Blogging through the Alphabet: O is For Opportunities

One of the things I love about homeschooling is the opportunities it brings.   Opportunities to spend time as a family, opportunities to learn, opportunities to have fun, just opportunities for so many things.

For instance today we went for a walk.

This led us to an opportunity to enjoy the lovely sunny day we had.  It was GORGEOUS out.  Just a totally lovely day.

The opportunity to spontaneously talk about seasonal changes and the overwintering habits of Water Striders.   We learned that they hibernate over the winter, the cold temperatures slow them down and can delay the hatching of eggs and the emerging of new adults.   The opportunity to search for snow fleas and make guesses about where the mice where making their tracks for the winter.

We had the opportunity to see that moss stays green in the winter.

We had the opportunity to talk about safety issues... from the throwing of huge snowballs at people, to meeting new dogs, to potentially sliding down slippery hills if one didn't pay attention to one's footing.

We talked about conducting an experiment of building a snowman to see if having a white object standing out from the path would encourage dogs to use it as a scent marker would be affective but the lad nixed the idea since he didn't want to have to walk all the way back to see if they did or not.   So instead we thought we'd have fun with big snowballs.  :)  We did two things.
1. throw snowballs in the water of difference sizes and see how long they last as we walk with them.   they lasted until they got caught by a tree sticking out in the water.
2. On our walk we have this lovely bridge that crosses the river.  Which gave us the idea of dropping snowballs into the water and seeing what happens..... :)

We started with three snowballs to see what might happen. One very condensed small ball, one loose small ball, and one condensed big ball. What happens if we let them drop?

Just so you know.... the loose ball disappeared in the water, the big ball broke apart into small chunks and the small condensed ball floated down the river out of side.

Let's do that again was the cry... so we did TWO big balls.  And here's the result of that.  As they dropped in they made this most incredible splash... so fun to watch and see and then run over to the other side of the bridge... so there was our opportunity to run an impromptu science experiment.

Small floating pieces....how disappointing. So mom, why didn't they last like the ones we put in the water off the bank up there? Height we dropped them from I think... did you notice the splash wasn't as big?

On the way home we had the opportunity to do some math as I quickly shoved the lad out of my way as I took a tumble.  MOM!   Why did you push me?   Well would you rather me fall on you or push you out of the way.  How much do you weigh mom?  Well.. I weigh _____.  How much do I weigh.  You weigh _____.  So tell me lad, how much more do I weigh then you?   (I broke into down so it was smaller numbers).  You weigh ___ times more than me mom!  I'm glad you shoved me out of the way!

We had opportunity to lay in the snow.  :)  and be silly....

And then on the way home the lad had the opportunity to learn that his boots were NOT waterproof and that listening to mom saying stay out of the water was a good idea.  :)   Mom... I should have listened.   Did you know my boots weren't waterproof?   I said, well..they have laces... boots with laces usually aren't waterproof so I just assumed they weren't.  Are your feet wet?    Yes.. SOAKED on the one foot mom. 

It was indeed a lovely walk for both of us... filled with so many opportunities.  I'm sure there would have been more if we had looked for them... :)

Do join us over at Marcy's again this week.  :)   We continue to blog through the alphabet, this week being O.    Come on its fun, and people always have different ideas to share.  :)