Week 19: Welcome to the BIG SHOW!

We started back to school this week, and we had a couple of minor changes to our schedule.

The most obvious change was the introduction of Heritage Studies again.  We had cut Heritage Studies from our day a few months ago because we wanted to be able to focus more on the Science lessons.  The program is only meant for one semester anyway, so it worked out for us.

Instead of just having Cam take Heritage Studies, I purchased an extra workbook for Ty and decided to have both boys take the Heritage Studies class.  So that is how we start our day now – they both watch the lesson, we do the worksheet together, and I lead the enrichment activities.  So we spend about 45 minutes on Heritage Studies.

Here are some pictures of the boys doing Heritage Studies:

One of our enrichment activities was to make a map using stencils.

Here are the boys looking at the globe.  They were looking for the countries that had mountains.

Ty’s Snack of the Week this week was “Haystacks”.  They’re similar to S’mores…but with chow mein noodles on top.

Cam was really proud of this little project he made in his Bible class.  It’s supposed to be the water that Moses parted.

Here’s a picture of Camden learning something new:  measurements!  He really enjoyed learning about measurements, and finally had the opportunity to use “Measure Man” (the guy we hung in our classroom – you can view it on this page).

You’ll recall that I said we were making changes to our schedule with this new semester.  One of those changes is adding another class the boys can take together.  We will be learning Greek!

I purchased this 8-week lesson to get us started and as soon as it gets here, we are diving in!  The boys and I watched the little promo video of this, and they were really excited about it.  I’ll keep you all posted as to how it goes.

A couple of weeks ago the Imaginarium contacted the homeschooling families and asked if we would be interested in attending a “class” on how to care for animals – with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.  Ummm…YES!  The circus was going to give each child a stethoscope and a stuffed animal to follow along.  In addition to that (as if that wasn’t enough!) they were giving out vouchers to the kids so they could attend a show too!

First let me say that this was HANDS DOWN the most fun we have had on a field trip.  Scott went with us, and even he had a great time.

They had the kids sit around the Main Circle.  Once children were seated, the parents were allowed to sit around the circle as well.  The media was there as well (hopefully we’ll be able to see it on tv).  Here are some pictures of that event:

They ended up giving us (4) vouchers for the circus.  When I redeemed them after the presentation, they gave us seats worth over $100!  We can’t wait to go!!!

Here is what we learned about the care of the animals with Ringling Bros:

1.  There are (5) veterinarians on staff.

2.  An elephant drinks about (50) gallons of water per day.

3.  Elephants can weigh up to 20,000lbs!

4.  The spots on the elephant are called freckles.  Asian elephants get freckles as they age.

5.  Clowns aren’t evil after all.

UPDATE

Cam and Ty are in this video…see if you can spot them!