Today was field trip day!  We had so much fun!

We started out with Lesson 4 in Leading Little Ones To God.  It was called God Talked To People Long Ago and told the story of Samuel, a little boy in the Bible whom talked to audibly.  DS thought it was pretty neat that people could actually hear God and wanted to know why we can't hear him.  I love that he is really thinking about things and asking good questions!

Then, we started out for our day.  We had a one hour drive, so on the way we listened to Ping on tape - twice!  One side of the tape had some additional educational info, so we enjoyed listening to that as well.  We learned more about the fishing birds with the rings on their necks so, we heard some Chinese songs, and we learned that ducks say "guaw, guaw, guaw" in China!

Our first stop was the library to find some books about China.  We found a great one that was on his level called A Family in China by Nance Lui Fyson and Richard Greenhill.  The girl on the front cover is even holding a duck!  Then we found a few more that were a little above his grade level, but I figured it would be a good thing to see the pictures and talk about them.  I also got some books for our unit on Madeline that we will be starting next week. 

Then, we had lunch with DH which was a real treat since we don't normally get to see him during the day. 

After that, we picked up a friend of mine who often accompanies us on field trips.  I get to enjoy a social visit with a good friend while we go on our learning adventures and she enjoys tagging along and learning new things!  So, it works out nicely.

Our first stop was the Wonder Bread thrift store for a 46 cent loaf of bread.  Then, we headed to the duck pond!  The pond is part of a city park and is fed by a stream that runs the length of the park (and beyond).  There is a nice walking path along the stream, beautiful gardens, and a huge playground for the kids.  It's one of our favorite places to go.  We started out at the playground so DS could burn off some energy and get in some P.E. time.  Then, we headed to the pond to feed the ducks. 

There are plaques all along the trail with information about the different species of ducks that live there.  We stopped at each one to read about them and see if we could find that type in the water.  There were about 10 different types of duck right there in that pond, plus swans, geese, seagulls, and something that looked like a turkey vulture, but we're not sure if that's what it was or not. 

We even found one that looked like the adults in Ping's family!

We saw a huge white swan going "bottoms up" like Ping does in the book.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of that!

Then, we headed to a local Thai market.  Unfortunately, there isn't a Chinese market around, but I figured this would be close enough!  DS got to see all the different foods that are in an Asian diet and he got to see the Chinese writing firsthand.  He even got to hold a king mackerel!  It was frozen, but it still had its head, eyes and everything!  EW!  He really got a kick out of that! 

We ended up purchasing some chopsticks, some egg roll wrappers, and some Chinese cookies for our dinner that we will be making to finish up our unit.

That evening, after dinner, we learned how to make Chinese lanterns.  We were having so much fun we couldn't stop!  I think we made one for every color of construction paper we had!  We will use these to decorate for our dinner tomorrow night. 

At bedtime, I read aloud the next chapter in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Tomorrow we'll catch up a bit with math, science, and reading practice.

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