Budding photographers in our group
Oh the butterflies! Thousands of them!!! I have a whole new respect for these little creatures. How neat they are! I could have sat for hours watching them. We also met a bunch of neat birds including humming birds.
Indie and a Grecian Shoemaker Butterfly
Wish you could see of the butterflies around us.
Blue Morpho
Possibly a Tree Nymph Butterfly
We took a day trip to Monkey Jungle today. What a place. Guess they moved about 5 years ago to their current location and it’s a great place for a field trip with kids. Especially in February. The weather was perfect! We are adventuring out on field trips in South Florida this week because they are giving great discounts to homeschoolers all week. A great benefit to us!
Watching a trainer hanging out with an orangutang
Petting and feeding kangaroo!
up close with crocodiles
group shot!
wow! petting a monkey.
uh oh, starting to get tired.
reading selection for the car trip home
We learned about good and bad bug in an organic garden and how to control them. We got to pick a pint of strawberries, hang out with friends and we got a sweet treat at the end of our adventure. 
learning about lady bugs
Everyone listening to our guide
Today we met up with fellow 4-Hers at a state park to learn about mud flat birds. We also learned about local vegetation, some about the first Fl. settlers, local wild life and so much more. Nature is one of Indie’s favorite things to learn about. He loves going on nature walks and exploring new parks. We had a great time and it was extra special that Papa could come along. Today is presidents day of he had the day off.
looking for shore birds
Doesn't Beluga look like Wall-E?
Look at all of those shells!
A little windy and cold but it was great!
Today we are really getting back to it. Math, Phonics, Reading, we are also doing thank you notes.
time and money review... he's got this down. Just checking 🙂
Thank you notes
and play doe for a break before lunch
New Year’s Eve we took our first big, out and about, bike ride. Since both kids can ride bikes, Beluga still on training wheels, I’ve been wanting to take them out to a park some place to ride. We also have Florida State Park Passports that need to be stamped. This day, we accomplished both, and had a really nice time.
Getting the bikes out of the van
We spent about 5 hours in the park, we ate lunch next to the intercostal, watching the boats go by, and had a nice nature walk on a trail leading to the beach.
I hope we can do this at least once a month. We have so many nice parks here in South Florida, and it’s so nice to be outside on an adventure with the kids.
Hard to take a self portrait while riding. 🙂
Taking a juice break, half way though our ride.
Nature walk
Our passport
There are pages for each State Park with a place to get a stamp, and to for notes.
We have received some really great gifts this Christmas. Now, we need to thank everyone who gave them. We’ll be doing our thank you notes starting this week. In this past, it’s taken us a week or two to get them all done. I try to make the activity fun, and let them stop when they show signs of loosing interest. My almost 6 year old will write a few sentences, my 4 year old might do the same this year. I usually get them to dictate what they want to say, then I write it out on paper or on a board in front of them to copy. I get out stickers, glue, scissors, markers, colored pencils, the whole tool box of fun. I was browsing around this morning and found a neat site on this subject on the PBS site I thought I’d share. Check it out!
Happy writing!!! 🙂
Indie making a birthday card for his stuffed animal. 🙂
Lots of stickers and colored pencils.
Yesterday, we took a nature walk in a South Florida Wildlife Refuge. We’ve been here a few times and love it. This is the best time of year to go. Many animals to see, even a few gator. During the summer months you have to get out there pretty earl to see much wildlife… today we were there at lunch time which is a much better time with little ones. Indie kept saying, “this is the best day, Mama.” I think he could do this kind of thing every day. He is our nature boy. I’m right there with him and could take long nature field trips every day…. we used to much more often when the kids were younger. It’s harder this year trying to get school lessons in. I should really try to commit to something nature at least once a week. It’s so refreshing!
I was happy to see so much going on out there in the Everglades today. It’s only recently that I’ve notice we really are recovering from hurricane Wilma and previous tropical storms that caused so much havoc in our area. The trees and scrub areas are so much fuller, giving the animals a place to live again. It’s nice to see!
Yes, we bought a kit. I thought I would be making a gingerbread house from scratch this year…. maybe next year. We have been baking and doing a lot of crafts and this is just easier and just as fun… maybe even more fun! I “glued” the house together and the kids put all of he candies on.
I want to try this technique this year!