Great Lakes

Desert Botanical Gardens

tilt your head to the left and you'll see the state of MI

This week we are focusing on the Great Lakes, mainly MI right now. I realized after I had all my plans for the week that Konos only set aside 1 week for the Great Lake region....sooo, we will spending LONGER than a week :) We checked a bunch of books out of the library yesterday on cows and then of course on other pets. Jay will be doing a report on three different kinds of cows , what are their differences, similarities, etc. He is pretty excited about them. My children end up being resident specialists when learning about animals because they absorb themselves into that particular topic full force.

Jayden molded homemade tortillas into the shape of Michigan and we drew out the lakes surrounding Michigan. Here is to tell you how pathetic I am. I kept saying to myself, " Where does Erie fit?" Umm, yes, lived in Michigan for 23 years and didn't even realize that ONLY four of the Great Lakes surround our blessed state...not all five. WOW! Thankfully, I kept that thought to myself and did not confuse Jayden.

We will be making an assembly line out of legos today, after our Valentine's party, as we learn about Henry T Ford and his contributions to the automotive industry ( or lack thereof now) of Michigan. In March, we will be doing our dairy farm visit. The kids, at that time, will be going on a hay ride, drinking flavored milk, seeing how milk is produced from cows, watching a sheep shearer, etc. Should be a lot of fun. The books we are reading this week are all on lakes, ponds and swamps, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana, Henry T Ford and cows.

Earlier this week, we met up with a few families in our co op and went to the Desert Botanical Gardens. That was fun as we have been loosely going to a botany class. Admission was free which I was thankful for. I am not into spending $50 for my family to look at cactus when we can just hike for free and find them. Nevertheless, it was a little bit of a drive so we listened to Little House in the Big Woods. It was very fitting because the setting is in Wisconsin. Out of the four cds, we listened to three on our trip to and from alone! I actually got really into them and kept commenting how much fun it would have been and simpler, to live during that time period.

I love books on cd as there are so many I want to read to my kids, quality book let me say, but don't have all that time, so we read some and listen to some. Overall, we are having a great week. Austen worked on patterns yesterday which is more a game to him than anything. He also worked on some mazes and played. Kindergarten is so fun! :)