Adventure Aquarium

Last Friday we took a field trip to Adventure Aquarium (http://www.adventureaquarium.com) with some friends.  They were offering discount tickets to homeschoolers and behind the scenes tours.

The behind the scene tour was great.  It took place at the top of the largest tank.  It is not as pretty back there as it is out front.  Pipes, walkways, dive equipment, etc.  It was very informative.  We learned what was involved in maintaining the tank, how much water is in there, how the viewing glass is held in place by the water pressure and it would fall out if the tank was drained (that one freaked me out a little bit), they walked us through the dive area and the equipment, and we learned about the different fish, sharks, and turtles in the tank.  Turns out the turtles are the most dangerous when you dive.  They are like curious toddlers who stick everything in their mouth.  You don't want a loggerhead chewing on your air hose.

After the tour we walked around.  The hippos were adorable but a slight let down.  They were snoozing when we were there and their area smells like a barn.  None of us thought that it would smell like that.  They also have a very cool shark tunnel where they swim all around you.  The kids loved that.

Here are a few pics from the trip:

Ooh, fish.

You are never too old to want to pose in a shark mouth.

Class photo.

Another class photo where you can see Mister B.

Sharks are cool!

Another class photo.

Chugging Along

The days continue to fly on by.  We are busy as bees.  School work, swim, sleep.  Repeat.

Lessons are progressing.  Some days I take a deep breath and say "Wow, they are learning." Other days the thought is "Holy Moly, I am messing them up for life!"  I try to keep those to a minimum.

Today I was working with Little Miss on her note taking skills.  She was reading about India (side note-I think the only thing I learned about India when I was in school is that there is a country called India and they think cows are Holy) and The Golden Age of the Gupta Dynasty.  I said to her "Golden Age is in italics.  That means it is probably important and you should write it down."  She wrote down Golden Age of India and moved on.  So then I said "What about the Golden Age?' And she said " That is the only part in italics."  You can see why sometimes I think I am messing them up for life.  Then came the lengthy explanation about how 1 week from now when she looks over her notes will just seeing "The Golden Age" be enough for her to remember facts about it?  Would you believe she actually tried to argue with me?

Note taking disaster aside, the kids had music class.  They do love that class.  The teacher was happy that they remembered a lot of the stuff they learned last year.  Today they started learning about the 3 minor scales.  They already know more than I because I had no idea there was more than 1 minor scale.  Someone in the family will know how to appreciate music.

After music I dropped Mister B off at the high school for some pre-season swim team endurance training.  He really enjoys working with the weights.  Here is something I never thought I would ever say, but, I think I may end up purchasing some sort of weights/weight machine one of these days.

Happy October

Since my last post time has run away from me.  We are now well into October.  We have been quite busy here.

Besides the usual schooling, swim team has started.  We are at the Y most nights for swim practice.  This year Mister B is also swimming for the high school.  This was not easy to achieve but achieve it I did.   Practice for the high school has not started yet but Mister B is participating in a swim clinic that they are offering so he can get to know members of the team and benefit from fresh coaching eyes.  Needless to say, he is pretty busy.

School work is moving along at a steady pace. 

In History Little Miss M is learning about the Huguenots.  In Math she is continuing her work with converting fractions to percentages.  For English she read The Summer of Monkeys.  Science she continues to observe the world around her.  She enjoyed the ever popular food coloring and celery experiment.

Mister B is learning about the colonies and why the English really did not push for colonization while they were allies with Spain.  He has also been learning about how awful the Spaniards treated the locals when they got here and stole their gold.  In Math he is finding the volume of cylinders (that is loads of fun).  In science he is learning in depth details about cells and how we are all connected.  For English he is still reading The Wizard of Earth Sea (a little behind there) and working on his 5 paragraph essay about himself.  In Spanish he has mastered greetings and counting to 100.  Now he is working on the days of the week and the months.

For Discussion Group tomorrow we will be talking about the debate, the different political parties, and perceptions.  It should be interesting.