Fox Unit Study

It’s Fox Week here at Homeschooling in the Rose Garden!!

Today started out with a storybook study/nature study on the wild red fox.  I base it on this book by Shirley Woods:

This story is amazing!  In fact, I would highly recommend any of Shirley Woods naturalist series.  I have all of them and we will be spending most of our time going through these for our storybook and nature studies this year along with Trickle Creeks, Ecojournals.  If you enjoy nature study and Charlotte Mason these are the books to get!

We are pairing these two wonderful resources with a few Homeschool Share Lapbook materials.  I pick and choose what I use with this to what would help my children specifically.  Slowly, throughout the book, we can fill out different portions of the lapbook with answers.  For example, the first three chapters we covered several varieties of prey that foxes hunt, two different dens that foxes use and live in, and two different types of barks that foxes will use to warn young and mates.  This gave us information for a whole section of the Lapbook and we hadn’t even gotten half way through the book!

Fox Lapbook from Homeschool Share

Here are some videos we found very useful and fun for our Fox study:

Fox Sounds:

5 Wild Fox Kits Playing:

Aesop's Fables about teasing.  Aesop's Fable Lapbook (we only used the Fox and the Stork portion).

Aesop's Fables - The Fox and The Stork:

And the last one, just for fun, Foxes jumping on a back yard trampoline!

And that’s just for starters.

Qq is for Quilt

Box #1 was a few pages from LOTW

Box #2 was a book called The Quilting Bee by Gail Gibbons

It was SO fun to read!!  There were tons of facts in easy to understand bites:

Box #3 is a worksheet I made that had a bed frame picture from the top down that he covered with mosaic squares he glued on.

Box #4 Patterning from LOTW.

Box #5 cutting activity from LOTW

Box #6 was a game called First Words.  He is at the point where he can read most 3 letter words without help and many other words with help. 

Box #7 was a set of huge foam dice and a the game “Roll to the Top”.

Box #8 was Dot to Dot count to 10 book

Box #9 was a pattern block sheet I printed (should have done it on card stock) that is a quilt square.  He loved this. 

Box #10 was completely off theme… but the boys got Ninja Bread Men for Christmas in their stockings and we had yet to make them.  Although we usually make our own cookie dough from organic ingredients, this time we used a gifted dough from a friend and made some yummy treats!

It was an awesome day with the letter Qq!

My new favorite book

This book is adorable!  I am tempted to tell you all about it but it is almost better if I tell you nothing and let you get it for yourself (I hope your library has it!).  Very simple and very subtle.  Pro homebirth.  Love it!

"Getting ready for baby" reading basket

Lately there has been a lot of prep for the new baby. And most of that has come in the form of talking with Logan about it. Here is a story that I wrote for the other blog that really touched my heart: Taking care of my now littlest before my future littlest gets here

In the reading basket right now is a whole bunch of books about bringing home a new baby. I wanted to list them for anyone else who has a toddler and is getting ready for a new babe. :)

Sam's New Baby from Abingdon Press

A Christan view on a older child (school age) that is getting a new baby sister. Very cute story and beautiful watercolor drawings. It talks a lot about how each child is different and special.

Biscuit and the Baby by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

A cute 'I Can Read' story about Biscuit the puppy and how he wants to meet the new baby in the house. This book features a big sister who is 'helping' Biscuit to wait until the baby wakes up before he gets to meet and smell him.

Froggy's Baby Sister by Jonathan London

Logan's favorite for the last week, this story is about how Froggy gets a new sister but she doesn't have legs yet and so he isn't able to really help. When she finally grows legs he teaches her the basics of being a frog (ie: eating flies). Logan really loved the idea of baby frogs getting 'fly mush' in a bottle. lol!

A Baby Sister for Frances by Russell Hoban

Frances has a new baby sister and she is not sure about all the changes. No one pays much attention to her... at least that is the way it seems to Frances. So she decides to run away to under the kitchen table and her parents have purposeful dialog about how everyone in the house needs Frances... even the baby. (At first the 'running away' portion bothered me, but Logan really related to the story.)

The Barenstain Bears: New Baby

This one really touched just on what we have been dealing with. Brother Bear grew out of his baby bed just in time for his new baby sister! Considering it was only two weeks ago that we got Logan his twin sized bed, Logan not only loved this book but was able to have some great conversations about growing up and getting bigger. A very cute and highly recommended book!

And my two favorites:

There's Going to be a Baby by John Burningham & Helen Oxenbury

An adorable book about a brother who is getting a new sibling. The brother is probably just about 4 years old. The drawings are incredible watercolors and there is a beautiful back and forth dialog between the mama and the little boy about what the baby may be when he grows up. There are also questions lingering like "Do we have to have a baby?" that come in during the time she is pregnant and they are very open ended, so may be very wonderful points of conversation for children who are thinking the same things, but may not know how to ask.

What Baby Needs by Dr Sears

My personal favorite so far. This book is perfectly suited to my family due to it's natural take on birth (which it doesn't go into detail), breastfeeding, co sleeping, baby wearing etc. It explains beautifully about how the baby needs to be next to the mama "just like you were" for a long time and it may seem like you never get alone time with mama anymore, but soon enough, the baby will be big enough to play with you and your mama will be able to take time to be with just you too. Wonderfully done with nice illustrations, this book may just be my standard baby shower gift for anyone with a older sibling. :)

Reading Basket for Autumn

In our reading basket this week, we have a bunch of wonderful books for the Autumn season. I have been having Cyan read them to Logan after naptime and they both look forward to those moments.

Grandfather Twilight

More than anything, this book is stunning! There are very few words, making it a favorite for beginning readers and the pictures are beautiful and magical, making it a favorite for non-readers. I included it in the Autumn book basket because it seems to show the earth going to sleep... and this time of year, it can feel as though the days get shorter very quickly.

Too Many Pumpkins

At first, we got it from the library, but within the week I knew we had to own it and add it to our Autumn book box. The kids just LOVE the story! Rebecca Estelle, an old maid, hates pumpkins. But when a pumpkin truck accidentally drops a pumpkin in her front yard circumstances make her adjust her opinion of pumpkins... and create a connection with her community as well. A charming story and a good laugh (and plenty of moments to tear up too).

And just in case that isn't enough reason to go out and see if you can find this book, here is a whole Natural Kids unit study based on this book and pumpkins! Perfect for this time of year. :)

Inspired Sprouts; Pumpkin Corner

Autumn Story

Another adorable addition to the Brambly Hedge series by Jill Barklem, Autumn Story does not disappoint! The harvest time is very busy for the creatures of Brambly Hedge. One day, when out gathering, Primrose gets lost and has a wonderful little adventure. The story includes a lot of harvest activities that we do around here in the fall; gathering for winter, preserving foods, and enjoying hot tea being among them. And just like the other books in the series, the illustrations are amazingly detailed and make me remember fondly the days of laying in the grass, making tiny houses for fairies and mice alike.

The Legend of Spookly, the Square Pumpkin

This is the story that Cyan read yesterday. It is an adorable book about a pumpkin that feels like an outsider because he has a different shape than the rest of the pumpkins in his patch. In the end, he gets to save the day with his difference and enjoys being the hero for his pumpkin patch.

I didn't realise that this book had become a franchise until I searched for this image on Google. There is apparently a Spookly movie, a Spookly website and everything! I look forward to looking for those at my library, but for now, we are very happy just to read the book over and over.

Book pick ~ I'd Really Like to Eat a Child

My newest Goodwill book find! This book is adorable! About a tiny alligator named Achilles and his trials with not liking what he has for dinner and always wanting 'to eat a child', this book is very well done. It has very gentle morals about eating your breakfast to grow big and strong, but is mostly for entertainment.

The setting is the Nile River, so adding this book in when reading about ancient Egypt, or even current Egyptian culture, would be a cute and funny break from the more serious social topics.

I am very glad I bought it... we have read it many times already in our bedtime book rotation.

The Little Prince

The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery is an amazing book. . I hadn't read this book in about 15 years. All I remembered was that it was sad. As a 'grown up' I was able to see so much more. The ideas that were common place to me as a child are now extraordinary and deep. Which is the exact phenomenon that he speaks of in the book. About 'grown ups'.

A friend of mine has a tattoo of the Boa Constrictor from the inside and outside. One on each of her forearms. I found this out only last week as I had never seen her in short sleeves before. The next day, I was enjoying a morning of happy thrifting and saw this book on the second hand book shelf. I sat on the floor and read it until I was finished right there in the thrift store. Then I bought it, brought it home, and read it again. It has been in my head for the last two days... I don't feel that I can explain the story very well... it is just a book that everyone should read. Especially if you have not read it in a very long while.

It looks like a children's book. Don't be fooled. This book is not really for children, but for the grown ups that children have grown into.

Swallows and Amazons

Swallows and Amazons is a book about a group of siblings that go sailing to an abandoned island to camp for the last bit of the summer. The four children (ages 14 to 7) have amazing imaginations and they enjoy pretending that they are on a island in the middle of the ocean, protecting their ship from 'natives'. The book has an amazing way of showing the children's vivid imaginations by transferring their ideas to the stories that are being read. For example, for an entire chapter in the book the author refers to their mother as "Queen Elizabeth". "Queen Elizabeth said 'Is the ship sound captain?'" and Captain John replied "Yes my Queen." In another chapter, their mother and the man who has rowed her out to the island to drop of supplies for the children are referred to as "natives" for the entire trip.

We are about halfway through this wonderful book and I cannot stop singing it's praises. It is adorable! The only drawback to reading this delightful story is my lack of knowledge of proper nautical terms. It took me quite a while of reading to figure out what 'tacking' was (the way to go against the wind when in a sailing vessel) or what 'duffers' were (untidy and unruly sailors, apparently). But with a short unit study of ships and their equipment, the kids and I fell head over heals in love with this story and can't wait to read the rest of this series.

Fall books we love

In our storage box for the Autumn season we have a bag of cookie cutters that are shaped like apples, pumpkins, cats, and bats. We have a small wreath that we decorate with fall leaves each year for the front door. We have glass pumpkins that my husband made during his years as an artist. And the kids Trick or Treat bags I made them. We have a binder of ideas for Autumnal crafts and pictures of our nature table from past falls... and we have books.

I don't like to keep tons of books out all the time, but when I bring these books out just for the season it is such a treat to read them over and over again. Kind of like the first time you put on Christmas music in December. You look forward to the ritual and really enjoy hearing those tunes and listening to everyone in the house (even the avid haters of Christmas music) belt out the familiar but forgotten tunes. It is like this with our Autumn books.

Here are our favorites (all imgs from Amazon):

I am not sure why I didn't pull these out until tonight... but we read them all in one sitting. We read Owl Babies twice! I look forward to putting some more of the Autumnal box to work in the next few days making cookies and pumpkin pie for our Halloween celebration... but for tonight the giggles that came from: "'I want my mommy' said Bill" was enough.

Harvest Moon

Img from here. I have still not been able to capture a good full moon. Even with my tripod.

We are just getting over a week of nasty colds. It started with Logan on Tuesday and then gone through the whole family, ending with Don and I this weekend. What a sucky way to start fall!

Tonight Don and I were feeling much better. So we decided to celebrate the full harvest moon. Cyan saw it after dinner and we all ran outside. Much less of a planned thing than last year, but I did have some books I had gotten for the occasion. We got some cider and cocoa from Starbucks and found ourselves a nice hill... we sat at the top of the hill in the car, all still decked in our jammies for the most part, drank our treats and read our books. It was a wonderful little tradition that I am glad we were able to keep, regardless of the illness.

The first book we read was Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes. It is a cute little book about a kitten who thinks that the moon is a big bowl of milk and tries to chase it. It was perfect for Logan.

The next book was for the bigger kids. Full of wonderful facts and short poems, When the Moon is Full by Mary Azarian is the perfect book to take along with you on an impormptu field trip like this. The last pages have questions (which also have answers) that you can ask your kids about the moon and it's workings. It was perfect... the art is beautiful too.

I am very glad we are all on the mend, and also very glad we didn't miss this traditional celebration with our kids.

How do you celebrate the harvest moon? Any moon books that you love?