I Want to do It All Syndrome

It is a terrible thing indeed. I have so much that I want to do and I want to do it all right now. Why now? Because so many opportunities are presenting themselves to me.  I want to do the science as it is in their books but I want to do it as it is in my mind and I want to do it as the Lord presents it to us in our daily lives.  I want to incorporated the bird identification with United States Geography. I want to do it all. I get these moment of great inspiration and need to have the time and energy to do it during those times.  Of course that would require constant lessons being carried out but I have fun ideas and ways to do it.  Still, I think I would have a mutiny on my hands if I never stopped lesson time.

I hope that sounded as enthusiastic as I feel.   We had planned a trip with a group of peers to a local watershed. In preparation for it Grace checked out some books for herself. Many of the books involved turtles, frogs and toads. Just in time we had a huge influx of toads in the yard.  We were able to look at the examples in the books to identify them and to find the ears and poison glands on the toad as well. So far we have temporarily captured only three toads. One is a real singing fool so they know they have a male as well.  Learning more about the life cycle of a frog seems silly as we have covered that topic in the past but it seems that when they can teach the teacher and learn even a little more then review is a fun thing.  I managed to incorporate math with our toad observations.  WORD FOR THE WEEK IS OBSERVATION.  They measured the distance each toad could jump. They compared them with each other. They made determinations about why one was able to hop further in one jump and the other was faster instead. 

You may ask how we did this. We made a line in the middle of the living room floor as a start point and then placed a coin at the location where they landed. That is right, it seems more fun to let them do this in the living room.

We have done so much more than just toad stuff but I once again am lacking the time to place it here. I guess I will need to do that in the middle of the night.

Here is a great picture of Grace's toad, you can clearly identify the ear and the poison gland.

 Below, Owen is not sure he likes this activity. He has been around more and more. He has begun to pretend he is writing as well.

 Here is Faith giving her toad an encouraging talk for the leap frog contest.

 Grace's was fast and she had to hang on to her well.

 

 

Listen to Faith's fella. 



 

Please know that all toads are released back to their environment and were left unharmed. They were provided with a tasty snack as well.