Unplugged Project: Water
I would recommend this book, A Drop of Water by Walter Wick ~ awesome. We explored water a bit today. . .
floating and sinking
making water worms on wax paper (connecting the water drops)
painting with water
the absence of water under this bridge
painting with frozen water/paint (acrylic mixed with water)
her "ocean".
OOOoooo! We are so excited to share with you what we discovered in our neighborhood this morning.
A mother owl sitting on her nest high in the arms of a saguaro ~ she had her eye on us.
And some more signs that spring is just around the corner. . .
This is the nest of one of our cactus wrens ~ looks like it's soft and ready.
Our Gambel's quail.
And bees, bees and more bees.
This is Rose Red taking a break.
We're expecting!
. . . baby birds that is
Doesn't this mother-to-be look so sweet sitting on her nest? She's right outside our front door. A Mourning Dove.
Making fresh flower fairy crowns this morning.
Spring is in the air
Cardinal in Mesquite Tree.
And this darling Cactus Wren gathering feathers for her nest.
Our friends have a Koi pond. They built it themselves. Yesterday Rose Red and I went to visit them and take a look.
Snow moon brought snow.
Powdered sugar mountains ~ and we don't have to shovel it. It's all good.
This morning's remnants of February's snow moon.
I've always been a night owl so this is a considerable accomplishment for me. Dh leaves for work early and breakfasts by 5:30 am and River by 6:30 am. Rose Red tumbles downstairs about 7 am. Now dh is happy to let me sleep and grab a quick non-nutritious breakfast and suggests that River at almost 17 should be happy to do the same. I however, find an immense satisfaction in rising early before the sun to prepare this meal for my family. It brings a sense of peace and order to my soul. So I do ~ every morning at 5 am. Thus, I am able to witness these small miracles every day ~ snow moons in the morning, rosy sunrises, the waking of the birds and the silent slinking away of the coyotes.
(You were with me there for a while though, weren't you?)
We made our own hummingbird nests after our nature walk yesterday. We gathered old cobwebs and plant pollen and some sticks and leaves for camoflage purposes and layering webs and plant pollen to the best of our ability came up with these.
Not quite the shape we were hoping to achieve ~ but then we aren't hummingbirds. Romeo's nest looked a bit more authentic.
This is one of the agave paintbrushes we created from an agave plant.
Rose Red created a watercolor picture of the sky using her agave paintbrush. We planted a baby agave in the pot.
* some people are allergic to the juice of the agave so rubber gloves are recommended.
Well here it is a few months late ~ our winter nature table. We are setting it up in Rose Red's new bedroom in front of the window. We didn't put much thought into this one and rather scrambled to put one up as our nature walks have been non-existent lately and the few empty pods we gathered were sadly crushed.
I had a great post for this with lots of pictures to share but lost it so I'm just posting this short post now on our last trip to our botanical gardens. We learned about the prickley pear cactus and the cochineal bug that is found on the cacti and harvested for it's red juice which is used in dyes and food coloring (FDA approved).
We learned that there are many different species of prickley pear with some even growing into trees ~ their green pads actually morphing into a bark!
We participated in a fun interactive flipbook about the prickley pear and the cochineal bug, lots of arts and crafts and a nature walk to view the different species and examine the cochineal bugs ~ smashing a few to release their red juices.
I set up her new 'late fall' nature table when she was supposed to be taking her nap. Of course she came down (without napping) right when I was lighting the candle ~ which delighted her. She particularly enjoys rubbing the cinnamon sticks together and smelling them. I think I'll put out a whole nutmeg and grater too. Also clementines studded with clove ~ she'll love that!
We were back to our Botanical Garden. Our subject of interest this time was trees.
In particular, the Cottonwood tree. Found only by the water here in our desert. The kids enjoyed laying on a blanket and listening to the wind blowing through the Cottonwood trees. They also had an opportunity to touch pots of dry soil and moist soil to discover the difference.
We spied some of our native trees showing a bit of autumn gold as well. This tree below is a Mesquite tree. Our Palo Verde trees and our Ocotillo were also sporting gold.
The children were sent on a quest to match leaves they were given to leaves of trees in the Garden.
Snack was of course an edible tree!
We made leaf rubbings . . .
Log rings . . .
And fun leaf-glitter trees with paint, eyedroppers, straws, and crushed leaves.
We also saw an adorable puppet show and had many 'tree' books to look through in our book nook.
This book was great! I'll be looking to pick up a copy at the library and will definitely be on the search for more Claire Llewellyn books.
And in conclusion, I'll leave you with this picture of one of the beautiful glass art sculptures now in place in our Botanical Garden.
Life has been less than quiet here at Quiet Hollow. Finding a moment or a thought to blog a post has been hard to come by! We are having a great time with many exciting things. We've finally begun our fall Botanical Garden class which is wonderful. Our first week looked at the Monarch butterfly through stories, crafts, snack, and wonderful activity centers. Best of all though was the trip to the butterfly pavillion!
peering through a magnifying glass
This week's class was all about seeds. This was great fun as our nature walks have been all about seeds (and animal homes) lately. We planted seeds, discovered seeds and their plants throughout the garden, snacked on seeds (this was lots of fun! skewered fruit and veggies all filled with seeds ~ cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, kiwi, strawberries, etc., etc.). There were books and learning centers and storytime with the feltboard.
We continue on with our monthly breakfast at the zoo with the animals. Last month we visited the amphibians and learned about our frog friends and saw many different types of frogs, toads, some salamanders and newts!
Our nature walks continue but the camera never seems to make it with us for one reason or another but we have been discovering many animal homes and seeds, seeds, seeds and coming to know our desert foilage a bit. We are very aware of fall this year and notice signs of it everywhere (even in our desert climate!).
After our Big Red Hen study we tried to move onto something else but Rose Red keeps pulling us into Cinderella instead (which she is passionate about just as she was with the Little Red Hen). I'm following her lead instead ~ but sticking to my guns about avoiding the Disney~fied Cinderella and reading her an older version of the story where we can pick up on the virtues Cinderella exhibits of kindness, humility, gentleness and forgiveness. All of which are in sore need over here ~ so perhaps we have been properly lead!
Our alphabet studies continue but not with any true enthusiasm due to mommy's distractions. We have an alphabet shelf which we keep the weekly (or so) letter (tactile letter, letter puzzle, picture books of the alphabet; Metropolitan Museum of Art and a Waldorf. I have yet to incorporate our chalk letters (for walking the shape of each letter) or some of the other things I had in mind ~ but soon, soon, soon.
There is more we are doing ~ patterning, counting, music, etc. as our whims dictate ~ and of course we are reading, reading, reading. The library is our great friend. Nature and the seasons, our animal friends, counting, and more are all coming alive for us through our books!
Back to mommy's distractions ~ we are moving again! This time we purchased a home of our own. We hope to move in by Thanksgiving. My dh's company just had their grand opening this past week so he has been busier than ever even into the evenings and weekends lately. Between revonating the new house and getting his company up and running and boy scouts with our nephew and bible study at the church the poor guy has not come up for air in several months. Oh ~ and his father has moved in with us as of September (I think temporarily). He is sleeping in the loft. All fun and crazy stuff.
Hope all is well with all of you!
creating art with nature
Our nature walk this morning brought home lots of seed pods! We gathered up a sampling for our nature table and created this design with them. We marveled at the different textures of the seeds ~ ridged, fuzzy, flat and smooth, prickly, fluffy, curly.
The pumpkins are here.
While the rest of the family is hard at work painting and fixing up our new home so we can move in before Thanksgiving, Rose Red is thinking reptiles and created for herself a snake out of stones. This, of course, thrilled me and I pulled out my camera.
Our first entry into her nature journal. She tells me it's a cloud. If you are familiar with the gorgeous sunsets we have here in the Sonoran Desert you'll understand. She has been quite the cloud watcher this last month ~ ever since we started charting the weather.
