NASA field trip

Home school field trips are the best. I really love the fact that my children are all learning together and creating memories that will strengthen their friendships for the rest of life. Our field trip this month was to the NASA Space Center in Houston.

My sweet darling husband was so kind to take a vacation day from work just so he could be with us. He is amazing. He stayed up late reading Sherlock Holmes, then willlingly awoke at 5:00am to drive our family for 4 hours to Houston. Them he drove the 4 hours home again after a very long day on our feet. What would I do without him?

Here were some highlights of the trip-

Our children LOVED the temporary exhibit of the Legos castle. The life-size dragon made of Legos was very popular. So was an engineering game wherein students would construct a castle wall the best they could, then try knocking it down with a catapult. This was very fun. Doesn't every boy love knocking things down?

We loved walking through the gallery of rockets and space modules. It was really neat being inside the astronaut living space and seeing what it really looks like. I was pretty surprised to see how they use the living space.

Matthew's favorite part was being onstage for a astronaut 'Daily Living' show. We learned about the details of personal life for astronauts. Matthew thought is was so great to be zipped up in the astronaut bed. He also loved picking out freeze-dried food for a meal.

The silly mirrors made the children laugh in delight. They loved seeing how fat and heavy they would be on different planets. This exhibit was really simple, but who doesn't adore silly mirrors?

We toured the Johnson Space Center. It was very interesting to see the Control Room for the Apollo missions. Do you recognize this room from the movie "Apollo 13"? I think it's amazing that they could do a mission to the moon with such simple computer systems.

We also were able to see into the training floor where astronauts practice working on their mission assignments before going to the International Space Station. Matthew couldn't contain his excitement. He had to use the restroom during the tour, and we aren't allowed to go anywhere without an escort. So Matthew had a personal escort to another building to use the restroom. He thought that was pretty neat.

One of the big highlights for Sarah and Matthew was seeing the Saturn 5 rocket. It was so interesting to walk around it and peer into the rocket boosters. (Is that what they are called?)

It was a very interesting field trip and it really sparked our interest in space and engineering. We learned so much and had a lot of great fun.