Field Trips and Projects

We've had a busy year already with field trips and projects. We've ready lots of books and done lots of work too, but I love that we can get out and do fun experiences to help the kids learn.

We went to an orchard where the kids learned about apples and got to pick their own too.

Their favorite part was the hay ride behind a tractor where the owner of the orchard gave them an educational talk about growing and harvesting apples.

They got a bit antsy toward the end of the talk and ended up climbing all over the wagon, but Asher was able to tell me what he had learned when we were all done. The information he found most important was "eye to the sky" which means that you should twist the apple's "eye" on the bottom toward the sky. If it is ready to be picked, it will pop right off, if not, you should leave it because it isn't quite ripe.

The same day, we did a history project making and writing in clay tablets. We spend the week learning about the first writing in Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt so the boys got to make their own clay tablets and write their names using cuneiform characters. They also drew a few little pictures to look like Egyptians hieroglyphs.

 

Our second field trip was to a local conservation center to learn about birds. I asked Austin to come with us for this one because it involved a couple hours of hiking, which I just can't do with two little ones who need to be carried (although Heidi did walk a lot too). We started out in a classroom where the kids got to learn about birds and see different parts of them.

 The learned about how blue jays watch to see where squirrels hide their winter food supply, then steal it and hide it for their own. Here Asher is trying to find a place to hide some beans the guide gave to him . 

Here the boys are practicing using binoculars by finding what they want to look at before putting the binoculars up to their eyes.

 Here Asher is watching a duck.

 Here Austin and Heidi are learning about an insect.

 Here Leif is looking at another duck. Leif was really interested in this field trip and was always right up in front with the guide ready to learn. Asher liked it too, but is such a social butterfly and sometimes got more interested in playing with the other kids.

Everything was going along just great until the guide stopped with the kids to show them some coyote droppings and Leif decided he was done and wandered off by himself. Austin and I were quite a ways behind the group and by the time I caught up and realized Leif was missing he was long gone. It ended up with the whole group walking around calling Leif's name. Austin went back to where we had been to see if he could find him and I started back toward the visitor's center. Finally, we found him at the visitor's center. A staff member found him there just standing by himself, completely unconcerned. I'm still not really sure what he was thinking- he won't tell me why he left and was unabashed when I explained how worried we were and that the field trip had to be stopped while we looked for him. Oh Leif- our independent little soul.
I hope to do more field trips like this one and Leif is eager for them to be at this conservation center again since he liked it so much. Its just tricky with two little ones (not to mention one who thinks its okay to wander off . . . )