Gardening

We started seeds.  Way.  Too.  Early.  This year we watched the Christmas parade in sweatshirts. There was practically no winter weather.  On a freakishly warm day in February we spent a few hours rebuilding our raised beds.

Then in March we started seeds, and right about the time they should have been planted out we got a snow storm.






As soon as the April snow melts we'll take these babies outside.

Library Haul 12/9/15

I have a backlog of pictures from library hauls that I never got up onto the blog, so here is the super late picture of some of the books we used to study some earth science.

Right around this time, the boys also vetoed ancient history and decided that they would rather study American history.  I think it was inspired by the Little House audio books we were working our way through.  When I told my husband about our change of plans he complimented me on my flexibility. I tend to get "attached" to my plans.  I still tried to work through the facts in chronological order, rather than skip to the 1800's.  And these are some of the books we started with.

Bedtime Poetry

On "good nights", when I have my act together and I finish the bedtime stories without falling asleep or losing my temper, I like to end the day by standing in the hall between the boys' and girl's rooms while I sing a handful of songs and read poetry.  I generally sing the same four or five songs, but I've been rotating the poems to try and give the kids a diverse smattering.  I try to get in two poems a night, chosen to coincide with the season or a holiday.  I read the same ones four or five times before moving on to the next selection.  Some of the poems we have covered this year are...

     All by Robert Frost
Mending Wall
Birches
After Apple Picking
The Road Less Traveled
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
    
     From the Random House Book of Poetry for Children
A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore
I Heard a Bird Sing by Oliver Herford
From: A Christmas Package by David McCord
Harvest Home by Arthur Guiterman
August by John Updike
The Months by Sara Coleridge
When All the World is Full of Snow by N.M. Bodecker
Our House by Dorothy Brown Thompson
One Day When We Went Walking by Valine Hobbs