zoo

A few weeks ago we went to the zoo.

I love the Phoenix Zoo so much.  It's big, but not too big and if you go in the morning the animals are all out and all frisky.  However, the zoo is also a bit pricey.  I was toying with buying a membership before we enrolled Josie in school.  Now I just don't know if we'd get there enough to make it a smart purchase. 

Anyway, for this trip we were invited by Animal Jam to come hear about the new version of their online game.  They had me at "complimentary breakfast," but also had a great animal program and four free admissions to the zoo for the whole day.

We kidnapped my Mom and spent the morning getting up close and personal with the animals.  Gabe is super into birds right now so he flipped when the zookeeper brought out a hawk (I think, don't fact check that).

I also lost Gabe for the first time on this trip.  It's a miracle it hadn't ever happened before because the kid is slightly independant, but he decided it was time to go see more animals without telling us.  We had a slightly panicked five minutes that felt like an eternity before we found him checking out the elephants. 

Maybe a baby leash wouldn't be as awful as I thought.

that line was no match for a bird lover like gabe.

 

Interest Led

Last week we started our new, relaxed Winter school schedule.

My goal is to free up our days to spend time exploring our new state, visit with family while they are in town, and enjoy the unbelievably nice weather while still covering the basics.  We are still doing math, reading, and creative writing, and a unit here or there, but that's it for structured lessons.  Last week we were able to wrap up table work each day within an hour, leaving an almost absurd amount of time to do as we please.  It was nice.

I have some fun field trips planned for the next few months too.

We started by hitting up Sea Life Aquarium in Mesa.

The kids have been to the Georgia Aquarium a few times, which is easily five times the size of Sea Life, but they loved this place.  I was kind of skeptical when I realized the aquarium is in a mall, but the smaller exhibits really caught the kids interest.  We spent a little over an hour exploring then attended a homeschool class on kelp.

Josie was so inspired by our trip that she stayed up late that night working on a sea creatures book.

Those who know Josie know that writing has been a struggle, so when she came out at 10 to show us her four, full page book, complete with spot on handwriting, I was pretty excited!  The next day she insisted we go to the library to get sea creature books which she proceeded to spend the next two days copying facts over into her own book.

She even illustrated some of the pages with our Draw, Write, Now books.

And not to leave her arts and crafts skills behind, she bought some felt and yarn and has been sewing her own stuffed animals.  So far she's done a dolphin, a shark, and a sea turtle with plans to add a few more to the collection.

It's been so cool for me to see all the learning she's done just because she is interested.  Since we have the time, she is free to explore and has blown me away with what she's come up with.  Lots of reading and handwriting, math when she had to figure out how much felt she could buy with her money, sewing skills, and drawing!  I'm not an unschooler by any means, but it has been fun to see that so much learning happens all the time.

 

the helmet.  i can't even.

 

Phoenix Science Museum

Last Halloween, I had the misconception that I could resume school as usual.

I mean, we had a good 11 hours between waking up and the start of trick of treating and I only needed 3 to finish school. 

I can't replay that day because I'm just now getting over it, but it did not go as planned.  It was rough.

And I vowed that I would observe holidays in the proper way from there on out.  So last week, on Halloween, we hit up the Arizona Science Center for some loud, crazy, slimy fun.  I bought a membership and know we will hit up some of the homeschool classes they do.  But this day we just ran around like crazy people and watched them explode a few pumpkins.

this is a model of the stomach and intestine.  the intestine is a slide that farts when the kids slide through it.  it was slightly disturbing, but obviously my kids favorite part of the day.

 

this was awesome.  a video of a heart surgery is projected onto the body and there were displays of all the hearts and surgery tools.  I loved how much Gabe was into it.

 

Fair's Fair

I grew up in Minnesota, Home of 10,000 Lakes and The World's Greatest State Fair.

Every year I looked forward to the giant slide, the corn dogs, the roasted corn, Sweet Martha's Cookies (Bonnie, who is your hook up and how do I get included on that delivery list?).  That fair was the best.  We've made it back home for the fair a couple of times, but I've been seriously missing a good fair.

When I found out that the Arizona State Fair was right by Minnesota's on the Top 10 State Fair list, I knew we had to go.  And this week, I got my fix. 

Oh man.  It was a good, good day.

Post Fair Review:  Not as good as the Minnesota State Fair.  Too much breading on the corn dogs and not nearly as much to do.  BUT, the kids had a ton of fun getting to play games and ride the rides so it was an overall success.  Just keeping "Go Back To Minnesota In August For The Fair" on my list for 2015.