On Apple Picking and Matching Outfits

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This year I decided to take a different tack with our nature studies.  In the past we followed the Ambleside Online schedule and attempted to do a different topic each term, but I was never really on top of it so by the time we finished each term we hadn't really studied that topic at all and it was time to move on to the next thing.  Well, no more. 

This year I decided that we were going to study trees.  All year long.  This way the kids are bound to learn something new, maybe even something I intentionally taught them and not just what they read in the random assortment of on-topic books I brought home from the library for their browsing pleasure.  I made a whole week by week plan and everything combing resources from (mostly) the Handbook of Nature Study, The Tree Book for Kids and Their Grown-Ups, and Arabella Buckley's Trees and Shrubs, and John Muir Laws free nature journaling curriculum. I organized our studies based on the seasons and what would be most interesting to study at any given time so naturally September meant apple trees. 

Fridays are for nature study walks here so last Friday we went to an apple orchard to pick apples and make observations.  We successfully sketched our observations, with some taking more pains than others, and some running away crying because there were too many flies buzzing around the fallen apples.  I'm really honing my skills on five minute water color tree paintings, since that's about all the kids will give me.  I should be a complete expert by the end of the year :)

In that five minutes the children also loaded up on twenty pounds of not quite ripe Honeycrisps while I was otherwise occupied which I'm hoping will ripen on the counter?  Or should I just turn the tart things into apple crumbles and call it a day?

Also, is it not the cutest that David picks out matching outfits for him and his mini-me? 

On Thirty Six and Ten

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We had our first yearly birthday cluster this week with Chris and David's back to back birthdays.  Chris is a bit of a birthday scrooge, always saying that he doesn't want a fuss, or a cake, or much celebrating at all, but as usual we ignored his wishes and made him his annual birthday banana pudding.  He got lots of gift cards from all of our family which he used to buy some much needed civilian clothes for this year-of-not-being-able-to-wear-his-uniform and a new wedding ring to replace the one he lost.  Again.

The gift he declared to be the best one ever in the history of birthday gifts though was his new bug-a-salt gun.  I'm pretty certain he also loved the wool socks I picked out, but they couldn't really compete with a salt shooting gun that allows you to stalk and take out every pesky fly in sight.  He'll appreciate them more come winter I'm sure.

Now, to my knowledge David has never asked anyone to ignore or not make a fuss over his birthday and he basked in all of his birthday celebrations.  I've been finding that older children are fun to shop for because they start wanting tools instead of just more toys and who doesn't feel good about their children taking up new science-y hobbies?  He desperately wanted both a rock tumbler and a chemistry kit and his aunts and grandparents did not disappoint. 

Ever since I first let him step into a Maine rock shop on our vacation he's been begging to not only collect and polish all the rocks but also to open his own rock shop--if I would only buy him a shed to use for his premises which he would keep in the backyard.  At first I thought this idea was ridiculous and told him that obviously if he wanted his own shed he would need to acquire all of his merchandise and then sell enough to purchase his own, but then I remembered that in Little Men, Jo had given her boys exactly that--a shed on their property that housed all of their collections and animals.  I realized that obviously what my little men need is a shed in the backyard to hold every random bit of nature/stray animals that they bring home so that I don't have to store them inside of my house.

I mean to foster their independent and creative spirits.

And if they want to charge admission for their curiosity shop all the better.  Clearly I'm going to need to get Chris on board with this plan at our next house.  I think it would significantly improve our lives.

In addition to opening presents and having his first experience with tricky relighting candles, as seen in the above candle blowing out montage, we saved his biggest surprise for last.  After dinner, Chris took him out to have his first experience with a real live horseback riding session.  He's been dropping many not-so-subtle hints over the past year that he would like horseback riding lessons which we haven't done because, expensive, so he was completely surprised when he and Chris pulled up to the stable.  Of course Chris took zero pictures of them on their trail ride, but David was absolutely glowing when he came home.  And it takes a lot to make David glow :)

With Chris and David sharing back to back birthdays, we don't really need reminders of how old we are getting, but seriously--how do we already have a ten year old child?  I can still vividly remember that first labor day weekend when I so fittingly went into labor myself and it just doesn't seem possible that it's been ten years--or that that same little boy, who has requested that I never call him Davy again, but always David which is more befitting his new mature status, could be closer to leaving the nest than entering it.  Ah, time goes so quickly--and children's birthdays can be so bittersweet.

At least we have the bug-a-salt gun to keep up our spirits.