April Adventures
As I mentioned in this earlier post, we've had some rough times homeschooling lately.
So we've been getting out and about town to shake things up.
I have a hard time with finding the right balance in terms of school work and going out and doing fun activities. Does anyone struggle with this?
When I start to pay attention to all of the cool things going on in the area it seems like we are always on the go, go, go. Forget math, we've got butter to churn.
On the other hand I often times get so bogged down with focus strategies and lesson plans that we are often cooped up in the classroom for so long that there isn't time for anything outside of it to go on.
Well this month I've tried to strike a good balance. I think I have!
We went to the University of Notre Dame during Robotics week to check out all of the cool things their students were doing. They had a ton of interactive booths set up and the kids had a blast checking things out. Above is Calvin telling the robot to do the sprinkler.
This robot was ginormous! I think it kind of scared Calvin at first! But it was amazing to watch it in action and to see all of the things the students could have it do.
We also went to ag-days at the local fair grounds. It's something we've done every year. Sad to say I think the kids are getting a bit too old for it, but it was something fun to do anyway. The event works that the kids get a basket at the beginning. They then make their way around to different stations to learn about crops and animals. They put something from each station in their basket that relates to what they learned. At the end they turn their basket in and they earn a cookie and milk. It's a good old fashioned family time.
In pictures I wonder if Calvin will ever stop making this murdery face. I mean, what in the world is this silly face???
If you had witnessed this in action you would know that we are clearly city slickers. We have no idea what we are doing. But it was fun and the kids enjoyed trying to lasso a bucket with a sheep head on it :)
As you read here in this previous post we had a complete revitalization of our homeschooling last week. Out with the old and in with the old or whatever I've been trying to say.
So we pounded out a great week of school and so I decided it was high time we throw a little fun into the mix. So Friday as a treat we went to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It is one of our favorite museums. And it's free so it has that going for it.
Above is a picture of Calvin racing a car he built. They have a really fun motion area. We've been studying force in Science so this was a great area for us to spend some time and reading about what we were doing.
Emma loved working on refracting light. And isn't she a fashion plate? As she is getting ready to ten I can see that she's definitely starting to get in that Tween stage. She only wants to wear skinny jeans however I am occasionally able to get her to wear some cute Mustard Pie pieces with them as I did in this case. Thank goodness :)
They also have a fun health area. The kids love exploring everything that there was. Emma puts the x-ray skeleton together every time. So much fun to watch her learn and grow with each passing year she does it.
So those were some of our April Adventures. This weekend Emma is having her first slumber party and the boys are going camping with Cal's Boy Scout troop.