Life has been so busy lately and I haven't had time to sit down to post. Soccer seasonis upon us and we ( DH and I ) are trying to keep our heads above water while running kids back and forth to practices and games. We have five of our kids on five different soccer teams, a college team, one on j.v., two traveling suburban teams and one rec. league player with the toddler and baby in tow! Last year when the season ended I needed a soccer detox.
Homeschool has also been in full swing now for five weeks. We are starting tofall back into the routine of the three H's, hygiene, housework and homeschool. I try to get the kids to think of our day in this order and each one has a chart with their daily duties listed on it. We have been using parts of the Simply Charlotte Mason lesson plan for 6th grade this year. In the morning the kiddos have their individual subjects by grade level and after lunch I usually read the living books to them all while they work on copywork or an entry into their nature notebooks.
Fridays the kids take their spelling tests and we do poetry but this year we are also reserving Fridays for field trips. We have gone on three so far with our friends, another wonderful homeschooled family. This post and the next two will be about the places we visited so far. Our first adventure was:
The Great Falls Discovery Center
The Discovery Center was a wonderful place in Montague, MA that tells about what habitats one would encounter while traveling down the Connecticut River.
The grounds were beautifully landscaped and the weather was a delight. The center was well planned and designed, making a self-guided tour easy to understand and enjoyable.
This sign explained the different habitats along the watershed: beach, grassland, marshland and woodland.
This wonderful lady explained to us what we would discover at the center. She showed us this great relief map of the 400 mile CT River and said it would take an actual six days to paddle down the whole thing but here we would get to experience a mock trip in about 20 minutes.
Here is the first display that gives a timeline of the river.
Directly across from the first display is an exhibit that teaches about the the Barrier Beach, it describes the importance of the beach and how it protects the inlands by taking the brunt of storms that come off of the ocean. I had never really given the beachfront any thought from that angle before.
We proceeded on through a few other areas and near the end came to this great scene. The kids did a scavenger hunt that was given to us at the start and they were able to spot many of the animals and name them as we went along.
A table was set up to educate the kids about River Otters. There was a skull ,a puppet, some pictures,a cast footprint and some questions and answers. It was a fantastic way to engage the kids into learning.
On completing our tour we went outside to enjoy the gorgeous weather. There is nothing like some informal soccer playing with friends!
While the bigger kids were getting their game on,
the younger two were doing this...
and this!
It's been busy, it's been crazy, but it's been wonderful.
