When Nate was a teenager he would visit his great-grandmother Larue on her farm in south west Montana. His great-grandfather had passed away when he was around 10 or 11 years old. Each year as he visited his grandma (who he christened “Grandma-Far-Away” as a young child) they would have various projects to complete. More often than not, some of those projects would involve cleaning up or out some of his great grandfather’s belongings.
While cleaning out a storage room one summer Nate found his great-grandpa’s bee veil and smoker. Since that time he has been fascinated with the idea of keeping bees “just like grandpa did”.
So we bought a hive and a package of bees this year. It’s definitely a big change to not “freak” out when the bees land on you- but we have had an incredible time managing the hive to this point, as well as learning about the incredible lives of bees.
About five days after we placed the bees in the hive they swarmed and deserted the hive. No one is sure why- sometimes they just do that. We have a hard time keeping track of two little blond-headed girls- I guess 6,000 bees is even harder to keep tabs on.
Nate was pretty discouraged- but I wanted him to do it. I knew it was important to him. So I made some more connections and got help in catching another swarm. This time we have 30,000 bees.
We are in the process of getting it prepped to go into our own hive now.
We will keep you updated on our hive, our rogue bees, and try to stay away from anymore overly used and corny Shakespearean-referenced-blog-entry-titles.
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Hi! Just followed your comment back from my site. When our swarm was put in (Hansen Hives manages it; check out their site, they might have some good advice) they closed everyone in there for about a week to get used to the hive and each other so it felt like home. They just put a bunch of sugar water in there for them to eat in the meantime. Maybe you could try something like that?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, as for homeschooling, my little guy is only 1, so as of yet I'm still reading up about different styles. I really liked what I read in the unschooling book though. I have a few other books in my bookshop that I've liked about homeschooling (link on progressive pioneer). John Holt is good. I don't think there's one best way, but I'm sure if you just read a bunch and follow your children's lead you'll do great!
~Amy