September | 2012 | For my children

Butterfly! The Conclusion to our Science Experiment 9/29/12

We’ve been busy around here watching, observing, and of course waiting for our science experiment to reveal herself. We have answered LOTS of times, how many days might be left, as well as why it won’t be able to continue living here once it has transformed into a butterfly.

Saturday morning we noticed some color showing in the chrysalis so we knew it wouldn’t be long.

Abigail wanted to examine it closely to see if she could see her caterpillar friend.

Honestly, looking minutes later, this is what we found. A very fragile looking butterfly with small crumpled wings and big eyes.

Each of them couldn’t believe what a beautiful butterfly was in our jar.

Abigail can’t decide if she is happy or sad. Her caterpillar friend is gone and now we have to release the new butterfly!

Isabela couldn’t decide if she was happy or scared. Lots of sounds and emotions from this girl.

The tiny details of this creature were amazing!

After being silly on the back porch, we decided to take the butterfly to Nana and Papaw’s house to release.

Once out of the jar it immediately took hold of Jackson’s finger! He was amazed by this.

Jackson placed the butterfly on Isabela and it never offered to fly away. She wasn’t too sure about it but didn’t cry.

I love this picture! A happy boy proud to have learned and witnessed this amazing life cycle. Finally the butterfly lifted off of his finger and took flight. We watched it disappear into the trees and were thankful our cat or a bird didn’t capture this new fragile life.

By Abigail, she wrote her name, drew her picture, and copied my word BUTTERFLY.

By Jackson, he summarized his thoughts with some help on the spelling and then illustrated his butterfly.

September 30, 2012
Categories: Abigail's Art, Abigail's Work, Jackson's Art, Jackson's Work, Moments of Joy, Observations . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Isabela’s life skill 9/24/12

In the busy days things of humor happen so often we sometimes do not even slow down and take notice. Life is a whirlwind and is fast paced, but the art of learning and imitating are all around.

This sweet girl came to me the other night with one of her famous questions. She wanted to know why her favorite purple socks were…in the trash!

This sweet girl is the reason the socks and many other clothing items are being discovered in the trash!

I remember when she couldn’t reach the opening. Now, up on her tippy toes, she is eyeing the dirty clothes basket. We were so excited the first time she listened and followed the directions to put her dirty clothes away. She smiled, clapped, and we all cheered!

The problem followed after the success. She quickly began to clean out the drawers of CLEAN clothing and put them in with the DIRTY. My organized drawers became chaos, and Isabela wanted us all to join in the shuffle.

She seems to look confused when I say no to this game. “No, we can’t clean out the drawers and throw the clean clothes everywhere!” The fun however hasn’t stopped here. Now putting the dirty clothes away has become confused with throwing away trash. The clothes are now ending up in the trash! She just seems proud the clothes are put in something!

I guess you could say I have a bit of clarification to do for my sweet faced silly girl!

September 25, 2012
Categories: Memories . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Second Co-Op September Field Trip 9/21/12

September’s co-op field trip was to visit the BIG Mountain National Bank in Sevierville and to Kroger’s. Due to scheduling conflicts, the little birds and I missed the bank, but were able to join up with the group at our favorite grocery shopping spot. The employees were so great to take the children for a behind the scenes tour. They were able to go in the coolers behind where shoppers buy milk and in the freezer (where Isabela broke down), as well as the stocked shelves of storage. Also we toured the bakery, meat and vegetable/fruit departments, as well as the florist.

Abigail with a sample of cheese in one hand and a sugar cookie in the other. Nice combo!

Jackson tasting warm bread from the bakery

The children were able to touch a live lobster, Jackson loved this!

Looking at all the seafood was fun for them all. The highlight of the trip, other than the food samples and stickers throughout the store, was getting a huge treat bag to take home!

Again, Isabela was strapped to me for our visit to Kroger. She did enjoy the apples and cheese there. I added this picture of her enjoying frozen blueberries later that evening.

September 22, 2012
Categories: Excursions . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Great Achievements! 9/21/12

Jackson has worked hard this week in school. He learned a new Nursery Rhyme, “My Black Hen,” and a Language poem, “Work” by M. A. Stodart.
It was a review week in Spelling so he had twenty five words plus one bonus!

Short vowel words plus commonly used words, and he is very proud of the bonus, spelling school correctly.
He also completed Chapter Five, Addition Strategies in Math.

I was tickled with the work, even though he missed one he could have done correctly. He was a little sad I circled one wrong.
The biggest thing for us is that he completed his Level 1 Reading book, “Run, Bug, Run!” There were fourteen stories and many new words to learn. He was most proud that looking at the table of contents he realized he had read one hundred fifty seven pages!

September 21, 2012
Categories: Jackson's Work . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Our Science Observation 9/17/12

We found a caterpillar this past Monday. I was probably more excited than the other three because I had been scouring our fields here and at the vineyard for a caterpillar on milkweed. However, this caterpillar was not found on the milkweed, it was found from our herb garden on, as Jackson refers to it, (the pickle plant)dill.

We put it in the jar and from my experience in the classroom thought we had a Monarch. After a little research I decided we probably didn’t have the Monarch we had hoped we did, we hadn’t found it on milkweed! A Black Swallowtail caterpillar looks almost identical to a Monarch with the exception that it had a ‘scent horn’ that it raised from it’s head when disturbed, and we did disturb it!

We fed it lots of dill, parsley, and carrot tops and they couldn’t believe how big and long it grew! We had many teary eyed discussions over the caterpillar soon making a chrysalis with both Jackson and Abigail-her not wanting her caterpillar friend to disappear! Finally on Sunday morning six days later, the caterpillar had vanished!

It never made the “J” as the Monarch in years past had and the chrysalis was not the perfect green jewel hanging. Instead it attached part of itself to the stick and in a matter of hours this is what we saw! Now we wait to observe what beautiful butterfly will emerge! We’ll keep you posted.

September 17, 2012
Categories: Jackson's Art, Jackson's Work, Observations . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Final Weekend of Summer 2012 9/16/12

We say it each year, “where does the summer go?” We love to see it come and feel relief as it begins to exit. We’ve been smack dab in the middle of these long days of extreme heat, uncounted hours of mowing, and the extra hours of the days filled with countless other to-do’s.
Taking a much needed break, we humbly captured Jackson and Abigail having some innocent moments of fun in the back yard with each other and sprinkles from the hose. Final summer weekend fun!

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Can’t believe how fast this boy is growing!

Love this girl’s favorite thing to say, “This is the best day ever!”

Together they made a see saw from things they found out back. They loved their new invention!

After her nap, Isabela joined some of the fun even though she wasn’t too happy being contained by big brother as Abigail was in front “driving” the truck. Check out those long legs!

These two are so sweet. I love watching them play together. I love it even more that they can find satisfied fun right in their backyard, rarely tiring of each other or what’s around them.

September 17, 2012
Categories: Moments of Joy, Photos . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

“Fun At The County Fair”

“Fun At The County Fair” by Dena Neusner, is one of the literature pieces we have enjoyed in our home for a few years. It was given to Jackson from his Great Aunt Fran on his second birthday, but all three little birds have loved the colorful illustrations.

“Fun At The County Fair” is targeted for the three to six year olds, but I feel any young age would enjoy the pictures. The county fair takes place on Merriweather Farm where a John Deere Tractor named Johnny and his friends live, work, and play. This fun book takes the reader on the journey of preparing for the fair as they create a corn maze, set up the food stands and rides, and get the other animals ready for the fair.

This book is an oversized hard back book with over fifty lift the flap interactions throughout the story. Jackson of course loves ALL of the John Deere Machines. Abigail enjoys the story of the children riding the rides and playing in the corn maze. Isabela just loves constantly lifting the flaps throughout the story.

I chose this story with this review because it went with one of our end of the summer experiences. We ventured out early one Saturday morning for something new. The savings part of me said why pay parking, entrance, and riding fees when we could go to Dollywood for free with season passes, but my fun husband said “it will be fun!” Love his enthusiasm!

A couple of the not so traditional rides at the fair and it was free! Enjoying the tractors, gators, and other farm utility vehicles set up under a pavilion.

It doesn’t really show in the photos but it is pouring down rain outside!

One of their favorites at the fair, the animals! We also enjoyed watching the young children show their calves.

Before the rain we did get one ride in. Yes, brave Abigail (with her crown) did ride one of the rides…all by herself because her brother wasn’t as flexible to something new. She liked the fact unlike at Dollywood she had to give the man five tickets to ride.
Despite the rain our morning at the county fair was a great experience.

September 9, 2012
Categories: Excursions, Literature Favorites . . Author: Julie M Hall . Comments: Leave a comment

Grapes, Grapes, and More Grapes

Loaded and ready for delivery! Watch out for the yellow jackets!

Our 2012 experience from the perspective of a five year old! His favorite things- grapes and trucks! I prompted the subject of “delivery” and we started with a few key words. He successfully constructed the complete sentences as well as the spelling, and then finished with a colorful picture!