A Day at the Museum

We spent a lovely afternoon at a small, local children's museum. We had never been before and surprisingly had the whole venue to ourselves! It was empty after hosting 150 schoolchildren that morning. What Luck. We explored every exhibit, hammed it up for photos, and spent quality, unrushed time at the traveling Chagall show. Wonderful!!

A giant ant in an anthill

Bats in the bat cave.

Being carried away by a baby Woolly Mammoth.

I decided to purchase a membership because the museum is a part of the ASTC Reciprocal Program. Our membership will allow us entry into other science centers all over the world. My goal is to use it when we go to Florida this fall. Our zoo membership is also a part of the AZA's program so we will get into our favorite Mote Aquarium for free when we go.

More Birds

We are having such a great time watching birds in our yard! We really love our window feeder.

House Finch

Carolina Chickadee

Baby Mourning Dove
(What great camouflage)

Marble Painting

In April I taught a couple of art classes for our Keepers group. I posted about bubble painting which did not work out at all so instead we Marble Painted. It was WONDERFUL! The kids loved it and it produced a frame-worthy piece of art.

Drop 3 marbles in 3 different color paint.
We used primaries as this is what we had been studying.
Place paint covered marbles on paper inside a shallow box.
Then shake, rattle , & roll!

Free Rice dot Com

Have you seen FreeRice dot Com?
You define vocabulary words and for each one correct you earn 20 grains of rice. The more you play the more you earn. Advertisers pay for the actual rice and the UN delivers it. Wow what a great way that anyone could help.

Real Books at Last

G read some real books all alone!!!
WooHoo!!!

Let's Go Fly a Kite

We concluded this session of Keepers
with great hands on activities and a badge ceremony.
We flew kites, blew bubbles, and sailed windsocks in the wind.

Then we went inside for some color mixing with icing and graham crackers.

Then the children received three badges for Truthfulness, Weather, & Art.

I love this program! We look forward to this every week.

You Know Your a Homeschooling Momma.....

You know your a homeschooling Momma when...

1. You carry an unidentified insect around in your purse to see if your fellow Mommas know what it is.

It looks like we have a paper wasp. I wanted to know what they were because on our first warm day last week they were EVERYWHERE! G was so petrified. This guy happen to make it into the house so I whacked him but it only stunned him. Then we put him in a baggy and finally this tray.

2. You take 50 million pictures of your new bird feeder so you can identify birds you've never cared two cents about before.

We have a group of European Starlings that visit everyday.
They are not good sharers and spend a lot of time squabbling.

Here is a really neat fact....

All the European Starlings in North America descended from 100 birds released in New York's Central Park in the early 1890s. A group dedicated to introducing America to all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare's works set the birds free. Today, European Starlings range from Alaska to Florida and northern Mexico, and their population is estimated at over 200 million birds.

We had a new visitor today... A Downy Woodpecker (maybe 2 ) I think we may have a pair. The first one was definitely a male but the second may have been a female; it was to quick.

AHHH Nature

Well we have finally hit 60 degrees here in the Midwest and it is SUPPOSE to stay there for a couple of days. So we went out to discover what is growing in our yard. Now I am no expert and do not have a good guide so I am comparing picture to those of friends, especialy School for Us. So here is what I think we have....

Two different kinds of moss

(By the downspout)

(Around a tree)

Shelf Fungi
(On our stump)

Snail trail

Lichen

Beautiful!