End of Summer

In August Preston went to Cub Scout Day Camp.  This was the first time he'd ever been gone all day, and he wasn't sure he liked that idea.  He's quite a homebody.  The first day went great, and he had a wonderful time.  I was there as a volunteer and could see that he was having fun.  The second day, he decided he didn't want to go.  When I took him to the church to meet his carpool to drive to camp, he refused to get into the car with the other boys.  So, I turned around and took him back home.  Halfway home, he decided that he really did want to go after all and wanted me to drive him the 30 minutes to camp.  He was one very sad boy when I told him that I would not drive him to camp.  He made a choice to stay home and he would have to live with that choice.  It was a hard lesson to learn, but the next day he went to camp with no problems and had fun the rest of the week.  His favorite badges that he earned were for shooting beebee guns and sling shots.

 This is Preston's best little Cub Scout friend, Ryker. 

Preston and I planted a very small garden in the spring, and got to harvest carrots, lettuce, and green beans.

For the first day of school, I got Preston some gifts to use on our nature hikes.  I made him this knapsack with his initial on it.

Inside I put a nature journal.

And a water bottle.

And some colored pencils for sketches.

This year Preston requested to learn about "math, science, and nature".  So for the first day of school, we went on a hike to a local nature preserve.  The goal of the hike was to find as many different kinds of seeds as we could.

 He's fascinated by these giant ant hills that we see on this particular trail.

The first block of lessons this year were about the weather.  We started with talking about the sun and making sun prints with special paper.

We also installed an outdoor thermometer and started charting the temperature from day to day.

Sometimes Preston likes to do his work on the trampoline.

Form drawing is a Waldorf educational activity that we do once a week.  He has to work hard to draw these designs.  It's really helped his fine motor skills and handwriting.