Fungus, field trips and volcanoes...OH MY!



It has been quite a couple of weeks for the school of Gouge!  The boys, especially David, have enjoyed being home so very much!  

I've been trying to keep them busy with a myrid of fun but educational activities.  Hey, why NOT be sneaky about it when I can? ;)

I realized that even though I would love to take them to "far off places", time and money can be a hindrance.  As I was eating dinner one night I looked out the window to a tree stump where we put bird seed to feed our local birds.  I saw 2 beautifully growing mushrooms.  It struck me that we don't have to "go" anywhere beyond our driveway.  A whole world waited just outside our door to explore!  So exploring we would do!

The next day we went on a mushroom hunt!  We started by watching some time lapse YouTube clips of various fungi growing.  The boys LOVED it!  And it was a great way for them to begin to learn the life cycle via pictorials and simplicity!  

Here are a couple of the clips we watched.

They really loved this one!
Beautiful and haunting. 

More toadstool time lapses 

Blue Oyster Mushrooms 

And then....the beauty in our own yard!




Then something even more amazing happened.  The boys wanted to continue exploring, to discover what they could, to see the world around them!

And they found, beautiful wild vines growing on our front bushes, filled with honey bees!  Wild growing purple heather flowers, wild flowers among ferns and just beauty all around them!


 








A couple of days later we took a field trip to a local coffee and pottery place in Lake Wales:  Beans-n-Brushes.  I let them pick out something they wanted to paint [both opted for bowls so they could eat ice cream and cereal out of them!  Go figure!]  They concentrated hard as they painted their works of art!  Here's a video clip!

Masterpiece! 






The most fun part of the last couple of weeks for the boys has been our construction and eruption of Mt. Dave-Aaron!  I opted for a simple construction that both boys could do!  It's amazing what some cardboard, wood glue mixed with water, construction paper and tinfoil can do!   THEN it's even more amazing when you add food coloring, vinegar and baking soda!  

First we looked at/read some books from the library on volcanoes and watched some YouTube clips!  [Gotta love YouTube!!!].  Here's a catch little song they loved!

Volcano song 

Then the eruption of Mt. Dave-Aaron

David making it erupt 

Aaron making it erupt 

And the fun photos from pre-construction, construction and eruption!










Life is simple in our home, but it sure is filled with fun! :) 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

She was using food stamps! Why doesn't she work? Those are MY tax dollars!

Image
I will never forget that day. I was judging!!! I watched the lady as she absently scanned 2 Lunchables, a carton of Capri-Sun, some individual applesauce pouches, a single serving of some soda product, and a pack of mixed nuts. (do you KNOW how expensive and processed those Lunchables are anyway?? Not to mention juice pouches full of sugar.) Come on, wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to make a couple of sandwiches, and have some reusable cups and portion containers to get virtually the same meal?   Her children were a little disheveled and good god I don't think she ever brushes their hair. They were also not under control but arguing back and forth. To be honest it was rather annoying and I thought why doesn't she intervene? But wonder of wonders, they were on electronics.  And of course, she was paying with food stamps.  No mistaking that debit card anywhere. They have welfare, but still have money for that apparently.   She had some kind of Vera Bradley purse herself a
Read more

6.5 years later....I still wonder about you tiny one!

Image
I will never forgot the day when I found out I was pregnant for the very first time.  It was such a rush of emotion.  Fear, happiness, contemplation, all wrapped up into one.  It wasn't the most opportune time, but let's face it when is it really?  At the heart of it all, I was ecstatic.  I was going to be a mother, and Eric a father. Several weeks later I could tell, things were not going well.  One night we found ourselves in the emergency room.  An ultrasound had been ordered.  Eric was made to leave and I was left alone in a sterile room with just the technician and myself.  She barely spoke 2 words to me.  I saw the baby and the screen was then quickly whisked around so I could see no more.  My heart sunk.  The doctor came in and said we see the baby, but no heart beat.  But don't worry.  It's still early! But I already knew in my heart.  I was nearly 8 weeks and the heart should have already been beating by 5 weeks.  A week later, I was in the ER again and it
Read more

The Anniversaries of Death

Image
It's been 436 days since Eric passed away.  One year and two months.  62 weeks and 1 day.  To be honest, I'm not sure some days how we got this far.  A part of me "knows" but a part of me does not. In those early days and weeks, two pieces of advice became a profound stepping stone on this journey. First, do not make any major decisions during the first year of losing a loved one. The second was "do the next thing".   I remember hearing the first one from the priest at my local Parish.  Trust me, I wanted to take my boys and run away.  To where?  I don't know.  I felt like I wanted to run and run and run.  I wanted to crawl out of my skin.  I wanted to be anywhere but here (then, in that present moment). The second piece of advice I heard at a grief support group.  One of the lovely people there was recounting the beginning days for herself and how she had heard that advice.  "Do the next thing".  If that next thing was to brush your teeth, the
Read more