Our First Non-Socializing Events
I will have to say this has been the most exciting first week of school in our history! As a matter of fact, we have had school on Friday nights and Saturday for the past two weeks!
It began on Monday, July 28th. Both boys participated in the Lego Fair with several of their friends at the library.
From the Lego Fair, both boys were off to Granny's. They stayed with her two nights. During that time, I prepared the classroom for "opening day." We had our first day on Thursday. You can read about it here if you haven't already.
On Friday, as John Gannon completed tasks in school, he earned clues to a surprise event we were going to attend. After 8 clues, he had reasoned out some good guesses. It wasn't until we got in the car he figured it out. I had Mr. Bob Swanson's cd playing in the car. He figured out who we were going to learn from but had no idea where! Both boys were thrilled when they realized we were going to be camping out with several other families in one of our friend's yard. While there, Mr. Bob Swanson showed us the moon and saturn through a telescope. He also taught us about and showed us lots of constellations. He also gave us a lunar dial that shows us how to tell time based on the moon positioning! Seeing saturn was pretty amazing! The kids played until almost midnight when we finally all zipped the tents up for the night. Here is another link from Shruti's blog detailing the event with pictures! (My camera's flash is obviously broken...so pictures at night just didn't happen for us).
The following Monday, we attended a back to school party at the splash pad at Veterans. There, we met several new families within our homeschool world this year and enjoyed seeing those families we love and connected with the previous year. While there was quite a crowd--a few of us stayed an extended time and enjoyed hiking the trails.
In small groups, they dissected owl pellets (vomit). They found bones inside the pellets and identified them using a chart.
We then lined up for a night tour of some areas of the zoo! No working flash in my camera=no night pictures! Gotta start saving for a new one! The behavior of the animals at night was interesting!
It began on Monday, July 28th. Both boys participated in the Lego Fair with several of their friends at the library.
If you know John Gannon he has always created "scenes" so he took the opportunity to make a scene and turned it into a comic book type story. Jackson created a community of random things. Both boys really had a great time exploring everyone else's creations and getting to spend time with their friends. Here is a link to my friend Shruti's blog with a very detailed description and pictures of the event.
From the Lego Fair, both boys were off to Granny's. They stayed with her two nights. During that time, I prepared the classroom for "opening day." We had our first day on Thursday. You can read about it here if you haven't already.
On Friday, as John Gannon completed tasks in school, he earned clues to a surprise event we were going to attend. After 8 clues, he had reasoned out some good guesses. It wasn't until we got in the car he figured it out. I had Mr. Bob Swanson's cd playing in the car. He figured out who we were going to learn from but had no idea where! Both boys were thrilled when they realized we were going to be camping out with several other families in one of our friend's yard. While there, Mr. Bob Swanson showed us the moon and saturn through a telescope. He also taught us about and showed us lots of constellations. He also gave us a lunar dial that shows us how to tell time based on the moon positioning! Seeing saturn was pretty amazing! The kids played until almost midnight when we finally all zipped the tents up for the night. Here is another link from Shruti's blog detailing the event with pictures! (My camera's flash is obviously broken...so pictures at night just didn't happen for us).
The following Monday, we attended a back to school party at the splash pad at Veterans. There, we met several new families within our homeschool world this year and enjoyed seeing those families we love and connected with the previous year. While there was quite a crowd--a few of us stayed an extended time and enjoyed hiking the trails.
Zowie and John Gannon
Jackson and his new friend, Ben.
Riding the "Buffalo!"
The vine vs. the crew--some fun teamwork!
We stumbled upon a baby bird that had fallen from a nest. We fed it water and placed it in a protected place in the shade.
And the event the kids have been looking forward to for weeks...the zoo snooze. We got to stay overnight inside the Memphis Zoo for a night of learning about nocturnal animals. The kiddos got to meet some of the animals...
We then lined up for a night tour of some areas of the zoo! No working flash in my camera=no night pictures! Gotta start saving for a new one! The behavior of the animals at night was interesting!
We also got to visit the feed room and the kitchen. We saw all kinds of fresh goodies--fruits, veggies, frozen rats, and cows' blood (for the vampire bats). And just in case you are wondering-cow blood is currently $35/gallon!
After the night tour of the zoo, we returned for a snack, movie, and bed time!
Saturday morning started with an outdoor breakfast and a tour of some areas of the zoo. We got to see a zookeeper put out the morning goodies for the grizzlies. Afterwards, the grizzlies were released and went to forage for their food. They were very active--running around, eating.
Here is a picture of our happy group!
I honestly cannot say enough about this group of folks + some more who aren't pictured. They are really cool and make school so much fun! Oh...and none of them are snorers as pointed out by someone this morning!
Live a Meaningful Life!
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