School by the River

The flexibility of homeschooling is amazing - school any where at any time.  Today, we attempted to do school at Fort Snelling State Park, however, mom didn't look at the map closely enough. Instead, we drove around being able to see the tops of the trees but not the river. We saw the park but couldn't figure out how to get there. Tried to hike in - took the wrong trail and found out it would have been 2 miles.  Finally, I found a river park in St. Paul along the Mississippi.  The boys didn't care what park we were at, they just wanted to go on the hike mommy had promised them.  After walking a short distance, we found a path of the main trial, time for a "rabbit trail." The boys thought this path was great once they saw where it lead.

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

After throwing rocks for awhile, we headed back up the trail to start our school work for the day. Currently, the boys are working on earning ther Jr. Naturalist Hardwood Patches through the MN State Parks.  This has been a fun book to work on throughout the summer and has really helped the boys open their eyes to all that is in the woods.

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

Once we were done with one section, we moved back towards the van to an open area. Each boy picked a tree, examined it, discribed it and created drawings of their trees. The boys worked hard and took this very seriously.  As they finished, I took the opportunity to take some individual pictures of boys. I am working hard to make sure that I get pictures of each of the boys on a regular basis. I find that as they get older I don't take as many pictures and I want to. By taking pictures now, I am able to start capturing parts of thier personalities.

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park