Lots of play and exploration in the forest and creek behind our house. Soon this will be too high to really be able to play at safely so we’ve been trying to get down here whenever we can.

Riding bikes (I hope I fixed that helmet before she took off! I likely did, as I’m a tad paranoid safety conscious about that kind of thing)

Playing at playgrounds

Playing in the mud in the rain

We were supposed to try out mini golf, and the recording said it was open, but when we got there we were disappointed to find out it was only open on the weekends. However, the driving range was available so we bought a bucket of balls for the girls to try hitting. We only had Kris’ left-handed clubs available for them to use though, which were also too big. Fiona found it boring. Meredith wants to come back when she can try mini golf and use a club the right size and hand.

We did a small square study and discussed living and non-living things. This also tied in nicely with a unit in BFSU.

And of course, lots of playing in our backyard, in the sand box, on the swing set, and on the trampoline.

And a bonus image of Guinevere rolling over. How is she already semi-mobile?

Our first stop was the market in Coombs. Meredith was thrilled with the piano. The note says that the piano is old but that people are welcome to play, so she played “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”.

We had a delicious lunch outside where we got to watch the goats on the roof, which Coombs is famous for.

Then it was on to the Hamilton Hobby Farm, which is a new petting farm that has just opened this summer for the first time. We had so much fun, and the people were so nice. I think we will definitely be returning. Kris and I were discussing dreams of opening something similar closer to home! There were baby bunnies and chicks to admire and even hold.

A hay ride, which while bumpy the girls seemed to really enjoy.

Pony rides. Meredith has been taking lessons for the summer (when we’ve been home), so she didn’t end up being super thrilled with the pony ride compared to what she does in her lessons.

But it was Fiona’s first time on a pony and she had been asking for this for a while now. She seemed really nervous at first, but as soon as the pony started moving her face broke out in a huge grin and stayed there until the end.

The girls got to go into the pen with the goats and brush them.

And then one of the owners came by with a bucket of feed and they got to hand feed them too.

Other animals we saw were alpacas (which don’t belong to the farm, but were visible during the hay ride), turkeys, more chickens, and ducks. I was enthralled by the Indian Runner ducks and sad that the pictures really don’t do them justice the same way watching them actually walk around does. They walk upright and almost seem like they are missing two little forearms or something. So hard to describe but so neat to watch them.

All in all, it was a really fun day and I think we will definitely be back again next year when they are open again.

There was a playground near where we parked and the girls ran off to play, while Kris and I walked along the nearby trail to see how well our GPS would work. We don’t have a geocaching GPS, just one for the car, but it has walking directions on it and seemed pretty accurate. Until it died. We wandered around without luck in the general vicinity, but eventually decided there were too many trees to just guess. I went back to the van to plug it in while Kris and the older two hung out at the playground. I had to put the keys in the ignition to give the charger power. After a few minutes, I unplugged it again, not expecting it to have much life but also not wanting to sit for too long waiting for it to charge. I locked the doors and shut them just as I remembered the keys were still in the ignition! Oops! We discussed what to do briefly. There weren’t a lot of options since we don’t even have a cell phone to call AMA. Meredith and I went wandering into the forest with the GPS while Fiona played in the sandbox at the playground and Kris used some nearby scrap wood to try and break into our car. Meredith and I still had no luck, and we returned to the van to help and we did manage to get it open again, thankfully.

We decided to try the one across the street to start instead. The clue was a little more obvious and even if our GPS didn’t work well we could see even from where we were that there wouldn’t be a lot of options about where it could be, as there were only two trees in the whole field. Finally we got lucky! Kris lifted Meredith up to peek into the crook of a tree and she was so excited to see a little film canister there.

We opened it up excitedly, not sure what to expect. Inside was a tiny toy and some scraps of paper in a baggie. The girls took the toy and we left some marbles in its place, then signed and dated the paper and carefully put everything back the way we had found it.

The high from that find had the girls excited to try again at the first place. The GPS charge seemed to be fine, so we went back over and this time it led us almost directly to a large tree with a hole between the roots that we hadn’t really noticed prior to this.

Another find! inside were a few more toys and a soaking wet notepad. We were sad to see that on most of the pages the ink had run and was virtually unreadable. We had an extra ziploc with us and put the notepad inside after we signed it, but obviously too late to save the pages that were already soaked.

The next place was a bit of a walk, but led us to a beautiful area that we had never even known existed, an old train station in a small park setting off the main road. We had less luck with this one, though the clues seemed simple and most of the comments implied the cache was easy to find.

I’m not sure if we were missing something or if it was gone, but we eventually left without finding it, much to the disappointment of the older girls. How neat though that something like this is not only a fun way to get out as a family, but also gives us the opportunity to explore and learn about new things in our area!

First, I filled some jars with vinegar and water (I didn’t double check the recipe, you’re not actually supposed to add water; it seemed to work fine though besides being a bit slow to start), a squirt of dish soap, and food colouring. Fiona chose the colours and squirted in the food colouring. Then she scooped in the baking soda…

And was thrilled to see the foam rise up and out of the jars.

I think she really loved having a chance to do this on her own. We have been doing lots together as a family, but often now they are geared more towards Meredith’s age and not always things Fiona can do without help.

Afterwards, she used the spoon to play around in the bubbles, swirl the colours together, and scoop the foam.

I am going to have to think of some more (or go back through my old blog posts) for other times when Meredith isn’t around.

We have been so busy. Almost every single day this month there is something going on. So much for home schoolers not being social! I have lots to blog about, and not enough time to blog it. But I do want to make a habit of blogging more and seem to be keeping it up much better again. I love having this record to come back to and look at what’s going on in our days.

We kept an eye out for newts or frogs or snakes, all of which we have seen in the past around rotting logs or sunning themselves on the path. We didn’t see any of those today though. We overturned a few rocks to see what kind of insects were hiding underneath. Meredith was very careful to make sure the rocks got turned back over again afterwards.

Under one rotting log we found these odd looking… eggs? Mushrooms? I’m not sure. It is something we want to look up and find out more about. Sorry for the blurry picture, I had a baby on my front waving her arms around as well as the rotting bark these were on was blowing a bit.

As we walked, we listened and could hear all sorts of sounds. Frogs croaking, the creek running nearby, our rooster crowing, leaves rustling, the neighbour’s chainsaw roaring occasionally. Mostly it was very peaceful.

At some point on the walk, Meredith noticed the leaves had started to change colours on the trees here already. We were less than five minutes from our house but the ones at our house are still fully green. I’m assuming because it doesn’t get as much sun in the forest it must be a bit cooler. Enough to make a difference. I expect our leaves will be changing soon.

The girls were quite enamoured with this colourful leaf we found.

The creek behind us is quite low right now. I thought I’d take a picture, as it will be neat to compare it to what it will look like in 6 months when the snows further up start melting and after all the rain. The area on the far side is actually a little island. The creek splits and runs around each side of it.

When we got home was when I remembered about the Outdoor Hour Challenges and went to the site to check out the starting ones. They mostly involve picking things to study, starting to listen and look, starting some collections, and starting a nature journal. We have done all of those already (Meredith has already said she wants to study local plants, especially edible or medicinal ones), except the journal. I have been wanting to start my own journal. The girls can each start their own, or they can just add to mine if they like when they feel like it, or they may want nothing to do with it. I do want to do the starting challenge #9, as I think it would be really eye opening for all of us! I think I will try that out later this week. Then I think I will use the site to get some new ideas and inspiration for future walks, though of course most of our walks and outside time will still be completely unstructured.

One of the booklists I was looking at suggested the book Follow That Map! Since Meredith is still pretty interested in maps, and still talks about the treasure hunts we did last May, I thought it would be a fun one to try. Predictably, she loved it, and we read it a couple more times before she asked if we could make a map of our house again and do another treasure hunt.

We decided to make a compass first. The girls had fun using a magnet to rub a needle up and down, in one direction only. Meredith knows a lot about magnets and their poles already just from playing with them and asking questions, and it was neat to watch her experimenting with the magnet and needle. On one side of the magnet, it wouldn’t stick to the end of the needle, but instead jumped aside to the middle. I hadn’t known this would happen either, and we had a neat discussion about what rubbing the magnet was actually doing to the needle and how the poles might be changing. There are some interesting diagrams here with more information on how it works.

When it came time to float the needle, nothing was really working. Paper sank too quickly, cardboard didn’t spin, we didn’t have any light foam. Fiona eventually came up with the idea of putting the needle in a straw and that worked perfectly! The girls were fascinated to see that no matter which way they turned the needle, it always turned back. So we drew out our map of the bottom of the house and then used our compass to mark north, south, east, and west. Then Meredith left while I hid clues around. I made most of the clues like the ones in the book where the children find a treasure map: “Go 8 steps north” type of thing. But I had one that asked her to find and read a particular book, and the clue fell out of the last page, and a few other clues where she had to figure out what the clue was referring to. She had a blast! And after she figured out the clues, she would exclaim “Clever, Mama!” Or “I loved that one. Funny, Mama!” The treasure at the end was a snack and a few coins in her pirate treasure box.

She had a lot of fun doing this, and later when I ran out for a few groceries she had Kris help her make a treasure hunt for me and wrote out all the clues for it herself. I think this is definitely the sort of activity that will come up over and over.

Last week, when it was still sunny, we headed to the Discovery Centre. I didn’t get a ton of pictures, but the girls were super excited to see the octopus. They had been talking about it since they heard we were going.

They spent some time colouring and playing with puzzles, looking at the microscopes, creating a mosaic whale, and listening to a talk about how whales eat. We saw a baleen that was taller than Fiona! We learned that generally you don’t feel it when a clear jellyfish sting, unlike colourful ones. (Though I discovered later that is simplistic, and there are some very dangerous clear jellyfish. I now want to find out if it is just that the clear ones in our area aren’t dangerous/painful.) They played in the touch tank, then with some puppets. Then we headed outside. We were waiting for Kris to be done something he needed to get done and come pick us up, so we decided to head to the beach.

On the way, we passed through a park with live music playing, and both girls spontaneously started whirling around and dancing.

It’s hard to get a clear picture of two little girls whirling around, so you’ll have to use your imagination.

We headed to the beach, where I sat with Guinevere enjoying the sunshine and watching the older two play.

Then they headed down to the water and Meredith came racing back up to tell me there were jellyfish. I had never seen jellyfish in this water before, so I was curious what she was seeing and went down to the water to see for myself. Sure enough, tons and tons of jellyfish, all along the shoreline.

Pictures really don’t do them justice. At least, not the pictures I got. Meredith pointed out that they were pink, so must sting. While we were playing at the beach, an elderly lady made her way to near us and came over to talk to me and chat about Guinevere. She mentioned she was from Saskatchewan and had never seen the ocean before. Hard to imagine! Meredith overheard her and came over to join in, and the lady was pretty awesome. Her and Meredith got to chatting, and then she asked Meredith if she would show her the ocean. Down they went, and at first the lady couldn’t see the jellyfish, but Meredith pointed them out to her and told her all about what we had learned about them earlier.

When the girls were done with the beach, we wandered along the coast a bit, walking out on the docks and checking out the fish market. Back to the park for more dancing, and then we were outside the Discovery Centre again, where one of the workers was feeding the creatures in their outdoor pool (which has water directly from the ocean).

It was right around this time Kris showed up, and we headed home just in time for bed, tired, but happy.

When it came up the second time (with the bowl, and I had read parts of BFSU at that point), we discussed a bit more about why that happens and the differences between solids, liquids, and gases. We have done experiments with empty glasses turned upside down in bowls of water in the past, so she was pretty confident air is in fact real and does take up space. We tried an experiment from one of the books we had read where we put paper towel in a glass and put it in a bowl of water and the paper towel is still dry. Then we put it back in but tilted the cup and watched the air bubble up, and of course the paper towel was soaking wet at that point.

We talked about how things change state (temperature) and Meredith did quite a few experiments she either made up on her own, or that she had seen in books or videos. We made oobleck which the girls thought was pretty darn cool. I just made it for them and then left them to play with it on their own while I read nearby. It was neat to hear Meredith trying to give Fiona a science lesson about it, and pointing out how it changed from solid to liquid and back again. Note that most of this happened in the space of a week or two, as she asked questions or wanted to do experiments or just said she was bored and we would start discussing it.

When I asked her if she thought gases weighed anything, she thought for a moment and then decided that no, gases don’t weigh anything. We discussed how to test this, and eventually I brought up balloons since it is something she had pointed out when talking about whether air was real and took up space. We weighed a balloon on our scale, then she blew it up and we weighed it again. She was pretty delighted to see that it was in fact heavier full of air! We then blew up a balloon with baking soda and vinegar, which produces carbon dioxide which will fill a balloon. The balloons were very similar in size so she wanted to weigh the one with carbon dioxide one too, and we discovered that straight carbon dioxide is heavier than air. Not super scientific, I know, but the CO₂ balloon was actually a tad smaller than the one filled with air but still heavier, plus I know it is true, so it was good enough for me. Later as they were batting balloons around in the air, she noticed that it was much harder to keep the CO₂ one up in the air and came to the conclusion it must be because CO₂ is heavier than air. She was very excited to announce her findings about that to me!

At this point my goal is mostly just for her to have fun and develop a love of learning and asking questions. It seems to be working so far, so I am definitely going to keep going with it. Sometimes maybe quite slowly, other times we might move quickly, but as long as she is still having fun and asking questions and designing her own experiments to figure out the answers, I will consider it a success and keep going. I think I have mentioned before that she asks almost daily to do an experiment, so it’s nice to have some direction and new ideas, rather than just trying to google or think up cool ones we haven’t done yet!

I think next I will move on to A4 because it seems to follow this one quite naturally, plus her and Fiona would probably love the game he suggests (pretending to be particles of matter in different states). Then, who knows. We will see where her questions take us. If I can find a globe, I think the D track as gravity and the cycles of day/night have come up a few times recently too.

Meredith did end up going through them, and when she realized that many had ideas for science experiments, she got really interested in them and we have actually read quite a few now and done some neat experiments to go along with them. The first three lessons from the A track have pretty much all been incorporated together just based on questions she’s asked, things we’ve discussed, and experiments we have tried. So far, she loves it, and is having a blast. I don’t have a lot of pictures of what we have done so far unfortunately. I either don’t have my camera, or my kids don’t have clothes on. (Now that the weather is nice out, they seem to have decided to shun clothes permanently!)

I wanted to briefly post what we have done with each one, so I will remember later.

A/B1, which is about categories and organization, was pretty easy, especially since she had been asking for my help to clean up and organize her Playmobil, Quadrilla, and other toys in her room anyway. She already knew the terms for categories and organization and she enjoyed deciding what kind of categories she wanted for the toys in her room and coming up with a system on her own for keeping everything organized. One bonus is, her room is now really clean and she’s able to keep it that way pretty easily. I think at least in part because she did a lot of the work in deciding where things should go and what made sense.

I didn’t do the memory exercise with her mostly because it never came up, but she brought up ideas on why we categorize and organize things mostly on her own. We did have one book on sorting from the library, which she really enjoyed reading through and answering the various questions on each page.

I did keep track of a few highlights from the month though:

Our van broke down at a busy intersection. While we were waiting, the girls had to use the bathroom and were hungry, so I decided to take them quickly to walk to a grocery store nearby. Along the way, we realized there is a large patch of greenery we’d never really noticed before, with tons of flowers, insects, trees, etc. The girls had a blast running around and playing and exploring the area.

Kris and Meredith sat for a while outside and watched the honey bees working. Meredith was interested watching them returning to the hive with all the pollen on their legs. We spent some time outside in our yard, planning out future additions to the garden and finding bugs for the chickens to eat. They also did our first solo hive check on the new hive, with Fiona and I watching.

The girls found some beetles they hadn’t seen before and followed them around to see what they would do and where they would go. Meredith also spent time arranging and rearranging our fairy log. I’m not sure where the pink guy came from! He is gone again now and has been replaced by another little fairy that is normally there.

Meredith and I also spent quite a bit of time making mud cakes. Meredith taught me her secret recipe for the perfect mud pie.

Lots of gardening got done! The majority of our seeds, bushes, and trees for the year are in the ground now.

We found a frog hopping around and spent some time watching and talking about him. Looking him up later I think he’s actually a species that is considered invasive locally. But he was still pretty neat to see and watch up close.

Our butterflies hatched out and after a few days of caring for and observing them we released them in our garden and watched them flutter about for bit.

We didn’t get down to the creek as much as I would have liked. It is a bit of a tough walk when you can’t see your own feet! So mostly we were close to home or on easier trails nearby.