Field Trip to Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum

We went with friends to the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum for their Homeschool Day today.  I still can't get over the freedom we now have as homeschoolers.  I love what my friend said, "The world is our classroom." 

The kids enjoyed breezing through the exhibits, but I couldn't get them interested in reading much about the exhibits.  E enjoyed trying to draw the mural on the rotunda floor.

Our favorite part was watching a 3D IMAX movie.  It is priceless to watch the kids try to pet the animals "right in front" of them.

Dinosuar Day

We had a fun filled morning with our sweet friends.  We are all learning about Dinosaurs for the next few weeks so we decided to have a "Dinosaur Day".  The kids had a blast with all the dinosaur activities.  We are so thankful for our special friends!!!

We started the day at the park with a dinosaur dig.  The kids pretended to be archaeologist and dug for dinosaur bones (plastic dinosaurs) in the sandbox.  We lost a few dinosaurs along the way...it's hard work being an archaeologist!

Next the archaeologist brushed the sediment off the dinosaur bones.

After all that hard work it was time for a snack break.  The archaeologist now excavated chocolate chips out of cookies with paint brushes and toothpicks.

Then they got to enjoy their yummy treat!

Next on the list was for the the kids to create a Dinosaur mural.  A and T painted the dinosaurs and W and H used bubble wrap and paint to make a print on the dinosaur.

The completed mural.  W was already down for a nap before this picture was snapped:)

To complete our dinosaur day was a special lunch of "Stegosaurus Sandwiches". 

It was such a fun day and there is so much more to do on dinosaurs so we will have Dinosaur Day #2 next week.  To be continued........

Chicken Anatomy

For science, we dissected a chicken wing.  G and I were the only ones who would actually touch it, but I think we all thought it was interesting.  We looked at epithelial tissue, muscle, tendons, bones, and joints.  The craziest thing was that we ate the other chicken wings for dinner and actually enjoyed them.

Pilgrims and Surfers

Substitute Sugar came again.  There was not much math going on, but loads of awesome history and grammar.  The kids love learning history from Sugar!  They studied the Pilgrims and the Mayflower Compact...and ate at some great restaurants.

Then the kids headed over to Papa & Mimi's ski camp for a little vacation time.  Apparantly, Grant skied 4 miles, and Tyler is getting up without difficulty and looking great.  Elizabeth has become a crazy inner-tuber.

Where was Mom during all of this?  Well, surfing of course!  ...just a normal day for a homeschool mom and dad :)



Fire Station and Nocturnal Animals

Last week we studied about nocturnal animals.  A created a poster of different animals that sleep during the day and are awake at night to hunt.

This week we are learning about safety and we were able to go on a fun field trip with friends to our local Fire Station.

A checking out the inside of the firetruck.

W holding the fireman's hand showing him the firetruck.

Pioneer Farms Field Trip

Carrying on with our American history and Little House on the Prairie themes, we went to Pioneer Farms' homeschool day.  G & E of course wanted to dress up in period clothing and role-play as much as possible, while T was mostly interested in finding every outhouse.  They enjoyed watching a blacksmith work, visiting an 1880's kitchen, and seeing a one-room frontier house that was home to 15 people.  They also played pioneer games such as Blind Man's Bluff with other children.  I enjoyed seeing the huge number of homeschool families that attended; indeed, we are not alone in our homeschool efforts.

Also, this was our first week of Classical Conversations.  I am blessed to be in a group of wonderful women, most of whom are veteran homeschool moms.  I look forward to getting to know them & learning from them.  It is amazing how much our kids learned in one week.  The memorization came very easy for them.  I'm interested to see how much they will learn by the end of the year.

Mayborn Museum

What a fun time we had at the Waco Mayborn Children's Museum.  How cool that we had the opportunity to meet up with the cousins in the middle of the school week.  I love homeschooling!!!!  I am kicking myself that I didn't take pictures with our good camera.  The pictures are all from my I-Phone so they are really bad, but the experience is worth remembering.  The museum is huge and has so many different themed rooms to go explore and learn in.  There was so much to see and do! Here are some pictures of our time at the museum.