An Enchanted Childhood--Recent Weeks

We have been far too busy taking nature walks, playing in the creek, and visiting the garden to do much of any "inside" activities.  But we have been learning how to classify various animals... birds--have feathers and lay hard eggs, mammals--give live birth and nurse their babies, reptiles--have dry scaly skin and laid hard eggs, amphibians--live in the water when they are little and on land when they are big, and lay "jelly" eggs, insects--bugs with six legs (not to be confused with spiders with eight legs), and fish--live in the water and lay jelly eggs (not the most sophisticated classifying, but hey these Littles are ages 1-5.)

We have read many, many books about the various animals and sang songs with props such as finger puppets (Five Green and Speckled Frogs and Six Little Ducks..) and stuffed animals.. the awesome birds from the Audubon society.  We have observed many animals in their natural habitat (frogs, insects, salamanders, crabs, minnow...) bringing some inside for "one sleep".

Following are a few pictures of some of the activities we have done over the past few weeks.