“This City is my Jungle Gym”

“The city is my jungle gym.

Look at this big great world that we're living in.

There's lots of fun to be had on these streets.

We can take a ride just you and me.

It's a jungle gym.

It's a jungle gym.”

My kids love this song from Jack Johnson’s Curious George soundtrack, and whenever we listen to it, I’m reminded of Nashville.  Truly, this city sometimes seems like a giant play place for our family.  Here are a few of our recent excursions:

On Wednesday morning, we ate breakfast with Gigi and Papa before taking an impromptu field trip to the zoo.  I had planned to have a five-day week at school, even though we usually have a four-day week, plus a field trip.  The weather on Wednesday was just too beautiful, though, so we decided spend the day outside!

On Saturday, we walked to breakfast at Bar B Cutie…

…before the kids and I ventured out to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens to see the kickoff of their “Harvest” theme.

We enjoyed the usual scenery…

…and also got to see their scarecrow display…

…their train layout…

…and their pumpkin patch…

…not to mention a live band!

Because the weather was just too beautiful, we also stopped by Luke’s old elementary school playground on the way home.

The kids were very proud of their sawdust slide.

Then, this evening, we went to check out a nearby playground that we had heard good things about.  It was part of a large park, and the playground itself reminded me of Gahagan Park, one of our favorite playgrounds in Summerville:

The funny thing was, I complained to Greg that this park was fifteen minutes away, and then realized that Gahagan was that far away from us in Summerville!  I didn’t think anything of it there, but there are so many playgrounds between our house and this playground that it seemed silly to drive that far.  But really, the playground was cool enough to warrant a fifteen minute drive!

 

(Greg is trying to teach Luke how to jump as high as possible so that he can grab that handle.)

Afterward, we took a walk down one of the park’s trails and had fun discovering hedge apples and walnuts laying under the trees.  (I had to text pictures to my dad to figure out what they were:)).  The kids also each picked a flower, which my dad theorized were camphor weeds.

It was a fun evening together as a family.  Here’s hoping this weather will continue to inspire us to get out and explore our jungle gym of a city!

Book Clubs are Fun!

I want to join a book club.  And not just any book club:  a history book club.  I came to this conclusion after I read two books on Theodore Roosevelt, one by David McCullough, and one by Edmund Morris, and came away full of thoughts about the relative merits and styles of each author.  And then I realized that I do not know one person on this earth who would be interested in those thoughts.

That’s when I hit on the idea of joining a history book club.  Surely people who are part of history book clubs would be just as nerdy as I am! 

Until that happy day, I can console myself with being part of a virtual book club with my children.  The pros of this book club is that we get introduced to a different children’s author each month, and that I get to pick a book and come up with some kind of craft or project for it.

The con is that I am so not a crafty person.

Thus, even though we read several books by Lois Ehlert, I picked perhaps the easiest book for which to think of a craft:

See?  It’s practically pictured for you on the cover. 

The book is filled with whimsical images of creatures made out of leaves.  We read it outside last Monday morning, and then got to work.  All I had to do was provide glue and construction paper.  They did the rest by hunting through the yard and then making their own leaf creatures:

I thought it was a great way to celebrate the slight beginnings of fall that we are experiencing here in Tennessee!

If you want to see other great Lois Ehlert-inspired reading projects, go here!

A Week’s Worth of Images

Labeling the rainforests:

Writing cuneiform symbols on playdough:

Working our new puzzles that came from Zulily:

Putting the New Testament books in order:

Luke’s alternative pictures in his Spelling Workout:

Anna takes on Phonics Pathways:

Making a compass:

Reading practice in the car:

P.E.:

Wednesday night singing:

Thursday night fundraising dinner:

Friday night sleepover fun:

Being silly before church:

It’s been a good week!

Overheard in the Other Room

Anna:  Luke, do you like boys more or girls?

Luke:  Boys.

Anna (very matter-of-fact):  So that’s why you don’t like me very much?

Luke (surprised):  I like you, Anna.

Anna:  But you don’t like me very much?

Luke (emphatic):  I like you a lot.

Anna:  But why don’t you answer me sometimes?

Luke, already distracted by playing, does not answer.  (Irony?)

Anna:  Oh, maybe it’s because you don’t hear me.

Monday Classrooms

We enjoyed a lovely morning of school this morning.  Outside, temperatures were in the mid-70’s.  Inside, we had our fall decorations up and an apple cinnamon candle burning.  Thus, we made use of a few different “classrooms” for our studies:

Outside, we read several books, learned about Jericho and Catal Huyuk, and did Language Arts.

Inside, we worked on math and handwriting.

Outside again after lunch, we read about the rainforest, labeled the region on our South America map, and cut and glued pictures of animals from the rainforest on our worksheets (they join pictures of animals from the Andes mountains).

Yep, even after a week of wonderful vacation, it is still nice to get back to school!