Discovery Sighting in DC

Yesterday the kids, my mom, brother and me went to DC to watch for the Discovery to fly by.  The pilot graciously flew 3 laps around the Mall which allowed for lots of picture taking.  This was a really neat experience for the kids and I'm glad we took the time to go see it.  They were especially glad to have a field trip day!

Here are a few of my favorites (I took 100, so I'll spare you the rest!).

This was lap #1

Lap #2

Lap #3

It was quite a sight to behold!  And not only that, I found out there still are caring human beings around:

At the end of our day, as we stepped off the metro and the train started to pull away I instantly realized I'd left my Nikon camera on that train.  I felt sick.  As soon as I called out "My camera!"  There was a metro lady walking right past me (which had to have been the hand of God) and she instructed me to go to the station manager. The station workers were so helpful and called immediately to the next station.  They told me to ride the next train and it would be there at that station.  But, when I got there they said no one had turned in a camera and to check back with 'Lost and Found' later that day.  My heart sank.  And I was thinking 'Yeah, right. No one is going to "turn in" a nice camera'.  As I was having my negative thinking pity party a gentlemen walks up with my camera bag in his hand.  I wanted to hug and kiss him!

I have to give glory to God because it was only by His grace that I got that camera back!

Winter Hike

The past several days have been so nice here.  We decided to take our studies outside and go for a hike in the woods.  It was so nice to change up our routine and get some fresh air to clear the old noggin.  I have to say, as much as I have been desperate for a winter snow storm, I now have a case of spring fever! I think this happens every year.

Here's how our hike went:

Deer tracks

This bouncy, rickety bridge was a highlight of our hike:

We first mastered walking on it...then running!

We later identified this jaw bone as a 2 1/2 year old deer

Our Trip to Assateague Island

(Oops! My last post was inadvertently published before I was finished! So, here's the revised edition.) 

This weekend we visited Assateague Island for the first time.  We tried our best to create a learning experience out of this trip.  We started reading Misty of Chincoteague (again, since we put it down long ago) before we left and read up on the history behind the wild ponies.  We read about the habitat of these ponies, along with their diet and other plants and animals on the island.  We looked at a map to get an idea of exactly where we were on the island.  It was more beautiful than I had expected and I can only imagine what it would be like in the summer while plants and flowers are in bloom! Wow.  So many pretty nature scenes.  A camera can only capture so much.

As soon as we drove into the park we came upon a small herd of wild ponies, which was our main reason for visiting.  We were so excited.  We took three different walking trails- one on the dunes, one along the marsh and one through the forest.  I feel like pictures can do a much better job than I can at describing some of the beautiful things we saw.  So, here is a "slideshow" of our trip. Enjoy!



This was once a road that was destroyed in the storm of 1962



Barefoot Jared needs a lift!



We liked her leg warmers

Just For Fun

The other day we took a respite from the daily grind (aren't we always doing that? Ha.). We took a trip to the library and picked out books on a subject that interested us.  Jared picked several books on volcanoes, and Jenna picked a biography on George W. Bush. 

I'm glad we went when we did because we ran into a dear elderly couple that attend church with us, but due to declining health have not been able to visit for several months, if not for the past year.  They are such sweet people and always have smiles on their faces despite their hardships.

We came home with a bunch of books, found a cozy spot and read for the next couple of hours.  I found a few interactive websites for Jared about volcanoes that he was very interested in.  He especially liked Discovery Kids where he found some interesting information. Once he was done he typed up a list of facts that he'd learned from the day.

Jenna read contentedly and shared bits and pieces of info that I never knew about George W. Bush.  Her books were much longer, so I let her get by with just sharing what she learned with me.

So, today we finally got around to doing a volcano "experiement" of our own.  We formed our dough volcano (recipe below) around a small bottle of water and set it on a large shoe box.  We filled the bottle with warm water and added about 10 drops of red food coloring, 6 drops of dishwashing soap and 2 tbsp. of baking soda.  Finally, we poured in our white vinegar and...

The kids insisted on multiple eruptions.  Then we decided that one time we HAVE to try the "Trashcano"!

Dough Recipe
6 cups flour
2 cups salt
2-3 cups water
4 tbsp oil

Tudor Place

Today we took a field trip to the historic Tudor Place in D.C.  This was the home of Martha Washington's (George Washington's wife) granddaughter.  It was fascinating to tour this house & garden! I could have spent HOURS in each room of this house.  My friend and I joked about how cool it would be to sneak in and spend the night in this place. 

I felt like I was stepping into a Jane Austen novel as I roamed from room to room. From the servants bells lined along a wall, to the copy of one of the few letters remaining that George Washington wrote to Martha, to the antique books stocked on the bookshelves, to the china on the tables, to the drawing room, to the old dresses hanging in a closet, along with shoes and hat boxes lining the shelves.  Oh my, I could go on and on!  I was only disappointed that the guide had to continually usher us along to the next room.  We were the stragglers of the group!  I only had the chance to snap just a few pictures inside before I was asked not to take pictures.

The homeschool class we signed up for was Greek and Roman History. The kids were given 2 clues each and were to find these clues throughout the tour of the home.  We talked about Pompeii and the artifacts found there by archealogists.  We discussed how much of the art of early america, including architecture, originated from ancient Greek and Roman art. We also learned about gilding, which is applying thin gold leaf to surfaces like wood, stone, metal, etc. The kids even got to create their own work of art while learning to gild. 

 

This is a 200 year old tree

Jared, before he was nicely asked to get out of the "historic tree".  (Whoops!)

The kids were just as interested in viewing this home & garden as I was.  I will look forward to going back- and maybe next time I will do the self guided tour so I can take my time!

Forensic Anthropology Lab

We went down to DC today for a forensic anthropology lab at the Natural History Museum.  It was pretty cool! The kids got to handle and study real human bones. 

Jared was way into touching these bones and using critical thinking to solve this mystery.

Jenna was more into recording the information!  She didn't want anything to do with touching the bones but enjoyed participating in drawing conclusions based on our evidence ;)



We were to study different bones of a skeleton found around Yorktown, VA and to solve a mystery of who these bones belonged to.  We were given clues and information about each of the bones and how the different characteristics of these bones would help lead us to discover the sex, age and height of the person, what type of lifestyle they lived based upon damage to bones while living, and time period that this person lived in. 

We compared male and female sciatic notches, in the pelvic bones (check me out, people!), which helped us to determine that this was a woman.  Examining the damage on the vertebrae done antemortem helped us to find that this person often carried heavy weight.  We compared and examined different mandibles to determine the age of the person and found that she was over age 21. Nails that were used to close the coffin dated them to be around the 1700's.  We measured the femur to determine the height, which was around 5'5". 

We found out that these were skeletal remains of a slave during the 1700's!

It was fun to get out for some hands-on science, math and history today.

And...the daffodils are starting to bloom! Spring is on the way :)