tapping trees

We took a little drive Saturday morning to purchase some supplies to tap our Maple trees.  Now, we are a little bit excited about this project, and we probably tapped a wee bit early, but we didn't tap ALL our trees yet.  Just a few. ;]  It was very warm Saturday and we enjoyed being outside.  We all got in on the action, and Z is learning much about the Maple syrup process right along with us.  We don't expect the sap to run much this week, as the temperatures aren't forcasted to be very warm.  We did, however collect a few gallons of sap this morning, and hope that maybe, there will be a little more to grab this afternoon. =]

Also, we've started a bit of structured pre-K here at home.  Z is very smart and knows a lot of the letters and sounds already, I guess because we just try to work learning into everyday life and she'll ask now what letter certain words start with, and how to spell things.  She doesn't know all the letters yet though, and is learning how to write them correctly with the tracing sheets.  By starting now and continuing through summer, I feel like she may be ready for Kindergarten in the fall, even though she won't be 5 until November.  She looks forward to our school time in the mornings while A has his nap.  We've done some tracing, coloring and crafts that correspond with whatever letter we're currently working on, and she even gets to use a learning app on the Kindle.  She'd probably be content to sit for hours and do the app if I let her. ;]

And in the meantime I get to geek out in the office supply section at Target.