An activity we frequently do on our nature walks and family hikes is practicing identifying plants we come across. Sometimes we purposefully set out to forage for a favorite snack or medical herb, and sometimes we just practice identifying random plants and trees, either way it's always a fun way to learn about the natural world around us. Why You Should Teach Your Kids To ID Plants: One of the reasons I teach my kids how to identify local plant life is so that they know what plants are edible, which have medicinal properties, and which plants to stay away from. My kids love foraging for blackberries, grapes, and other wild growing fruit. We also regularly forage for wild herbs like plantain, dandelion, yarrow, and elderberries to use in medicinal salves and tinctures. It's important for them to know that they are picking the right plants and not something harmful or poisonous. Plant identification is also a great way for kids to connect with nature and learn about pl

I've been wanting to do a "day in the life of" post for awhile, but since our days tend to be so varied, any single day wouldn't be a very accurate look at what learning really looks like in our household. Instead, I've decided to share about an entire homeschool week, I think this will be a better way to share about our approach to learning. We don't have a specific time that we wake up or start our school day. We wake up when we're ready and usually make a real breakfast and get cleaned up and dressed for the day before we get started. I'll spare you the boring daily details and mostly just share about our learning experiences each day. Monday: We are currently living in an apartment without on site laundry, so every Monday, we pack up our laundry baskets and some school work and head to the laundry mat after breakfast. Since we're stuck sitting around the laundry mat anyway, it's the perfect time to get a little reading or a couple wo

I love fall time. There's so many pretty colors and the weather is perfect for nature hikes. Last week my girls collected a bunch of gorgeous fall leaves while exploring in the park. We took some home to sketch in our nature journals and to use for a fall themed descriptive writing activity. Afterwards we stuck them in books to press and dry. Today we pulled them out a used them for making autumn themed paper lanterns. How To Make Autumn Leaf Paper Lanterns: For this craft you will need: -A variety of autumn leaves (real or artificial) -Contact paper -Construction paper -School glue -Flameless tea light candles First you'll need to take a nature walk in your neighborhood, the park, or even your backyard, and collect some pretty autumn leaves. Bring them inside and stick them inside a couple heavy books and set them aside for a few days to dry flat. To get started on your lantern, cut two identical rectangles of contact paper 12 inches by 9 inches. Peel th