Good Stewards of the Earth

Our goal is to foster a deeper bond between nature and society through resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, stewardship, and outdoor recreation.

[begoodstewards]

We are really starting to get the hang of Wild Math. We tend to focus on our science and nature studies while exploring outdoors and end up doing math indoors while the youngest Sprout sleeps. Afternoon outdoor time is usually free play so I’ve been reluctant to say “hey let’s do some math” so I’ve been more intentional about coming up with math games. Today I made it a point to get out 15 minutes early to work on some addition and subtraction strategies. 🌱 Of course, nature study still happened as our yard has become a breeding ground for jelly ear mushrooms, much to the Sprouts delight; even overtaking one of our tens stick bundles that was left outside. We also did some bark rubbings to go along with our B&R bark wonder. 🌱 The oldest Sprout was very pleased to find a stick with lichen, moss, and mushrooms growing. 🌱 Momma Sprout was very pleased to find some broccoli heads forming on the plants we’ve been nursing for what seems like ages. Fall gardening has been a much different beast. 🌱 The recent rainy days have brought lots of blessings. 🌱 #begoodstewards #wildmathcurriculum #blossomandroot #blossomandrootsecondgrade #jellyearfungus #bark #fallgarden #broccoli #wildandfreekids #lastchildinthewoods #1000hoursoutside https://www.instagram.com/p/CHggnbcBGCd/?igshid=1mgjzz7igy93h

[begoodstewards]

The Sprouts were pleased with today’s wet walk in the woods Wednesday. Unfortunately they wet down to their socks before we really got started and Mommy didn’t pack a change of socks. 🌱 We still fit in some Wild Math on the rocks, found some cool fungi, and collected plenty of bark from felled trees to study and make our models with for Blossom and Root Year 2 Bark week. 🌱 We then spent the afternoon diving into the Maui story from Trickster Tails. We learned about the history of Polynesian voyagers, learned some about navigation techniques, and took a rabbit trail to learn about volcanoes. 🌱 Now we are watching Moana of course - after first reading and talking about some of the cultural inaccuracies. I still love this movie though! 🌱 #begoodstewards #walkinthewoodswednesday #puddlejumping #rainydayhike #wildmathcurriculum #blossomandroot #blossomandrootsecondgrade #wildandfreekids #lastchildinthewoods #rockyrivernaturepreserve (at Rocky River Nature Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHeJ5aPBkZv/?igshid=v2kn4ag021c5

[begoodstewards]

We’ve been doing our best to have a calm and chill dab today. 🌱 After I voted this morning, Lou and I did some @yogawithadrienne “to calm your nerves”. 🌱 We then learned more about the electoral college and did some arithmetic and DD addition and subtraction to determine each states number of House members based on their electoral votes. 🌱 Since then we’ve been curled up with some good books. 🌱 Later I will have Lou do some more math to figure out the paths to 270 and I’ve promised I’d let her stay up as long as she can to see returns and color in her electoral map (she won’t last long). 🌱 For now we are going to carry on like it’s a normal Taco Tuesday (except maybe an extra margarita for mom 😉) 🌱 #begoodstewards #voteforenvy #voteforchange #voteforwomensrights #election2020 #electionhomeschool #pathto270 #electoralmath #yogawithadriene #voteforblacklives #preservedemocracy (at Anderson, South Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CHJNkXPBhXV/?igshid=1n94cb7z37rw7

[begoodstewards]

Today we finished up our Three Branches of Government Tree. Lou is so proud of it. We set up a nice little government and Election corner. On Monday we will label to map with the number of electoral votes for each state to prepare for election math on Tuesday and the rest of next week. 🌱 Lou says go vote if you haven’t yet! #begoodstewards #threebranchesofgovernment #homeschoolcivics #preservedemocracy (at Anderson, South Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CG8Yc-jhTdx/?igshid=1r6jb14u3k23v

[begoodstewards]

We continued with our Halloween themed week today. 🎃 The oldest Sprout wrote book reports on Bats as well as “Inside Animals: Spiders and Other Creepy Crawlies” while being very jealous while the youngest Sprout did his age equivalent of Spider and Bat themed crafts (she did get to draw diagrams but didn’t agree it was a craft). 🎃 Mommy Sprout was just happy to have them both working and reasonably happy at the same table occupied enough so that I could work on some of my own crafts. 🎃 This afternoon we gathered the information we needed to make our three branches of government tree tomorrow. 🎃 #begoodstewards #halloweenhomeschool #halloweenweek #creepycrawlies #spiders #bats #preschoolhomeschool (at Anderson, South Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CG5u0Hzhspl/?igshid=1twe112r79fri

[begoodstewards]

We went with the Halloween flow today and had so much fun. 🎃 First we read about the skeletal system and blood. We added in a bit of math by doing double digit addition to add up the bones from the body from each section to determine how many bones we had and also calculated the weight and length of our bones. 🎃 We did some more calculations to finish up our homemade Halloween costumes - we are being a coven of “nature” witches this year. 🎃 This afternoon the Sprouts made bubbling potion while I read to them about the history of the holiday. 🎃 I just love this time of year, being able to make our own curriculum has made it even more magical. 🎃 #begoodstewards #halloweenhomeschool #witches #thembones #blood #witchespotion #wildmathcurriculum #wildandfreekids #1000hoursoutside #lastchildinthewoods (at Anderson, South Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CG3YXPFhGcO/?igshid=y7t6hf1ltuv3

[begoodstewards]

Had to repost Sir Walter since I just noticed Instagram cut of his antenna! #begoodstewards #snailsofinstagram #snails #explorenaturewithchildren #lastchildinthewoods #1000hoursoutside (at Cosby Campground, Great Smoky Mountain National Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGnunNlJNo8/?igshid=nowzo33hhuya

[begoodstewards]

We had the most amazing homeschool day yet today! We combined Gymnosperm and Conifer week to make room for some Halloween themed science the next two weeks and we found everything on our scavenger hunt list plus everything we had missed the weeks prior. 🌿 We often do our nature walks at our local Botanical Garden just meandering and seeing what we can find, but since this week seemed more specific I dug a little deeper and found an app that you could search for every plant variety in the garden that would place it on a map. 🌿 Low and behold the Clemson Botanical Garden has a separate Jurassic Garden!! It was literally a walk through time - and the first 8 weeks of Blossom and Root Year Two. We found everything from non-vascular algae and moss, to horsetails and ferns, to gymnosperms including cycads and ginkgo trees! I literally could not contain my excitement but I think we made one of the groundskeepers day. 🌿 We then hiked over to the conifer garden and had lunch under the pines and firs and hunted and found yews, cypresses, hemlocks, and cedars. 🌿 We also fit in some nature journaling, went over the big picture points for the science wonders and read Anansi from Trickster Tales under some trees that originated from West Africa. 🌿 I just love days like this where everything comes together so perfectly and am so thankful for great resources like the Clemson Botanical Garden and Blossom and Root Curriculum. 🌿 #begoodstewards #clemsonbotanicalgardens #blossomandroot #jurrasicgarden #horsetails #ferns #fiddleheads #conifers #gymnosperms #cycads #livingfossils #1000hoursoutside #lastchildinthewoods #wildandfreekids #covidhomeschool #bestdayever (at South Carolina Botanical Garden) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGnkAl9JOxc/?igshid=zw7d6gqjvnc3

[begoodstewards]

Our oldest has been quite ill with a virus so we have had a very slow week. 🌱 Monday we spent the morning watching a fantastic virtual Indigenous People’s Day celebration hosting by the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and read some about her Cherokee heritage from her father’s side. 🌱 We have had lots of fun giggling in bed reading “Fortunately, the Milk” by Neil Gaiman and coming up with our own fantastical stories and new names for things. I really hope she’s up for some crafts to go along tomorrow. I haven’t made it a secret that seeing this book in our curriculum is one of the big reasons I choose it. 🌱 Today we watched the new movies “Enola Holmes” and were blown away. I found it to be perfectly appropriate for her age (7) and phenomenally inspirational in so many ways. We are ready to watch it again and Lou has asked me to get her a book of ciphers as well as the books that inspired the movie. I highly recommend it! 🌱 "Politics doesn’t interest you because you have no interest in changing a world that suits you so well." - Edith 🌱 #begoodstewards #wildandfreekids #blossomandroot #elonaholmes #indegenouspeoplesday #bitchtophercolumbitch #sickday #fourtunatelythemilk #neilgaiman (at Anderson, South Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGV3FNRJmIK/?igshid=1p3hu6qb3la6

[begoodstewards]

We had such a great week with leaves, trees, and Johnny Appleseed! 🍁 Today we finished up and journaled our chlorophyll extraction and made a clay leaf model. 🍁 Then we topped the week off with my favorite poetry tea time yet - but the Sprouts do proclaim, “Nevermore”. 🍁 #begoodstewards #blossomandroot #enwcautumnleavesweek #poetryteatime #theraven #edgarallenpoe #nevermore #wildandfreekids #secularhomeschooling (at Anderson, South Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGIvzVWJWt_/?igshid=1rq4hku6qzk2d

[begoodstewards]

We got a lot done today for leaf week with Blossom and Root and Autumn Leaf week with ENWC. 🍂 We finished up our October Botanical Calendar, made a leaf shape poster which Lou labeled with leaf shape and vein type - which double as a matching game for the preschooler! - and completed our chlorophyll extraction experiment. The little guy helped cut up our green leaves - look at those chubby little hands 💕 🍂 For Wild Math we worked on counting leaves and telling if the number was odd or even and rounding. 🍂 This afternoon we were visited by some friends and Emmylou showed them how to make with potions. 🍂 #begoodstewards #blossomandroot #wildmath #enwcautumnleavesweek #wildandfreekids #1000hoursoutside #lastchildinthewoods #backyardhomeschool #witchpotions🔮 (at Anderson, South Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGGO_nZppPF/?igshid=7w84iv2fmrj

[begoodstewards]

We decided to use these white roses for our experiment to see how stems moved water through the plant. 🌹 We are so excited how it turned out! It took about three days to see anything. You can see the big splotches of color on some petals but it’s hard to see that the overall hue of each flower has turned. 🌹 Lou also thought it was cool that because the food coloring left a water line on the vases you could see just how much water they transferred. 🌹 #begoodstewards #blossomandroot #wildandfreekids #rootsandstems (at Anderson, South Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CGBI3nUJg8j/?igshid=pic588yf96a

[begoodstewards]

Today we examined roots and stems under the microscope and then conducted an experiment to see first hand the importance of roots in avoiding soil erosion and water pollution. 🌱 Now we are watching the new Netflix documentary “Kiss the Ground” which dives deep into the importance of farming using ground cover crops and how harmful the tilling used in industrial agriculture is to our environment. 🌱 It’s so amazing how such an easy change can solve the climate crisis we are faced with and it is so important for our children to learn these lessons so that they can be the change we wish to see. 🌱 It’s days like this when everything comes together that I know I made the right decision in homeschooling and choosing a curriculum that reflects the values of the Good Stewards - take care of the Earth and she will take care of you, mistreat her and she will mistreat you. 🌱 #begoodstewards #kissthegroundmovie #blossomandroot #groundcover #savetheearth #permaculture #wildandfreekids #1000hoursoutside #lastchildinthewoods #naturestudy (at Anderson, South Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFu-_KgpBpF/?igshid=171704dho21vu

[begoodstewards]

We are off to a great start for @blossomandroot Week 5: Roots and Stems and Davy Crockett! 🌱 I knew surprisingly little about Davy Crockett and the story lead us down lots of rabbit holes as we learned more about Congress and the three branches of government (a nice warm up to the elections unit in working on). We then watched some of the best campaign speeches throughout history to prep Lou for writing her own campaign speech. We ended with Obama’s 2008 “Yes we can” speech 😭 which lead Emmylou to highlight her love of all people in her speech 💕 🌱 Lou thought it was funny that one of the weeks experiments was to taste test edible roots exclaimed that not only has she tried them all - we just planted them in our garden last week! We were so excited to see lots of little Sprouts growing in the garden - even our grocery store garlic! 🌱 She was sad I wouldn’t let her pull them up to look at them til we noticed an onion scrap had sprouted in the compost bin. We are headed in now to exam the roots under the microscope. 🌱 For Wild Math we estimated the tons of turnip sprouts resulted from letting the kids dispersed the seeds, counted them and then rounded to the nearest 100. 🌱 #begoodstewards #littlesprouts #blossomandrootsecondgrade #wildmath #wildandfreekids #1000hoursoutside #lastchildinthewoods #backyardhomeschool #backyardgarden #gardenwithkids (at Anderson, South Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFsmJoqp53p/?igshid=1i12cvf57jhnl

[begoodstewards]

Fern spores under our digital microscope. 🌱 #begoodstewards #blossomandroot https://www.instagram.com/p/CFfq8hBpAvm/?igshid=12ao8j6j5lg06

[begoodstewards]

This sunny fall day was perfect for a Walk in the Woods Wednesday. 🌱 We ate our lunch under the falls while watching the fish eat their lunch - of course discussing food webs. We also found tons of butterflies and wildflowers spreading their seeds. We are studying spores this week and at the last minute found some ferns loaded with spores, you could see them blow away. We collected some to study under the microscope later. 🌱 Little man enjoyed some extra freedom and is asking for more independence suddenly now that he is three, with the scraps to prove it. 🌱 #begoodstewards #toddcreekfalls #blossomandroot #walkinthewoodswednesday #forestschool #wildandfreekids #1000hoursoutside #lastchildinthewoods (at Todd Creek Falls) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFfdtispe3K/?igshid=1hh0g6ckjmq0w

[begoodstewards]

We are finally learning how to take full advantage of this homeschooling thing and turned our bad luck of not snagging a walk up camping spot around by reserving a spot in the Smoky Mountains at Balsam Mountain for Sunday. 🌱 We love camping this time of year for Townes’ birthday when the weather is perfect so we moved around his small party and homeschool schedules and made it happen. 🌱 Of course, there was plenty of “schooling” to be had as we found and identified tons of plant and wildlife from caterpillars to elk and plenty of the ferns we are studying this week. 🌱 #begoodstewards #balsammountaincampground #greatsmokeymountainsnationalpark #campingwithkids #campschool #1000hoursoutside #lastchildinthewoods #blossomandroot (at Balsam Mountain, Great Smoky Mountain National Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFdOAnsp20h/?igshid=jbwtzy3pogox