Pyramid Lake Fish Ladder

A few weeks ago my friend Tara and I took our gaggle of kids out to Pyramid Lake to have a tour of the fish ladder. It was a cold, windy, grey, and wet day without any fish ready to go up into the Truckee River but it was still a great outing! We learned about the native variety of trout, the Lahontan cutthroat trout (threatened) along with the native Cui-ui a lakesucker (endangered). 

After touring the fish ladder facility with an awesome Dept. of Wildlife Ranger we went over to Popcorn beach to see the pelicans waiting on the fish and to have a bit of a picnic. There were a ton of pelicans and we learned that one of the small islands there is the largest pelican rookery in North America! Popcorn Rock is a bulbous tufa formation like the pyramid in the lake that it is named for!

Schooling Around Town!

I thought I had a couple pictures of school around the house but mostly I found pictures of us schooling around town! We are mostly homebody schoolers but we do get to do some fun stuff around town too!

We got the amazing and FREE opportunity to see the Reno Philharmonic preform Peter & the Wolf! It is one of our FAVORITE music pieces! They even got the mascot form UNR to come out and capture the narrator (an anchor from the local news channel) at the end.

I was so overwhelmed to have the opportunity for my kids to hear this beautiful music performed right in front of them. I still get teary!

We've also gotten over to Ox Bow Nature Preserve a couple of times, it is one of our favorite nature walks plus the critters are always fun! The beaver dams and beaver chewed trees are among our favorites to spot!

Here is one from our backyard! Here are the kids making a village as we learned about the beginnings of Rome.

And of course we have been to the river! It is one of those places we go to unwind, or windup, wear out or calm down. Plus it is a great place to school! Leili and I were reading Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe and then Leili and Dad made a little boat to float in the river!

Inside, outside, here or there!

Bierstadt

I am always excited when I find out something has stuck in the kids brains, to me it means they are enjoying or find our studies interesting!

We continue doing Artist Study even though I do not put the pictures up on the side bar any longer (it was a pain to get up!). This last trimester we have been looking at paintings by Albert Bierstadt, the intrest was first piqued when they learned he was German the second because of his subject matter.

Bierstadt was an explorer and in the 1800's where was the frontier? Right here in our back yard! The Sierra Nevadas were a large portion of his paintings. Plus he is a beautiful artist, he paints in the romantic style but was also considered an luminism because of the use of light in them.

The fun came when during our trip down the 395 last month, we stayed overnight in a hotel with the usual hotel furnishings. But then Riley noticed... above the beds were prints of what appeared to be Bierstadt's paintings! Riley pointed out why he thought they were his and my proud homeschool mama heart swelled!

It is the sweet days that make it all worth it!

As a family we are learning about the Civil War era, slavery, and Abraham Lincoln. Mostly through out loud reading, it is amazing to me how much the kids absorb when I read aloud verses other learning!

We scored this week at Goodwill and found a mostly complete set of Lincoln Logs! The kids have been building Abe Lincoln's log cabin, with no windows but they have not found a bear skin for the door! ;)

I have collected these books over years at thrift stores and library sales. We are onto the second book in the Addy series, the American Girl Books are great historical fiction! We also read the If you Grew Up With Abraham Lincoln which I just found at Goodwill last week! Perfect!! I am also planning that we will listen to THIS free recording of the Gettysburg Address. This all ties into our learning about Nevada as Nevada became a state during the Civil War. Which is why our state's nickname is Battle Born!