Snow day + Bob Ross tutorial = too much fun!

So #4 and I were bored and gathered our supplies, turned on the TV and made these gorgeous (insert sarcasm here) paintings!!    It was fun but I better stick to my day job.

Dragons, dinosaurs and dolls......learning through dramatic play

I love dramatic play!  The housekeeping/dramatic play center is my favorite out of all the ones in my classroom. In that center, children can be anything that they can imagine. I probably enjoy watching the children interact and investigate in this center because my imagination took me so many places when I was little.
I had the most social and active imaginative life when I was young that my mother said it often sounded like I had 10 or 20 kids in my room with me.  I would play out intricate and long-running scenarios with dolls, stuffed animals, paper dolls, really anything I could find.
Observing my students engage in play without instruction, electronics or interference is delightful.

These three are using capes, scarves and hats to be superheroes.

Loose Parts

I love giving my preschoolers loose parts and then watching what they create! I found these great items from Kaplanco and the kids can't get enough of them. I added the stones (aquarium rocks) and the tray for storage and then just observed and recorded conversations and creations. I'm thinking of watercolor painting some of the pieces, but can't decide if they need color or just to leave them alone. What do you think?

Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah

New Year, Same Me

I have never been a huge fan of resolutions and end of the year lists, greatest hits, the top 10, 30 or 100 of whatever and all the hoopla that goes with the changing of the year. I am, however, nostalgic, sentimental and am very cognizant of the passing of time.
When my grandmother became involved with researching her family tree, and then passed the bug to my mother, I dutifully spend time scrolling through documents with them at the public libraries. Many years later I copied their hard work on to ancestry.com where more than a few people have used it to complete their family trees.
History has also been intriguing for me, not dull. I would imagine how life was during a time period, what the women did, how location, connections and sometimes just luck could make all the difference in someone's (and the future generations) life.  I always wanted to know more about the person than just their name, location of birth, birthdate, and date of death. I want to know what they believed, did they like their work/life, what was their story?
Maybe that is why I like stories. Reading is vital to me and so is writing. I was writing stories in the first grade on the back of coloring sheets because I was bored. I would sit in round-robin reading groups moaning in my head as the other children stumbled over words. I would often read several stories ahead and then get into trouble because I didn't know where I was supposed to read when called upon. I cannot recall a time when I didn't know how to read or wasn't reading a book. I often read books that were way over my head in several areas but I had run out of things to read and I would raid my mother and grandmother's stacks of novels. My mother eventually caught on to this and wisely began to put classics into her bookcase and I would read them thinking I wasn't supposed to.
So with all that being said, I vow this year to continue reading, hopefully learning and teaching and sharing with those who are interested.

Grizzly

Our early Christmas gift from son #1 and his girlfriend, to son #4. It came to my attention that all the boys have had a dog to call their own ( and some had other animals also, see earlier post), so #1 and girlfriend decided that this would just not do and decided to rectify the situation. 

And now we are the proud owners of a black and tan mix puppy.

So far Moe (the current king of the house) is not too pleased with this new development, we are hoping he makes peace with it soon.

I think he's here to stay.

Bovine in the backyard

To begin at the beginning........
                                        We do not live on a farm. We live on a street in a rural area with a fairly good size flat yard that backs up to a cornfield ( that is not ours) and the street is a dead end with a large grassy field and then there is a river, but WE do not live on a farm. This small detail however did not stop #3 child from bringing home a 2 week old calf.

"Oh, it's only until it's weaned off the bottle"  #3 said. And I naively believed him.

This cow (Opie) quickly became our big yard dog.

Opie was being raised through the dairy steer project from the 4-H and through the FFA chapter #3 was going to show him at the local county fair and then the Mountain State Fair and then according to the contract, he would be sold in lots with the other dairy steer cows at the conclusion of the Mtn. State Fair. We were warned, "This is a terminal project!"  

But how do you bottle feed, keep warm, clean and train to show an animal and not get attached?

Half the neighborhood enjoyed seeing this cow and watching it grow. (side note: there are dairy farms and fields of cows all around us, it's not like a cow is a new and novel thing)

Opie did very well at his "showings" and at the Mtn. State Fair, #3 won Reserve Champion with him. 

Showmanship Practice

                                                                  County Fair
                                           

 Before a bath and grooming for the show.

Reserve Champion.

Opie was sold in a lot with about 8 other cows and my son was seemingly okay with it all. But at the end of the day when he found out that a friend of his, a farmer with connections to the school's FFA privately sought out the buyer of the specific lot that Opie was in and bought the animal from that man, I think he was very happy. Opie then went to that gentleman's farm where he lived happily grazing in a field for several more months.

I have learned about cows and it was a cool experience, one that I am happy to leave to others well qualified with the sufficient means and ways to do it.