A New Adventure...

Madeline and Isabella decided to take on a new activity this summer, swim team.  We talked about it last year, but decided that they were not quite ready, or rather Isabella, who REALLY wanted to swim was not ready, so we decided to wait a year for both of them.  This year I was still a bit concerned about Isabella and her swimming ability.  She seemed to do more treading water than swimming, and honestly scared every adult who watched her swim.  They were excited, and I knew after watching a couple of practices last year that there were several kids on the team who were not real strong swimmers, so we signed them up.

I have to say that after watching them in practice, I was still concerned about Isabella being able to swim across the pool for her first meet.  I was surprised when she said that she did not want a coach in the pool with her when she swam her first race, and shocked when she jumped in and swam the entire lap without stopping.  She even came in third.  She then went on to swim backstroke and a relay.  I was so very proud of her!

Madeline did equally as well!  She swam two relays, freestyle and backstroke.  She was just touched out for first place in the freestyle.  When I asked her what her favorite thing was about the meet, I was surprised that she did not say the freestyle race, but instead she said that her favorite parts were the relay because she got to make new friends and work as a team; and backstroke, because she made up a song while she was swimming.  She also pointed out how beautiful the setting sun looked on the water as the meet ended.  You never know what amazing stuff is going on in their heads!

Tadpole Update

We got a chance to take some new pictures of Ribbity-Hoppers this afternoon.  There is just a tiny bit of tail left.  Watching the transformation has been amazing for all of us!  We will soon have to take Ribbity-Hopper back to his pond, but first we have to confirm what type of frog or toad we have.  Our favorite resource for identifying things we find s the Missouri Department of Conservation, which has a has a guide for frogs and toads here.

Tadpoles!

On one of the creek days we found and brought home a couple of tadpoles.  One was quite large and had small back legs.  The other was a lot smaller, but I was pretty sure they were both bull frog tadpoles.  They have been hanging out in a tank, eating lots of boiled lettuce, and growing.

The larger one, which the girls named Ribbity-Hopper, now has all of it's legs, and its tail is almost gone.  The larger one, Daisy, now looks like Ribbity-Hopper looked when we brought them home.  It is large, with rear legs.  One really interesting thing that we discovered was that both of Ribbity-Hopper's front legs did not emerge at the same time.  In fact, I thought for a while that we were going to have a three-legged frog, as the second front leg emerged a few days after the first.  The both look great now, though!

Here are a few pictures that were taken about a week and a half ago.

Ribbity-Hopper

Daisy

Whale Watching

One of the highlights of our trip east was a whale watching trip.  We took a trip through Hyannis Whale Watcher.  It was an absolutely beautiful day for the trip.  Since it was early in the season, the boat was not very full, and the kids got to have a great view of the whales and dolphins that were spotted.

We were able to watch several humpback whales, including some working in groups to feed.  The girls learned some fascinating facts about the whales as well.  Did you know that the pattern of the whale's tale is like a fingerprint?  Each one is unique. They also got to learn what whale breath smells like.  Here are a few pictures of the whales we saw.

We also saw Atlantic White Sided dolphins.

It was a great opportunity for the girls  to observe these animals up-close in their natural habitat.  They learned a lot about their behaviors.  And of course, Isabella now wants to be a marine biologist.

ZooQuarium

While we were on Cape Cod, we visited the ZooQuarium.  The girls got a close-up look at many ocean-dwelling critters, and well as some more traditional farm animals.  Animals are, of course, always a big hit!

The very first thing we saw was turtles, including these hatchlings.  I was glad that the tanks were clearly marked with not only the name of the animal, but also a very helpful picture.  Also, there were signs prompting the kids to interact with the exhibits.  The girls enjoyed trying to identify the adults of these hatchlings in the large tank of turtles.

After checking out the turtles, we headed off to the bird show/demonstration.  The show was very informative, interactive, and allowed for some up-close encounters with some beautiful birds.  The girls even each had their picture taken with the owl.

After the show we perused the tanks with a variety of fish, crustaceans, snakes, mollusks, and other area sea life.  There was a small touch-tank, where the kids touched a variety of shells and a sea star.  They also found some of the animals listed on cards in the area.  Then, we headed outside.

The girls fed deer and sheep.

The practiced jumping, to see which animal they could jump as far as.

And saw several other animals.

This turkey followed us around the entire time we were there.

The goats also showed off for us.

They also had an exhibit where the kids were able to pretend to be a vet.  They looked at an x-ray, saw bones and other parts of animals, and learned about animal care.

The people at the ZooQuarium were also nice enough to look at the pictures we took of the sand mole/sand flea and identify it for us.  We were very appreciative of that!  It was also their signs that helped us identify the slipper shells.

Freebies!!!!

I recently learned of two great free DVDs, and I thought I would share the information.  First, History.com is offering a free copy of America The Story of US to all schools, including homeschools.  All you have to do is fill out their online form by July 1.  Visit http://classroom.history.com/america-dvd/event/form for more information.

The second is a DVD by NASA and the American Museum of Natural History entitled "Journey to the Stars," which is evidently a planetarium show narrated by Whoopi Goldberg.  You can request free copies, as well as teaching materials to go along with it.  Visit http://journeytothestars.org/ to order your copy.

Cape Cod!

The bulk of our trip was spent in Cape Cod at the beach.  I was so glad to see the girls really exploring the beach and finding LOTS of treasures and life to examine and learn about.  With the help of my mother-in-law, we made some bags from screen and and webbing for the girls to collect treasures.

One of the first things they found were some scallops attached to seaweed.  They really loved watching the scallops, which moved and snapped around in the bucket.

Here is a picture of Hailey and her cousin intently watching the scallops.

The also found many slipper shells on the beach.

One of the most interesting things we found on the beach were these:

Madeline found them when she was digging in the wet sand.  It took us a bit to figure out what they were.  Turns out they are sand fleas, also known as mole crabs, sand crabs, or sea pigs.  They were very interesting to watch.  We learned that the females carry their eggs on their bellies, like the crayfish.  You can see a bit of what we think are the orange eggs in this picture (we did not learn about them carrying the eggs until later, otherwise I would have tried to get a better picture):

We also learned that the males are much smaller than the females, as seen in this picture:

We were really lucky because the weather was unseasonably warm while we were there.  We even actually spent time in the water.

Of course, there was also digging in the sand...

sand castle making (this one included a really large hole)...

and burying of kids in the sand.

Madeline made this sundial in the sand, which was accurate for the time she made it.

We also had a great time finding tracks on the beach in the wet sand.

It was amazing all the things we found to learn about and explore at the beach!  I think we could have stayed for a much longer time and not run out of things to keep us interested!

Our Current Read Aloud

Isabella was very interested in watching the new "Alice in Wonderland" movie that just came out on DVD.  I was not really interested in the girls seeing the movie, so I suggested that we read the book.  They were all surprised that it was a book, which surprised me.  So, Isabella and I took a trip to Barnes and Noble to pick up a copy of the book.  She picked out a very nice hard-cover copy of the book, which I expected to cost a ton, but was pleasantly surprised at the price.  We brought the book home, and have been reading it aloud quite often.  We are likely to have it finished by the end of the week.  I must say, it was never one of my favorites, but the girls are enjoying it.

Old Sturbridge Village

After our very brief stay in Connecticut, we headed up to Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.  This is a living history museum.  Visitors travel back to a New England town in the 1830s.  I was excited to share this experience with the girls for couple reasons.  First, it is a place I visited a few time when I was younger.  Second, the girls really enjoy learning about history.  This is especially true of Madeline.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that they offer a home school discount.  I was a bit concerned about this since I do not have any kind of "official" proof that we homeschool, but I was told we did not have to provide any.  This was indeed the case.

As we entered, this caught our attention:

It reminded us of the shaduf we learned about when we studied Ancient Egypt.  It is always exciting when we can make connections to prior learning!

We got a chance to learn about several new things as well, including many jobs that were necessary in 1830s New England, like the tinsmith...

the printer (Isabella was impress, or maybe unimpressed rather,  that he could only make one copy at a time, unlike a copy machine) ...

the blacksmith (where my ringing cell phone with a call from Bill from Turkey seemed quite out of place)...

the carding mill (where the girls gave carding by hand a try)...

and the shoe shop.

The girls even tried their hand at making a candle holder out of tin.

It was absolutely beautiful!

And the girls even found a family of geese to watch for a bit!

I think we will be taking a trip back there again when the girls are a bit older.