#blossomandrootsecondgrade

We are really starting to get the hang of Wild Math. We tend to focus on our science and nature studies while exploring outdoors and end up doing math indoors while the youngest Sprout sleeps. Afternoon outdoor time is usually free play so I’ve been reluctant to say “hey let’s do some math” so I’ve been more intentional about coming up with math games. Today I made it a point to get out 15 minutes early to work on some addition and subtraction strategies. 🌱 Of course, nature study still happened as our yard has become a breeding ground for jelly ear mushrooms, much to the Sprouts delight; even overtaking one of our tens stick bundles that was left outside. We also did some bark rubbings to go along with our B&R bark wonder. 🌱 The oldest Sprout was very pleased to find a stick with lichen, moss, and mushrooms growing. 🌱 Momma Sprout was very pleased to find some broccoli heads forming on the plants we’ve been nursing for what seems like ages. Fall gardening has been a much different beast. 🌱 The recent rainy days have brought lots of blessings. 🌱 #begoodstewards #wildmathcurriculum #blossomandroot #blossomandrootsecondgrade #jellyearfungus #bark #fallgarden #broccoli #wildandfreekids #lastchildinthewoods #1000hoursoutside https://www.instagram.com/p/CHggnbcBGCd/?igshid=1mgjzz7igy93h

We are off to a great start for @blossomandroot Week 5: Roots and Stems and Davy Crockett! 🌱 I knew surprisingly little about Davy Crockett and the story lead us down lots of rabbit holes as we learned more about Congress and the three branches of government (a nice warm up to the elections unit in working on). We then watched some of the best campaign speeches throughout history to prep Lou for writing her own campaign speech. We ended with Obama’s 2008 “Yes we can” speech 😭 which lead Emmylou to highlight her love of all people in her speech 💕 🌱 Lou thought it was funny that one of the weeks experiments was to taste test edible roots exclaimed that not only has she tried them all - we just planted them in our garden last week! We were so excited to see lots of little Sprouts growing in the garden - even our grocery store garlic! 🌱 She was sad I wouldn’t let her pull them up to look at them til we noticed an onion scrap had sprouted in the compost bin. We are headed in now to exam the roots under the microscope. 🌱 For Wild Math we estimated the tons of turnip sprouts resulted from letting the kids dispersed the seeds, counted them and then rounded to the nearest 100. 🌱 #begoodstewards #littlesprouts #blossomandrootsecondgrade #wildmath #wildandfreekids #1000hoursoutside #lastchildinthewoods #backyardhomeschool #backyardgarden #gardenwithkids (at Anderson, South Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFsmJoqp53p/?igshid=1i12cvf57jhnl

When I talk to people about this year’s homeschool approach I mainly get supportive and some envious comments, but have gotten more than a couple “that’ll suck when the weather is bad.” But we know - “there isn’t bad weather, only bad clothing.” 🌱 A rainy day was just what we needed to check the absorption power of the mosses we are studying this week and to go on a worm hunt to add to our habitat. 🌱 And of course, play time is always more fun with water and mud. 🌱 #begoodstewards #blossomandrootsecondgrade #wildmathcurriculum #lastchildinthewoods #wildandfreekids #rainydayplay #wormhunting #moss #1000hoursoutside #backyardhomeschooling (at Anderson, South Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFQHxg5JiQr/?igshid=znlov6mbbign

Another great day and gorgeous weather at Sprout Academy! 🌱 Emmylou is really loving exploring Pecks Bill and learning more about moss this week. 🌱 Townes is making the most of Mini-Beast week and enjoyed mud painting while sister nature journaled and mom finalized fall crop plans. 🌱 #begoodstewards #blossomandrootcurriculum #blossomandrootsecondgrade #wildmathcurriculum #enwcminibeastweek #backyardschool #backyardgardening (at Anderson, South Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFNx1M1pmwK/?igshid=191hwtbcitqcw

The Sprouts were able to rally enough at the end of last week to finish up our plant cell unit and create our plant cell model cake for tea time on Friday. 🌱 The oldest Sprout has so much fun helping bake and pick out candy to make organelles and momma was amazed at how well this hands on experience solidified a fairly difficult concept. #begoodstewards #blossomandroot #blossomandrootsecondgrade #wildandfreekids #plantcellmodel #letthemeatcake (at Anderson, South Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFHoKOlJ4Pn/?igshid=18stq3ygmgyc8

Day five still alive! Happy Friday! 🌱 We had class under our own trees today, finishing up 10s stick bundles and doing place value math, Lou journaled what she learned about living sunlight and Paul Bunyan while Townes counted and sorted. 🌱 The highlight was definitely our new Friday tradition of poetry tea time. There was a lot more math we could talk about while making brownies than I expected and Lou loved that I let her make them on her own. Both kids were so excited about our fancy set up, Emmylou said we were royalty. I wonder what she will think when we get a real tea set now that it was a hit. 🌱 #begoodstewards #blossomandroot #blossomandrootsecondgrade #blossomandrootearlyyears #poetryteatime #wildmathcurriculum #wildandfreekids #backyardhomeschooling #natureschool #lastchildinthewoods #1000hoursoutside (at Anderson, South Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEuvoPIJ4g8/?igshid=1xpmvsibiryu

We might not have gotten to a lot of our table work today as our adventures took more of the day than planned but the kids learned plenty about our natural resources, plant life, answered math problems while hiking, and saw lots of examples of the food webs we’ve been studying - and Emmylou still completed her food web poster, and Paul Bunyan narration this afternoon. 🌱 #begoodstewards #blossomandrootsecondgrade #blossomandrootearlyyearsvol1 #wildandfreekids #lastchildinthewoods #1000hoursoutside #outdoorclassroom #natureschooling (at Clemson Experimental Forest) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEsWA5HpupX/?igshid=sayhyaiyus1u

Happy Wednesday! So far so good at Sprout Academy! 🌱 We took a walk around the neighborhood to count 1000 steps, Lou counted by hundreds, marking off each set of 100 steps, determining how many more groups 100 to get to 1000 and estimated how far we would have to walk. Townes counted to 20. 🌱 Conducted an experiment for our Living Sunlight unit to watch a plant breath. 🌱 After nap we had art class, Townes exported Van Gogh and blues and yellows while Emmylou referenced Frank Lloyd Wright and Saenredam to make art using only horizons tap and vertical lines. 🌱 Then, a bonus surprise science lesson (we are actually studying food webs) when the praying mantis we found yesterday to observe caught a fly! 🌱 #begoodstewards #blossomandroot #blossomandrootsecondgrade #blossomandrootearlyyearsvol1 #wildmathcurriculum #vangogh #prayingmantis #wildandfreekids #1000hoursoutside #livingsunlight (at Anderson, South Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEplyQiJcLa/?igshid=kj3k5tdb8dbd