Posted in Knitting, Learning, Outings, Uncategorized on Sep 29th, 2009
Over the weekend, we took advantage of the Smithsonian’s annual free pass day to visit the World Forestry Center, located right across from the Oregon Zoo. The building is light and open, and the exhibits are well designed, educational, and attractive to children. There were displays appealing to many senses – here Firecracker is smelling [...]
Posted in Birding, Crafting, Learning, Outings on Sep 25th, 2009
Kortney at One Deep Drawer told me about the congregation of Vaux’s swifts in NW Portland, and this week we made it over to the Chapman School to see them. For a bird nerd like me, it was a huge thrill. We set up early, with hundreds of other families, enjoying our picnic dinner (homemade [...]
Posted in Books and Reading, Learning, Playing/ Free Exploration on Sep 23rd, 2009
We’re studying Africa off and on lately, primarily because the girls’ interest in the continent was sparked by their favorite musician’s recent work in Malawi. I picked up this felt Africa playset at the thrift store on sale for a quarter, and it was a big hit. Along with Dana’s music, we’ve been listening [...]
Posted in Crafting, Learning, Moderation and Economy on Sep 21st, 2009
Like most children their age, the girls are prolific artists (esp. Little Hen, who loves her water colors). Our living room was looking pretty bare, and despite amassing a substantial collection of their artwork, it’s just not in the budget to get anything professionally framed right now. Why should that prevent us from displaying their [...]
Posted in Books and Reading, Learning, Playing/ Free Exploration on Sep 1st, 2009
Here’s a look at some of the mathematics we’ve been studying this week. The girls LOVE the Sir Cumference series of books, and even though the math concepts are technically “above grade level” for them, the girls seem to have no problem understanding the material. For example, Little Hen informed us that the slice of [...]
Posted in Books and Reading, Learning, Locally grown on Aug 25th, 2009
We made another trip to our favorite local bookstore, Powell’s. It’s on the way home from church, and so very hard to pass it by without stopping in. Every visit I am tempted to spend a ridiculous amount of money on crafting, cooking, and kids’ books. And I could hide out in the Orange [...]
Posted in Learning, Nature Table, Outings on Aug 21st, 2009
Some pictures from our nature hike at Mt. Tabor Park (which is fast becoming our favorite day hike – right in the middle of the city, great hills, great hiking, lots of nature to examine and exlpore!). Check out those helicopters! Firecracker stood for a long time and watched the water pouring in at the [...]
Posted in Changing Seasons, Crafting, Learning, Nature Table on Aug 1st, 2009
The Magic Onions is hosting a Friday Nature Table group. I should have posted yesterday, but life got busy, so for us, it’s a Saturday Morning Nature Table sharing. This was a great idea – I was able to catch up on a LOT of blogs I haven’t had the time to get back to [...]
Posted in Books and Reading, Learning, Playing/ Free Exploration on Jul 8th, 2009
After a break of several weeks (during which time, she preferred to draw and paint large portraits and wildlife scenes) Little Hen has returned to drawing miniatures and creating mail for our Sparrow Post. We’ve decided to put the Sparrow Post box out in the garden in a few weeks when it starts to take [...]
Posted in Learning, Playing/ Free Exploration on Jul 2nd, 2009
The girls have progressed in their literary obsessions from Little House to Narnia, and now to all things Robin Hood. They (and their daddy) also happen to love collecting and playing board games of all types, so when they came across Ravensburger’s Robin Hood Board Game at the thrift store this week (for 75 [...]