Raising Olives is Moving

Ok, take a deep breath and get ready for some action. Raising Olives is moving. Come visit the new Raising Olives and then change your links, favorites, bookmarks, feeds, or whatever you use to read Raising Olives, you don't want to miss out on all the action.

I will be leaving this site up, but all new posts will be over there. Come on, what are you waiting for http://raisingolives.com/, move it!

Cross Country

The excitement level is high in our house, cross country has started back up. Our oldest five are able to run this season and are in high spirits. They will be competing in their first 5K, so are excited about doing a little longer distance in a race.

Cross country is a great activity for our family. Everyone can participate, even those who are too young to actually compete. We all love heading to the park in the afternoon and walking or running for a couple of miles. Nicholas gets put in the Ergo, Colby walks some then rides in the stroller and I bribe the younger ones with time on the playground in order to get them to run a mile and a half or two so that I can get some exercise. Then we chill on the slide and swing while the bigger kids finish their distance. We also enjoy running in the evenings or around the neighborhood with daddy.

I'm so happy that spring is here coming and we are running again.

Homeschooling-Nature Journals

We just bought Savannah her nature journal and yesterday was her first entry. So I thought I would share with you how we use nature journals in our homeschool.

We began using nature journals for science about 7 years ago. Don't be fooled however, nature journaling teaches them much more than science. They also learn observation, art and basic research, not to mention they understand that they are able to learn on their own. They realize that they can go out, see something they don't understand, and then find the answers. They learn to be their own teacher.

When our children are old enough to begin a nature journal, between 4 and 6 depending on the child, we allow them access to some good quality art supplies. We use Prismacolor pencils. They allow our children to add detail and color and are easy for the little ones to manipulate. We have given our children more options as their art skills have progressed. These Caran D'ache water color crayons are my new favorites. I will suggest that if you expect quality results give them some quality tools. (Trust me on this one, I don't recommend spending money very often but nice art supplies are worth the investment IMO.)

The first assignment that we give each child is for them to go out into the yard and look around very carefully. They are looking for something that they have not noticed before. It can be the veins in a leaf, the spots on a fuzzy caterpillar, a blue rock or the fact that our dog has her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth. When they notice something that is new to them, they get to draw it. They must look at it while they draw and we encourage them to try to notice even more details while they are working. If our child notices a bird or something else which would not stay put long enough to draw, they may look it up and draw from a picture in a book or online.

If your children are like mine, their first drawings will not be impressive. It is okay if the drawing is immature and even unrecognizable. Their art skills will improve over time. At this point just encourage them to notice details and to try to include them in the drawing. So if your child noticed the veins in a leaf, and has drawn an uneven circle with lines going who-knows-where, that is wonderful. They have learned to look more closely at nature and to communicate what they discovered through art.

Next we have the children write something about their drawing. For the example of the drawing of veins in a leaf, we would ask what she just drew. If she says, "I drew lines in the leaf," then we would direct her to a source where she could discover what those lines are called. If she already knows that they are called veins then we would ask her to find out why a leaf has veins. The idea is to require them to find out something new and write that beside their picture. As soon as she understands how and where to find information, she no longer needs help with what to write unless she is having difficulties.

We require one nature entry a week. When I look at their assignment for the week they are usually full of information that they want to share with me. After we have discussed their page, I will usually tell them what I want them to do for the next week. Often the assignment will be exactly the same as the one I outlined above. However, if I notice that a particular child is struggling to do meaningful research or is stuck in a rut, I will give them a more specific assignment to help them progress in their ability. For example, if they are failing to convey new and meaningful information on their nature page, I would give them a specific question to answer or a process to explain for their next assignment.

If you don't have time to do anything more than this, your children will still benefit greatly by taking some time out each week to observe, wonder, draw, and study God's creation. However, I highly recommend the Handbook of Nature Study. We use this to give us more focus and to help us go deeper into a topic. You can work your way through a section doing a page on all the plants (or whatever) that are native to your area. It is an amazing resource; the only nature text that you will ever need.

Allow your children to enjoy journaling. As something interests your child, let them explore it further. We have studied rocks, leaves, squirrel habits, butterfly life cycles, live bearing fish, and the reproductive process of our pet guinea pigs. Hmm, I should probably get my children to produce some nature pages about ants.

If your children tend to focus on different aspects of nature, set aside time for them to show each other their books and talk about what each one is learning. This expands everyone's horizons.

They don't have to learn it all in a week. They don't have to produce a work of art every time. It is the process that teaches. Relax and enjoy.

Here are other posts on homeschooling, including why we homeschool and our most important assignment.

Afternoon Activities

My goal is to have a tea party with my girls twice a month. It provides a special opportunity to talk, laugh, and let them practice being ladies. They often take the opportunity to make something special, dress up, or creatively decorate the table.These are pictures of what my girls call a "first class" tea party complete with written invitations, handcrafted place mats, and freshly picked flowers. This particular party was planned and prepared by Amber.

Often our tea party will consist of nothing more than making tea, using some pretty dishes, and having cheese, crackers and fruit for lunch. We don't always dress up, but we always sit down together, without the boys, and take a little extra time over lunch.

We usually pack the boys a sack lunch and they head outdoors to do battle. On this day it was raining, so they had their sack lunch in the family room and worked on their own project.
I couldn't resist this picture of Savannah with one of the flowers that are currently blooming in our backyard. Does anyone know what these are?
The food may sometimes be simple, but the company is always unsurpassed!

While the girls were busy with their tea party and the boys were exiled to the family room, they entertained themselves by creating a diorama. Using one of my cookie sheets, organic materials from the back yard, and some other odds and ends, they created this:

Of course Nicholas had to help.

The Tennessee Aquarium

On Monday, the children and I packed a lunch and headed down to the Tennessee Aquarium with another mom and her children. We had a great day with the children rapidly running from one exhibit to the other, pointing out interesting facts to whomever would listen, petting the stingrays and sturgeons, and building deeper friendships. Tisha and I enjoyed visiting and learned even more things that we have in common. We even have the same favorite fish. Uncanny. We did not lose any children, even temporarily and our nursing babies were happily content snuggled close to their moms all day.
Always a big hit is the butterfly garden. Holding butterflies and having them land in your hair or on your clothes is high adventure and the butterflies always seem to oblige.

The smaller children also discovered some type of ground birds hiding in the shrubs.
When we came to the petting tanks, Colby (2) mustered enough courage to try to touch a one of the sting rays, so as the largest ray in the tank swam over, he had his hand in the water. The ray did not content itself with a nice calm swim under Colby's hand but came right up the side of the tank as if to jump into Colby's arms, spraying and flapping water as he came. Mr. calm, cool, and very grown up Colby merely stepped back from the still flopping, splashing ray with his face and clothes dripping. He however, no longer had any desire to touch a stingray. Who knew that rays were such social creatures? While some of the children were fairly wet after petting the rays, technically no one fell all the way into the water.

We have an annual pass to the Tennessee Aquarium and it has been so much fun to visit. It is a great value for large families as the pass is about the same as general admission for a family of six. There are two buildings of exhibits. River Journey has fresh water fish from around the globe and Ocean Journey boasts penguins, and the butterfly garden in addition to their varied selection of salt water creatures.