Homeschooling: Trees (and a progress report)

Last week and this week we are studying trees in our homeschool. Per Ella's request I might add. Next she wants to study fish, then water, and then nuts. Hmm. She is messing up my plan a little bit...but I am a tad bit excited that she is so excited to learn and realizes that learning is fun.

Which is my number one goal for her kindergarten year...besides all that count to 100 stuff.

We learned about the parts of a tree and their functions. We made a leaf collection book and identified the different kinds of trees. We collected acorns and used them as our math manipulative. We learned how to tell how old a tree is and counted the rings on several fallen trees. We read a lot of books about trees. We painted our own trees. We had the very important discussion about what makes for her perfect climbing tree. And all four of us participated in the Tiny Trekkers program at Little River Park and met with the park ranger who taught all about trees. Surprisingly, the boys did great for the class.

Except for that one part where Ezra lobbed a sweet gumball (from the sweet gum tree...not the candy, thankfully!) across the park and it got stuck in the hair of another mother. True story.
























We are now seven weeks into her kindergarten year, minus that one week we took off for vacation, and I can honestly say that we are enjoying it. She is doing great and soaking up everything like a little sponge. We have our moments. Ok, really... I have my moments where I get a little overwhelmed with fitting it into our already busy just with life daily schedule...but the flexibility of homeschooling has been great. That and the flexibility of my kids. Sometimes we all sit down together in the mornings. Sometimes I work one on one with Ella in the afternoon when the boys are (supposed to be) napping. Sometimes we do both. Sometimes we work straight for an hour or so and sometimes we break it up throughout our day.

We are learning. We are (mostly) having fun. Therefore, I'll give Ella an A+ for this semester and myself a B+.

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