Brazos County Sheriff's Office

The trip to the Brazos County Sheriff's Office was definitely one of the most memorable field trips we have ever been part of. Andrew and Saara were both so proactive and wanted to see and experience everything they could. 

They were able to explore about inside the patrol car, they saw the dispatch office, the evidence room, the sheriff's office, the conference room that can be turned into a disaster-handling headquarters, the various offices of the many men and women who work there day and night, and they even got to peek into the gun room and got a demonstration in the crime lab. 

Both kids walked away excited about the job that the sheriff does, and Andrew even declared he wants to work there once he grows up. We will see...

Saara passing time blowing dandelions while waiting for everyone to arrive.

Andrew wanted to see where all the loud sounds came out.

Trying on the handcuffs.

In Sheriff Kirk's office.

The Evidence Room

The Crime Lab. A demonstration about finding fingerprints under ultraviolet light.

'14/15 Week 20 Day 4

It was another one of those days when the kids manage to surprise me with how quickly and well they can get their work done when they really want to. I believe, our field trip to the sheriff's office had lots to do with it as well.

Science. Andrew is about to find out which part of the radish seedling ends up as the vegetable. 

The cotyledons had a strong 'cabbage' taste, according to Andrew.

The root had no taste at all. As the hypocotyl tasted the strongest and looked the reddest, we decided, it was the part that will bulge up and end up as radish proper.

'14/15 Week 20 Days 2 and 3

We have had two very busy days. Our goal has been to get  as much done as possible during the day so that the kids could go outside and enjoy the beautiful warm weather. It is rather amazing to be outside in short sleeves in the middle of winter. The children have been having lots of fun exploring the places we can not reach in summer for the fear of snakes and poison ivy. 

The other reason we have been laboring hard, is the promise of a very eventful second half of the week. Beside the usual ballet class and a visit to the library, and another choir practice, we are going on a field trip to the sheriff's office. That should be exciting!

LA. Learning about writing titles. I covered up the titles of some poems in Saara's magazines and asked the kids to write their own titles to the poems. They loved the reveal and  wanted to see if their titles matched up with the originals.

History. Andrew lining up the major events of the Revolutionary War on a time line.

The evening after a visit to the library. Love it!

'14/15 Week 20 Day 1

Science is dominating our school days and week ends. Yesterday, the seedlings were ready to be drawn and the greenhouse built. Today, we rescued the sprouts in foiled up jar and let them see light. Andrew has been very enthusiastic about the growing projects. He is not protesting the 'boring' side of it - writing down our predictions and the actual outcomes. He seems to enjoy the whole experience. 
I asked him today what he has learned so far. He said that he has learned a lot of new words. True, he has learned so well that, as they roll off his tongue with ease, it sounds like he has been using the words all his life.

Science. Andrew's homemade greenhouse.

Each circle is designated to receive seedlings from different experiments.

Grid work. Transferring the image onto the paper.

A morning greeting.

Math. Weighing and feeling the weight of an ounce and a pound.

More new words. Andrew labeling the division fact, fraction, and problem.

Andrew was surprised how tall the seedlings in the dark had grown.

'14/15 Week 19 Day 4

Science day!Among other things. Finally, we had a sunny day, and we were able to go outside to make our pin-hole camera work. Saara's new science book is all about human body. We have learned about cells and brain, and, now, eyes as well. The pin-hole camera experiment showed full well what happens to the image once it passes through the pupil. The kids had lots of fun.
Andrew is still very excited about his radishes experiments. We let the seeds sprout for two days, and will start planting and measuring again come next week.

Science. Andrew is very proud of his radishes. Saara added a couple of her own foil pots with seeds to sprout.

Andrew taking his turn in looking through the pin-hole camera.

I attempted to take a photo from under the blanket showing how the image of an object (Andrew) is upside down indeed.

'14/15 Week 19 Day 3

We are still recuperating, taking the medicine faithfully, and getting as much school work done as possible. After today, we are halfway through the school year. 18 more weeks are ahead of us.

'14/15 Week 19 Days 1 and 2

Our fun and games outdoors all day on MLK Day paid us back on Tuesday. Saara developed an ear ache and we had to run to the doctor's office. Somehow, we managed to get a lot of school work done before things started to look rather bleak health wise.
24 hours later, Saara is on antibiotics and feeling much better. Still, we did not go to the ballet class today, but stayed home and caught up with all of our classes. 
It is a challenge to find the balance of rest and work when the children are not feeling well.

Science. Andrew finished recording the development of his 20 radish seeds. They did not sprout well. Most of them were still in the early stages by the end of our experiment. However, Andrew learned a lot even with the seeds failing us.

'14/15 Week 18 Day 5

Math test day, choir day, and TOPS science project day. 

Andrew and I were getting rather excited about Andrew's TOPS project. We have started plants from seeds before, but we have never recorded the growth of the seedlings. On the first day of the project we crafted the growing environments and sowed. Now, we have to record the changes the seeds go through and fill in charts every day. It is going to be a truly interesting project.
 

Science. Andrew preparing the spaces for the seeds.

Radishes. Supposed to sprout in 24 hours.

Making planting pots for another experiment.

Sowing the radishes.

'14/15 Week 18 Days 2, 3, and 4

We have been so terribly busy. The children have worked very hard and have been super focused on their classes. These few days have flown by fast. I am amazed, we have not been stressed out, but instead, we have been having fun. Even with Andrew's new topic in math - division.

Today afternoon was crazy fun for the kids. Again, the children did their work well, by three we were ready to leave the house to meet up with lots of other homeschooling kids for the park day. We are not always able to go, but when we do, it is a great day indeed.

Some more visitors on our pond.

Park day!

'14/15 Week 18 Day 1

It was a good school day. We started up our 'calendar minutes' again. With the baseball season starting soon, our everyday life will get very busy once again. It is important to know what exactly we are doing and when. Every Monday morning, we bring out our calendars. The kids write in theirs the things we would do that week. Like tomorrow, we are going to the dentist (fun ...), and then we have ballet, park day, and choir coming up this week. We are busy.

Saara learning a new skill - embroidery.