Up this week: the Keeping Company link-up for September will be posted tomorrow afternoon, so get your posts ready!
And later this week, some favorite books and audios for preschoolers and kindergarteners. This one has been sitting in my draft folder almost finished for over a week now, so it's time to polish it up and publish! Coming soon.
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Part of our busy-ness the past couple weeks was a trip to the aquarium, which we hadn't been to in a couple years. The aquarium is always a treat, and they have a current exhibit of octopi and jellyfish that was amazing.
The kids' favorite was a toss-up between the puffins and the two-story deep sea tank. Pardon the following super-blurry photo (phone camera in low light), but I wanted to share just how impressive the latter is...
Those are gigantic tuna, surrounded by silvery clouds of sardines. I've stood in front of that tank ever since I was a kid and it never ceases to awe me.
We got a membership (it was literally cheaper than paying for one visit for our big crew!) and are looking forward to heading back.
~~~We also had a birthday last week: Bridget turned four! She is the first of my three September birthday girls and has been counting down her birthday for months. Among other treats, she received--surprise!--a few special books. I'll share a peek at those later this month when I get a chance to recap what we're reading.
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I'm 32 weeks pregnant and feeling every bit of it! But it has given me the perfect opportunity to start running with my older three kids while I'm going slower and shorter. We have been doing three miles on Saturdays and an occasional weekday morning run too. They're getting a little faster every week, so I'm guessing they'll be outpacing me shortly. ;) And that'll be just about the time baby arrives and Daddy can take over running duties while I take some postpartum time off!
I have a feeling running is going to be a family activity moving forward, which makes me really happy. I grew up running with my parents, but since having babies, I have been a solo runner for the most part. I'm excited to share this hobby with my kids as they get old enough to join in!
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Several friends have written over the past couple months asking for field guide recommendations and suggestions for identifying what they see out on nature study outings.
My first tip: the more local your field guides, the better. We enjoy our national field guides (especially my lovely Golden Guides--I collect the vintage editions) for drawing from, but for identifying, we pretty much only use our California/Bay Area books.
So--a few of my favorite resources for my more local readers:
I pretty much always carry this comprehensive California guide with us while out. It's not the most useful, but it has a little bit of everything, so it's the best all-in-one resource I have found. (Ours got dropped in the pond a couple weeks ago by a certain unnamed toddler, but I was surprised by how well it dried out! So you can take it on my word that it's pretty durable too. ;))
I picked up this tree guide at a local nature bookshop and like it a lot. It's actually part of a series: Mammals and Berries are available too for this area. (And if you're in the Midwest or East Coast, the series has even more options.)
I haven't even bothered looking for a wildflower field guide because this county parks website is all I need! It's fantastic and I refer to it almost every week in the spring/summer months.
And for crawlies: this Peterson First Field Guide for Insects and Butterflies and Moths are the ones the kids grab most often.
I also have various laminated field guides (including this one for birds and one for butterflies), and although they are necessarily limited, they are a great option for eager toddlers.
If you have personal favorites, I would love to hear about them! I pick up field guides at thift stores and book sales so we have a big stack to pull from as we discern which styles and publishers we like best.
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I notice a lot of families are starting up their new school year this week--wishing you a wonderful one! We're on Week 10 of Term 1, so I've started jotting down exam questions here and there and thinking about what I need to get done before Term 2 begins...
See you back here tomorrow to link up your Keeping posts!
I love that you're running at 32 weeks! Fabulous! I have been out of running for a long while now. Probably won't be able to get into it again without some surgery but wanted to say you have much to look forward too. I used to run a lot with my second daughter and boy do I miss it. We got into trail running and had so much fun! We even ran into a bear together. That was exciting! But seriously the running and the challenges when it was tough are still things we reminisce about. You are blessed to be able to have the opportunity of continuing that as you children grow.
ReplyDeleteOh, I love that you have running memories that are part of your family culture! I have the same thing with my parents. It's one of those sports that crosses lines of age and gender, which makes it great for big families in particular. :) I'm looking forward to many years of running together with my kids, God willing!
DeleteI love that you are making running a family activity, Celeste. It is very cool to me to hear that you also ran with your parents. For the record I abhor running. (Just making sure I'm not mistaken for the runner that I never was and never will be.) My husband, on the other hand, is a triathlete and both of my boys have become avid cyclists to his great joy. He has two loops from our house measured, one of which is 1.8 miles and the other 3.1. The boys ride this loop with their dad a few times every week and at least once a week they do a "brick" where they transition off their bikes and directly into a run. Their favorite routine, though, is to ride their bikes to the community pool a mile from home for a swim and then ride home and then do a short run. The boys love it but I won't let my husband let them put in too much mileage off their bikes considering they are still only 4 and 7 years old...soon to be 5 and 8...waaahh...make it stop. Okay, I digress. I wish I could pull off being a pregnant mom as well as you can, Celeste. I loved being pregnant both times but I didn't balance the mothering and the pregnancy well...hence the reason we have only two children:(.
ReplyDeleteThat is great that your husband and boys can share that passion together, and I especially love that he has them doing bricks! ;) My husband runs a bit, but only for exercise--I am the one that runs for the love of the sport in our family. :) Hopefully I'll pass that love on to at least a few of the kids because it would be fun to have some running buddies right here at home! I actually think my 6yo is a natural; she has the typical runner's build (I decidedly do not!) and is able to do our three miles easily, whereas I thought it would take a while for her to build to that point. And the 9yo and 8yo are doing great too. We'll see if it lasts!
DeleteAnd I am extremely thankful that I have easier pregnancies that most ladies BUT I will say that this time I am feeling it much more than in the past! Eight weeks cannot pass fast enough for me. Pregnancy and the early newborn stage are NOT my favorites. I always wish I could just wake up six months from now, when baby is here, I am recovered, and life is getting back into a semblance of a routine after the postpartum madness. No, no, I'm not a control freak at all. ;)
Well, that does make me feel a tiny bit better, Celeste. I'll pray for your particularly pointedly, then, during the next 8 months:). Although - do your children tend to come earlier rather than later? That may be a bright point - maybe it will only be 7 months instead of 8? :)
DeleteMy husband even taught the boys (as part of their learning to ride without training wheels routine, which took all of 10 minutes or less to my amazement!) how to transition off the bike properly to shave off time when transitioning from a bike to a run:). It's pretty adorable to watch my youngest do this, actually!
Thank you for your prayers! Can you believe I have been late with ALL of my babies? So it might be more like nine. ;)
DeleteSoon your boys will need their own kits! :)
EEK! I didn't think that was possible. My condolences:(. 9 months of prayer it is, then:).
DeleteI detest running, but my kids and I are on week 2 of Couch to 5k. We started 3 weeks ago, and have been going slowly. My kids hate it with an unrelenting hate.
ReplyDeleteI hope it gets better. Please tell me it gets better.
I promise it gets better, Dawn! LOL I saw your comment about your kids hatred for running in your weekly round-up, I think it was, and laughed.
DeleteReally, the more in shape you get, the easier the run is, and then before you know it, you're actually enjoying the feeling of running itself and not just the feeling of being done. You have that sense of accomplishment, you get stress relief and a boost of adrenaline that adds extra energy to your day, you get fitter and feel stronger--it is such a great feeling. But you have to get through the slogging part first. ;)
I go through the same feelings every time I come back postpartum (the first dozen runs are not fun at all), but I know that the reward is running *comfortably* and everything that goes with it, and I stick with it for that pay-off. It's so great. Your kids will feel the same eventually too. :)
You are such a rock star! I have been a big sack of potatoes since Phoebe was born, so I am gearing up to mentally commit myself to getting back in shape after this baby comes (oh, 8 weeks sounds so long and yet so short...I'm not ready for another baby, practically speaking, but I am sure close to being done with pregnancy. But I must admit, this pregnancy is not as bad, I just can't move very quickly, which is very important when parenting a very independent, curious, and seemingly hard-of-hearing one year old.) Anyway...I am considering asking my old personal trainer if she'll come work with me at my house, with the added bonus of letting the kiddos follow along. I definitely prefer cross-training type workouts to running. Though I swear someday I will do a 5K. Thanks for all the field guide references. And happy birthday to Bridget...now that Joy is four she thinks she all that and more ;) I love Four!
ReplyDeleteI am impressed with your 10 weeks of school! We finally finished 6 weeks of the curriculum, and I'm pretty sure we started at the same time. But we've taken it slow. I am really really praying we finish term one before the baby comes, but we are cutting it close. Since my in-laws will be here for 5 weeks, I may be able to jump right into schooling after the baby arrives, if I don't have to clean and cook ;-) I can lay around and read! But thankfully, I think we have found our relative flow, which is so nice. I have no idea how I'll add in the next kiddos, but at least my oldest will have done first grade ;p
Eight weeks sounds about the same to me too, though more long than short. ;) Usually I have a to-do list a mile long and am thankful for that last month or so (and the nesting energy that goes with it), but this time, I am just done. Yes, there's a list, but no, none of it is really all that important. And yes, a little extra energy right now would be very, very welcome as I try to keep up with Drew! He is all over the place these days. :)
DeleteI actually don't take much time off from school after the baby comes either. The readings can be done from the sofa, and then I have a modified checklist of daily assignments that the kids can manage independently for their skill-based work...so that keeps us pretty much on track, and we pick the rest back up when I'm back to feeling more like myself. I love that you have found your groove! That is such a good feeling. And only worry about one year at a time! :)
Kuddos to you for still running, and for bringing it into the family as a group activity! And isn't the Monterey Bay Aquarium wonderful? We're going to try and go back this winter - I'm going to see if I can get some of the free homeschool day tickets when they become available on 9/16 (http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/education/home-school-days - in case anyone else reading this is interested!)
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for the field guide references! I have a bird guide and a wildflower guide I like, but I've been wanting different tree and insect guides.
Yes! In fact, we were just back at the aquarium yesterday to see what we missed the last time. :) All the docents kept asking the kids what their favorite part of the aquarium was and they just kept answering enthusiastically "Everything!" So I think it's a hit with all of us. :)
DeleteIt sounds like a hit! I was able to get tickets to go on the homeschool day in January - Jan. 12th. We're already looking forward to it!
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