Johnson City Science Mill

I totally recommend this children's museum. True, it does not look like much from the outside, but you should give it a chance. After you create a digital robot avatar-which will teach you about certain things in the museum- You just need to start exploring. There is a model of Romanesco Broccoli (Which you can see Read with in this picture), Animated Texas animals, which you can control, Makey Makey, and much more than I can explain or remember.

pool time for P.E?

The best part about doing school in summer, motivation; that and pools for P.E.
The girls have been waking up at 6 each morning to get school started ON THEIR OWN.  Most days they are downstairs before Ben and I.  Our first week of school, we were finished school every day by noon.  On Thursday, we rewarded ourselves with lunch at a new pizza stop in town and then spent the day at a "new to us" water park.
HR was much more comfortable in the water this time and all five of us crashed that evening with no complaints.

San Antonio Zoo trip

I am teaching zoology at co-op this year and for our end of year project I coordinated a field trip to the San Antonio Zoo.  I thought since was spring break, it could be a little crowded, but was not thinking the zoo would be hosting spring break camps.  It was crazy crowded and humid.  Mimi, Emmie and Avery met us for our outing.  It was a long day, but R2 got to see his favorite animal the hippo up close and personal, so all was right with the world, that and ice cream.

National Doughnut Day

June 5th is National Doughnut Day, I think the last time the kids had doughnuts was June 5th, 2014; no wait when Daddy had his camp out.  Needless to say it is a special treat to get doughnuts around here.  We decided to take doughnuts to the fire department too and they invited us in to see the fire station and fire trucks.  Spontaneous field trip, SCORE!!
A certain two-year old was a little more brave than his older brother's first visit to the fire station, but HR was still a little apprehensive.  Even R2 acted nervous.  Thankfully, there were no sirens or tears.

New hobby? Geocaching

I was recently searching for cheap date ideas around town and found an idea of geocaching around downtown to find all of the murals.  I have heard about geocaching as it is popular among home schoolers, but was not exactly sure what it was.  After some research, the girls and I decided it sounded like a fun project.  The premise is to log into the geocaching website and locate nearby geocaches which have been previously hidden.  You then use the coordinates to get within twenty feet of the hidden cache and then you use clues to locate it.  Our first search led us to our neighborhood park.  The hidden cache was the size of a film canister.  It was not easy to locate and we had to use a cheat to finally find it hiding in a sprinkler drain.  We have been on a couple more searches, but hoping now that summer is upon us, we might be able to take up the hobby a little more seriously.

space day at the capitol

This semester Boo has shown a real interest in space.  She has been reading every book she can get her hands on about space and astronauts. Because of her interest we braved space day hosted by NASA on the grounds of state capitol.  Our home school group was there, but we ended up spending most of the day by ourselves.  It was a cold and rainy day, and there were LOTS of kids.  I pulled the wagon with the boys, lunch bag and backpack and we literally walked around the capital grounds twice and once into the capitol building.
The girls did lots of space experiments, including manipulating puzzles and using tools while wearing over sized gloves.  They also built a space suit that needed to protect an astronaut from an asteroid.  
The field trip solidified her interest and she is sure she wants to be an astronaut when she grows up.  They completed sixteen stations of experiments, crafts, puzzles and lectures.

Pumpkin Patch field trip

This month, we went on our first field trip for the school year with RRHOME, our home school group.  We ventured to Elgin Christmas Tree Farms on a Monday morning.  We spent the morning decorating pumpkins, a hayride, petting baby animals, running through mazes, creating scarecrows and playing with friends.
The gym recently hired two new instructors that gave me the freedom and peace of mind (along with Ben's new pay raise) to give up classes and be able to secure a substitute when opportunities such as these arise.  I am so grateful for the job I had the past three years, but I am even more grateful that I get to focus on the most important role God has given me in raising and teaching our children.  We have been able to get all of our school work done by Thursday afternoon piano lessons for the past two weeks, which has given us off all day on Fridays to attend co-op and rest before our weekends.  The first time that has happened since August.

Library fun

The kids are reading up a storm this summer.  And we have had lots of fun at some of the library's summer concert series.  To kick-off the summer we went to see Joe McDermott, just call us groupies.  I have lost count on how many times we have seen Joe.  And today, we went to see the Biscuit Brothers.  The rain clouds stayed away, long enough for the show.

The kids are participating in multiple reading programs including the library's reading program, Half-Priced Books' and HEB Buddies.  This summer they are into the Isabelle (AG) series, Nancy Drew and Clue Series, Meet Cam Jansen books, and Rainbow Fairies books.  It has been a low-key summer so far, I cannot believe June is almost over!

wordless wednesday

field day 2014

This past week was our annual field day with our homeschool friends.  The kids were divided up into teams, and LE made it on the black team, while Boo was on the white team.  The boys were with the preschoolers on the green team.  Games included the three legged race, an obstacle course, scavenger hunt, water balloon fight, and water-gun target shooting.  Both girls won the team spirit award for their teams and won fun prizes for scoring points on the games.  Afterwards we had a picnic lunch and enjoyed time at the splash pad.

butterfly badge

The girls recently went to Lady Bird Wildflower Center with our keepers' club.  I skipped this time as it was the boys' nap time, so they rode with their friend Lily and her mom.
Some of the things the girls learned, butterflies make chrysalis and moths make cocoons.  Moths make cocoons on the ground and butterflies build chrysalis high in the tree.

last zoo hoorah

This past week our zoo membership expired, and it was our off week from school so we invited a few of our friends to join us for a zoo play date.  (I left the big camera and HR at home this time).
I don't recommend going late in the day.  I called the zoo office and asked if we were in the park at closing time if we could still walk around and see the animals, but by 4:30 the zookeepers began locking exhibits and putting the animals in for the evening.  We went later b/c my friend and I were killing two stones that day by attending the Waco used curriculum sale that evening.  We made a stop at Chick-Fil-A and then hit the sale.  I struck out this year at the sale, but LE found a set of  Little House Chapter books to complete her collection, an AG Samantha Christmas craft book and a Calico Critters nursery school set.  It was still a nice day to get out with friends.  We will do the zoo membership again, it was worth the expensive for a family of six.  We went more this year b/c we had the passes and we were able to share extra tickets with friends.

Crowe's Nest Farm

During our last school break, we took a field trip to the Crowe's Nest Farm.  We learned how they milk a cow, saw lots of Texas animals, and how not to get near an ostrich egg that has been in the Texas heat.  Let's just say Mama was glad she was not one of the pregnant Moms on that field trip.  We took a hay ride and had a picnic lunch with friends.

AcTioN!

fire in the hole

best. field. trip. EVER! Stunt Camp

I had the most amazing time this past Friday.  I am the leadership liaison for our April Mom Team this month and one of our moms hit it out of the park for our monthly field trip.  We went to Stunt Camp.  I am pretty sure my girls had a blast, but this Mama had way too much fun.  I zip-lined, platform jumped, did stunt jumps, ropes course, kidding, but not really.  The girls loved it and the perk I got to tag along too.  This field trip was the absolute bomb.  It was a science field trip complete with explosions, pyrotechnics, steam machines, pulleys, and other simple machines.  We did get to jump off a platform, which let me tell you was HIGH!!  The girls didn't go all the way too the top, but with them chanting my name I climbed all the way to the top and jumped into a large inflatable mat.  My knees were shaking hours later.  Then we zip-lined from a tree across a field.  Followed by a picnic lunch and then the ropes/obstacle course.  Stunt men Adam and Aaron did a demonstration with pulleys and then we were launched backwards like stunt men onto a large mat.  The kids were blasted with snow in April in Texas and then the finale was an explosion just like the movies.  This was not on the cheap side, but oh so worth the experience the girls and I got to share together.  I am so proud of them for conquering their fears and butterflies.  It was a day this Mama will never forget.

Austin Steam Train Field Trip

My friend, Zelia was able to coordinate a field trip for some fellow homeschooling families over the weekend. After our train failure in Arizona we were sure to not miss this opportunity.
The train is run completely by volunteers.  We were in an open-aired car (no a.c.) and we were connected to the snack car.   The chairs turn around so you can face each other (2x2 -4 in a group) or face forward and two in a seat.  You can bring your own food and walk freely among the train (with an adult).
It is supposed to be a 3 hour round trip to downtown Austin and back to the station in Cedar Park.  About 20 minutes into the ride we had to stop and we sat on the tracks for forty minutes b/c a freight train farther up the line was having mechanical failure.  So, we rode backwards to Cedar Park and farther up the line to Leander, where we then proceeded forwards again.  It was not nearly the failure that we had in AZ, b/c we at least got to ride the train this time.  They gave us vouchers to ride again in November, but I think this time Mimi and PawPaw can get the steam train experience and we will keep HR home.  The kids really enjoyed themselves, thank you Miss Z for thinking of us.

children in history

A friend emailed me Sunday morning to tell us Zilker park was hosting a children in history day at the Botanical Gardens.  It was titled Kirsten finds a Honey Tree.  The girls and I decided we would endure the 97 degree temps to check it out.  They advertised butter making, pioneer snacks,  crafts including making a straw hat for your doll, the Swedish pioneer cottage would be open and there was a hunt through the gardens to locate the honey trees (like Kirsten did in the American Girl book).  Let's just say the events were a tad exaggerated.  I should not complain since the girls both said they enjoyed themselves, but it was pushing 100 degrees and... Butter was attempted to be made in a Rubbermaid container, we scoured the entire botanical gardens for three hollow trees (on our own, no map) that would be good for making a bee hive.  They made a tiny bouquet for their dolls' hats out of rosemary and oregano and the snack was a cracker with the butter (that the lady made earlier in the day).  AND THEN, we HAD to go across the street b/c there were Kaya games being played at the pool (ie. additional $5 in parking, so we walked across the street since we already had paid admission to the Botanical Gardens).  We did play some fun games but the advertised teepee stood at less than 5 feet tall.  I admit I fell for the American Girl name, but the list of events sounded like something right up the girls' alley.  I will not be falling for that one again.

batssssss

I am a strong believer that education happens all of the time when you homeschool.  I don't consider workbooks to be required for learning to happen.  I have actually been working my hardest this past school year to eliminate as many workbooks as I can from our daily schedule.
A few weeks back we told the kids to load up in the car as they were going upstairs to get ready for bed.  They were totally bum-founded and even more confused when we drove into Sonic for half-priced milkshakes.  We drove to downtown Round Rock to see the Mexico Free Tailed bats come out of the I35.  The kids loved the experience.  There is now a volunteer to answer questions onsite.  And, let me tell you my little sponges had some questions.  We got home about 9 pm, but the girls asked if they could journal about what they learned!!!  How could I possibly deny that moment?  The next day we made a trip to the local library for as many books on bats as we could check out.  

Lady Bird Wildflower Center

We just finished our unit study on flowering plants so we cashed in a groupon to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.  The grounds are exquisite and very well laid out.  The kids enjoy documenting flowers and identifying plants we had been studying.  I am glad we had a groupon b/c it is a very pricy visit for a family of 6.  The kids did great, but it was probably a one-time visit for us, at least until the boys are studying botany.