Field trip down to the Twin Cities

I saw this mural on a building and had to take a picture.

Driving into St. Paul. My kids were awestruck at the big city. The largest town they are used to is 12,000 and has no sky scrapers.

The reason for our visit- Little Bird needed a checkup at the hospital here.

Our hotel was right by the state capital. Sweet Pea was very impressed that people get to work in a castle like this. :)

Some of the marble inside- it was really neat to show the kids.

These flags are actually from the Dakota and Civil Wars. What an awesome piece of history!

Inside the Governor's office.

View from the steps over the downtown.

This is the Catholic Cathedral downtown- it was amazing and beautiful.

The view on the way home. When they say north woods, it's accurate.

Leech Lake is one of the biggest lakes and is one our way up north.

This is Paul Bunyan and Babe. This is a big deal up here- these were built early in the last century and then repaired.

We had a really good trip, despite why we had to go- and the kids got to see a lot of neat things that are different then what they see day to day.

Magic Schoolbus

We're on a major Ms. Frizzle kick. Sweet Pea can't get enough of the books. Fortunately we got quite a few of them as a birthday gift from her grandparents, so we always have them on hand.
I think it's the perfect amount of science in each- with good jumping off points for more study if we are interested.

Wild Rice fields, miquon, and the bug saga continues

For Miquon I'm really, really glad we picked cuisenaire rods with the line marked. Really glad.

Mr. Bug in his fatal embrace with a poor goldfish.

OK, this is what a road through a wild rice field looks like. See how narrow? See how close to the water? We were driving through to see the swans as they migrate back up north. We missed most of them though. Poor timing!

And in places I was worried that the road would give out. This isn't dirt, it's sand.

Finally, some swans!

And a better view of more rice fields. They're all perfectly measured and cut into rectangles- it's really neat.

We're already a quarter of the way through 1st grade Hooked on Phonics. The books are longer (and sometimes weirder) but Sweet Pea is still making rapid progress. Her favorite activity is spelling the words with letter cards- she doesn't have to slow down and concentrate on letter formation. Strangely she's also enjoying the flash cards. We're chugging through the dolch sights words and it's interesting to see how that opens up more reading opportunities.
Sweet Pea originally hoped that there was a reading magic bullet- some quick and effortless way to go from not reading to reading real books. Alas, we've discovered that it does take some work.
We're not spending a whole lot of time every day on her reading- between 10 to 30 minutes daily, and her stamina is the deciding factor. When she says that she wants to be done, we're done.

Sweet Pea's vision of spring, complete with a hard to see but happy kitty on the hill.

Some of her handwriting. We've recently begun cursive with Cursive First. Sweet Pea writes manuscript pretty well and is enjoying cursive.

Mr. Bug's first meal

That white thing in between Mr. Bug's front arms? That's a goldfish. He ate it!

Mr. Bug's new home

He has some nice pink sand and some stones. Tonight some friends are delivering a small fish for him to eat- he's beginning to charge anything that comes near the tank. I think he's hungry.

We also did some pattern blocks and a lot of nature walking today, but Mr. Bug's new house has been the highlight.