics. After talking about the parts of a tree, and finding them on varrying trees on our nature walk, we picked a bunch of leaves to take home and make leaf rubbings. That was something they really enjoyed. It took a while to get the hang of, but after a few practice rounds they really did well. I kept the two best ones for their files later!
They had a great time. And learned so much in just the 30 minutes we were there, not to mention enjoyed looking at their leaf rubbings which are hanging up in the dining room now. They get so excited when we finish a lesson and clap for each other because we learned something new today.
THat always makes me smile. "Learn something new" is something my dad used to tell me every day before school, and every morning as he drove me to school he would pick a random topic or fact to tell me. It may be a news article he saw, a random thing about a school subject, or even something like a cool story about a song or musician we heard on the radio that morning. So to see my kids getting excited when I do our "learned something new" cheer, it means a lot to me. THIS is what home school is about :-D
Okay, enough mushy stuff
Here are some pics of our first "official field trip" lol.
Kathryne telling Ayden what a root is, and what they do (I loved watching this, because teaching others helps them learn more quickly!)
Ayden showing me a "big hunkin' tree twunk" he saw, covered in moss. They were fascinated by moss, so I showed them some of the different types that can be found along the trail we were on. They had fun pressing on this thick type that grows between roots, because it was squishy and had this sort of memory foam type feel to it. I took photos of the different types, and looked up the names so we can go back later and talk about the moss a little more.
They kept stopping to point out all the roots they found.
"Look mommy, a roly poly!" They loved making him roll in to a ball. I finally had to cry mercy for the poor thing and march us onward lol.
Kathryne picking out a pretty yellow leaf she found on the ground to take home.