Little Classes in My Home and Our Backyard Farm

Last week began a series of little classes I am offering in my old daycare space to children in town and in my neighborhood.  Nature Detectives is VERY full and each week we focus on a new subject of learning about nature.  Last week was The Sun and Sundials to celebrate the Summer Solstice. It was so nice to have neighborhood children walking to my house and friends of mine dropping off their children to spend the morning learning with us.

 We made pretty woven suns in miniature format from the tutorial in our Midsummer Festival E-Book (by the way, there is a SALE right now for only two more days!)

We also played fun nature games and made pocket sundials.

 The class is so big I employed my teenager to help as well as my friend who does the outdoor programs with me through Park and Rec.  It is so nice to have such a big response so soon... but it was also a lot of prepping and difficult to find enough activities to keep the children engaged for the full two hours.

 We also made simple paper plate sundials and tested them outdoors.  

My little Nature Detectives!  It's so funny how big my own daughters are compared to these children now. They are still willing participants in all of my classes but it's pretty obvious they are growing up and away from our Little Acorn days. 

 I also held my first Learn to Crochet class with a small group of girls last week.

Crochet is NOT easy to teach but once they mastered how to hold the yarn and hook, they were able to learn the chain stitch and made a VERY long chain that we turned into necklaces and belts. 

Tomorrow is week two of both classes.  I worked hard tonight preparing in advance and hope it goes ok.  

I also have a Mommy and Me Learn to Crochet Class starting on Thursday night. That should be really fun.  

In between, I've been working in the garden a lot.  

The chicks are getting SO big and they LOVE it when I take them into the garden to free range.  I let the bunny out too and it's so cute to see them all in there together. 

I think I may have two roosters though. They are still too young to know for sure but their combs are huge compared to their same breed sister and it's pretty obvious there is a distinct difference in the way they look, their size and also the noise they make. We will have to see how it all works out but I won't be keeping roosters... so we may be down to only 6 chickens. I knew I should have gotten more! 

Learning Together in Nature

This little video says it all.. this is exactly why I love doing what I do so much.  It was taken the very last day of the Forest Preschool session and is such a beautiful memory for me to capture. 

 I love that the weather is warm and we can be outside so much again.  School is still in session until Thursday but the girls have been enjoying playing in the back woods, in the garden area and in our pool after school each day.  It makes striving for media-free more realistic in our home when the weather is nice like this.  Those very cold nasty winters are hard to handle sometimes.

  

One of the wonderful parts about running outdoor programs in town is that my own children get to come to work with me.  I take Maia and Bree to Nature Club on Saturdays with me and I love being able to share these outdoor learning moments together and still help provide for my family financially. 

 We did so many fun things together in both the forest preschool and nature club programs.  We learned about life cycles, went on fun scavenger hunts.. leaf hunts...

Played outside with new friends in the fresh air for hours...

Collected some bugs, climbed some trees... 

 Found some cool discoveries... 

Identified trees

  

by sorting and analyzing their leaves and looking up which species they came from.

It's been busy... and fun... and soon I will be starting new classes in my home such as Nature Detectives where we will make sundials, dissect owl pellets, learn about metamorphosis and create a weather watcher.  I also will be teaching a learning to crochet class and a waldorf friends class for smaller children.  

I'm excited about the great response to these programs in town and I'm also trying to keep my online writing active as well as the photo contests and newsletters for Little Acorn Learning and my e-book sales.  I've been working on my new website for over a year now but have not been able to put the hours into it that I need to launch.  It's busy but I've missed focusing on my work this way and as long as I can keep a good routine in place, I think I will be able to create some balance.

Forest Preschool and An Identification Contest Win a FREE E-Book~

I'm back to doing my Forest Preschool program in town and I have come to realize that I've been focusing on some really important things lately but I have really missed working with children.

Every Thursday my friend and I do a craft, hike, scavenger hunt, lunch and activities with the children at a local park across from the library.

 We go to a different part of the park each week and the children are so sweet and have the best time.  This session only had four children enroll. We also have a Nature Club program beginning on Saturdays for older children. I hope we can attract more children in the area and grown the program.  It's so important for children to learn to appreciate the natural world and their local area.

I'm hoping that I can gather a group of parents interested in another similar program so I can tailor it to their needs.

Today we took a walk up and visited our town's community garden.  The children thought it was pretty neat that people shared a garden together.   I've never visited there before today so it was nice for me to see too. I have my own veggie garden but really love the idea of sharing a common space and any extra produce can be donated to our local food pantry.

Oh, by the way!!!!.... I AM GETTING CHICKENS!  I've wanted them for so long and I was finally able to wear my husband down enough for him to give in.  I cannot wait.  I told my little preschoolers that maybe they can help me name the chickens and come visit them.  They should hatch next Wednesday and I will have baby chicks late next week.  I'll be sure to document my adventure :)

We came across many cool discoveries today.  A beautiful flower that I believe came from one of the trees above us...

A little inchworm...

And JUST as we were leaving to meet parents we found this little guy!  In all my years working outside in this area, I've never seen anything remotely close to it.  Connecticut is not crawling with lizards and reptiles under our feet so it was a rare treat to see...

He was tiny.. maybe 2".  Can you do some research with your children and identify him?  If you homeschool or like to supplement your child's education with nature learning - use this as a fun opportunity to let your child do some research either online or at the local library.

When your child thinks he or she knows what the name of this little guy is... post it in the comments of this post along with your child's first name and location. You can also share a link if you want. Come back here on Monday, June 1st and we will randomly pick a few of the comments to WIN a free e-book of your choice from Little Acorn Learning!

Remember to let your child do the work - winners will be random and not based on the correct answer.

Best of luck!  

All in a day's work ... literally.

We finally did it!  We gathered enough sap from the four maples we tapped in our backyard to boil it into syrup.  This was a perfect activity for the first day of spring to share with the girls!  

As you can see from the first photo above, we had a decent amount of sap.  Two of the white buckets were almost full, one was about half full and the blue container had about 1/4 sap in it.  We boiled and boiled and boiled.  For the ENTIRE DAY.  Approximately 8 hours to be exact and this is what we got:

 Yep.  That's it!  All of that sap for not even a half of a jar of syrup!  But, OMG it was the most absolute delicious syrup we have ever tasted and the girls were amazed that they were able to make their own from trees in their backyard.  Fresh, unprocessed and pure.  

Of course, we had pancakes the very next morning.  Our syrup got firm in the refrigerator so I'm thinking I likely cooked it just a bit too much.  At the very end of the process, it can go from the right temp to cooking too much pretty quickly.  I think I learned this time around and hopefully will do better next time.  In either case, we were able to warm up the syrup and it was fine.  

Definitely hooked on the process!