March Into Spring

 Is it spring yet? It felt like it and then it didn't. I think the longer I'm a mom, the more I like warmer weather. It so much easier to slap on some sunscreen and run outside barefoot than it is to put 20 layers of clothes on 3 kids and myself. Surely, we are getting closer. 

In the meantime, the cold weather hasn't stopped us from doing all sorts of fun things around here!

We started March out with a celebration of Dr. Seuss's birthday! I hosted a birthday poetry tea party with our homeschool friends. Our library lets you reserve their community room for free and our group thought it was a great space for us, so we will definitely be using that more in the future! It is always worth checking with your library for so many resources. We love the library!

Another birthday celebration with tea was for our Mimi! We took her out to the tea depot and had a special girl's day with her. 

Our early learners co-op that I formed out of a necessity for like-minded families has started to take more shape. We are aiming to meet weekly, with each week having a specific purpose. For our field trip week this month, one of the mamas organized a trip to the local maple syrup grove. We learned all about tapping trees and even got to sample fresh syrup!

We got to see our cousin, Easton, which is always exciting! The boys are really turning into sweet little buddies and it just melts me. 

We got a random big snowstorm one day, so we decided a trip to the children's museum would be fun while we were stuck inside. We used our annual pass one more time before it expired and picked up germs (again!). But the kids had fun. Ewan spent his time playing all the musical exhibits and Isla spent her time watching and listening to every single video they had about farming. And now she wants to be a farmer :)

We checked out the snowstorm when we got home.

And if you've been around, you know my stance on education. We view all of life as learning. But Isla (and now Ewan) LOVE our formal "table time" together. We've been slowly continuing through our curriculum, but I'm in no rush with it. Both kids love sitting at our little table, usually with a snack, while working on the activities I've planned for the day. We probably do "school" 1-3 times a week. 

note about this picture: I put a picture of the colors with their labels on her art table. I didn't say anything about it. I walked in later to find that Isla had copied the poster and later went on to label the colors, all on her own. I think it's amazing what her little brain comes up with when I just get out of the way. 

When it's not been freezing or wet, we've tried to get outside often. We are still so behind in our 1,000 hours and I'm not sure we'll ever reach that goal while the kids are young. Every year we get to about 600 something. But the whole point is to get outside and to counter the amount of time spent on screens (which is almost zero for our kids). So I'm trying to remember the number probably doesn't matter that much. 

One of the co-op weeks each month is for a simple playdate! We are lucky to have such good friends.

Another big thing that happened this month was that I had to have surgery to remove a melanoma that was found on my leg. It was stage 0 and I'm glad to have caught it early. But it was still a big deal, as they took a good chunk out of my leg. I had to leave Eleanor for 4+ hours and she did NOT take a bottle. I believe breastfeeding is the best choice for us, but man sometimes it's really hard. She does not like bottles, so I can't be gone from her longer than 2 hours usually. Not a fun day for everyone, but Michael and his parents held down the fort. And we are all happy to be on the other side. 
AND my results came back that they got all the cancer cells. Praise the Lord! 

Pop Pop took Ewan to the tractor store while I was gone and that was the highlight of his life I think. 

Following surgery, the kids ended up with fevers for some reason. I swear we can't go anywhere without getting sick. It feels like we are the only people in the world that can't do anything without catching a little bug. After a trip to the doctor for a high fever and lots and lots of sleep, I found out they had Roseola. No big deal, but we had to cancel our trip to St. Louis.

We have been continuing with ballet (recital is at the end of April!) and tried out a new activity this month. Nana met us at a local nursing home where we got to have a music class with other little friends and the residents. It was such a great experience that I think we will add that to our regular schedule. What an amazing thing to include littles with the residents and all while incorporating music.  What a great experience for all involved. 

Because of our fevers, we missed teacher week this month where a fellow mama shared her knowledge about sourdough starters and led a class all about breadmaking. Each month in our co-op we have playdate week, field trip week, teacher week, and specials week. Special week is for those big events worth celebrating- like our Valentine's Day party or Easter egg hunt. This month, our specials week was a day all about Mary Anning and paleontology to celebrate Women's History month! It was fun digging to find dinosaur fossils (in cornstarch and water!). The kids dressed for the occasion. And also came home and did their own digging, as well! I'm sure we'll extend our learning of paleontology through the next few weeks. Knowing me, we'll end up at a museum to look at bones too.

In case you missed our update on books in February's post, we have been trying to do 2 chapter books a month. We have outdone ourselves each month. The kids LOVE to read. Every week I order a stack of books from the library to pickup via drive thru. But we end up going inside every time, so we leave with 30+ books total. It's like Christmas for them. They sit there and look at the books for a long time. I just love how much they love to read. Even on hard days, as long as we read a little, it counts as a good day in my book. 

This month we read The Adventures of the South Pole Pig by Chris Kurtz. I do not recommend it, but Isla says she loved it. We also read Leroy Ninker Saddles Up by Kate DiCamillo (a character from the Mercy Watson series, which we loved!). Another classic we finished on audio was The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. It's a good chapter book for preschoolers, but Isla didn't enjoy it as much as some others. And we finished Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This book, of course, has led us down a whole unit of learning about pioneer living. Isla and I have been so fascinated by life during that time, that we've been doing our own research on the side. I messaged our co-op group and asked if anyone was interested in doing some "pioneer days" with us over the summer. So now, we are all reading the whole series and will be doing things like churning butter, making cornhusk dolls, and making tin can lanterns. One of the moms in the group used to dress in costume and do demonstrations at a nearby historic site. So of course, we will have to take a field trip there, as well. I love the rabbit trails that we get to follow in our education! Stay tuned for more on our upcoming pioneer days. 

For myself, I have stayed on course with my reading goals, as well, this month. I finished An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten (so funny, IMO) and just finished the sequel, An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed. I am still working on Unschooled by Kerry McDonald and Michael can't believe I'm not through it yet. But I am going slow and have pretty much underlined everything in it because it's just so good. And I also finished my book club book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. We still need to meet about the book, but I'm planning on bringing an actual potato peel pie to share with everyone :) I can't wait to see what my group picks next!

At the end of the month, we got to take a last hurrah trip to visit cousin Easton before his baby sister arrives. The kids did so well in the car and we all had a great time!

It's been a very full month! Here are all the in-betweens that have happened: