Laguna Coast Wilderness Park

So I got a new field guide to try and help me identify the wonderful things around us during our nature study days.  I haven't really found anything in my book yet though which is just so disappointing, but I'll keep trying!

 While today wasn't a nature study day, it was just such a beautiful day that we decided to get outside to one of our hiking parks today.  I decided to go to Laguna Coast Wilderness park.  We had been here before when Malcolm was much younger and took a horrible trail that was all uphill, both ways, in 90 degree weather.  My husband referred to it as the death march.  While we laugh over it now, it did make me hesitant to explore this park again.  I'm glad to did though because there was a much easier trail that didn't seem to only ascend up the hill forever.  It was still a hot day however so we didn't go very far but it was fun!

He climbed really high!

Not at the wilderness park but not far away.  View from Laguna Beach of the ocean and Catalina island.

Weekly Wrap Up - Time between breaks

So last week we were ALL sick and didn't have any school at all.  I kept it very low key and we just played and read books when he wanted to.  So this week was ramping back up to school.  Malcolm had moments where he didn't want to do what I had ready and wanted to do something else.  We went with the flow and I allowed him a lot of leeway because for the next two weeks we're taking our 'spring break'.  We have family coming to visit next week and then Malcolm is going back to Florida with his cousin to spend a week my husband's side of the family.  His first plane ride!

Doesn't she look adorable???

Cheese!!

Found these crayola Window Crayons on clearance and thought it would be great for developing those fine motor skills!  I've ready so many blogs where vertical writing surfaces are really good for this but I don't have an easel and was afraid of the mess of just taping paper up on the wall for him to color on.   He loves these crayons but I haven't had a chance to wash it yet because Malcolm won't let me touch it!

I found this idea on pinterest, or at least part of it.  The idea I saw had the masking tape letters put on the carpet in a circle and the child then jumped on the letters called out or used bean bag letters to put over them.  I didn't have enough space for a full circle so we made more of a crescent shape.  Malcolm also isn't as familiar with his letters for me calling one out to jump so and I don't have the bean bags.  But I do have magnatic letters!  So we used the letters to put over the masking tape letters.  Malcolm loved this so much that it was the first thing he wanted to do each day for school.  He also ran down the line as I very quickly said/sang the ABC's which he also really enjoyed.  He tried to trick me by walking slowly, fast, stopping, and even sometimes going backwards but Mom always caught up!

Our Hippo Craft because.. H is for Hippo!!!  I cut everything out but Malcolm glued all of it.

We started working on his name a little bit.  I saw this on a blog and just thought it was such a cute idea!

Our coloring page to add to the wall.

Dot painting!

Happy baby :)

Story time at the library

Wednesday park play day

We did a lot of Humpty Dumpty for our poetry this week.  I found this cute idea on pinterest.  I made humpty dumpty out of cardstock and we playacted the rhyme which Malcolm really liked.  Then one morning I cut him up into four pieces and Malcolm put him back together again with bandaids.  He LOVED this.

On our nature study day he found these sea urchins all by himself!

Art!  We played with mixing colors of paint.  He really liked making green :)

Taking pictures in the car!


We also managed to get a lot of story time done and got some books from the library including the Good Dog, Carl books which Malcolm adores.  We watched our Spanish video Salsa online and played a lot of starfall.com .

Little Corona Tide Pools

 This week for Nature Study we went to Little Corona Beach to the tidepools with out nature study group.   It's amazing how this day was very cool and the days following have all been in the 80's!  I was so excited to see a Black Turban Snail (see pictures below) because I had done a report on the intertidal zone for my biology class last year in college and one of the animals I featured was the black turban snail.  It actually made me a little giddy inside and I'm sure some of the other Mom's that overheard my "oh my gosh!" were wondering what I found.  The baby was very tired by the end of our adventure so Green Bubbles's drawing in his nature journal was cut a little short and I waited until we were home to do mine so there are no pictures of this part of our day.

So here are all the pictures from our nature study.

Green Bubbles and Grandma

Mommy and Little Miss

Seagulls and cormorants I believe

Green Bubbles found a big cave!

Reminds me of The Little Mermaid

Found this cool shell

And something was still living in it!

Sea Anemone (out of water)

Seagull

Hermit Crab (Green Bubbles found a LOT of these!)

Tiny little crab (sorry its a little blurry)

Hermit Crabs climbing around a sea anemone

Black Turban Snail!!!

Seagull and cormorants?

Sea Urchins

See the crab behind the rock?

Love the waves crashing onto the rocks

Two sea anemones