Between our co-op class focusing on meteorology, and our science class at home which is also focusing on meteorology, I think we should consider putting together our homemade weather instruments into a science fair project.  Here are the latest things we've tried.

This is a psychrometer (which is a very hard word to type!) which measures relative humidity.  It has two thermometers, one of which has the bulb wrapped in cotton cloth and the cloth is dipped into a jar of water.

After sitting out for the required hour or so, it looked like this:

We could read the difference in temperature on the two thermometers - the dry bulb was about 70 and the wet bulb was about 65, to the best of my memory now - and then use the chart that came with our handy dandy weather kit:

...to figure out the relative humidity.  Going by memory again, I think it was about 70%.

The same day, we made our first attempt at a simple homemade thermometer.  This is made with a 20 oz water bottle filled with colored water (chilled), into which we put a stopper (provided with the kit!) and a clear straw.  The trick, apparently, is to lose as little water as possible when shoving the stopper in, so that the water comes partway up that straw.

Now the challenge was - we were supposed to set it out in the sunshine, undisturbed for about an hour, then mark the water level in the straw.  (I took this picture before marking the starting water level, which turned out to be a good thing...)  Then we were to put it in the shade for an hour and mark the level again.  Both times we would also check the actual temperature on a traditional thermometer, and that was supposed to help us calibrate our thermometer.  Well... as I said... the challenge  - we live in a wind tunnel, I think.  Our poor bottle kept tipping over in the wind, no matter where I put it (not a lot of options either, since it was supposed to be in the sun!) and of course, each time we would have to refill and get that stopper on again.  Frustrating.   So we gave up around 4pm as the sun was getting too low for this to really be effective. 

We decided we would try it again on the next sunny day.

Which at this point, I think might happen sometime in June...

This was the creek near our house within a couple of days after our aborted thermometer experiment:

Yeah, pretty high.  Lots of rain here lately, and usually on baseball days too.  So what we SHOULD have done, was put out our homemade rain gauge and calibrated THAT.  Oh well.

Our latest attempts at international cookery...

Germany:  Potato pancakes and bratwurst

I figured this would go over pretty good because we all like brats and we all like hashbrowns, so I didn't think the potato pancakes would be too much of a departure from what the kids are used to.  Once I got the hang of recognizing the right time to flip them, they were easy too.  This menu earned       six thumbs up.  Provided I cook the potatoes adequately.

Russian-style filled donuts

Super-easy shortcut recipe using frozen bread dough.  That's my kind of cooking.  Everybody liked these too, and my DH was truly impressed that I had deep-fried them without burning myself.  I have a long and unhappy history with hot oil.  LOL  Another       recipe.  And how can you go wrong with frozen bread dough, really.

Georgia:  (the country in the former USSR, not the state)

This is a cheese-filled bread called khachapuri:

This was really good, even though we didn't seal it up tight enough and the cheese kind of bubbled out.  Thankfully I noticed before it got all over the bottom of the oven.  Oh  and again - frozen bread dough.  My new favorite kitchen shortcut.

shashlik (pork kebabs) and rice pilaf:

Kennady really liked the pilaf.  The boys are not big rice fans, so not a big enthusiastic response, but everyone ate and had enough.  I might make that bread again, if only to see if I can do it without the tragic loss of cheese.

Italy:

This looks terribly bland, but it was what I came up with for Italian night on short notice.  Fresh linguine and grilled chicken.

I served the sauce separately because a couple of the kids really dislike sauce.  This was, I think, the first time my kids had tried fresh pasta instead of the boxed dry kind.  Landon observed before I cooked the linguine that it looked (and tasted) like rubber bands.  Yes I did ask him how many rubber bands he had actually tasted...   By the way, we've noticed that Canadians (DH and I) would have said "elastics" not "rubber bands"  - another quirky Canuck moment brought to you by my random thought processes.

What we were really looking forward to last night was the Italian dessert.  Kennady was so anxious to try this Torta al cioccolato (chocolate cake) so we had that for bedtime snack.  It is most definitely on the Keeper list of recipes from around the world:

Obviously a six-enthusiastic-thumbs-up recipe!        Kennady and Spencer both asked for it for breakfast this morning.... ummmmm... guys, that was made of SUGAR and CHOCOLATE.  Not breakfast.  Clearly dessert.  I made them wait till later in the day.  This also will give me a chance to eat it before they do...   LOL  Very, very rich.  It's basically a sweet chocolate meringue, very little flour.  We got this recipe from the book, I'm the Chef! The Young Chef's Italian Cookbook. 

Don't forget to lick the bowl!

It's time for Show & Tell Friday with CanadaGirl - visit her blog to participate and to see other Show & Tells.  My Show & Tell is pretty random today, just a couple pictures of some science-related things we did recently and a couple other silly pictures.

Landon turned 9 on Tuesday.  We didn't have a birthday party, at least not yet.  We're having friends over this evening for dinner and that's the "big" celebration this year.  But of course I had to take at least one picture of the birthday boy, uncooperative though he might be.

One of the things Landon got for Christmas was a little kit to grow rock crystals.  So we finally got around to doing that.  Here are the results:

It took longer than the package said it would, but at least we did get some pretty nifty looking crystals!

We will be starting a weather unit in Science in the second semester, and I will also be teaching a weather class at our co-op this year.  I asked Landon and Kennady to help me test some of the hands-on things we'll be doing at co-op, so I can gauge how long it takes to put them together and how much adult help the kids will need in class.  The first thing we tested was a "whirlwind in a bottle"  - the classic demonstration of how tornadoes spin.

That worked reasonably well, and only took about 10 minutes to construct.  Of course, after spinning the whirlwind around about 3 dozen times, the duct tape did develop a bit of a leak.  LOL

And a couple of fun pictures, just to get me caught up...  Kennady got the VeggieTales Christian Hits CD for Christmas, and it has quickly become a favorite.  I caught her doing air guitar to the CD awhile ago:

And finally, this is what she decided to wear to our New Years Eve party:

A Jasmine costume.  She certainly looked festive!

I think this is my final installment of vacation pictures. 

We decided it would be fun to take the kids to see the museum and other things at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary. 

As I've said, I am NOT a skier (I had to go look up how to spell that.  LOL).  However, DH and Harrison have both had a try at it and enjoyed it.  COP was where I tried skiing that one and only time, way back when it was only a ski hill and called Paskapoo.  ("That's fun to say!"  ~Elf)  In 1988, when the Winter Olympics were in Calgary, there were luge/bobsled tracks and a ski jump tower added and the name changed to Canada Olympic Park; and later on a museum was added as well.  Years ago I went to the museum as it was then, and took the tour up to the top of the ski jump tower.  The museum has since been expanded and we had hoped to see all of it plus take the tour, but time ran out on us.  Here is what we did see...

We briefly looked through the Olympic Hall of Fame and Museum and I got this picture of my three American-born children on the "medal podium"

Don't they look thrilled?  LOL

Outside at the medal plaza, we had the kids pose as ski jumpers:

Then we drove around to the top of the hill and I got a few pictures of the ski jump tower:

(Having been up at the top of that thing looking down the ramp, I am here to tell you that it is scary!!!!! Ski jumpers are very brave!!!!)

The pictures of the bobsled track didn't turn out great, but here is one:

This is the observation tower and main building seen from the far side of the track.  There were skeleton (these people are nuts!!!!), luge and bobsleigh World Cup events going on during that week, and it turns out that about the time I was taking these pictures, the Womens bobsled races were taking place.  We did see the sleds go by, and there were plenty of TV crews and cameras in the area. 

Might as well finish off with the last of the pictures taken on the trip... We managed to get to one hockey game at the Saddledome, a Calgary Hitmen game.  Here are the boys watching intently:

Some scenery:

 (very different from the eastern States, huh?)

This is driving from Airdrie towards Calgary.  You can see the mountains on the horizon.  I never did get a good picture of the Calgary skyline but take my word for it - it is beautiful.  Or maybe I think so just because it's my hometown.

Here's my kids baking cookies with Gramma.

Kennady and Kaylee (my niece)

Kennady with her "Puckie" which is the souvenir she chose to bring home from her visit to Calgary:

And here we are on the airplane headed home.  Puckie helped Kennady eat her (very nutritious) breakfast, I guess.

So ends our vacation to Alberta, and today's edition of Show & Tell.  You can see more Show & Tells by heading over to CanadaGirl's blog.

After the drive around the hotel, we drove up to Tunnel Mountain.  This took us past the hotel where DH and I stayed on our honeymoon (Douglas Fir Resort) and also the Tunnel Mountain campground which is the one we most often stayed at when I was a kid.  The hiking trail there was open so we walked a little ways so that the kids could get a look at the hoodoos.

This is the town of Banff from the same lookout:

Next we drove down to the Cave & Basin National Historic Site.  This is where the railroad explorers first found hot springs in the Canadian Rockies (more info here), and the birthplace of the Canadian National Parks system.  There are some trails through the hot springs areas, and the building that housed the first hot springs spa in Banff has been turned into a museum.  Used to be free - but I guess that was a LONG time ago when we lived in Alberta - and we didn't want to take the time to go through the exhibits inside so we skipped that part.  Our main purpose was for the kids to see the hot springs and warm mineral pools firsthand. 

Here is the vent of that hot spring discovered by the railroad workers:

It really was difficult to get pictures that show the thermal springs, but I tried.

The view from the Cave & Basin trail:

Same mountain, seen from the Lower Cave & Basin trail:

So... the kids got to see what "thermal features" are up close.  Okay, Yellowstone would have been way better for that, but it wasn't in the vacation itenerary or budget for 2007.  Nor will it be in 2008, I expect.  Anyway, having seen hot springs, it was then time to experience the hot springs.  Not only that, but Kennady toes were very cold and needed to be thawed.  So off to the Upper Hot Springs:

Oh it was glorious!!!!  The water was extra hot and we just wanted to stay and stay...

But it was soon time for dinner.  Since Melissa's was closed, we decided to head for the related restaurant, Bumper's Inn, which was wonderful.  But I still like Melissa's better.  

To round off the evening, we went back downtown and did a little shopping before heading home. 

After Lake Minnewanka, we drove up Mount Norquay, which is a ski resort.  (I am NOT a skiier - I tried ONE time and hated every moment of it.  It seems a silly sport to me - pay lots of money to ride up the mountain, then fall down the mountain and start over.  LOL  But I love watching the ski events in the Winter Olympics.)  The drive up the mountain offers some lovely views of the town of Banff below.

We thought it would be a good place to get our family picture for the 2007 Christmas cards, but despite my Mom's best efforts with the camera, the sun once again was in an awkward position for picture-taking.  This is the best we came up with at that spot.

Our next stop was in town for lunch.  We tried to visit our all-time favorite restaurant there - Melissa's - but to our horror, they were closed that week for cleaning!  Rats!!!!!  So we went to Phil's instead, after wandering around downtown Banff for a bit.  After lunch we went down to see Bow Falls. (I almost said "over to Bow Falls, but thought that sounded like we had gone OVER the falls.  LOL)

The falls are mostly frozen, but enough water is coming through to keep everything moving.  There is a great hiking trail that goes up the near side of the falls, but that also was closed for the winter.  Here are a couple other views looking downriver a bit, but taken from about the same place.

That riverbend above? It's where the Spray River joins the Bow, and that's where we put in our canoes! Not on this visit of course!  When DH and I lived in Calgary, we took a couple of canoe trips down the Bow River.  Great memories.

Looks like another good spot for a Christmas card picture!!  This is the one we wound up choosing for our cards:

That's the best we could do.  I like this picture a lot, even though we're looking different directions and not everyone has a nice smile.  With six people, and three of them boys that don't like to smile for pictures, the standards for what is considered a "good" family portrait drop considerably.   I got a nice picture of my Mom and Dad here too:

I think DH is remembering the canoe trip and how HOT it was that day LOL:

Harrison found a place to do a few chin-ups...

And then it was time to move on.  We drove around the Banff Springs Hotel, which none of us can afford to stay in (but I have eaten in a couple of the restaurants in the distant past).

That's it for this time.  My next installment of vacation pictures will include some geology-related stuff, the educational portion of our trip. 

Our family Christmas gift from my parents was a trip to Banff National Park during our visit to Alberta.  This worked out so great, because DH and I loved visiting Banff when we lived in Calgary (in fact we honeymooned in Banff), it wasn't something we had to pack up and cart home with us, and we even had a little bit of opportunity to see some things that related to what we'd studied in Science so far this year.

On the way to Banff, we stopped at the McDougall Memorial Church near Cochrane.  This church is maintained in memory of the Mission built by George and John McDougall in the 1870's.  As you can see, the sun's position made it difficult for me to get a good picture.

The view of the mountains from nearby:

The first thing we did upon arriving in the Park was take the drive around Lake Minnewanka.  Parts of the road, and the hiking trails were closed for the winter in order to allow the wildlife to roam freely.  But we were able to drive around the lake, and did encounter some wildlife along the way.

A lone elk (also called wapiti):

Not far down the road, we found the rest of his family:

Scenery from this drive:

At the spot where I took this photo, we also encountered this bighorn sheep who was quite intent on licking the road salt off all the vehicles that passed by!  This allowed us to get a good close-up look.

We also found this deer family taking advantage of the quiet around the parks buildings.

Of course it wasn't that big a deal to see deer - except that we are more used to seeing them bound across the road in the twilight and have to avoid hitting them.  So this was a much more peaceful way to admire their beauty.

More coming!

We did a couple of simple demonstrations earlier this week to show the eroding power of water and how it can change landscapes.  First we took a small bar of soap:

and then allowed it to sit under a slowly dripping faucet for a couple of hours:

After some time had passed, it looked like this:

The other demonstration involved stopping up the end of a drinking straw with clay, filling it up with water,

 then stopping up the other end with clay.   

Then we put it in the freezer for a couple of hours:

When water freezes, it expands.  So:

The expanding water/ice forced a "plug" of the clay out of the end of the straw.  When water seeps into cracks in rocks and then freezes, it basically does the same thing - it forces the crack open a little farther.  As the ice melts, it carries away small bit of the broken rock.  The opening is a little bigger, meaning more water can seep in, freeze and thus make the crack even larger.

Now... I have to point out that in that last picture, Landon is not actually studying the plug.  Really he is frowning at me from under his eyebrows because I am making him hold the straw for the picture.  He wanted to TAKE the picture.  So the one above that is the one I let him take.  LOL

I also noticed that my photos of these scientific endeavors have also showcased some housekeeping areas that I would honestly rather that the world did not see.  Bathroom sinks (disclaimer: sinks that the kids are responsible for cleaning); kitchen counter (mercifully far enough in the darkened background that perhaps only I am bothered by it); and the freezer.  I am laughing at the Phlly Steak box.  But it did make a nice level spot to rest our straw on!

Third and final entry for this series, but I have more I need to post in order to get current with the blog. 

The third type of rock is metamorphic, which is rock that has been changed by heat, pressure, and time.  We discussed the effects of heat, pressure, and time on snow or shaved ice, and even though we didn't have the ice itself to work with, the kids had a pretty good memory of what they could do with snow.  Then we did this fun activity to get a little idea of how marble is formed.  We unwrapped some Laffy Taffy and put a stack of them in different colors between wax paper and then applied heat and pressure for a short amount of time:

Here's the finished product - a lump of "marbled" taffy!

Wish I'd learned geology this way when I was in school...

(Shocking - two entries on the same day!!!! And I might even get another one done today PLUS finish up the two I've started and are still drafts! )

The next type of rock we studied was sedimentary.  Sedimentary rock is formed when layers of mud, sand, silt and other sediment settle and harden.  I didn't want to take the time to make our own "sandstone" since we did that a couple years ago - and I didn't have sand handy anyway.  But we did try this to see how different materials tend to settle out in layers.  It didn't work GREAT, but we got the idea. 

We mixed together granulated sugar, coarse colored sugar, and candy bits, then poured them through a narrow funnel into a glass jar.  They did tend to settle a little bit, and when we gently shook or tapped the jar we could see the layers settle out even more.

And the finished product is in the baking supply cupboard now, waiting to be used on ice cream sundaes and other desserts! 

We are studying some geology this year, and just finished learning about the different types of rocks.  There are three types of rocks - igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.  Igneous rock is formed when magma (or lava) cools and hardens.  The rock itself can be very different depending on whether it cooled quickly on the surface on the earth, or slowly under the crust; and of course depending on the minerals present.  To demonstrate how the same mineral can make different types of rock under different conditions, we made alum crystals. 

We heated water and then dissolved the alum in it, and poured the solution into two plastic cups, with plastic knives inside.  One went in the refrigerator and the other stayed out on the counter.  (Biggest challenge: to find a spot on the counter where it wouldn't be buried under other stuff, but that's another topic!)  After a few days, we compared the crystals.

You can see how the alum solution in the fridge formed more and larger crystals.

Here's a closeup of the cold crystals:

And the "warm" crystals:

This was all from our Science text for this year:  God's Design for Heaven and Earth: Our Planet Earth

Yesterday was the day we "started" school, although we only did about 45 minutes of Social Studies together.  I gave the older two boys their assignment lists for the next two weeks.  Today will be the first full day of classes.

Kennady opted to sleep late yesterday, which was fine:

(the dark-colored lump in front is the cat, in case you wonder.  LOL)  The boys slept in too, but I didn't think they'd want me taking their pictures!

So much later in the day, I took these "official" first day of school pictures.  Again, something in my subconscious told me that Harrison and Spencer wouldn't want pictures in this (or, in fact, any) style, so I skipped making little signs for them. 

I didn't get anything ready in time for Show & Tell on Friday, but I am back in blogworld, so I figured it was time to post a summary of the vacation here at last!  To start with I need to explain what "Kingdom Bound" is, because I had a couple comments from my last Show & Tell asking me just that. Kingdom Bound   is a ministry based in Buffalo, NY - there are many outreach events that they put on year-round, but the highlight is the Kingdom Bound festival held at the beginning of August each year.  It's a Christian music festival at Darien Lakes Theme Park (formerly Six Flags - Darien Lakes) featuring concerts by Christian artists, along with times of worship, seminars and speakers.  This year was our fourth trip in six years.

So...we arrived at the campground late afternoon last Saturday and set up camp.  We went into the village and had dinner at a little diner there and then went and picked up our supply of groceries and ice from the market in town.  Once we got back to the camp we had a relaxing evening there.  Had a campfire, but no marshmallows to roast - didn't matter, because I'd forgotten to bring our marshmallow forks from home. 

Sunday morning we went to the church in Clarence that we like to attend when we are in that area; got our usual super-warm welcome.  My "imaginary friend" (this is what my DH calls my online friends! LOL) Mary invited us over for lunch so we spent the afternoon at her place catching up on each others' news.  I have another online friend, Lisa, in that area, so I looked up her number, and later in the evening, we met up with Lisa's family at an ice-cream place.  We found out they serve the most monstrous sized ice-cream cones ever!  LOL  Next time we go up to KB, I will know to order a baby-size cone.  LOL  When we got back to our campsite, our friends Tom & Ruth had arrived and were pretty much set up "next door" to us.  Spent the rest of the evening visiting with them. 

Monday we started the themepark/concert routine.  Went over to the park late morning and did a bunch of rides.  Checked out some hip-hop stuff at the midway stage (including Starlit Platoon and Group 1 Crew) - not my usual stuff, but we all enjoyed it.  Lunch at the campsite and then back to the park for the evening's concerts. We saw Leeland (not bad), David Crowder Band (awesome!) and Casting Crowns (also awesome!)  Then as we were leaving, I tripped (yes, I'm a bonehead) on a part of the concrete that was slightly raised (hard to describe - it's not like I walked into a wall, but still... ) and *thought* I stubbed my toe really bad.  Feeling stupid, I put my flip-flop type shoe back on and carry on trying to look normal.  (failing LOL)  Then I realized that my shoe felt slimy, look down, and yep - blood.  I hadn't stubbed my toe, I had sliced a layer off the bottom of my big toe.  Limped back to the van and rinsed it a bit with some water there to see how bad it was, then I doctored it a bit better back at the campsite.  It was pretty gross.  In the morning, Ruth rigged up a "foot spa" with a small crate and a garbage bag so I could clean/soak it properly.  Yuck.

Since Kennady still has a penchant for taking foot pictures, she got one of my bandaged toe.  LOL

Tuesday - after breakfast and dealing with my yucky toe, we headed over to the park again for more rides.  Got caught in some rain which was interesting, but we were pretty lucky and didn't get totally drenched.  Early dinner back at the campground, then back for more rides etc.  We got back a little later than planned, so only caught the last few songs of Aaron Shust's set.  Harrison went over to the park stage for Red and .Disciple  I would have liked to see Disciple, but couldn't be in two places at once, so I gave up the park stage experience this year.  LOL  After Aaron Shust was Denver & the Mile High Orchestra (loved them - very fun).  Headed out to check out the merch tables, and got a good deal on two more DMHO CDs, then got Denver to sign one of them.  Then while checking out the Toby Mac merch (his show was the headliner later on) heard that he too would be signing autographs.  So I bolted back to our seats (well, as fast as I could with the gimpy toe LOL) and asked the kids if they wanted to meet Toby Mac.  Duh.  So we went back out and bought the new Toby Mac CD and a poster, then stood in line FOREVER to meet him and get those things autographed.  Here's Landon getting the CD autographed.

Missed about half the Chris Tomlin set while doing that.  WEll, we could hear everything very clearly, but couldn't see it.  He was really good.  Then Toby Mac to end the evening.  Awesome show, so high-energy!  Probably my favorite show of the week, hard to pick between him and the Newsboys.

Wednesday - few rides in the morning and a quick look in the vendor tents before lunch at the campground.  We had hotdogs and mixed together the leftover sloppy joe and taco meat for chili dogs.  I put mine in a tortilla and added cheese, sour cream and mustard - sounds gross, but it was really good!   Headed back to the park so Harrison could get to the park stage in time for Decyfer Down (he also got them to autograph his teeshirt).  He hung at the fringe stage the rest of the night so he could see Skillet  later.  The rest of us took in some more rides and finished looking through the vendor tents before buying a pizza for dinner and heading to the main stage for the evening.  We saw almost all of  The Afters show (they were pretty good) and heard Bob Lenz speak.  Then DH took Spencer and Landon over to the fringe stage to catch a little bit of Skillet while Kennady and I held onto our seats at the main stage.  (I would have gone over for Skillet if I hadn't been lame - I mean my foot was lame, not me personally.  LOL)  So Kennady and I saw Geoff Moore & the Distance.  They did a really enjoyable show as well - almost all old stuff, since they haven't been playing together for about 10 years.  Then the highlight of the evening - the Newsboys!  As always, they did a super show, but with as much great music as they have, it is never long enough ykwim.  There's always about a dozen songs I wish they would do that they didn't, but I wouldn't have wanted them to skip any of the ones they did, if that makes sense. 

And now... back to school....

On Tuesday, I took Landon and Kennady on a field trip to the Crayola Factory in Easton, PA.  We had a fair-sized group from church going, so I didn't have to drive - we had a charter bus!  I was so pleased with how well my two behaved on the bus.  I didn't take very many pictures, and those I did take didn't turn out so great, but here's a quick run-down of our trip.

One of the first things Kennady wanted to do was try out the Crayola computer programs.  We played with these a little while waiting for "showtime"

Then we watched a demonstration of how the crayons and markers are made, and how the machines work.  I tried to get some pictures there, but they didn't turn out.  These two are about the best.  The first one is the crayon wrapping machine.  The fellow told us that years ago before they had automated equipment to wrap the crayons, they had area farm families do it.  If I remember correctly, they were paid about 19c an hour to put the paper wrappers on crayons.  He told us the approximate number an experienced wrapper could complete in an hour, but I can't recall that now.  Families were given only one color of crayon, in order to keep it simple, and were referred to by their color - so they had the Red Farm Family, the Blue Farm Family, etc.  Each member of the audience was given a crayon to wrap and then keep.

In this second (also very dark and indistinct) picture, he is handing out freshly manufactured markers to the audience members.  He showed us how the machinery put together the individual pieces of the marker.

We paused to get a picture of the kids with the giant crayon.  I don't know if it has a name! LOL

Doesn't Landon look thrilled to be there? LOL  He doesn't like having his picture taken.  Can you see Kennady's outfit? The print on her top and skort is a red check background with CRAYONS all over it. I just couldn't resist dressing her in that for the day.  (~8

We tried out this animation display, which gives the kids an idea of how claymation type films are made.

And my only other picture is of the Chalk Walk:

When we first got there, we were each given three tokens that can be used in "vending" machines in the factory to get crayons, markers and Model Magic clay.  The kids both liked the Model Magic clay the best, they told me afterwards.  I thought the neatest thing was the paint area - we painted using melted crayon wax.  Yes, I made some art projects too and I am most proud of my melted wax painting.  LOL  But I noticed just now that I hadn't uploaded pictures of any of our projects to photobucket, so I guess I won't be sharing those today.  Maybe another time IF I remember.

I just could not get the entry window to allow me to move past the last picture I tried to post so I decided to just put the remainder into a third entry.  Carrying on...

The front door of Carpenter's Hall:

The First Bank of the United States:

Franklin Court:

This was kind of neat.  This frame is built over the site where Ben Franklin's house stood, and gives an idea of the dimensions of the house.  These "hoods" in the next picture are sort of windows where you can look down and see the foundations of the house where the original walls were and even where the privy was!  Franklin had an indoor "necessary" which I think was quite an innovation in that time!

I dearly wished I'd had some postcards or something I could have mailed from the B.Free Franklin Post Office - the only working post office in the USA that doesn't fly the American flag.  Why? Because it had not yet been adopted at the time that Franklin opened his post office next door to his printing shop.

Betsy Ross House:

The site of Ben Franklin's grave:

And I hope this turns out... this is picture of the historic marker designating where Dr.  Barton  had his practice.  He was the botanist that trained Merriweather Lewis before the Lewis & Clark expedition.  I'm fascinated by Lewis & Clark so I thought this was kind of a neat side note:

And there you have it!  A fun trip, and I hope to do it again sometime, with the whole family, and when a tour of the mint and of Independence Hall can be included.

Our bus driver took us to the National Consitution Center and dropped us all off there.  Many families wanted to visit the U.S. Mint which is just across the road, but with the very strict security we decided that we didn't want to try that.  My boys have visited a mint before - but it was in Canada!  Sometime perhaps we'll be back in Philadelphia with our own vehicle so that we can leave all our disallowed belongings where we can get at them as soon as we're done.  Anyway... so we picked up a walking guide and off we went.  Our first stop was the Declaration House, where Thomas Jefferson wrote the text of the Declaration of Independence.

Naturally, it was closed (open to visitors only for an hour each day, at lunchtime) so these pictures of the outside were all I could manage.

There is supposed to be something called The Signer's Walk on Chestnut Ave, but we didn't find it.  Our next stop was probably the highlight - The Liberty Bell.

The boys posed with the bell - don't they look thrilled?  LOL  They both have this "thing" about refusing to smile for pictures.  Obviously they were born at the wrong time - their expressions would have been perfect for the early days of photography when no one smiled. 

Then I got a turn to pose while Harrison snapped a picture.  I was rather dismayed later to realize how fat I look (probably because I am) but hey - it is a picture of ME with the Liberty Bell.

Then we got a look at Independence Hall...

Again, we could only view the outside, because all the tour tickets were gone for the entire day.   As with the mint, I suppose we will have to plan another trip to Philly in order to get the full effect.  Here is the back of Independence Hall, where there is a beautiful park where we rested for a bit (it was a HOT day).

We found a couple of storytellers in the parks, and that was interesting - well, to ME it was.  I think that would be something fun for younger kids to do - as there was a walking guide to all the storyteller stops. 

I'm not sure if this little house is now a private residence or what - but there was a sign at the back (from where I took this picture) that explained that city dwellers of the day had small gardens behind their houses such as this one.

This is the garden pump, there was a bird sitting in that rosebush, but of course you can't see it in the picture.  Oh well.

Continued....

(is there a limit to length of entries?  Haven't come up against that before)

It seems I timed my hiatus from blogging rather well - although it was completely unintentional.  I would not have been able to post my weekly Show & Tell on Friday anyway.  And where was I on Friday?  I was in Philadelphia on a homeschool field trip!  Yes, I got up at 4am, got dressed and packed some snacks before piling into the car at 4:30am with the two older boys.  Sunrise was at 5:25 or so, by my reckoning.  A little earlier than we usually roll out of bed!  Our charter bus pulled out somewhere around 5:20 and we were on our way. 

The main purpose of the trip was the morning spent at  The Franklin Institute where we had tickets to see Tutankhamun - The Golden Age of the Pharoahs.  Here are the steps leading up to the Franklin Institute's main entrance - it looked so impressive, but was hard to get a picture because I really didn't feel comfortable standing in the middle of the road.  LOL

Cool, right?  We arrived at about 8:30am and our entrance time to the exhibit wasn't until 9, so we looked around the lobby a little.

Then, off to the exhibit.  Of course, we weren't allowed to take photos while in the exhibit, but it was amazing.  This link will take you to the media gallery of the museum's website, which shows just three of the incredible objects in the exhibit.  I can say with complete confidence that I have never seen so much gold before in my life.  Not even half that much.  The riches and craftsmanship of the objects found in the pharoah's tomb is absolutely breathtaking.  What stood out to me was that the ancient Egyptians basically spent most of their lives planning their funerals and for the afterlife that they believed in.  They were sadly mistaken about what things would be needed for their eternity and how eternity would be spent, but no one could say that they did not prepare adequately!  I wondered how many people of our day and age give even a fraction of that amount of energy thinking ahead to what eternity will hold, and preparing for it.  How much of my time and treasure am I actively investing in eternity, and how much do I thoughtlessly squander on temporary things?  Things that won't last past next week.  Things that won't really satisfy.  In my devotional time the following day I read Isaiah 30-31, which mentions the folly of trusting in horses and chariots like the Egyptians.  Something to think about.

On a lighter note, after the Egypt exhibit, we spent a little time looking at some of the other areas of the museum.  We looked briefly in Sir Isaac's Loft which is a fun physics lab.  Among other things, the boys had a go at lifting their own weight:

The Sports Challenge exhibit was insanely crowded, so we didn't spend much time there, even though that would probably have interested Harrison most.  We stopped at several other exhibits as well, including The Giant Heart where Harrison had some fun getting an EKG.

Our time at the Franklin Institute ended after viewing the IMAX film "Mysteries of Egypt"  We had to sit pretty low in the theatre and it just wasn't as comfortable.  Take note:  when attending an IMAX show, try to sit in the middle or above.  LOL

Since all but one family on the trip intended to go to the historic city area of Philadelphia, our bus driver was kind enough to pick us up after the movie and deliver us to the National Consitution Center.  I have more pictures of that part of the trip, but my blog/computer time has run out, so I'll have to make this a two-part entry.

Now I'll hold my breath and click "Add New Entry" and hope that it works!

This is a contest entry for Reviews by Heidi - head on over to enter!!

I decided I needed to blog about the most memorable field trips, since we've had several that would qualify for that title.   Of course there are the usual zoo and museum trips that are always fun.  But we've also managed to do some very interesting things that are a little out of the ordinary, some of them while on family vacations. 

Field trips with our local homeschool groups have included:

• Utz and Snyder's factory tours
• a local TV news and radio station
• a local wholesale greenhouse (I posted pictures here)
• College Park Aviation Museum

Other fun trips that we took on our own or with the church group:

• Hope Acres dairy farm (my pictures are here)
• Gettysburg National Military Park  - we visit here quite often, since we live quite close
• Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC (my pictures are here)
• Catoctin Furnace and Harper's Ferry - and other local historic sites as well

On vacation, we have visited numerous interesting places.  The first that comes to mind is Taliesin in Wisconsin.  I did blog about it and post pictures  here.   And very memorable for ME and DH, but perhaps less so for the kids, was our trip to Atlanta, and the World of Coca-Cola.  I know there have been many others, but those are the ones that stand out.

The MOST memorable however, is Camp Flintlock.  This was a weekend encampment near St. Mary's City in Maryland.  A group from our homeschool fellowship went together to experience a little bit of life as it might have been in colonial and revolutionary war times.  We slept in tents with straw ticks under our sleeping bags (I heard later that a couple of families "cheated" and brought in air mattresses, but not us!), dressed in period clothes, were awakened by drum call, gathered firewood and hauled water, cooked over an open fire, made crafts, played colonial games, and we even learned how to throw a tomahawk and shoot a musket!  When we signed up for the encampment, the boys were not very eager to go, especially when I told Harrison he would NOT be allowed to take his personal CD player along!  But my guess is that they really enjoyed the weekend - they talked about it for long afterwards, even occasionally asking if we could set up a tomahawk target in our backyard.  And yes, we have strongly considered doing that!  Landon particularly enjoyed chopping wood and tending the fire. 

Photos:

Here's our family portrait, taken in front of the tent we called home for two nights:

 Tending the fire:

My turn at the cooking pot:

Landon LOVED chopping wood:

Hauling water:

Harrison shooting a musket:

And Spencer's turn:

Don't get on my bad side - I know how to throw a tomahawk!!!

And a camp picture:

This has a been great trip down memory lane!!! I might just have to plan another trip to Camp Flintlock, now that the kids are all a little older - this time Kennady could join us too!

We have been extremely lazy around here when it comes to schoolbooks.  The boys have been keeping up their Math and Language Arts studies, but other than that, I'm ashamed to say I just haven't had the motivation to get back to work after the break.  However, yesterday I had tickets to  TheatreWorks USA's performance of Aesop's Fables so I had no excuse!  I took Landon and Kennady, and we arrived barely on time.  Kennady enjoyed the show very much, Landon's reaction wasn't as easy to read, but he said that he liked it.  Both kids could retell the fables to Dad later at the dinner table, so it was fairly memorable.  They could also give descriptions of the types of puppets used for each fable.  Jim West also showed the kids in attendance ways to make their own puppets, and instructions are also on his website: Jim West Puppets  I think Kennady will probably be thrilled to be able to construct some of her own puppets!!!

Will we do anything else truly educational this week?  It's hard to say.  LOL  But at least that Math is getting done!!

The last three weeks or so have been sort of a combination of spring break and unschooling at our house.  I had family here visiting for about two weeks, and since the arrival and departure dates were midweek, we took some breaks from schooling for three weeks total.  I hope to get back to it this week - but it's also a very busy season at the greenhouse, so Harrison is working two days a week.  He will have the hardest job "catching up"  I think.

Anyway, the boys kept up with Math and Language Arts fairly well over that time period.  Obviously they didn't hit the books every day, but enough so that I am not in despair over the time lost.   I didn't do any teaching in History or Science with the younger ones, so we do have some catching up to do there.  And we really need to get going on it, because the sooner we reach the final few lessons for this school year, the sooner I can allow myself to start planning for next year!  We did get out the telescope one night and observe the moon.  The younger kids helped with some of the baking and cooking.  So we were not idle! (Well, I was rather idle! LOL)  We went to Strasburg, PA one day, because my dad wanted to see the Railroad Museum there and ride the Strasburg Railroad.  Very fun field trip!  Here a few pictures - partway through the museum my camera batteries died!

The museum had an engineer simulator in one of the engines.  There's a screen showing the virtual tracks you're to navigate and then you can work the controls.  Very fun.

The conductor was awesome, really good with the kids.  When he came to take our tickets, he asked if they'd seen The Polar Express (which of course we have - about 465 times LOL) and then he punched their first initial into their ticket stub.  At the spot end of the line, where they put the engine on the other end to take us back to the station, the conductor gave each of the children a "cash rebate" (Kennady is holding hers up in this picture) which was a penny that had been placed on the rails.  The kids each got a piece of coal to take home too.  (We're holding onto that because we'll study geology next year!)

This is Papa and the kids in front of the engine that pulled our train.

So if you're in the area, I highly recommend the Railroad Museum and the Strasburg Railroad as educational fun!

I also need to update my Homeschool Tracker to include the PhysEd activities.  Landon and Kennady are playing baseball this spring.  Both are doing well.  I'm especially pleased with how much Kennady is enjoying it.  When I first signed her up for baseball she cried and kept saying she didn't want to, but come the first practice she was excited and I don't think I've seen her at a game or practice when she wasn't smiling.  At last Saturday's game, she made THREE OUTS!!!!!!   Which I did not see, because I was working in the concession stand.   Oh well. 

So for this week... I will be working on getting the grading and Homeschool Tracker up to date.  Everyone will keep working at Language Arts and Math on their own.  Harrison will have his assignment list for the week when he gets home from work today, and he will need to hustle on some things.  I have several History lessons and some Science lessons for the other kids that we are going to try and get through this week.  Hopefully today and tomorrow (since Harrison isn't here) we can get the History and Science looked after.  Also co-op class is over for the year, and this week is the last gym class, so that will free up Thursdays and Fridays for the work we need to do at home.