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! :) 

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