Home-Schoolin'

This week we pulled out the Nalgene bottle that we'd filled with owl pellets, collected while hiking in Red Cliffs near St. George a few weeks ago.  I was afraid to open the bottle, since it had been closed up for so long and looked SCARY!!  Alas, it didn't even stink.  Amazing. The kids were fascinated with all of the mouse, rat, and rabbit bones that we extracted from the furry mud clumps.  After picking around in our bone piles with sticks, we started reconstructing mouse skeletons.  Learning about things that are connected to OUR life is so natural and enjoyable for all of us.  It doesn't feel like "school" at all.  It feels like living a vibrant life, asking lots of questions, and searching for answers.  

Another project this week was constructing windmills powered by air currents that we generated with candles.  We'd recently read "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" and we learned all about how wind is generated in nature. The kids spent HOURS constructing and tinkering with these.

Of course, Zeke gets in there just like his sisters.

On Friday, I decided that we needed a spontaneous outing.  We walked down to 9th East and boarded a bus bound for downtown Salt Lake.  The kids LOVE riding Trax or the bus.  We got off near the Cathedral of the Madeline and took a self-guided tour.  I was all excited to teach the kids about Romanesque architecture and to show them the ornate interior, the pipe organ, and intricate stained-glass windows.  Honestly, they seemed unimpressed, so we didn't' stay long.

After a snack at Kneader's and some rare retail shopping at the City Creek mall (I scored two pairs of high quality jeans for Sophie for $5 each and a hoodie for Hallee for $2--better than the thrift store), we went to "touch the temple"--a Sullivan family tradition.  We went inside the temple grounds proper and were circling the temple when Hallee started running ahead a few yards, cramming herself into nooks in the temple stone, and popping out to "scare" the rest of us.  Somehow she ran a bit too far ahead and ended up on the opposite side of the temple from us.  By the time we found her, she had been sequestered by a temple guard and was heaving long emotional sobs.  Poor Little.

Zeke, Hallee, and Sophie, just outside the temple gates.  The flowers are already beautiful there.

We spent a long time at the Church History Museum in the children's Book of Mormon exhibit.  Somehow that never gets old and the kids always want to go back.

Sophie, cruising the streets of downtown Salt Lake City

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My Little

We'd planned to initiate the kids to skiing this weekend (they've never been), but that didn't quite materialize, so we settled on a family hike instead.  We took the kids up behind Red Butte in the foothills for some exploration.  They LOVED it.

Notice those fresh pink mittens.  (He INSISTED on wearing them.)

Casey brought along a big magnifying glass (one that Grandpa White gave him) and we used it to examine lichens, bugs, and all manner of ambient flora and fauna.

Sophie and Hallee were so cute, running down the trail hand-in-hand at top velocity.

A little spontaneous tree climbing resulted in this . . . 

Notice that Hallee is wearing the "yurt pants" that I crafted for our trip up to the Big Water Yurt in January.  I made them (hastily and without a pattern) out of an old fleece blanket that Casey picked up gratis at Liberty Mountain.  Amazingly, she wears these often, as if they were everyday-wear, and I don't stop her.  :)