Play and nature

  I'm a huge fan of play.  That said, we limit tv greatly-it's a weekend morning thing, and no real video game play-but good old fashioned, use your imagination, go outside and play, play.
   Being a home school family, allows us a lot of play time.  And, most of the public schools in my area do not have recess.  A lot of schools across the US do not have recess.  Play is so important to a child's development.  To expect a 6 year old to sit still in a class all day, is to me, ridiculous.  And that's the age of most first graders.  Even as adults, we take a break of our work.  Those of us who lead active lifestyles, are healthier and happier.  So why do we want to take play away from our kids?

                                             Batcave

                                                Puddles are just too much fun

                                                  The off-beaten path

  Along with play and exploring, our boys love nature.

We planted our garden, and have already seen some new butterflies visit our yard.  We have a bird nest, and hope to bring some hummingbirds to visit as well.

                                               Red Admiral Butterfly-new to our yard

                                        Strawberry plant and a Monarch caterpillar

        

                                                 Monarch emerging from chrysalis

                                                     Monarch pair

        

                                                   Coral honeysuckle for hummingbirds

                                   What we think is a Leopard Moth caterpillar-we'll see.

                                                  Northern Mockingbird

                                                Eggs of said bird-

 There is also tragedy in nature.  These are only a few photos of local damage by a tornado.

              This is a 3d radar view-I think it's pretty neat we can actually see the tornadoes

   Many tornadoes blew threw our area last week.  Multiple touchdowns.  Amazingly, there was only structural damage and trees blown down.  No one was hurt.  We are all very thankful.