Fall Flowers at the Park

Today...I did something I rarely get a chance to do...I went on an adventure by MYSELF!  That's right, I left the children with Michael and headed out early this morning.

Now, a lot of moms would run out and have a shopping spree or find a quiet place to enjoy an over priced coffee and a treat.  Not me!  I took a drive out to our local state park to enjoy a wild flower talk!

I had such a great time!  My only disappointment...I forgot to charge my camera batteries and had to resort to my phone camera half way through my adventure!  However, that did not stop me from enjoying the morning!  I had a great time as I went around with Ranger Craig and a group of nature lovers like myself!

Here are a few of my favorite flowers from A to Z:

Antelope Horn

Clammy weed with solitary bee

Blazing Star (gayfeather)

Drummond Petunia

Frogfruit

Golden Dalia

We pray that it will rain so this little Rain Lily will fully bloom!

Mullen

Passion flower (yellow bracted)

For an added bonus, we were able to see a pipe vine caterpillar as well as a flutter of pipe vine butterflies!  Even though we did not see the flowers they love to eat, we saw the results of their feasting!

Look closely to see it dangle from the plant

Female and male butterflies looking for a yummy meal among the flowers!

Queen's Delight

Rattlebox

Sida

Snow on the Mountains

Texas Bindweed

Verbena

White Milkwort

Zexmenia

The programs at the Guadalupe River State Park have been awesome!  Many of you know that we down-sized when it came to the land portion of our home when we moved to the "city."  To be able to attend these programs, it is like having our big back yard again!  It is such a great feeling to know that we can spread our wings just like those beautiful butterflies!  I hope you do not get tired of hearing about our outdoor adventures because there are going to be many more in the future!

Summer at the Library

We have had a lot of fun this summer.  We have traveled around to different sites and the children have gone to their camps and contests.  However, one of the big things we love to do every year is spend time at our library.  This year we were able to enjoy several programs and participate in the summer reading incentive program.

We have participated in two separate programs this year.  Last night the children went to the San Antonio library and picked up their prize and certificate.  Michael said the librarians made a big deal about the children reaching their goal.  She made an announcement over the loud speaker and presented them with their certificates.  Everyone in the library stopped to clap for the children.  That was a very nice surprise!  Then the children were each allowed to pick out a hard bound book of their choice.  It seemed as if the books were chosen special for them.  Zaira has a board book about boats (water!)... Brendan got a new "genius" book... Edward has a new Ron Roy book about October (his birthday month)... Henry has a samurai book and Sean has a mystery book.  All great choices that will be enjoyed in these last few days before school starts.

We also enjoyed the Singing Wildlife Biologist concert at this library.  I blogged about this earlier in the summer.  We really love to listen to Lucas Miller sing about wildlife, so this was a special treat for the entire family.  I just love that the library helped make this experience for us!

We also enjoyed events at our main library this summer.  We read books (Yes...adults also!) to earn tickets for prizes.  We also went to a program almost every week (sometimes even more often!) throughout the summer.  Here are some of the highlights from our time at the library:

arts and crafts in the science LIBRAtory

 LEGOS!

Stories in the Skies with our Ranger friend

Science Lab

puppets

 Doctor Who

 Dinosaurs

 Reptiles

 Fire Dancers

 Bubbles!

Hands on Science

Ice Cream!

It was so much fun...we hated to see it go away!  AND THEN...we found out it is no over yet!  Our awesome library has a Family Reading Program that starts in September....we are going to read Pippi Longstocking and have activities at the library throughout the month!  I love our library!

Saving the World...

...one duckling (or two) at a time!

You see...we had started out morning with our Bible readings.  We read from the Gospel of Luke 6:27-38.  Jesus spoke to his disciples about the need to pray for our enemies.  I told the boys that I thought that was fitting for the day we are to remember the attacks of 9-11.  We had a great discussion about how we needed to remember the heroes of that day instead of the evil that led to the attack.  However, we must also pray for those responsible for the loss of life.  We must learn to turn the other cheek but also protect ourselves.  There was a balance between the two realms.

We then prayed a Rosary for peace in the world.  Each decade of the Rosary was prayed for the intent to think of those who gave their lives as heroes, those who still protect us today, the conversion of those who seek to harm us, for comfort for those who lost loved ones, and for the every day heroes who keep us safe in our communities.

We had just placed a flag holder to the front of our house.  We decided to go out with our flag and recite the pledge and sing the national anthem.  We were gathering everyone, when Edward came in excited!  He told us there were ducklings in our front yard.  When we looked out the window...there they were...so cute!  We knew we needed to get them back to the pond across the street.

We circled around the two ducklings and we were able to take them after a few pictures along the way!  The only problem...we could not see any of our usual flock of ducks!  I told the children that they had to be around somewhere, so the best thing to do was leave the ducklings.  We returned home to our normal school day after we had our time in front of our flag.

Michael decided to do a little yard work.  He was outside for a while trimming the lawn.  Next thing I know...he is inside with two little ducklings!  I guess they liked the looks of our porch!  The ducklings seemed to also enjoy making a next out of Michael's neck!

I called the local animal rescue and they told us to try to find their nest.  We set out this time with a little more effort to find the flock.  After walking the edge of the pond, we found the flock.  We spent the rest of another hour trying to convince the ducklings and the flock to meet up again!  We left hoping ten feet from each other would be close enough to connect.

While we were in the process of 'saving' our ducklings (Did I tell you we had named them by this time?...Day and Night), we also got a show!  The bass that are stocked in our pond were doing somersaults in the air...trying to catch the dragon flies!  I have never seen so much action!  It was so much fun!

We did manage to complete our school work today!   Michael headed to work....I got a call from him this evening asking if we had checked on the ducklings.  So...I took Hank on a walk around the pond.  From a distance, I saw Day and Night within a few feet of the flock.  I guess they just like to wander a little to show their independence.  We will check on them again tomorrow!

Such an awesome lesson in helping wild animals!  You just cannot plan such amazing lessons!  I love homeschooling!  These are experiences that will always be remembered.  Also, the children wanted to learn about ducks today.  It gave them a good reason to do some independent research.  It is what our school is all about...Reynbow School of Life Long Learning!

The Start of a New Year

We were able to start our new school year this week.  Most of the children in the area (and around the country) started school a couple of weeks ago, but we had schooled through the summer, so we decided to take a couple of weeks off before starting up again.

We thought it was fitting to start school on the birthday of the Blessed Mother Mary.  It was a great way to start out in a fun way with Mass in the morning...a new set of course work...and ending the day with a birthday party!

This year we have the span of PreKinder through 11th grade in our house.

Sean and Henry continue their high school courses together.  We still have Sean a grade ahead as he begins 11th grade.  Henry is starting his 10th grade year with hopes to have an extra year to taking dual credit courses in his last year.

Their course work will include the following classes:

World History/Geography

Survey of Religions throughout the Ages

World Literature/English

Algebra II

Keyboard Practice/Computer Science

Chemistry

Historical Art

Spanish II

The plan is to combine many of the courses together as we learn history throughout the ages.  I am looking forward to the  course for the next year!



Edward is going into the 5th grade this year.  He is moving right up there and looking forward to his more advanced studies.  His courses include:

Religion (Liturgical Study)

Spelling/Vocabulary

Saxon 65 Math

English

US History/ Geography

Astronomy

Art Appreciation

Brendan is now 'officially' a student in our home school.  He started Kindergarten and he could not be more enthusiastic.  He has a short course load of the following classes:

Religion

Handwriting

Phonics

Saxon K Math

Mostly, we will be spending time looking at nature and reading A LOT of books!  I love this age...the world is just opening up for Brendan as he begins to learn that all those letters can be put together as words...he is going to be able to read!  YAY!!!!

Of course, our little tag-a-long can not be forgotten.  Zaira continues her pre-school years!  She will watch the others as they learn and absorb like a sponge all that she can!

I have a feeling she is learning more than we realize.  She already tries to count to ten and sing her ABC's.  She also loves to sit and "read" books.  If only we could get her to potty train!  All in good time, I am happy to have the little adventurer stay little for as long as possible!

Bird Banding

Michael took the older boys to the state park to learn how to band birds.  They really enjoyed themselves!  I stayed home with the younger munchkins.  It was fun hearing about their adventures upon their return.  I was surprised to hear about all the birds they found, as well as how much of a hands-on event it turned out to be.

The birds were caught in mist nets in the morning, and then banded within a couple of hours.  The boys were not allowed to band the birds, as one must have a special permit to do this.  Of course, now all the boys want to find out how to get a permit so they can band birds!  I love their enthusiasm!

Here are a few of their pictures from the experience:

Our friendly Ranger Craig

Banding a female cardinal

Sean was able to release the first bird of the season...the cardinal from above!

Measuring a female lesser goldfinch

Edward was allowed to pet a male lesser goldfinch 

Henry released a female cardinal

The ranger told us this was the first White-eyed Vireo he has ever banded at the park!

This is an Inca dove banded and released by the ranger!

The Rest of Our Summer

A few things I thought I should mention!

Many days of August (and the last of our summer) was spent exploring the local area looking for geo-caches.  If you have never enjoyed this hobby, I would just like to say that it is a lot of fun!  It can also be very addictive!  Imagine driving up to a spot to go grocery shopping or go to a doctor's appointment...and the first thing you do is check to see if there are any hidden boxes in the vicinity!  Well, that is what I find myself doing!

Geocaching is an inexpensive way to spend your extra time.   All that is needed is a GPS unit (we use our smart phone) and a little time.  We have an app on our phone that shows us where a cache is located within a mile of our current location.  If you go to the website, you can see the MANY caches that are hidden around the world!

The caches can be as large as a gallon tub (or possibly larger) and as small as a pencil eraser!  The only requirement in a cache is to have a way to log the find; however, most caches of any size have other surprises.

The best part of the caching is going to places that we might not know about otherwise.  We also learn the history of the locations as the caching community are big about history, nature, and having fun....just like us!  They even have special CITO (Cache IN Trash OUT) events to help pick up litter.  They also leave messages in caches to leave no trace, which is a message we share often.  We need to leave things like we find them as much as possible to protect the environment!

The month of August we were given a special challenge.  It was a way to show the variety of caches that can be hidden and found.  We found puzzler caches that have riddles to help discover the cache.  We found earth caches that relate facts about the geological features of an area. These caches usually have a question to answer about the area to "earn" the find.  Then we found a multi-cache that has 3 or more locations to discover before the final cache is recorded.  The best cache was the social cache that took us to a pizzeria to meet other cachers!

We even took the time to hide our own multi-cache!  It was so much time researching the area and placing the caches in just the right place so the mugglers (Those who do not cache.) will not find the caches.  We also had to determine the GPS coordinates for the locations.  It was a great way to learn about coordinates.

We have also attended to caching events that were fun for the family.  We went to a local state park for an intro class in caching.  Then we went to a caching event that had a Pippi Longstocking theme...we became "Thing Finders!"

So...it keeps us busy...and there are enough caches to keep us that way for many years to come.  I am so glad we were able to do this.  And maybe by writing this blog post, I will add others to our addictive hobby!  If you want to follow our adventure, check out our Facebook page!