crazy life of a coach's wife: On the Banks of Plum Creek Day

One of the best things about doing this group is that the kids get to experience things that I would probably never take time to do on our own. Laura had a interesting experience with a crab in this book so Marilyn brought home several crabs for us to examine. She also gave us a great science lesson reviewing the different classifications for animals and what characteristics each type have.

Isaac and Abby both enjoyed watching the crab scoot around and snap its claws. Abby giggled the cutest laugh at the crab!

Another major part of the story was when Pa tried to grow and harvest a crop of wheat only to see it get destroyed by a plague of grasshoppers. I decided to show the kids what an actual wheat berry looks like, grind it up, and make our own "quick" bread. Thanks to the vitamix we were able to grind up the wheat in less than a minute, mix the ingredients, and 20 minutes later, had fresh bread!

It was especially good warm with butter and honey! Thanks to Mom I was able to use my grandma's old bread pans for our cooking lesson.

Then it was time to go outside and examine the crabs a little more. Marilyn helped them identify all the different parts.

Marilyn has a trampoline now and all Caleb could think about was getting his turn to go on the "jumper" as he calls it!

I love watching Weston and Caleb play basketball.

Inside the house Laurie was helping the kids make their own quilt squares like Mary did in the book, but out of patterned scrapbook paper. Gracie and Abby could have spent the whole morning just doing this activity.

Kim Medina showed the kids how to cut designs out of folded paper, just like Ma did in the book when she was decorating the house.

Caleb and Weston were able to jump on the trampoline for a while alone while the other kids were working on their activities. But pretty soon the bigger kids came back, and Caleb had a hard time staying up with Dylan jumping around!