Fishing with a net

Rachel, on her first try, caught two fish at once with her net.  I bought her a little fishing rod later in the week, which she loved.

Learnin's at the Cottage

For whatever reason, Rachel worked through almost an entire 39 page workbook on writing uppercase letters this week.  She had previously done about seven pages over the course of several months. Then, I showed her the book while I was cleaning my office last week.  She claimed it and dashed off to work in it.  A week laster, she has completed all but the last page.  Her uppercase letters are coming along nicely!

She also had some great nature encounters this week.  In addition to the new bunnies at home that we've been peeking at every day, she saw a water snake and we caught two different types of fish.  She loves the wiggly worms we use as bait.  Whatever we caught, we put in a large bucket for her to touch and look at, before we released them back into the lake.

However, the best moment was Monday morning when we went down to the protected water garden David constructed this spring at the edge of the lake.  Using rocks as a water break, the area on the protected side has sprouted waterlilies, arrowroot.....and frogs!  Rachel and I went down and caught baby frogs and looked at them.  She loved it.  Later, while sitting on a rock in the beach area, a frog hopped up and sat next to her.  She sat very still and watched it.

We also watched hummingbirds fight over the feeders and can identify the Heron's cry now, which signals that it will fly past.

And, last but not least, she got to see a Hellgrammite at the bait store.  Sorry, but I don't have the guts to use those as fish bait.  The man who owns the bait store said they were a natural bait.  I pointed out that they had wicked pincers.  Don't they hurt you?  His response was "Only if you squeeze them."  Ok....how does one put them on a hook without squeezing them?

Photos upcoming....if I could just find my card reader!

Random Learning in the Summer

Today, off the cuff, Rachel and I talked about the difference between fiction and non-fiction.  We were driving into town to buy some supplies and somehow the topic of pretend verse real came up.  We are now reading our fourth chapter book, Pirates After Noon.  We picked up the factual companion volume, which I may not actually share with her yet as it has some violent images that are too much for her right now.

She has also learned today that galvanized bolts are dipped in zinc.  In the new little toolbox that David bought her, she has a new drill bit to add to her collection.  (They come in every box of screws, so we have extras.)

She informed me yesterday, as we were talking about what a "flock" of birds was, that hummingbirds migrate south for the winter.  We had looked up some of the birds we've seen in this app and she actually remembered that the maps showing the range of the birds were color coded to show different seasons.  Ok, she blew me away with that one.

She has learned to swim around in the lake without holding on to me (and yes, she is wearing a life preserver).  Tonight I tested her to see if she could dog-paddle back to shore all by herself.  It took her a little while, but yes, she can.

She loves to swim in the lake.  She hates getting out, even when she is shivering.

She has learned that taking a shower, like Mommy, is fun. (Not to mention easier on Mom here at the cottage.)

We've looked at water bugs, water lilies, fish and wild raspberry and blueberry plants.  She has eaten both berries right off the plant.  We have a container of worms which we will explore tomorrow and go fishing for the first time.

Wildflowers

Over the past few weeks, Rachel and I have been picking flowers at the cottage and pressing them. We've identified several and have included them in our scrapbook of the summer.




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Mummies

We've been reading the Magic Treehouse series of books.  We are currently in Book 3 about Egypt and Mummies.  (Rachel keeps calling it Mommies, which is just darn adorable.)

What I love is that she really find the books interesting.  Enough so that she is focused enough that we can stop and look things up on the iPad so she can see a photo or picture of it.  For example, this week we've looked up pyramids, mummies, scepters, and hieroglyphics.

Luckily, the books are available on the iPad, so we snuggle in with coffee and hot chocolate and can easily flip between the book and other photos and such.   It is really nice to sit on the couch here at the cottage, in the cool of the morning, and read together.

Playschool has ended for the school year.

Yay! Rachel loves playschool, but I am definitely to the point that I'm tired of making the drive and would like some days at the cottage.

So, I'm planning learning and play activities for us to do in place of playschool.

1. We're going to be at the cottage a LOT, so in addition to the pressed flowers we've been doing there, I'm going to attempt to do some of the Outdoor Hour studies.  To be honest, we spend so much time outdoors that I'm not sure how useful it will be, except it will help us drill down a bit more.  My hope is to learn the names of some of the wildflowers and bugs we find.  We've already found photos of the hummingbirds online and have names for them.  I'm thinking of grabbing a large, cheap artist's sketch book and putting together a scrapbook of our cottage/outdoor adventures.

2. The kid loves math. She adores problem solving and even sort of likes jigsaw puzzles.  She can play the algebra game now in "equation" mode.  It was a bit startling to walk in on her this week and find her sitting with my iPad solving simple algebraic equations.  She has only finished the first level of the game, but accidentally started on the bonus equations. (I've played the whole game and thus unlocked the bonus material.)  She didn't bat an eye, but solved several of them in a row.  So, I think we'll continue playing math games this summer.  She already does basic addition, so perhaps we'll look at subtraction next.  I also think we'll make a really long number line this summer.

3. She balked at the reading lessons, so we've stopped.  We will continue to read books, in large quantities, all summer.  Perhaps in the fall she'll be more ready.

4.  We'll keep practicing writing ad hoc.  Her little fingers aren't quite developed enough for too much.  She gets tired and I really want her to enjoy it.