The Children's Museum

On Saturday,  we added a field trip day to our normal schedule and visited The Children's Museum in Greenville.  We live here and had never been, simply because we were not impressed with the one we had been to in Atlanta.  I figured if Atlanta couldn't put together a decent children's museum, Greenville's couldn't be any better.  I must admit,  I was WRONG!!!

There were three stories of fun filled activities for my little ones to enjoy.  Though it was definitely geared more for my two little ones, they all had fun. 

 Just climbing around!

 

 Mini-me learning about good oral hygiene and conserving water while you brush.

 

 Let's recycle!! Look out,  baby Samuel is driving a big truck!!

 

 Working together to build their fort!!

 

 Here is the construction foreman!! 

 

 Getting the bricks to where they need them.

 

 Now, we're in Granny's garden.  Samuel harvested some apples.

 

Mini-me did pretty well milking that cow.  Maybe we should get a real one?  Maybe not!!!

 

 Inside Granny's little house working on puzzles.

 

 Oh the fun of water play.  This was the toddler zone,  but the bigger kids got to float boats down the water by opening and closing canals.  FUN - FUN - FUN!!! Oh, and a little wet!!

 

 Let's learn about different ways to make music!

 

 Let's get some money out of the ATM so we can go grocery shopping.

 

 Don't want to use the ATM,  just walk on in to the bank.

 

 I certainly hope he was pretending to be the bank teller, otherwise I have a bank robber on my hands!!! ;-)

 

 Mini-me has picked up her groceries. It's time to check out.  Princess 1 has gotten the job of the cashier.

 

 Oddly enough, Baby Samuel filled his buggy(yes, I say buggy) with fruits.  You think he likes fresh fruit?

 

 Learning a little about the human body.  Princess 1 lifts her body weight! 

 

 Mini-me needed a little help, but she sure tried hard.

 

 You don't even want to know where she came out of here, but the journey started in a mouth!!!

 

What little boy wouldn't stop to pose in a race car?  Not mine, that's for sure.  He even got to build a little one of his own to race down the ramp.

 

It was a fun field trip.  I am glad we decided to go.  It might just be a yearly field trip until the little ones are too big to go anymore.  

Science Fun

This year, our science focus was on Biology.  We used Christian Kids Explore Biology as our book.  It had a lot of hands on things we were able to do,  but some days the kiddos just wanted to break out of the book and do something different.  Just one more reason I love homeschooling!  So,  I checked the internet and found this site that has so many science experiments using ordinary things around the house.   

Here are just a few of the things they did:

For the first one, they started with a tray of milk, added 6-8 drops food coloring in separate areas on the tray, then they placed about 5 drops of liquid dishwashing detergent to the middle of the color areas.  The result was a wonderful tie-dye of colors in the tray.  I think this one was their favorite. (I evidently added these pictures in the wrong order,  just scroll up ;-) ) 

Blobs in a bottle - Take a 1 liter soda bottle rinsed out and add 3/4 cup of water.  Then,  pour in vegetable oil until the bottle is almost full, wait a few minutes for the water and oil to completely separate.  Add 10 drops of food coloring to the bottle (obviously we used red, but you could use any color).  The drops pass through the oil into the water below.  Break a seltzer tablet in half and drop the half tablet into the bottle. The tablet will sink to the bottom and the blobby fun begins.  When the blobs slow down, just add the other half a seltzer tablet and the fun continues.  



  This one was interesting as well.  In a small, plastic soda bottle, we put 1 inch of warm water and added a packet of yeast.  Then, added 1 tsp of sugar and swirled it around.  Then, we placed the balloon on top of the bottle (we blew the balloon up a few times so it was stretchy - is that even a word), and waited!!   The second picture is after about 15 minutes, the last picture was after 1 hour.  Pretty cool, right??

 

We also made lava in a cup,  but my pics did not turn out very good on this one.  All I have is this semi-decent video that will not even play right on here.  However,  using a clear drinking glass fill the glass about 3/4 with water.  Add about 5 drops of food coloring (again I used red since it is suppose to look like lava), slowly pour 1/4 cup vegetable oil into the glass - note again the oil floats on top of the water.  Now,  sprinkle 1 teaspoon of salt on top of the oil.  Now,  stand back and watch the blobs of lava move up and down in the cup.  It was way more enjoyable than this terrible video, I promise. 

 

 

Another fun school day in the books.  While this homeschooling thing is NOT easy, some days it sure is FUN!!!  As we wrap up this year,  I will see what other fun things we did that I missed blogging on.  Things just get so busy in this house/school house!!  I have enjoyed this year, and hope the students have as well.  

The Library and Chuck E Cheese

One of the issues with our homeschool is what to do for all the ages. Often our trips are appropriate for all ages, but sometimes they tend to focus more on the young ones. This is one of those times.  The little ones have been very good at waiting for their turns on the computer, and Mini-Me tries very hard to keep Baby Samuel entertained while I do school with the others.  As a reward,  after our trip to the library for materials for the older girls reptile research report,  we went to Chuck E Cheese (Mini-Me has been begging for months).

At the library, I was showing the girls how to look things up on their computers (I learned the old card catalog in drawers system, how about you?) and the two littles kept themselves entertained quite well.

I don't know why I don't have a pic of Mini-Me here.  Bad mommy!!!  Anyway,  again they patiently waited for their older siblings to finish up before it was their turn.  So,  once the girls found the books they needed, the little ones picked out a couple and we checked out and headed to Chuck E Cheese.

Now, the little ones get to have their fun!!

Of course, what trip out of the house is complete without a stop at Wal-Mart?  We like checking out the clearance aisles. Sometimes we find some interesting stuff.

Another fun day with these homeschooled kiddos.  This year has gone by so fast!!!

Paris Mountain State Park - April 24, 2014

Now that the weather is starting to stay warmer,  we like to get outside as much as possible before it turns HOT!!  So,  late April and early May we tend to do a lot of field trips all at once.

My Mini-Me usually has speech therapy on Wednesday afternoon, however her therapists had to reschedule a couple weeks ago to Thursday morning at 8:15.  I saw that as the perfect opportunity to load all the kiddos up and head to the park after speech for a quick hike in nature.  The kids were instructed to find different kinds of leaves, as well as any moving creatures they could spot.

Here are a few things they pointed out (I just wasn't fast enough with my camera a couple times):

Princess #2 was hoping to find a snake or lizard,  but had to settle for this toad.  We also saw a turtle on a log in the lake,  but he jumped in the water before I could focus the camera for a picture.  The older boys spotted a rabbit in the woods off the trail,  but again I wasn't fast enough with the camera.  Of course, there were several birds we spotted that I just couldn't get a picture of.

Of course what kind of family trip is complete without photos of the kiddos?

This was a fun day at Mullenax Homeschool!!  I have a few more fun field trips planned for these last two months of school.  The kids have worked hard this year.