First Day of School -- Field trip to study Seashells!!

Today was our first day of school!!  Miss Angel is now in first grade, and Miss Fairy, kindergarten!  Welcome to our classroom!

 For an art project, we made these adorable handprint bookmarks.

 And here is Miss Fairy's HANDiwork (get it:D)










We are incorporating a couple of new concepts into our homeschooling, which I am VERY excited about.  The first is borrowing on some of the concepts of the Charlotte Mason methods.  This is VERY literature-rich, using "living" books, as opposed to text books.  This will work especially well for areas such as history and social studies.  I'm especially excited about presenting history in this format--because when I was in school, I litrerally got NOTHING out of history--I mean NOTHING.  And that is very sad!  I believe my lack of interest was due to two big factors--the way the textbooks presented the material, and quite frankly, I don't feel the history teachers I had really brought it to life for me.  It doesn't have to be that way.  That's why I'm very excited about the use of "living books" written by people who are passionate about their topics---the information most likely won't be presented in a drab matter, but rather with lots of color and rich details!  This is what brings history to life (this along with being able to visit museums, reenactments, and historical sites:)  Oh, and along with using "real literature" my girls will narrate back what they learned from some of the readings, as opposed to me requiring them to memorize stuff and spit the stuff back out for the sake of a "test."  (No worries, some important things will be "pointed" out to be committed to memory.)  However, for the most part, the premise behind narrations, is with all that happens in the brain to enable this skill---the information suddenly becomes knowledge!  Further, in my eyes, this is an excellent stage of development for my girls to become excellent communicators, both orally and written.  Eventually, when age-appropriate, narrations will also be written, by them!!  Can you see where this is going?   We are of course being a bit more traditional for math; and of course we're focusing hard on learning to read--but continuing to enjoy reading!  I pray that my girls always love reading and have a zest for learning, and that their natural creativity and curiosity never gets squelched--it's so beautiful to see this in a child!   Learning isn't something separate, and it should never be a chore; it's all part the fun of living and life!! 

Olive Shell--South Carolina's state shell!

For the afternoon, we headed over to Hunting Island, where we met a volunteer naturalist for a class on sea shells.  We learned a tremendous amount of information about Whelk shells and the many varieties.  The woman who led our "class" this afternoon is a malacologist (I bet that's a new name for you too :)  This is a person who not only studies the shells, but the mollusks as well (the soft animals inside the hard shell:)  After a very informative lesson at the picnic table with the naturalist's personal collection, all found locally on Hunting Island, we hit the beach for some fun!  The girls (and the gentleman who also joined the class) all had a spectacular time digging in the sand, and bringing their treasures to the naturalist to identify!  We found oysters, sanddollars, fossels, various shells, coral (specific to this area, not the same was that found in the warmer waters of the Carribean), sea sponge---and we were able to identify the fate of some of the shells (e.g. a hole in the shell potentially indicates, that it was "drilled" by another sea creature, and then sucked out for lunch:)  We also found a few clams that were still alive (they group together), and we threw them back into the ocean, hoping to save them!  

Also, though my girls are very aware of not littering, and  being able to recycle when possible--they learned a valuable lesson from the naturalist-they watched her pick up somebody else's litter to throw away later.  She explained to them that one little piece of garbage can wind up back in the ocean, and be sighted by some sea animal who will think it to be food---and then could very easily die from trying to consume the garbage!  This really hit Fairy Girl hard, who picked a couple of pieces of trash up, and later told her daddy all about this!  A valuable life-long valuable lesson was learned today!

In the photo below, you will see a group of shells (sorry, forgot the name) that survive by living ontop of one another.  You may be interested to hear that all the shells on top are male, and the one carrying the load--female:D  Even more interesting, if the female decides to bail on her mates, the male on the bottom, will suddenly transform from male to female:D

  Our seashell class lasted an hour and a half.  And the woman leading the class was so incredibly enthusiastic about this; she invited us to hang out more with her as she continued to walk the beach looking for treasures.  It was also very clear how passionate she was about sharing her love with children!

How's that for science and nature studies:)

What a GREAT first day of school!!  

(I wonder if my girls realize these life experiences are just not typical, everyday "school"--I'm grateful we have these opportunities!)