Snow, Celebrations, and Citizen Scientists
Last weekend we caught the end of the big blizzard. The amount of snow wasn’t that unusual for Maine, but the wind made it an extra fierce storm. 
From inside our cozy house we fretted for the birds as they fought their way to and from the feeders. We watched the chickadees aim for one tree but end up blown to another. I was glad for the existing evergreens…and glad I planted over twenty more! After the storm passed this snow mountain was in our driveway and provided hours of building enjoyment.
Monday we celebrated our 100th day of school. What a fun day to beat the midwinter blahs! (And yes, in Maine it is really only midwinter…spring is slow reaching us up here.) I detailed all our activities in that post, and would be happy for any new ideas I can put on my list for next year!
You know how you have those things about school you don’t want your kids to miss out on? Making and exchanging Valentines is one of those for me. Luckily a friend hosted a Valentine Party for about 20 kids and we spent the day crafting, playing games, and exchanging the sweet Valentines our kids had made.
Today we’re donning our citizen scientist hats to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count. We’ll spend periods of time throughout the weekend with binoculars in hand, tallying what we see for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to track bird populations. There is still time to participate, just check out the GBBC website!
Thank you to the wonderful hostesses with fun link-ups on Fridays. Be sure to join the fun and see what other homeschoolers are up to!
Hi, I'm Heidi and I homeschool my two sweet kids. I want them to know that learning is an exciting lifelong adventure! We love great books, unit studies, notebooking, lapbooking, and hands-on learning.
Holy cow, that’s a lot of snow! I haven’t seen the first flake here this year!
And that “out of this world” valentine is fabulous. Wish I’d thought to make it for my astronomy-loving girl!
I bet your daughter would love that one! The bouncy balls provided lots of entertainment after, too!
Hooray for 100 days of school! I love the fun valentines you made. We love Family Fun magazine. I have cut out most of my magazine subscriptions, but that’s one I have kept.
And I’m with Jamie. That’s a lot of snow!
I have done the same, dropping most subscriptions but keeping Family Fun. My daughter (10 years old) enjoys looking through it, too.
It was a pretty good storm! We got about 24 inches in 24 hours and then another 6 with the 2nd storm, but the last few days it’s been melting nicely!
We haven’t been as excited about snow this season and are already thinking ahead to spring!
Your 100th Day ideas were great!
I love the Valentines. Family Fun magazine always has the cutest ideas!
That’s what I live in Florida! Wow, that’s a lot of snow! Really, I miss it. Glad to see you had fun with it though.
My daughter made a version of the “you’re out of this world” valentine from Family Fun too! She ended up deciding to do candy, so we we stuck suckers through them, and she put the words on the back.
It’s only mid-winter here in Minnesota also. I told the kids last week that if they were lucky, winter would be over by my birthday (early April). If they are VERY lucky it will be over by mid-March…but since that just happened last year, I would assume we are probably due for a late or at least normal spring this year.
We are counting birds too. It is a fun activity that the kids look forward to every year.
Blessings, Dawn
I just love snow pictures! That is a ton of snow!
Looks like a fun week. I love a good snow storm.
Stopping in from Weekly Wrap-Up
Oh my goodness! All that snow looks wonderful! I’ve been in the south for half my life, but I still miss good New York snows.
Love the 100 days stuff. Very fun. And oh the snow. My kids would just love it if we had snow like that, however, our part of SC just doesn’t get cold enough for that. Thanks for sharing.