Fall Fun, Autumn Chill and a Random Mole

There is a chill in the air today, very cold for October. A chance of snow too, I'm not thrilled about that! We decided to add some fall activities to our homeschool day. I downloaded an Autumn Treasures activity book which I'd seen advertised for free. I'm glad i downloaded it there are some cute activities and interesting links and videos. Today we watched a couple of the videos about why we have seasons.One of them was a Bill Nye the Science Guy video, he is always good. Then we worked on this falling leaves artwork activity pictured below.


We didn't realize just how hard it would be to cut out all the tiny leaves. I ended up having to help Tristan with his and it was tricky even for me. We joked that it would be even harder for bigger homeschool families to cut out and color all their tiny leaves. That made us think of the Large Duggar family, who are also homeschoolers and have 18 children so far. We laughed and laughed about how many little leaves they would need to cut out if they all wanted to make a tree! It was fun.

Colin colored all his leaves his favorite color...orange! Tristan and Hayley got creative and used many colors.

Hayley also drew birds and animals on a bare tree.

Our morning had been frantically interrupted when our cat Flower was playing with a baby mole. I'd gone outdoors for a piece of firewood ('cause it's COLD) and found Flower toying with the poor baby mole. I understand and accept that cats do hunt but I draw the line at playing with their live catch, it's pure torture so I always take away anything a cat is "playing" with for entertainment. It was pure reflex to get this baby mole. I knew it might bite me but I also knew Flower might run with it if she knew I was going to grab it. I just swooped in and snagged the mole, kept it in my closed hand and asked Colin to get a cage FAST. When he did I dropped the mole into the cage and suddenly we all went Awwwwwwww! It was SO cute! We quickly researched it's food and drink needs and gave it a little water and food. The mole drink a bit but upon examination I saw that it was more badly bitten than had initially thought. Sadly the mole was not with us long, just an hour before it succumbed to it's injuries, but it was nice to meet the little cutie. It was quite active right at first but then suddenly lay down and passed away.

Cute baby Mole

After the excitement of the Mole and then our regular work we took a detour into the Chemistry Mole thanks to a suggestion by Chris the Science One . That was quite interesting! Later the boys all settled into playing Lord of the Rings on the computer, Trevor made yet more maps and adventures for the younger boys to play. They have a lot of fun together. Hayley played with her pets, knit some more toy animals clothes and watched tv. I made dinner and then got some things ready for tomorrow. That's about it.