Sea life field trip

We continued our in depth study of sea life this week at the New England Aquarium on Friday. The boys and I took the commuter rail train in, and it was an early morning for them but they seemed to enjoy the train ride. Then we walked from South Station to the Aquarium. The weather was unseasonably warm for February in Boston! I think it did us all good to go since we had planned this for several weeks and some other NH homeschoolers were going as well.

One of the seals painting.

Shortly after we arrived, there was a seal demonstration in the tank in front of the entrance, and one of the seals painted a picture. They are amazing creatures! They seem very similar to dogs in terms of training, as they use a rewards based system. There is much more to learn about the Atlantic Harbor Seals on the NEAQ training blog.

They have a good life!

W enjoyed learning about the jellies, C liked the shark and ray touch tank exhibit, and both of them loved watching the penguins. W observed and read about the Little Blue penguins from Australia. However, at the end of the day both boys said the sharks in the big central tank were their favorite.

Paw Sox Game

The Paws bears and our family

Last Monday, we went to the last regular season game of the season for the Pawtucket Red Sox in Rhode Island. They were in first place so they are headed into the playoffs, and the team has been doing really well so lots of fans turned out for the game. This is pretty far for us to travel, but I had won tickets at a concert and we had spent the weekend on Cape Cod so going from there made more sense.

The boys had a great time when we went to the Fisher Cats game for their homeschool night a few months ago, so we were hoping for good behavior this time around. C played with Zoodles on my phone for a while which helped to keep him entertained. Snacks helped too. They didn't do as much in between innings compared to the Fisher Cats, but at the end all the players were announced and they threw balls up to the crowd. (edit: fyi, these were soft stuffed baseballs, not the real thing! ;)) A lady in the crowd was nice enough to share two extras she had gotten with our little guys. Minor league games are a great way to introduce kids to going to baseball games!  

This time we sat behind the net and got a pretty good view.

watching the game

Some Pig!

W finished up Charlotte's Web by E.B. White as a Unit study last week, so to celebrate this weekend we took a day drip to our local county fair. He was very excited to see the pigs, and we also saw sheep, goats, chickens, a turken (who knew?), a calf, a horse show, and rabbits. W and C were enchanted by the enormous pumpkins. 

Pigs feast at the fair

what a great pumpkin! Over 1100 lbs.

my little lamb!

We would like to get involved in a local 4-H chapter this year so hopefully next year W can participate and submit some of his home grown veggies and crafts. W did a couple of rides at the midway, and C went on the merry go round with me. 

For Charlotte's Web activities, W composed an acrostic poem about Wilbur using the printable from abcteach.com. This was a great excuse to learn about adjectives and make his grammar lesson fun as the book is so full of delightful adjectives. He colored in Wilbur with a white crayon with touches of pink since in the book he is described as white with pink ears and a pink snout. He also made a Pig Book. I had been afraid that the ending would be too sad for W to handle. He was moved by the story, but I was the one tearing up as we finished the last chapters. W took turns reading chapters independently and aloud with me for a family read. In many parts he laughed out loud and seeing the book fresh through his eyes brought me back to my days of reading it when I was a kid.


On Friday night we watched the 1973 cartoon movie which surprised me with the details and actual quotes from the book. Maybe sometime I will add the more recent Dakota Fanning version on our Netflix queue. We will also be looking for some other works by E.B. White at the library next trip. 

Sturbridge Village

Last Friday we took advantage of the Fun Free Friday at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, MA. Unfortunately, so did everyone else. Despite the crowds, the kids had a great time visiting their Connecticut cousins and uncle whom we met up with there, and they had fun at the playground.

A, C, S & W with their leaves

They could have cared less about many of the houses, although they put up with us adults long enough to walk through a couple of the homes. The kids all did a lot of walking around as it is a pretty large living history museum.

Interior view of one of the rooms, this was an original painting uncovered by removing numerous layers of wallpaper from this house. 

Blacksmith Shop

C had a good view

Towards the end of our afternoon there we spent a while at the blacksmith shop and that interested W and many of the little kids intently watching as they explained what they were making. One of the blacksmiths said about 40% of the things they make are items used in the village there. He also said that back in the 1830's most things they would have made would be repairs for existing tools.

Next time we might plan to go on a normal weekday as it would have been more enjoyable overall. Hopefully when the boys get a little older they will also appreciate the history a bit more. It was nice to visit in nice weather in the summertime when there is more to see, our past few visits had been during the colder fall & winter months which are nice in their own respect.

Aquarium Day Trip

We recently signed up for a membership for the New England Aquarium in Boston. My family has some fond and funny memories from our visits to this aquarium, and W had been once when he was 3 but didn't remember it. This was C's first visit and we went with Grandma and Grandpa visiting from the south, my sister, and our cousin. It was a fun day trip! W & C even got to see some moonjellies up close which he had read about in one of the FIAR books we did last year, Night of the Moonjellies by Mark Shasha. We will be planning to go again soon to utilize our pass as much as we can this year.

enthralled watching the sea lions by the entrance

giant sea turtle in the large tank, and shark tail in the background

Overhead shot of one of our favorite exhibits, the penguins!

at the seal statue near the mammals exhibit

We had watched an Animal Planet show on penguins growing up the day before we went, and W recently read the Magic Tree House book Eve of the Emperor Penguin and is currently reading the fact finder. W was impressed to see the models of the penguin eggs and watch the penguins in action as they waddled, groomed and swam. The caretakers were scrubbing the penguin habitat while we were there, and next time we may plan our trip around the penguin feeding time to watch that.

 
  

Museum of Science

W & C pose in front of a stuffed bear in the New England animals exhibit

Over the weekend we met up with some friends at the Museum of Science in Boston. Actually in Boston & Cambridge as we found out. They have a little border within the hallway of the museum so you can be in both cities at once. I am a dork and love those sorts of land markers.


We had last taken W there when he was 3, so he did not remember any of it so it was all new to him. Jacob and I have fun memories there from our college days so I was reminiscing a bit (the MOS offers a free night for students in the fall). Back to the current century... :) The boys enjoyed exploring many exhibits and were delighted by the two dinosaur areas; one is a traveling exhibit called Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries and it was very impressive. If you're able to get there before August 21st check it out. Alas, there were no photos allowed in that section but it well worth seeing, and it was organized by the American Museum of Natural History which we talked about in our New York post last year.

little space explorer!

W and C loved exploring the model of the Apollo command module.

We took in a show at the Planetarium at the end of the day; Undiscovered Worlds: The Search Beyond our Sun. This was a recent movie produced by the Museum and has up to date facts. It was a fascinating show mainly focused on discovering exoplanets, planets outside of our solar system. It is amazing to think of how much more there is to discover, and how much we will learn within our lifetimes. The MOS web site offers a monthly star chart to view/download. There is even an educator's guide (pdf) on the website to accompany the program we watched. This is targeted at older kids but I will modify an activity for W's level this week as a follow up to our museum trip, along with a review of our own solar system. The boys enjoy looking at stars on some clear evenings and can pick out the big dipper, and now with his glasses it is easier for W to spot shooting stars. 


Now is the time for me to start planning some more science activities for first grade as it's coming up fast now. Most of our "summer science" has been gardening and observing nature. In the fall we will continue to use the Giant Science Resource book, Let's Read and Learn Science books from home & the library, and multiple experiment books along with supplemental materials. 


  

Christmas in July

We recently visited Santa's Village amusement park in Jefferson, NH. We had been there when W was a toddler, but this was C's first time and also since W didn't remember going it seemed new to him as well. They have picnic areas so we brought our lunch. They have a lot to see and we spent the full day there. It is a very fun place and W loved the rides, they have a rollercoaster, flume yule log, a train ride, sky ride, and many more. W is very adventurous when it comes to rides and he went on all the big ones and even some fast ones by himself (like the new chimney ride and the boat). They also have enough rides and activities to keep toddlers entertained. 

a ride they both enjoyed!

The highlight for me was seeing the reindeer and getting to feed them. They are amazing to see up close!

The boys enjoyed a scavenger hunt to find all the Elves named after letters of the alphabet. C is still working on his abc's and although he can say the letters he's working on recognition. He loved pulling the lever to punch a hole for each letter.


We had a memorable day and are even considering going back sometime for a pre-Christmas day trip.

Day Out With Thomas 2011

We went to the Day Out With Thomas event at the North Conway Scenic Railroad in NH last week. This was our second year going, so now we feel like old pros.

The biggest tip we learned was to buy tickets ahead of time. Last year Saturday sold out so we had to go Sunday when the only tickets left were available. So this year we ordered online a couple months in advance.  We also opted to go on a Friday since it is probably less busy than the weekend. There were big crowds as the trains unloaded but there is stroller parking on the side of the rails.

C was so happy

We wound up on an open car which was much more enjoyable, the middle car in the photo above. The latter was luck of the draw as they just try to fill up the trains as there is no assigned seating, but we loved seeing the mountain views and enjoyed the breeze as well. The train goes backwards and then forward back to the station and the ride was about 25 minutes.

one of the gorgeous mountain views from the train.

kids of all ages enjoyed seeing the tortoise

DOWT tickets include admission and the train ride, and they offer a scavenger hunt with a small prize if you get all the stamps. They also had rides on small rail cars, bouncy houses for different age groups, photo ops with Thomas & Sir Topham Hatt, a tortoise and wildlife expert walking around, and a large tent with crafts and activities, and much more. Another tip if you are on a budget try to steer your kids past the gift shop as the toys are pretty expensive, but last years t-shirts were half off. ;)

If your child is obsessed with trains or Thomas, I highly recommend this event. This was better than Christmas for C! And W was still very interested and he liked getting to see the inside of a train again and push buttons. The guys working with the trains are very knowledgeable and willing to answer any questions. We had also begun re-reading the original Thomas stories by Rev. W. Awdrey in preparation of the trip.

North Conway has a great playground and picnic area nearby and the downtown is fun to walk around and has some fun general stores and Dondero's Rock Shop which has all kinds of cool rocks and fossils.

a farmland day

Bessie!

We spent mother's day at Davis' Farmland in Sterling, MA. It was a chilly and windy day but the boys enjoyed seeing all the animals and of course playing. The best part about going in the spring is seeing all the newborn animals. You can buy cups of feed to feed many of the animals yourself. They have highland cows, calves, alpaca, llamas, many rare breeds of sheep and goats, pigs, chickens, rabbits, and many more animals. I would like to plan next time for a day that is much warmer when the splash park section is also open. 

I wanted to adopt these calves...

and this lamb.

W was often asked what his favorite animal was, to which he replied "all of them". Good answer. The staff is very friendly and knowledgeable about the animals and willing to answer questions. It is a great place for young children who want to get up close to a variety of farm animals.

No visit is complete without seeing Snickers, the nicest llama ever.