Last night I had a dream that we had a woodpecker in the yard. 

Last summer I saw one actually hopping around on the ground, which I thought was strange, but I watched it for about 10 minutes.  However, I haven't seen a woodpecker IN ACTION since I was a child.  I posted a long time ago how my grandparents were very "Charlotte Mason" and I spent a lot of time with them, and teaching me about plants and birds (in a very nonspecific way) was one of the wonderful things we'd do together.  I still remember them pointing out that woodpecker.  I thought it was the coolest thing.

Well, emme and I were out in the yard weeding (she was tending to her garden) I heard it.  The rat-a-tat-tat sound of the woodpecker!  After about 4 times, I decided to go on an impromptu nature walk in the field behind our house. 

We headed toward the sound, careful not to make large movements or too much noise, and we were rewarded!   The smile on Emme's face when she finally saw the Downy Woodpecker through the branches of the old tree was a homeschooling gem.   We watched him for about five minutes and he gave us a great show.  I did't have my camera, but here is a picture of the type of woodpecker we saw:

 isn't he so cute?  They are all across the country, but here in my area they are considered "common", but not "abundant".  I guess I just wasn't looking in the right place?

We also identified a couple other birds and a butterfly today.  Again, these are common birds, but we are just learning! 

This is a house wren.  He is so cute too!  We don't see a ton of these, but a couple every day:

AND!  For the first time ever, I was able to recognize a brown-headed cowbird!  (The brown head helped a lot, haha)

Finally, we saw a little butterfly that I wasn't familiar with.  I looked him up and saw that it is called the American Snout Butterfly.  Everything they listed about this butterfly was displayed to us by our little friend.  When we got too near, he would hook up his antennae and look exactly like a dead leaf!  It was very cool.  Here is what it looks like when it is open:

Ours was much prettier!  More vibrant and the white spots really stood out. 

So as you can probably tell, Educating Emme lately has been a lot of fun outside in nature!  LOL  We are getting our indoor work done too (I got behind due to my Strep, but other than that we are doing great!)  She has been planting, weeding, watering, and nurturing her own little flower garden.  We've been doing so much birdwatching, nature walking, etc.  We transplanted a yellow weed/flower today from the field to our house because it seemed to be drawing a lot of white butterflies. 

I'm just starting to get our summer plan into action.  Jennah and Jake are out of school and I'd like to find a way to do something with all three of them together.  I know so many of you moms homeschool several different ages, and I don't know how you do it.  I homeschool the older two during the summer months, but Jennah pretty much does everything on her own, I just give her direction and guidance.  Jake fights me every step of the way, so I sit down with him and basically hold his hand through everything. 

I really want to find something that I can do with all three of them.  Not a whole curriculum, but a day full of learning adventure, nature hikes, notebooking, read alouds, etc.  I pray I can manage it!

And then there is planning next year with Emme.  I don't need anything except a math curriculum, and I think I will go with A Beka.   We will continue to do mostly Ambleside / Charlotte Mason, with some subtractions and other additions.  I'm excited for planning next year!  I'm one of those weird people who like to lesson plan :D

Speaking of, it's time for us to go out on the deck and get the rest of our read aloud in for the day!

May the Lord's blessings be upon you and your homeschool,

Sherry