+ Reading everything about Charlotte Mason that I can get my hands on. The more I read about her ideas, the more sense it all makes and the more I feel an inner peace about following her recommendations. It just clicks, y'all. It's not, maybe, as simple to understand as some other homeschooling methods (probably because it's so much more than just a homeschooling method), but it's worth the extra work it takes to gather the full picture. If you're a homeschooler (or want to be in the future), I highly recommend looking into her ideas.
+ Exploring our local nature center. It's been rainy and windy and cold a lot lately, but on the sunshine-y days we've packed ourselves up and headed to the nature center. It's still pretty much just a bunch of dead plants, but we've been on the lookout for seeds that made it through the winter and have found quite a few. We also recently started a little nature table in a corner of the kitchen, so we've added our finds to our little collection so we can keep examining and talking about them. E gets most excited about pinecones, but we also have a wasp's nest from last summer, some pods from a wild senna plant, a catalpa tree pod, and several types of flower heads.
I'll admit, I wasn't super thrilled about the idea of a nature table at first. It seemed like I was setting myself up for the task of gathering dirty sticks and rocks from every corner of my house to pile them on an ugly-looking table right in the middle of our main living area. Yuck. But there are so many days with crummy weather where we live that I felt compelled to find a way to put E in touch with nature even when we couldn't go exploring outside. Enter, the nature table. I looked around the house and gathered several empty glass containers and a silver tray and other such things, and we use those to hold our finds--it makes it SO much more attractive. And I made a clear rule that nature stuff belongs on the nature table and nowhere else. E's been surprisingly compliant, so it's going well.
+ Along the same lines, I went ahead and started my own nature journal, so I could form the habit for myself before I need to try to introduce the project to E. So far I've only made three entries, and it has sat untouched for a couple weeks lately. Oops. However, even the small progress I've made has been surprisingly gratifying, and it makes me look forward to the next time I can steal away a few minutes to work on it.
+ E is still obsessed with dinosaurs. She sings about them, pretends to be them, "reads" about them, and tells me that she thinks about them before she goes to sleep so she can dream about them. It's hilarious and awesome and I love my little paleontologist.
+ Z is just living that baby life. I'd write more here, but there's a 5-month post coming up here soon, so I'll save details for that. In general, she's great and we love her. E, too--she gets a big kick out of it when Z flashes her gummy grin her way. She's so excited for the day Z is big enough to play with her.
+ I'm kindof regretting not getting a membership to the children's zoo this year. We've had one for the last few years, and last summer it seemed like we weren't using it as much as we "should," so I decided we would take a break this year. My goal was to renew the "magic" of the place so we'd go more often the next time we get a membership. It's only March, but I'd say it's working, because I'm itching to escape to our go-to "free" (no out-of-pocket admission cost per visit, anyway) adventure.
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