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!

A Day of Our Homeschooling Life!!

It's been a while since I've given a peek into our day and since Simple Homeschool put out an invitation I thought I'd join in! So welcome to our Wednesday!

Our mornings are slow, I am not one of those mamas who get up early and get things done. Too many years of sleep depravation is my reasoning but really Im just not a morning person if anyone is going to talk to me! ;)

This day is one where Dan is home, he travels frequently but when he is in town we often get days with him home all day. This was difficult for us the first few years of homeschooling, but thankfully we have found a rhythm that Dad fits into and can also slip out of.

Our morning starts with a warm breakfast, blankets, and heater vents. We also take care of animals, giving the cats attention and waking up the bunnies. Which is not so hard on this beautiful sunny morning!

Legos in the morning, Legos at night, LEGOS ALL DAY LONG in our house!! But I find it a gentle way for the kids to transition from morning time to schooling time so you'll often hear me suggest it! And yes there are legos all over my house!!!

Just before the call to come together my oldest comes to me with Cookie his rat who seems to have a mass, he also brings his rat book. So we take a timeout to check on her, read about rat ailments and call the vet to get an appointment. I love that his first go to was a book! 

Every morning I write out all that we would like to accomplish for the day, my kids like having all the information at once and I like that I don't get asked 20 times what else we are going to do! Its all right there! Our family schooling time is by far the largest chunk, but the kids do have some individual things that we do.

We have quite the mixture of homeschooling philosophies here in our home! A little Waldorf, a little Charlotte Mason, a little TJed, and a little crazy all mixed together!! Its great! I am a firm believer that your philosophy/curriculum should serve your family not that you should be a slave to your philosophy/curriculum. We start our day with a Waldorf-ish verse and a scripture we are memorizing. After everyone memorizes the scripture we go out for a fun family activity. Today our family study activities will be after our individual work because of their length. But usually it is done right after our scripture.

Jake learning how to read Fahrenheit and Celsius on a thermometer...

Fern writing numbers...

Leili acting out our story of the week with finger puppets (Little Red Ridding Hood)...

Brother and sister are drawn to the puppet theatre like magnets!!

Riley is reading Matilda and LOVING it! This is a picture that just makes my mama heart go pitter-pat. This guy, my first born threw me right into trusting in schooling. Reading just did not click for him when society says it should. But we took the leap of faith in just trusting that he would get it when he was ready as long as we did not squash his innate love of learning! Now I have to tell him to stop reading and go to bed!!

Our kitchen table turned into math central today and Dad was the central command! Whew! One day off for Mama in the math dept!!

Beautiful Fern LOVES writing notes and now she has found she LOVES writing numbers!!

Leili is being like Little Red Ridding Hood and baking muffins for the family, she chose Coconut Banana! 

Usually Fern prefers to wait for me to do her reading with her, but Little Bear just could not wait!

I have a couple volunteer responsibilities and since today dad is home I run out all by myself for a quick visit. Dad finishes up the school work for the morning while I am gone.

Leili's muffins came out great! Riley played the piano! And lunch was made! Wahoo!

After lunch we watch a great National Geographic video on volcanos, geology is our family study for science/nature study right now and we are enjoying learning about volcanos (and my family is realizing just what a geology nerd I am...)!

After our video some friends come by for a short visit then after that we head over to the nature center across the river. Today we not only enjoy the warmth of the sun and the beauty in our own back yard but we also had a winter nature scavenger hunt! We found everything except an icicle but we are NOT complaining!! 

Cub and Boy Scout meeting end our night and now it is good night!

Thanks for stoping by!!

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!

Lantern Walk

 

 

The stars alined (& the rain paused) so we got to use the lanterns we made for the lantern walk. It was beautiful to see all the kids walking with just their lighted lanterns and then to sit around the bonfire and sip warm apple cider. What a beautiful night!

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!

SPRING is upon us!! Time to get back OUTSIDE! HOORAY!!

We steal as many moments as possible outside during the winter but it is so nice to think of all the time we will get outdoors soon! Learning out of doors is one of our most favorite!

I recently read a GREAT ARTICLE from the Audubon Society about making family time and nature time co-exist.

And since we are on the subject I thought I'd share a few other fun resources our family has enjoyed!

:: Last Child in the Woods ~ Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. This is an awesome book, I think this should be required reading for all parents!

:: i love dirt! ~ 52 activities to help you & your kids discover the wonders of nature. This one is a fun spring board to fun outdoor ideas.

:: Nature's Playground ~ Activities, crafts, and games to encourage children to get outdoors. Arranged by season this one is wonderful in that it has wonderful ideas but also explains about being respectful of nature and leaving it for others to enjoy too. This one also has great pictures!

:: Falcon Guides ~ Best Easy Day Hikes in _____. I love these books, especially for when you are just starting to look for good places to get out too but also they are great when moving to a new area! Other publishers also print similar books Best Hikes for Children in _____ are wonderful too!

:: And one to share :: The Salamander Room. A great picture book can inspire magic that pulls you out of doors (and it's a Reading Rainbow book!)!

So as you celebrate the first day of Spring tomorrow I hope you can feel the sun on your face and some dirt in your hands!

Happy Spring!

We are back! Thank goodness that did not last as long as I thought it might! Mostly because we did not have to replace the computer just the hard drive. Thank goodness for self learning husbands! ;)

While I was away from the computer we had a most deliciously warm day! So we did our school work quickly and headed to the nature center near our home. I am not sure there is a better way to learn than by being outside in an unstructured way! The kids threw rocks in the river, they ran and yelled. We soaked up as much vitamin D as possible and we ate outside (which I just love to do)! It was lovely!!

If you have not read Richard Louv's book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. PLEASE DO! He has a new one out that I can't wait to get my hands on!

Riley and I recently started our block on Native Americans in Northern Nevada. It was slow going for a bit as we non-Nevadans tried to find information. We got excited that there was an exhibit in the airport but that was not as fruitful as hoped. But just today we found some wonderful student guides put out by the state!

This area is home to the Northern Paiute, Western Shoshone, & Washoe Tribes.
What Native Americans live in your area?