Full Circle

A Sunday Afternoon

I marked the calendar today. Our first day getting out, rock hunting, rock throwing, sitting and enjoying the sun and the reflections of the water as it bubbled past. The elements fell into alignment this afternoon, warm, sunny and only a slight breeze, so we jumped into the car and drove to one of the nearby rivers for some casual exploring.



It's all still pretty bare, hardly any signs of green shoots coming up and only the faint sound of birds, but the sun was shining and it was WARM and it felt like a celebration.



We looked for items to bring home and draw in our Nature Journals. Little Brother found an animal bone, Middle Brother brought home a dried flower, Big Brother found a beautiful twisted branched and Sister brought home a leaf that reminds me of Lamb's Ear.



And, of course, we found rocks, lots of rocks. Looking for rocks with white lines through them...



looking for ones to make the colors of the rainbow...



and looking for heart-shapes...



Yellow-branched shrubs lined the highest parts of the riverbed, making a stark contrast with the otherwise drab surroundings.



The kids found sticks that became swords or guns or simply for dragging through the sand.



We heard some geese overhead and I managed to get a quick shot...



Faces were beginning to feel rosy and our rock bag was getting too heavy to carry so it meant time to go home. But, I felt content, knowing we're done with winter and that we have many rock-hunting river days ahead of us!

Reflections

Golden Picnic

Initiated by a request from my daughter that we do something outside and my own desire to take some fall foliage photographs, we decided to go on a hot chocolate picnic. Dad came with us and we headed out one of the canyons to see what we could find. Sage and dry grass covered most of the mountains, but there were pockets of color from aspens and maples dotting the hillsides. We drove up a dirt road, then hiked a ways until we were surrounded in yellow.How is it that the colors can really be so bright and beautiful it almost hurts your eyes? It seems to be Mother Nature's last big hurrah before her long, achromatic winter's sleep.

Wilding Sticks and Nature Bracelets

This is an easy project we did the last time we went to the river. I call them "Wilding Sticks". All you need is a variety of colorful electrical tape, scissors, and some feathers. After you've collected the walking sticks, add the tape and feathers in whatever design is appealing. I think they're so cool to look at and the kids love using them.

We also made these nature bracelets which were very easy. Make a bracelet of duct tape with the sticky side out. Now, collect bits and pieces of flowers, seeds, grasses and other things you find and stick them on the bracelet. I like this project because it really tunes you into the variety of plant-life growing around you.

A Weather Birthday

Another birthday! Little Brother turned 7 and we had his party over the weekend. We tossed around a few theme ideas and decided on Weather. Sort of an unusual birthday theme, but, surprisingly, it offered a lot of fun ideas to try. Little Brother is "walking sunshine", always smiling and laughing and happy, so the theme seemed appropriate for him.

First, some fun information at Weather Trivia. The fact that fascinated me the most was this one, "The amount of sunlight reaching the earth's surface is 6,000 times the amount of energy used by all human beings worldwide. The total amount of fossil fuel used by humans since the start of civilization is equivalent to less than 30 days of sunshine." What were we ever thinking using fossil fuels when Mother Nature has provided us with an overabundance of free, clean energy to use? Astounding!

Anyway, back to the party... we made wind chimes... I bought embroidery hoops from the thrift store (very cheap) and collected an assortment of "dingers". Metal cookie cutters, a variety of bolts and washers, serving forks, etc. I bought some inexpensive windchimes and cut off the chimes to use, too. You can use fishing line to tie the pieces on, but I thought these threads were a colorful touch. I also thought it might be nice to paint the hoops ahead of time, too, but didn't think of that until it was too late!

Next, we made sun prints. I bought the paper at a toy store. It was a little more involved than I thought it would be and I can see that with practice you'd get some really great results. First you lay out your items on the paper in the shade. We then covered them with plexiglass to hold the pieces in place and moved them into the sunshine. However, the plexiglass seemed to block some of the sunlight getting through to the paper (you can tell by how the paper is changing color), so we took it off and exposed the papers a little longer. After a few minutes, you develop the papers in a tray of water and then let them dry. They will continue to darken over a couple of days.


Here's a couple of them finished...

We did a couple of really neat weather-related experiments. We got some ideas from the Steve Spangler website. First, we did the "Tornado in a Bottle". It was very easy to set up. I found the Tornado Tube connector at the toy store. We did the lamp oil version using blue lamp oil.



The next one we did was very cool, but a bit more complicated. Watch the video on the Steve Spangler site and you'll see a great demonstration of this experiment. I wanted the same "WOW!" factor as the one on the video, but when you read the directions, it's for one using smoke from a match. Not as impressive. So, we managed to put together the experiment as done in the video.

You'll need: a "foot pump" bicycle pump, a #4 stopper (from a hardware store), a tire needle (ours came with the pump), a drill fitted with a #16 drill bit, and a clear 2-liter bottle. Drill a hole in the center of the stopper and insert the tire needle that's attached to the pump.


Add a little bit of hot water to the bottle, then pour it out. All you need are the water droplets inside. Now, place the stopper firmly in the bottle.


Someone has to hold it down tight, otherwise it will pop out before you get enough pressure for the cloud. Start pumping the foot pump. When it gets to 40 PSI, release the stopper and the bottle will instantly fill with a cloud!



My very patient son, Big Brother, helped me take the "Cloud in a Bottle" photos. It took a lot of tries to capture the water vapor escaping from the top of the bottle. You can see it a lot better in person, so I'd really suggest trying this experiment. Besides, then the kids can entertain themselves shooting bottle rockets across the yard for the rest of the afternoon!
To finish up, we did a sun pinata.
 
A fun, "fair" weather day for everyone!

What She Lacks in Words, She Makes up in Pictures - A Day at the River

We've found a new favorite spot on the river to visit. We like it because it's easy to walk up to the water, there's a nice grassy area for picnics, the water isn't too deep, there's sand to dig in and tons of cool rocks to search through. If we go at the beginning of the week, no one is ever there. Starting around Thursdays, the campers start coming in for the weekend.

On our way home, we saw some sheep herders with their large flock of sheep.





I love these little sheep wagons they use.



Can you see the beautiful sheep dogs protecting their herd?



Heading back to town....

 

Pinecone Bird Feeders

A little late posting, but this is one of the things we did to celebrate Earth Day. First, we collected a lot of pine cones, not hard to do in our area!

Then, we smeared the cones with peanut butter and rolled them in bird seed.

We made little slip knots and "roped" the pine cones with twine to hang in the trees.

It's helpful to have a sink full of soapy water ready-to-go for messy hands.

I was concerned about using peanut butter for the birds, seems like I had read somewhere it wasn't good for them, but I did a search and couldn't find anything to substantiate the rumor. I found this article that says it's not a problem.

Aren't they pretty? We made a dozen and hung them all around the yard. Now, we're hoping we get some hungry customers!

Caterpillar Poem and Project

I've started using First Language Lessons with Middle Brother and Little Brother. We're only a few lessons in, but so far, so good. I like that the lessons are short and scripted. Makes it easy on the teacher and easy to fit into our busy schedule. We've always included memorization as part of our lessons and it's nice to see it continued in FLL. The first poem in the book to memorize is Christina Rossetti's The Caterpillar. We did this project to go along with the poem.

 

No Exotic Bird Names Here

I spied these beautiful birds as we were out for a drive today and zipped over to get a closer look. I took some pictures and was so excited thinking I couldn't wait to get home to look them up in my Birds of Idaho book. I kept thinking they must have some really neat exotic name because they were such striking birds. As I looked at the pictures in the book, I was saying to myself, "OK, they were black birds with yellow heads, black with yellow heads," and, Voila! There they were, the photo was exactly as I'd seen them with the very un-exotic name... "Yellow-Headed Blackbird". Oh well, certainly there must be a Williamson's Sapsucker or Cordilleran Flycatcher somewhere in the future!