� Jun. 16, 2008 - A Sketch by Me

One of the things I try to do, is sketch along with my kids, when I've given them a sketching assignment.  I don't have as many entries in my sketchbook, because I'm usually distracted by my 'little ones' and a good sketch often takes time.  I do what I can and I hope to do it more. Here is one of my sketches of some English Daisies.  I'm not sure of their real name as I already threw out the tag.  I have them planted in one of about a dozen containers around the house. (I do not have a 'real' garden yet, we're renovating our yard at the moment, so maybe next year! In the meantime containers will have to do!)   Here are the real ones, although not the exact ones I looked at while sketching.  I was trying to focus on the bee, but he's still a bit blurry! I have not sketched these, yet, but I thought I'd share them anyway as they are just a few of the pretty blooms I have to look at from my kitchen window. (Petunias and Osteopernum-I think?) I love planting flowers and watching them bloom.  All of the different colours are so pretty. Hopefully next year I'll have pictures of a real garden to share!

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� Jan. 29, 2008 - Tides

We have been reading A Child's Geography by Anne Voskamp.  I'm really enjoying it-and so are the kids. Before Christmas we read a lesson about tides.  For the first time in my life I understood how they worked.  I always knew if had something to do with the moon and magnetism.  Anyhow, she described it in such a way that it made sense to me.  She said it was like a big elastic band stretched around the Earth and the Moon and the pull is what causes the tides.  Anyhow, I guess my dd really understood it too.  Without me asking her, she drew this picture on our wipe-off board.  My dd then proceeded to explain to me, in her own words, how tides worked, while describing what she had drawn. What a good example of the beauty of homeschooling!!

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� Jan. 22, 2008 - Birdwatching at Breakfast

I have been missing the trees and the birds that lived in them at our old house. So I was delighted to receive a bird feeder stand for Christmas.  You see, our back yard has no trees!! (We hope to rectify that this Spring.) In no time I had our bird feeders hung and then the wait began.  Would they come? It took a little while but slowly the word spread and for the last few mornings we've had birds at our feeders.  It's been exciting for the whole family!!  How neat to see my 9yr old son go running for his binoculars so he can get a better look! During breakfast this morning, we spotted 4 different types of birds: Stellar's Jays, Chickadees, Starlings and another little bird that we haven't identified yet.  It was mostly light brown, with no distinct markings and smaller than a Chickadee.  My guess is that's some type of finch, but it was hard to identify it in our nature guide. So, we did "Starling" nature sketches today: Thanks for visiting!

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