Soaking in the Spring

Since the weather has been so lovely lately we've been doing school and spending most of our days outside.  We've had bugs go to school with us and chickens steal our breakfast and scope out our lunches.  We've climbed trees, dug in the dirt and swung on the swings.  It has been a really nice time.  

Ro-bear of all people decided to catch worms, slugs and the little black and red bugs.  The kid who hates to have her hands dirty.  I was very surprised.  She's hold them and watch them then go wash her hands and come back out to play.

Boo likes to follow the chickens around the yard.  She's pretty good about getting them back into the yard when they wander off as well.

One morning Ro-bear had a waffle on the picnic table and the chickens stole it.  They loved it so much they now go check out the table every time we're outside to see what we might have left in reach for them.  That day it was pizza. Amazingly, they did not make a move for the pizza.

 Here's are both chickens on the bench.

 We learned that Snowflake is actually a rooster and had to trade him for a new hen.  Everyone is very upset because he was the sweetest chicken, but Nutmeg is starting to get used to us and I think we'll all get along okay in the end.

 Here's the slug that Ro-bear had working on a worksheet with her a different morning.

 Wednesday was up in the high 80s, and the girls decided to take the garden watering can to splash each other after school and gymnastics.  When they were tired of splashing around L-bug and Boo started to swing on the swing set.  Ro-bear went inside and put on clean pjs and brought out her blanket and pillow and laid in the grass. 

Tonight while L-bug and I were watching tv, I look over and she was winding my grey yarn into a ball for me. What a sweet child.  Of course, I found out she was winding it up so she could steal it and make a scarf, but still a sweet child.

If you haven't tried schooling outside I would highly recommend it.  We fit nature study in with the rest of our book work.  Everything from identifying the bird in the tree beside us, to the hawks eyeballing our chickens, to watching the pea shoots sprout is fit in seamlessly with physics and English.

Another added benefit of so many hours outside is the that the girls are sleeping through the night again.  We'd gone through a phase where Boo was waking up at 11-12 crying and then Ro-bear would get up at 5-6 and want to sleep with us.  It is a very draining cycle.  It is nice to know that fresh air and sunshine can help reset their little bodies and help everyone get some much needed sleep.

Let me know what your favorite outdoor activities are on a nice sunny day.  Its been nice having you visit.  I hope you stop by again soon.

Spring is Early

Welcome

I hope spring has sprung for you as it has for us.  We've been soaking in the sun and we've started sprouting some spring plants.  The winter funk has left and everyone is feeling much better all around.  We've been trying to spend 2+ hours outside a day.  I've found we're all sleeping so much better since we started.  Even if we're just sitting around doing school work, just simply being outside and absorbing the sun is doing wonders for us. 

If you squint you can see a few pea sprouts poking their heads out of the garden.






We're also letting the chickens run around the yard while we do school work in the morning.  They love free ranging.  Every time we go outside the girls get exciting assuming they are going to get to play with us.

Vlogging

L-bug has been working hard on her YouTube channel.  Sadly, I don't have quite as much free time as she has, so I have a queue of five videos we've filmed that I still need to edit.  Shame on me.  If you haven't checked her out yet she's The IcyBreeze Show.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaAZTuEiHrWst4s7I9QqVWw

So far she has a toy reveal, a toy review and a short skit.  We have a baking review in the works, and a few more little projects in the works.  Working on a channel has been an experience so far and its nice to have something for her to work on that's all hers.  It was her idea to open the channel and she's in charge of what and when we film (within reason) I just edit and upload. 

On the Bookshelf

We decided to continue on with The Fellowship of the Rings, it is hard to fit in long chunks of free reading so we're taking it nice and slow.  We'll be in this book for a considerable time, but that's okay because she's loving every minute of it.  How much time do you spend free reading a day?

Crafting

So many of my friends and family are having or are expecting babies that I've been working almost exclusively on baby items.  I've even started making some for the Etsy store.  There's the cutest baby bunny hats I wish I'd made for my girls when they were little and a little fox hat and diaper cover set for sale on Blue Rabbit Cottage.  I can make the bunny hats bigger, but only Boo is interested.  I'm going to get her a pink one made before she outgrows cutsie little things like that. 

Projects

Aside from vlogging L-bug has been busy working on her computer programing and doing art like always.  She might have hit a slump in programing because she has to work with fractions more than she has in math.  She's interested enough in it though, I think she'll work though it pretty easily.  We shall see.  I have to says thank you to Kahn Academy for offering such a great math and programing program for free.  I never would have thought these subjects could be so easy to learn before we found that site. 

L-bug got a blank book today and has already started filling it up with pictures from her favorite anime, Fairy Tail.

All in all things are going smoothly and we're all happy and healthy at the Blue Rabbit Academy.  I hope you can say the same for you and yours.  Thanks for stopping by to visit and come back soon to see what we've been getting into.  Feel free to share what's been happening in your neck of the woods in the comments below.