Since January she’s had “precocious udders” which basically means she was dried up and just began making milk again. She bagged up (her milk came in) and we noticed her self sucking (aka nursing herself) in January. Now she needs milking about once a week and we typically get 8 oz or so… which happens to be MORE than what I get from our new, dwarf 2nd freshener named Buttercup. Anyway, I’m all for hands on learning and Pop tart is mild mannered so I let them have at it.

The girls already got the lowdown on milking goats last summer and did get to try their hand at milking once before this video was shot. Here they are milking our dairy goat and discussing the details:

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Death

Take today for example, we awoke to a gruesome/ fascinating discovery: The back legs, tail and uterus of a dead mouse on the floor. The mouse was pregnant, like 4 babies were identifiable. We could have cleaned it up and tossed it out before the kids noticed but we have a very science minded child- so we picked it up and put it aside for looking at.

“Aw…” Everly remarked at the babies “but it’s good they aren’t taking over our house!” she added. She’s right, baby animals are cute and it’s sad when they die but a house full of rodents is NOT a good thing. Our cats live in the house with a job to do. They earned their keep on this kill.  If you want to see it you can here- most of my facebook friends seemed disturbed so I opted NOT to show it here.

Later, when we went out to feed the livestock the girls spotted a dead cardinal in the grass near a waterway. “Can we take this inside to study mom?” they asked me. They know not to touch without asking first. This dead bird had some decay and possibly disease by the looks of it, so we opt to look at it where it was, without touching.

Back when the below freezing temperatures and snow were here their daddy brought home a few dead birds that likely froze to death over at the farm shop. One was a woodpecker two were common grackles that we studied and identified using our bird books.

The girls drew diagrams of their birds and labeled them. They even plucked a few interesting feathers to glue to their observations page.

They love to get to see birds up close.

New life

A “peep” sang out from our poultry incubator in the living room this morning, we have eggs that are due to hatch. The girls ran over and really looked at the eggs. One had a small crack and the longer we looked the more we noticed!

Turns out three eggs are in the process of hatching early. I keep hatch records so I was jotting notes down and the girls decided to join in. Adalyn drew pictures of the eggs and colored them in accordingly (we have some easter egger chickens). Everly documented the date, time, titled her journal entry and labeled/ colored the eggs on her observation page. I smiled at the sight of their self driven activity.

Being mindful of teaching moments and really letting them become immersed in both the good and bad of farm life has really been working out.

Of course, we didn’t just expose them to gruesome death right away. We eased in with the topic, first when our pet bunny died, then as we saw death around us (an elderly neighbor died, we saw a dead squirrel in the road, our dog was run over, chickens died, turkeys needed slaughtering, we tried to save orphaned lambs, newborn calves needed warming and bottle feeding, etc).

I think being so sheltered from death makes it seem more devastating (for kids and adults). What do you think?

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You know, as I I write this I’m remembering how eager she was to go to Montessori School with Everly back in Evansville right around the time Grayson was born. 

Anyway, we humored her and off to the screening she went. She was practically a mute! The screener had to work very hard to engage her and could hardly get a whisper out of her… but she got the okay for attending PreK a few days a week.

Today was her first day of class!

When me and Grayson got home from dropping the girls off at school it was kind of sad and lonely in the house. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself with just one kiddo by my side…

and now Everly’s teacher says she’s pretty sick so I’m headed back to the school now to retrieve her…

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Could it be that we are forging a new yearlong routine? Is it just that I’m down to juggling two kids during this time? Is it because needs are being better met in our new arrangement?

It’s probably a combination of everything.

My oldest, Miss Everly, is a Kindergartener. Her first day of school was Friday, today was her first day on the school bus.

All summer I’ve been back and forth about school. For the preschool years she was in a Montessori coop type setting with a 3 hr class in a fellow mom’s home several days a week. We also pull from the Montessori method where home education is concerned and have several spaces throughout the house for Montessori materials and work time. The Montessori method works for our home in many ways, hands on education us our style but after moving out here we had to reevaluate things.

Have I mentioned there is only one other family that lives on our street? There aren’t many kids nearby for Everly to hang out with and as it turns out, she really grew accustomed to the community of children she saw during the week in her Montessori class outside the home. Since, moving out here, she’s been cagey and annoyed with her sister. She’s been stifled and probably bored. We wont be abandoning our homeschool/ Montessori ways but…

We went ahead and enrolled her in the local public school. She needs the time with other kids her age, she needs the sense of community, she needs her time to shine, her independence…

She had a great first day! It was nerve wracking for her when I dropped her off and was trying to leave. Her tears made me a bit teary… but we got through it and she had a fun-filled day. Today, her second day of school she rode the bus to and from the school. My baby is growing up… Time sure flies.

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The girls have been loading up on the perks of our current living arrangement. Time with friends, visiting their favorite places and soaking up all the joys of our current house. We have a bunch of tadpoles that we hatched from eggs in the sand table right now… they were caught from the pond out back and they are growing fast.

Everly has also been hoping to catch another turtle or two from the pond before we move. We initially caught, measured, observed, numbered and then released the turtles.She hopes to catch a turtle that we’d already numbered so she can see how much it’s grown before we have to leave.

Update: We managed to catch TWO turtles and a frog later today! One of the turtles are one of the ones we numbered. She’s very excited. Here is a video of the fish bowl where our habitat exists for observation in our school room (disregard all the kid noise):

Today the girls picked their first three strawberries from our garden and were elated, so much so that they wouldn’t eat them. They are saving them in the fridge. We also enjoyed some homegrown lettuce yesterday that they picked.

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