Getting Out of the House

Liam and his best buddy share a science field trip.

One of the advantages of starting school early turned out to be the availability of friends to join in the learning adventure.  We started school on Monday with lessons about classifying animals and plants.  I thought it would be fun to go on a nature hike by a pond to see how many different types of animals we could find.  We brought along a nature-loving buddy for the lesson.

Before the trip, we made a table to track mammals, amphibians, insects, birds and fish.

This was Liam's favorite animal.  We were able to Google more information on Stink Beetles the next day.

Seeing some obviously non-native animals gave us a chance to talk about camoflage, and why wild animals fit in better than the orange koi or domestic ducks and geese.  We didn't see any mammals, but saw evidence of one, with these holes.  I can't be sure, but they may have been skunk dens - so maybe it's best we didn't meet their makers.

We stopped off for ice cream and to pick up some dinner.  While we waited for the takeout order, the boys filled in their notebooks with our findings.  Liam's friend learned that birds evolved from dinosaurs.  I made a note on his book to look up velocoraptors and emus.

The next day, based on Liam's interest in stink beetles, I was able to google some fun videos about the life cycle of a stink beetle and their specific classification.  It also gave me the idea to move up the unit on insects.  

Liam seemed happy to jump back into grade 4 on ST Math.  For those curious about what it really looks like, here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g8pmwLuZxM

I'm proud of our having been a part of the beta group of homeschoolers using this program.  It is now avialable for more homeschool parents.

It was fun for Liam and for me to include a friend in hands-on lessons this week.  I'm hoping to do more of it, after school and on breaks.  After all, learning can and does happen at any time of day and the joy of discovery is in the sharing.