Am I a Teacher?

Well I know that I am to my kids, but to others? The responsibility is huge. Today and last Friday I had the opportunity to teach Aiden's class. It was amazing, the kids are great and loved all the hands on experiences! We are studying and exploring plants and flowers, and yes I did mean to say "we" because I was learning right along side them!

Day 1
Pollination: Geoff caught a real bee for us to bring in then we flew a bee puppet from one flower to the next to pass along this life giving substance. A beautiful thing even though it makes so many people suffer with allergies. Poor Aiden is really having a hard time with it.
Parts of a Flower: We dissected a flower and could see the beginnings of the seeds forming.

Making perfume: They choose two items to add to alcohol then have to wait until it becomes a sweet smelling substance. (Rose, lavender, cinnamon, eucalyptus and a few others)

Photosynthesis: We made terrariums out of a 2 liter bottle

Devotion: We talked about the fruits of the spirit as well as how God created vegetation (Gen 1:11) and then he gave it to us for food (Gen 1:29)
Food Chain: How it all works together. We even got to talk about poo!

Day 2
Today Geoff and I taught together. We really do make a good team, I'm so thankful God brought this wonderful man into my life!
Germination & Seed dispersal: There are many ways a seed spreads itself around, wind, water, animals, humans and explosion (when a pod bursts open). Again they were all ears when we got to talk about two of the ways an animal can disperse seeds by seeds being hitch hikers and by it's poo.

Propagation: Ways a plat can reproduce without seeds. Cuttings and runners!
Spices & Herbs: There was a lot of smelling going on with this one. We smelled and touched fresh and dried ones as well as talked about our favorite foods. We made a lavender sachet so we could keep one of our favorite smells around!
Recess: we played with a stomp rocket to see what wind could do to disperse a seed, this was a HUGE hit!
Trees: Our largest plant. We explored deciduous and evergreens as well as the rings to see how old the the tree was, and learned that in a drought the rings are thinner than when it rained a lot.
Devotion: We talked about how Jesus referred to God's word as a seed to be planted in someones heart and they types of conditions that seed could land on and where it could flourish. (Matt 13)

We ended our day by reading The Big Tree by Bruce Hiscock. I meant to take a group shot but forgot until they were out the door for carpool! Next up we teach planets!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We started our day finding toilet paper strewn out down stairs and that out our leprechaun trap failed. He did leave behind a shamrock plant for us to enjoy as well as a first place chocolate coin on a ribbon for a first place trap design!

We ate leprechaun size pancakes and drank green smoothies. The smoothies were delicious!

The best part was the littles started off the day with a full serving of spinach. All 3 drank them down!

For dinner we had corned beef, cabbage and red potatoes. Aiden had his first attempt at meat carving.

Dessert was a fun surprise cake. From the outside it looked like a fluffy cloud with marshmallows

 But once we cut into it the rainbow was revealed!

 

Camille almost beat Aiden in devouring her 7 layers!

St. Patty's - Green for my Girl

I went a little green crazy at the consignment sale so Camille got to wear green all week long!

 monday

 Tuesday

 Wednesday

 Thursday, Happy St. Patty's Day!

Friday

Leprechaun Trap

The littles tried to trap one of those pesky leprechaun critters. Aiden has  a few years of experience in making traps, so he started out teaching Gavin about simple machines. Levers, pulleys and such.

 Then onto the work of the real trap.

 Aiden using the glue gun to construct a ladder.

 Gavin painting his Roy G. Biv rainbow.

 Gavin liked his new color friend Roy!

 The completed trap.

The Leprechaun was to be drawn to the gold, go up the ladder after it, after stepping into the clear strawberry container he would see more in the bottom of the second box and jump down for it. Once he jumped in, the only way out would be to climb up the yarn. BUT once he began to climb the yarn the strawberry container would be pulled closed by Aiden's pulley system.

Foiled again! We didn't catch him. That sneaky leprechaun tossed the rock we used to weigh down the yarn. He tossed it up and out of the small hole in the top of the box to set himself free. That stinker then made a mess in our house, he knocked things over, pulled the books out of the bookshelf he even unrolled our toilet paper and drug it throughout the house! He did leave behind a shamrock plant for us to enjoy, he must have felt badly for the mess he made. Maybe next year we will catch him...

Holding on to moments

This is a scene that happens often in our house right now, I would like to think it will last forever BUT just in case it doesn't I'm going to document it now. Aiden walks in the door, Camille runs to him for hugs and kisses. Aiden is more than willing to get her giggling with joy!

 

Aiden is 8; Camille is a month and a half away from turning 2.

My prayer is that he will always love and protect his baby sister!

Fun with Friends

Camille and Gavin are just enjoying watching the "Big Kids" play outside. I'm so happy they have so much fun over here and enjoy coming back to play. 

This quite the creative group always inventing new games. I think here they had to tag the sign on their way down the roller coaster. Shortly after this photo they brought out the pine straw bales and used them as barricades to crash the roller coaster into. When I went outside later on I saw they had gathered up a bunch of the sweetgum balls, Aiden told me they were chicken eggs. Okay, I'm not asking anymore questions...

Outside playtime is the best! Bring on the warm weather.

Of course Gavin is back in his pajammas.

Daddy's weekend

Dad took all the littles to Tennessee to visit family. He also planned a Gatlinburg adventure complete with a hotel stay that was ironically where Nana & Papaw stayed 49 years ago for their honeymoon. 

They woke up to a beautiful double rainbow!

  Lunch in the Smokey Mountains

Geoff got some great shots from their hike.

 These are the shots that make a momma freak out!

Then Geoff informs me that this tree is 20 feet above the deep rushing water.

  And jumping on the bed... has Daddy not read 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed?!?!

I have heard about the legendary Applewood, maybe next time I'll get to join them for breakfast!

 Then back to the farm for some farm fun!

 Uncle JR took the boys for a ride up the mountain on the 4 wheeler.

 Camille was not interested on going for a ride.

A group photo, without me, they even got Lucy the dog in it. Way to go Daddy; on a well done weekend and remembering to take photos, even a group photo. Thank you Geoff for an entire weekend off, I got the chance to clean out some of the stuff that has accumulated in our house as well and time out with friends.  I'm glad they had a great time but I sure did miss everyone.