Beyond Co-op - George Washington Carver #3

I'm working on getting my pictures from our vacation uploaded and sorted, but thought I'd play a little catch-up until then.  I uploaded so many pictures before we left thinking I would just post some things while we were gone.  Instead, I spend most of the vacation off-line.  It was fine and we all had such a great time!!!

This is our 3rd meeting of the George Washington Carver co-op.  In this session we talked about composting, soil and worms.  These books were some of the resources that were used.  

We started our time together with a devotional.  The children had the opportunity to examine a very small seed with a magnifying glass.

Also some discussion about GWC and the work that he did as it ties in to our lesson.

This looks like a really great book on his life if you are wanting to check one out!

This co-op was a very messy one.  We were forewarned though and nobody minded at all!  The kids tore up newspapers to get things ready for their worm bins.

Joshua and Isaiah worked on making a small wormery to examine how they behaved.  We chose not to do the large bins as we don't have a garden and didn't really know what we would do with all of these worms!  It was a good choice for our family, though I do confess that I felt a bit guilty for not going for the large bin.  It didn't bother my boys at all though, so I quickly got over it too.

They added soil and then leaves to a large coke bottle.  Then came the night crawlers.  Big ones.

They enjoyed holding them and were surprised when I agreed to hold one too.  LOL  Its fun to surprise your kids sometimes so that their expectations of you can be shifted and broadened a little.  

This is the view from the top of the bottle.  We brought this home to watch.  

After finishing their bottle, they helped some friends with their bins.  Tearing up newspaper into strips and then getting it wet and placing it in the large bin.  The bins already had holes drilled into the bottom of them for drainage purposes.

These were very large bins.  You can see two of them under this table.  It held a LOT of paper ... and worms.

Everyone worked happily getting things ready.

After the paper came soil.

Then the real fun ... WORMS!  Lots  and lots of tiny worms.

Can you just see the mass of them here?

These were the night crawlers that we then got out to compare.  His expression just cracked me up!

Fun snack taking a cue from the seeds talked about earlier ... lentil stew.  Yum!

The next part of the co-op was focused on a messy art project.  We learned that George Washington Carver loved to paint and was quite talented at painting.  He even considered making a career out of painting.  Thankfully he chose differently as he impacted so many people with his contributions in the field of science as well as helping many to improve their living conditions.

We made our own paints and colors.  The bases were all the same and each child was given choices to add in paint to form their own colors - as light or dark as they wanted it to be.  It was neat seeing them experiment with shades and colors.  

And then they fingerprinted.  Just like George Washington Carver.  And had fun doing it too!

Enjoying the texture and feel of the paint while creating.

It was such a hit with the older kids, that I decided to try this out with Eliana soon thereafter and she loved it!

As always, learning in our co-op is fun and informative.  I always look forward to these days!

Blessings

Leslie

Happy Birthday Christopher!!!

This day has been a sweet one for me for many years now ... 19 to be exact.  On this day 19 years ago, I became a mama.  I didn't realize then that I would love this new role so very much.  I had no idea of the blessings and challenges that lay ahead of me.  I couldn't possibly fathom how my heart would be stretched in so many ways.  I was thrilled with the gift of a son, but didn't understand then what an amazing gift a child is to your life!

I wish I had pictures to share of when he was a baby.  Its not that I don't have pictures (yes, those of you that know me, know I take lots of photos).  I just don't know how to scan and share them.  :-)  One day I'll figure that out.  Christopher was so much fun.  We loved reading books and going for walks and field trips and talking.  The days didn't seem to go so quickly, but oh the years do fly.

I can remember when he was little and meeting a mom with a 7yo and thinking her child was so "old".  LOL  I guess having a 19yo seems really old to a lot of people.  My son is a man now and I still really enjoy being with him.  He is still fun and interesting.  I didn't know how much my love for my children would just grow and grow and grow.  What a sweet blessing.  God is so good that way.

Today we celebrated Christopher's birthday.  It was his first day back at school after spring break (more on that later!).  I'm glad it worked for us to spend a little bit of the day with him.  Eliana was so excited to see Christopher and she kept asking about it all day.  Love the way she is looking up at him.

 A frisbee to replace the one lost in the ocean last week.  LOL

 Isaiah sharing a magic money trick with Christopher.  I love seeing my children interact and enjoy each other.  Life really is the little things and not the big things at all most days.

 Several of the kids made homemade cards to give to him.  :-)

 Lots of detail on this card that was really sweet!

 Little Eliana bringing Christopher his cake.

 Trying to put candles into rice krispie treats is a little challenging.  Trying to light the candles on a breezy day was even more so.

 So we went with just a few candles.  Sang Happy Birthday and had him blow them out.

 We brought a lot of goodies for him and so he had help taking things up to his room.  I just liked seeing them walk away like this.  Eliana and I remained behind as I wasn't sure about where we were parked.  I think it would have been fine to go up though and I had one very sad little girl with me.  :-(

 So glad that even when we are in different places, that our hearts are still close.  So thankful to see my children walking in faith.  That is really the best gift of all.

 A beautiful day to celebrate one of my most favorite people of all.

I love you Christopher and am so glad to be your Mom.  I pray for you often and am so excited to see your faith growing as you experience new things.  I'm excited to see all the things you are learning and doing and planning to do.  Know that I will always love you, always be cheering for you and always looking forward to spending time with you!

Much love always,
Mom

Family Fun

I'm spending this week with family and friends and thought I'd share a few pictures of past fun.  I'm thankful to be able to hang out with people I love all of the time.  I'm thankful for an amazing family and wonderful friends too.  :-)  God has blessed me richly.

This was a Christmas gift - recommended by a friend.  Its been a fun new activity.  Its a slackline.  Its basically a huge stretchy line that you try to balance on and walk across.  (And if you get really good, you can bounce, and sit and to tricks.  We aren't anywhere close to doing that!)  Its much harder than it looks.  

Dress up and pretending have always been something my children enjoyed.  It makes for great photos too.  This is our little princess.

Batman.  Love the creativity my boys displayed in making this costume.  For those that know my boys, can you tell who this is?

Game time is a treat.  I'm glad that my children all enjoy playing - some more than others though.  Its always fun to be with friends.

Recently tried fingerpainting with Eliana and she was so tentative at first.  Just one finger in the paint.  She enjoyed it though.  Can't you just see it in her face?  She also tried it with her whole hand in the paint too.  It was just fun to see her doing this - and several of her brothers joined in too.  Reminded me that I need to take more time to get out craft supplies and give them opportunities to create and get messy.

What has your family been doing for fun lately?  

Blessings

Leslie

Field Trip - Creatures of Creation!

We had an awesome field trip today.  Even though I'm behind in posting about other field trips, I'm going to go ahead and jump in and do a current one.  LOL

We hosted our field trip at our church.  We arrived early to help show people where to park and enter the building.  The boys were directing traffic when they met a friend who gave them a fun ride around the parking lot.  :-)

The girls helping out.

We hosted Dan Breeding for our field trip.  He has a ministry called Creatures of Creation.  Check out the website.  His show is fabulous!!!  If you are at all interested in a program like this for any type of group, he does travel.  And did I mention it was great?!

Dan presents a variety of animals and tells about the animals and also talks about God and creation.  He brought 4 animals to share with us today.  Many of his animals are ones that have been rescued.  The first was a monitor lizard.  This was a huge lizard!

And can you see his tongue?

And the claws?  He said that the tail on this creature is also very sharp and can cause deep wounds.  He did stress that these are animals that are intended to be wild, but because they have been raised in captivity, this is a safer place for them now.

The second animal he showed us was the one that he said was the grossest or was it smelliest of animals.  He even prepared the room before he brought him in by spraying lysol spray all over the room.  Did you guess what it was before you saw the picture?

I perhaps needed more spacing between the words and photos?

Its a vulture.

Can you see the "holes" in the beak of this animal?  They are like "spoilers" on a car.  The air goes up and over the beak of this bird when its flying.  The circulated air helps the bird to better smell its prey.  It does not have good eyesight, but a very keen sense of smell.

And yes, he did show us why he was so gross and stinky.  (Throws up a very smelly mess to scare off other predators from any prey they might find.)

The next animal was the one that he said was the most dangerous - but also the "cutest".  Well, out of today's group of animals, it wasn't much of a contest.  LOL  A monkey.  With an attitude.

It was quite funny to see the techniques that were used to keep the monkey in line.  I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but Dan is quite funny!  The whole show was very enjoyable and as much for the young adults as for the younger children.

The monkey was quite territorial about his ball.

Dan stressed to us that monkeys do not make good pets.

The last animal was one that he said was the most feared animal of all.  He wondered if we knew why is was so feared.  He told us that it was due to the fall - the original sin in the Garden of Eden.  Did you know that the snake is the only animal that was cursed by God?

This is an albino python.  Can you see just how big it is?

And weighed in at 95 pounds!  Eliana and I were right in front of him and there was a time when he stretched out closet to us ... and I was waiting and hoping that he would go back before he crossed the line for me.  Eek!

Afterwards, the kids could have the photo taken with the snake.  Daniel was willing to have a photo, but did not want to touch it.  LOL  Can't blame him.

Hmm ... not touching it here either,  Joshua?  You can't see all of this huge snake that is around Dan.

Yes, it was unanimous.  None of the Nelsens wanted to touch the snake.  LOL  Can't blame them at all.

Again, this was a wonderful program.  I'd be happy to answer any questions about it if you have them.  The day here was so beautiful!  We headed to a nearby park and had a picnic lunch and played.  A fun day.  I love this type of day.  Field trip days are some of my favorites.  

Hope you are learning and exploring and enjoying God's creation!

Blessings

Leslie

Stove ... part 3

And hopefully the last update for quite some time!

Its finally here!  Our new stove.  The cost to repair the old one exceeded what it was worth.  I do use the oven a LOT.  Given our dietary challenges, I cook a lot from scratch and often use the oven/stove for 2-3 meals per day.  I'm excited about this new one.

This is the stove before its put in.  Can you guess what I'm most excited about?  Other than the fact that it won't need to be taped to be functional?

 I will tell you that I was NOT excited about it once it was put in.  Can you see why?  It may be hard to tell in this photo.

Let's get a closer look.  Do you see that space between the stove and the wall?  It's about 4 inches.  I immediately told Roger that this was not going to work.  He wondered why.  Come on mamas - you can tell me why can't you?  Can you just imagine ALL of the things that would get jettisoned into that space?  Ugh!  and LOL!

Do you know why there is such a big gap?  It goes back to my first question.  My favorite feature.  Did you guess it?  It's having TWO ovens!  I'm so excited about the options that will open up to me for cooking!  The downside is that there is no storage space under the stove.  Well, I wasn't really that disappointed about that space.  What I didn't realize is that having that space made it possible for the large box of some sort that is attached the stove to be slid under the stove - instead of sticking out from the wall four inches.

Those of you that know my sweet husband, can imagine what came next.  Those of you that don't know him may also be able to imagine it if you have seen my last stove post with the duct tape!  Yep, the tool box came out.

That white section sitting on top is the wall piece that he cut out so that the "box" (I obviously don't remember what it was, but something really important and electrical I think) could go into the wall.  And yes, the stove move back towards the wall too!

 So, there you have it.  A nice shiny new stove!  :-)  (This picture is actually from before it got moved back and so it does look better now.)  Thanks Roger.

I'm enjoying it very much.  Want to come over for dinner?

Hugs
Leslie