drawing lately

We've been doing some drawing on the front porch on rainy days lately, and I'm loving it.  I'm no preschool skills drill sergeant around here.  Mostly the boys do what they like, and mostly Bob isn't much into coloring or drawing.  And usually when he does color, he does everything in pink or purple, and that's it.  But I saw this idea a while back and wanted to try it, and because I let him skip out of rest time Bob obliged me and tried too.  After that he was hooked, and we ended up making a bunch more in the next few days, since we had plenty of afternoon rain.

You can see that Bob's first picture turned out to be more of a color experimentation, but his next one actually came out as an animal!  (A cat -- he drew his on the back of mine.)  We also made a slew of caterpillars, not pictured.

Meg explains the project here.  Clearly she is a much better artist than I am {my owl doesn't even have a beak for goodness sake!} but no matter -- Bobby thought my drawings were awesome.

river adventure education

Days where we make it here are automatically categorized as a success.  The river is toddler/preschooler/adult education at its finest.  We study many subjects at once: science, art, phys ed, religion, ourselves.

We gain both physical skill and mental confidence as we climb over wobbly rocks and fallen trees.

We learn that no matter how many rocks we throw into the current, the water keeps flowing and the shore is still littered with stones.

We are calmed and centered by the soothing sounds of the creek and birds and critters shuffling through crunchy leaves.

Our senses are stimulated by the cold water, the warm sun, the rough rocks and smooth stones.

Our bond is strengthened by shared experiences and helping hands.

We cultivate our sense of adventure and expand our imaginations exploring a place that is always new.

Owen and Maisy and I struggle to keep up with Bobby, who is one crazy brave skilled river adventurer.  He skips and hops and climbs and wades ahead singing to himself and his new toy pet snake, "River adventure, river adventure!"

Owen fills my pockets with rocks...

And I found a perfectly heart shaped stone to commemorate Maisy's first river adventure...

We're thankful to have this treasure running along our road.  And thankful for spring!