Coney Island, Republic of Texas, and Dinosaurs

     First Tuesday of every month is the best time to visit our local museum of natural history. The admission then is only $1! The kids and I had not been back to see any exhibitions in a very long time, and to give ourselves a little pick-me-up before the final race toward the end of the school year, we decided to spend our Tuesday morning at the museum. I was also curious about the new Republic of Texas exhibition. 

     Fist, we saw and read a lot about how the amusement park idea took root in the U.S.  We learned how this peninsula became a resort and a beach destination and how it turned into the American Dreamland or a place of the biggest amusement parks in the US at the time. 

     The two highlights from the Republic of Texas exhibition were first, seeing the silverware box and its contents that Santa Anna hauled around while fighting Texans, and second, the cotton gin (or engine) Saara just finished learning about in her history class. 

     The small dinosaur exhibition reminded us how big those beasts were. Although both kids have seen the bones many times before, they were still so exited to see them again.

Looking at some 19th century photos of the Coney Island through the stereoscope. Andrew called it the 3D viewer.

What an idea for a hotel! Would you like to sleep inside an elephant?

This was the ugly reality of the 20th century. I was shocked to learn that amusement parks were segregated.

One had to be silly at the end of the exhibition. 

The Republic of Texas

The cotton gin

We were glad to see a corner dedicated to the local history.

Branding irons and barbed wire.

Dinosaurs

We had to have a T-Rex, of course.

The nature discovery is always a hit with all the live creatures in it..

'16/17 Week 34

I bought Andrew a Star Wars cookbook. He learned how to make egg toast and treated us to this delicacy a few times this week. 

     The signs that the end of the school year is near are everywhere. First, the choir practice has grown more intense. We are having additional rehearsals every week now until the concert. Second, we started finishing books and workbooks for the year. For instance, Andrew is done with Texas history and both kids have finished their vocabulary program. 
     Andrew did begin a new study, however, about the Texas government. It is really helpful to pull up the pictures we took while visiting the Capitol last year to make the rather dry subject of legislature more tangible and colorful. 
     Other than school, we had lots of good weather to be outside this week. 

The dewberry time is almost over. We went picking the berries one day and ended up with a decent amount, enough for a cobbler, a cake, and freezing for winter. 

Our dewberry patch had a few neat nature surprises for us. One of them was a birds nest at eye level. 

I am glad, we spotted the huge bull frog before it moved. It would have scared the living daylights out of us.

Cutest little lizard watched us for a while and then disappeared. 

Andrew went fishing two days in a row. He caught and released, although some of the fish were big enough for eating.

While Andrew was fishing, Saara hand-fed tiny sunfish by the shore.

'16/17 Week 33

   

Easter lilies are finally opening up. 

 If there ever was such a thing as play-date quota, we doubled it this week for sure. Easter weekend and the following week were full of lots of play activities with friends. We rented a big bounce house, and the kids were bouncing non-stop for two days. One day, Saara had friends over for a baking lesson and next day, Andrew had friends over for a Minecraft game. I have to count also all the other times the kids get together with their friends at choir, ballet, or baseball. I cannot imagine where the rumor of homeschool kids having little social interaction started. I do know, however, that we have never suffered a lack of friendships. Praise God!
     Besides all this fun and games, the kids did some serious school work. In LA, our focus was on opinion writing. With the help of some videos, we examined the ins and outs of opinion writing and then, step by step, wrote a short essay on the things we felt most about, including the teacher. I find it rather refreshing to write along the kids sometimes. 
     Six more weeks are ahead of us. We are on a homestretch.

Saara shared her Easter candy with her brother who decided he had outgrown the hunt.

I believe, the two birds were considering our wreath on the door as a possible nest building site.

A find in the carport. 

A baking lesson with the girls.

A gaming afternoon with the boys.

We are almost half-way through the season. Go Astros!

Andrew got to pitch in one of the games.

Lovebugs make it a challenge to enter the house these days.

LA. Learning about the opinion writing. 

It is a beautiful time in the flower garden.

Andrew has been helping me in the garden and it shows.

'16/17 Week 32

              Last week, we found our biggest adventures at the ball park. First, our whole family spent one entire Saturday at the opening ceremonies. For Andrew the highlight was winning a basket from the George Bush Library. He was glad that a couple of other team mates won prizes. Andrew likes his team a lot. Many of them are his friends from other teams he has played on. 

          The Astros played their first game on the opening day and won. Since then, Andrew has had a two more games, one loss, one win, and a number of practices in between. The new thing to get used to is the hour of the games. All of them start late which gets us home very, very late in the evening. Again, I am thankful for homeschooling because the children can sleep in the next morning. 

          Setting up Andrew's fish tank, must come as close second adventure-wise. One of his birthday gifts was a fish tank which we set up last week as well. Now Andrew has two new pets - a neon tetra and a ghost shrimp. Andrew graciously allowed Saara to have a fish in his tank, too. Her first guppy did not survive beyond a few days. It was sad, but the new neon tetra is doing fine and has proven to be an excellent company for Andrew's fish. 

On kitchen duty on the Opening Day.

The sunnier spots on our property are yielding dewberries already.

One of our new pets.

LA. An exercise in storytelling. Both kids wrote a story to tell. Watching themselves on the video showed them how they were doing as story tellers and also how good their story was. They noticed many ways they could improve their stories to make them more interesting and flowing.

'16/17 Weeks 29-31

These past three weeks have been emotional and eventful. Andrew turned a year older which was a great and fun occasion. But right on the heels of parties and cake eating came a sad news of a passing of a family friend. This meant a weekend trip to visit the bereaving family and staying for a funeral. Back home, we were hit by a hail storm that caused some damage and frightened the kids to no end. 
Despite of all this, we stayed on track with out school. As of today, we have only eight more weeks before the end of the curriculum. The pace has slowed down a little when Andrew's baseball started. He is loving the game like never before. 

Geography. Matching the states with their capitals.

The hail storm that hit us was not joke.

Math. For a pictograph, Saara needed to sort out a package of colorful candy. A great excuse to eat you school work again.