Our fine feathered friends

Yesterday the chicks had their first field trip.  Outside.  They didn't know what to do at first!  They just stood there for a few minutes until one gingerly took a little nibble of a blade of grass.

Then one by one, they began carefully pecking things.  After a few more minutes they were brave enough to begin moving around a little.

Solomon watched them carefully while I cleaned out the chicks pool that they're living in.

He thought those silly chicks were pretty funny!

This time, when I put the chicks home back together, I used large wood shavings instead of the layers of newspaper and straw.  (Never use wood shavings with really young chicks as they might eat it and choke.)  After exploring the wood shavings, the chicks all fell asleep.  I think their outing exhausted them!  (A good thing for this batch of feisty chicks.)

Earlier this year, Hunter bought a used thermostat off Ebay for $4.00 + shipping.  (Yes you really can get everything on Ebay.)  The thermostat is now called "Thermie" and has a happy face drawn on him.  Hunter takes care of Thermie and feeds him and takes him places.  I had to laugh at where I found Thermie the other day - Hunter had set him up a little home with "food and water" and a "heat lamp" - in imitation of the chicks.

Lately for nature study, we have been going outside to gather and identify wildflowers in our yard and along the road.  I have been surprised at just how much Solomon is enjoying this.  He loves to pick flowers, bring them in and put them in a vase, and then go through flower identification books with me to find out what they are.  (I guess I shouldn't be surprised - flower arranging is one activity in all the Montessori books I have read.)  Hunter too has liked learning the names of flowers, which I am thrilled with as he tends to have a one track mind.  (If something isn't a machine of some kind, he's not usually interested.)

bluets

Another thing that Solomon is really into right now are birds.  His interest grew when I gave him a set of bird cards to match to some bird figures.

(I downloaded and printed the bird cards from Natural Beach Living here.  The woodpecker picture was a different kind than the toy woodpecker we had and that really bothered Solomon.  So I found a picture of the correct woodpecker, printed it out, and taped it to the card.  We have these "backyard birds" from Toob.) 

The other day, Solomon connected that several of these same birds are on our bird bulletin board.  He got out his birds and cards and began matching them with the birds on the bulletin board.  It was so neat seeing that understand on his face!  His very favorite bird is the male Cardinal.  We have a bird feeder right outside our dining room window and he watches birds while he eats.  Whenever his sees that bright red bird he says "Look! There's MY bird!"

Since I haven't posted many Montessori activities lately, I'll close with two activity ideas.  One is to match shapes I drew on a piece of laminated cardstock with the same shapes I drew on clothespins:

The other activity is to sweep up pom-poms (or any little thing) with a little whisk and dust pan.  This activity actually caused a huge amount of frustration at first.  But he practiced every day for a bit until he mastered it.  I really like activities like this because they so easily translate into helping clean up around the house!  (He can clean up under his chair after eating.  Though honestly, he usually prefers the dustbuster for that.)

On a photography note, I read an article this morning called "You were there, too: Include Yourself in Family Photos."   That reminded me how rare it is for there to be a picture with me in it!  As with most moms - I tend to stay behind my camera.  The article had some good points though, as to why we should learn to include ourselves.  Even if you don't want to read the article, check out the pictures - they're wonderfully inspiring.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." - James 1:17