Glimpses of The Thinkery and a Hike to see Dinosaur Footprints

I felt like we had been focusing too much on book work and memorization in home school laterly, so we needed to engage our minds a different way.

We needed a fun hands-on day of learning, so I whisked everyone away for a day filled with field trips. Here it is in a nutshell.

The first stop was The Thinkery, the children's science museum in Austin. We have always LOVED science museums and were so eager to explore this one.

This was the neatest musical instrument ever, a water piano. It splashed everywhere and drenched the player, but it was oh so fun! The sound quality was surprisingly clear and resonant. It reminded me of the rich tones of a cello.

Diego loved these water drums and played for ages at this station. Water spouts mounted in the ceiling dropped precisely-aimed droplets to play the drums. 

More water table experiments with redirecting water. 

Joseph enjoyed picking vegetables in the toddler zone, which is themed after a giant garden. 

This was a really fun interactive light display. The colored zones change colors when you touch them. Diego loved this screen. 

Joseph also enjoyed the giant pegboards, like a Lite Bright station. 

Light-themed puzzles for the brain intrigued Matthew and Sarah for quite a bit. 

Matthew took a moment to read stories in the welcoming reading nook. 

I was treated to a gourmet dinner in the farmers' market stand. Matthew and Joseph had such fun 'cooking' all sorts of dishes for me to eat. 

The outdoor playground was filled with nets perfect for climbing. 

There was also an outdoor river where children could play with water and catch several floating plastic toys as they rushed by. 

There was a spot where you could take self portraits and the images would be displayed on a mosaic on the wall. Matthew and I played with this station for a bit. He's pointing to my picture, and to the left of my portrait is Matthew's picture: an upclose portrait of his open mouth. 

Afterwards we played outside for an hour, feeding ducks and enjoying the little lake  next to the museum. 

After a picnic lunch and playground time, we headed home and stopped along the way for a little hike down a cliff to see fossilized dinosaur footprints along a river bottom. This was our first time seeing real fossils in the 'wild'. It was so neat- you could follow the footprints along the riverbed for quite a distance. It was a lovely day and we enjoyed the bit of exertion, even when Diego gave up on the return hike and begged to be carried back to the van. 

I'm so thankful for this aspect of home school life: we get to embark on learning adventures together and create meaningful family memories. I cherish these moments when our children get to explore together!

Trains and Robots

This month I took our Littles on their first train ride into Austin. 

Nathan invited us to join him for the afternoon at a technology convention, which meant we'd be able to do two cool things-

1- Ride the train 

2- Play with real robots

What's not to like?

We boarded the train at the very end of the rail and rode it the entire length to the last stop smack dab in downtown Austin. 

Sarah thought is was so romantic riding a train. The rhythmic sway of the cars was so soothing and hypnotic.

I always love watching the scenery whizz by in a blur of color. 

Sarah and Matthew felt proud to be in charge of plotting our destination on the map. They loved following our progress at each stop. They were like little adventurers exploring an exciting new land.

We pulled into the final station and found my handsome Mr. Kingsley waving hello to us from the platform. Luckily the station is literally right next to the Austin Convention Center, so we didn't have to navigate Austin's streets with a passel of children and a stroller.

The convention center was filled with fascinating booths to explore. The myriad of robots were of course the highlight of our trip. The children talked to engineers and learned a little bit about how each robot operated.

This robot was voted the family favorite. This cute little hand-shaped robot generously handed out sticks of gum to anyone who put out a hand to receive it. Daniel tried to trick the machine and get two pieces of gum, but the robot looked at his outstretched hand (already gifted with gum) and the robot shook it's head 'no'. The children laughed and laughed over this, exclaimed what a clever little robot this was. 

My favorite exhibit was a large robot that puts on a concert by precisely bouncing balls onto the instruments. 

I found a little video of it so you can get an idea what it was like. 

Daniel's other favorite stop was a giant slingshot activity. The engineers connected a game of Angry Birds to this slingshot. To play the game, players would fire this sensor-laden slingshot to launch the birds on the screen.

Very clever.

Home Schoolers Field Day

I had one of the more embarrassing parental moments of my life during this field day competition. Before we get to that, here are the brief details of the day.

Sarah had registered to compete in a regional home schoolers field day. Daniel was out of public school for a doctor's appointment, so he was able to come along and participate as well.

We picnicked under gorgeous oak trees and reunited with home school friends. Sarah and Dan engaged in the obligatory whining-about-the-heat before scampering off to play and compete.

We cheered for each other and had a wonderful time. Daniel came away with a first place ribbon and a third place ribbon.

After stirring up some confidence, Sarah collected one first place, two second place, and three third place ribbons.

After all the events finished, there was a ginormous game of Red Light/Green Light with ALL the kids ages 5-18. They took up the entire soccer field to play this with 200 kids. We had 10 adult referees. It was a colossal competition.

Daniel's dramatics took center stage when he gave up on the entire game and flopped face-down in anger and tears. I tried to help him feel better and invited him to come have a cold drink in the shade with me. He just yelled and wailed and ignored any consolations of logic or compassion.

I tried for 5 or 10 minutes to help him feel better. It wasn't going anywhere. Knowing I couldn't physically carry him off the soccer field, I cheerfully told him I was going back to the sidelines and he could join me for snacks whenever he chose.

When I reached the spectating parents on the sidelines, I sheepishly explained what was going on. Daniel laid stubbornly in the middle of the playing field, laying face down and absolutely still. Oh what a battle of wills he was having. Too bad for him I wasn't playing....he was only battling his own mind I guess.

After several minutes, he was noticed by the game referees. Several medics ran to his side, thinking he had heat exhaustion or an injury. How embarrassing. Have you ever pretended a child wasn't really YOURS? I tried that.

Unfortunately they asked Daniel who his parent was. Then they came over the loudspeakers calling, "Will RENAE KINGSLEY come to the field? We need RENAE KINGSLEY!"

Oh how embarrassing. I quickly explained that it was only a tantrum, and the medics laughed good-naturedly (they were all parents, too). I still felt humiliated and burned with shame.

Diego definitely enjoyed the entire show. Isn't he riveted?

Art Museum Scavenger Hunt

Since we had already checked the boys out of school for dental appointments in Austin, we decided to also play hooky on all other responsibilities for the day and go visit other sites in Austin. Thursdays are a special day in Austin because the Blanton Museum of Art is FREE that day.

Sarah and Matt have been begging me for months to take them to this art museum (Matt even asked for that as a birthday gift instead of doing a party with friends...but his birthday is still months away). Oh boy, were they excited for this family trip!

I made worksheets for them to fill out in the museum. I wanted them to be thinking about the art, not just looking at it and passing by without a thought. I had questions such as, "What story was the artist trying to tell?" "What paintings did you like and which one did you dislike?" "Which ones convey a feeling of anger? Happiness? Sadness? Peace?" "Which one would you like to create?"

I also had an extensive scavenger hunt list on the worksheet. They were to find certain types of art (pottery, sculptures, woven art, wooden art, bone art (yes really. There is a room full of cattle bones as an art piece)) and certain random elements within paintings (different types of animals, babies, jewels, a house, bread, royalty, a cowboy, etc.) Luckily I was a bit familiar with this museum, so I knew some of the specific permanent art exhibits in the collection, so I could give them particular pieces to find along our journey.

Sarah and Matthew were both so thoughtful as they pondered the art. I'd talk with them and teach them how to analyze the piece based on composition and color choice. It was so interesting to see what they noticed.

It was so fun to see how in tune they were to the color cues from the artist. Matthew would say things like, "This painting makes me feel happy because it's full of cheerful yellows" or "This painting makes me angry because of all the red choppy lines and black clouds."

I also found out they despised the same paintings I do (you know, the type of modern art that is just a big splash of black paint on a bare canvas? Yeah....I always think my kids could make one better. Matthew agreed heartily with that opinion. I guess that style of modern art just isn't for me.)

Daniel was bored after 10 minutes. He spent most of the time loudly whispering how his legs were tired (even though I offered to push him in the stroller) and how boring this place was since he couldn't run and shriek. He spent a lot of time just staring at the ceiling, complaining how boring it all was. I think if I stared at the ceiling I would be bored, too. I'm sorry he was too little to enjoy this place, and the older kids were sorry he couldn't be more patient. All well...someday he'll enjoy it.

We visitied our favorite vintage candy shop, The Big Top Candy shop, on Congress Avenue. Nate and I had told the children they'd be given a dollar to spend for having appropriate museum behavior and another dollar for finishing the worksheet/scavenger hunt. Sarah and Matt were delighted. Matthew picked a box of Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and Sarah filled a bag with different flavors of rock candy.

Matt could hardly wait to start tasting the bad flavored jelly beans. He tried them each as soon as we stepped out of the store. That story is told through pictures in my next post.

Wayside Treasures

We live near the edge of a huge wildlife refuge. I really mean huge. Nathan had taken Matthew and Daniel for a hike there when we first moved in. It was time for a family hike with all of us.

I was so impressed with our children. They enthusiastically agreed when Nathan proposed a five-mile hike. To be honest, I was not excited about such a long hike in the intense summer heat.  I tried unsuccessfully to convince them down a shorter trail. I could just imagine them getting tired half-way through the hike and complaining the rest of the way back to the parking lot. Boy was I in for a surprise.

They did a great job and didn't complain at all. I was amazed that Daniel would have so much endurance for such a small body.

We hiked up and down several hills. On the grassy hill tops the wind was so powerful it almost blew us off our feet.  It was strange to jump across the stepping-stones where the rivers have dried up. We passed a waterfall site....I've never seen a dried-up waterfall before. It felt surreal.

We hiked through a valley literally covered with fossilized shellfish. The ground was littered with them. It was so fun to find the prettiest fossils. It was so hard to leave them behind.

The children were such a great example to me of cheerfully enjoying God's beautiful creations. They were ecstatic to discover teeny snail shells along the path. They stopped and admired shells for several minutes, exclaiming in joy over each new shell.

It brought back my own childhood memories. There was a time for me when little shells were my greatest treasures. I was so thankful that my children helped me rediscover the magic under my feet.

What we've been up to...

Here's a rundown of our family's activities for a while...

Guns. I've always felt uneasy around them, and have never wanted one in my home. Recently we had an experience where I believe we had a home intruder (can't know for sure since I hid in my room with the door locked until Nathan came home, so I never actually saw the person). I was so terrified. I realized that I needed some sort of home defense, so I began researching guns. I arranged a girls-day-out with some friends to the indoor shooting range so I could at least fire some guns and start practicing. Here are the results of my first try:

The one on the left is the target from a 12-gauge shotgun. They only let me use slugs on this range, so the kickback was really intense. I had a bruise the next day and I only fired 5 bullets on that gun! It really helped me overcome my fear of the guns though, so a handgun was a piece of cake after dealing with that monster.

I should tell you that I hate loud sharp sounds like gunfire. I can't stand hearing a balloon pop- this is why I don't take gigs requesting a balloon twister. I was so nervous to use these guns and hear them explode. When I first entered the gun range, there was a man on my left firing an AK-47, and a lady on my right practicing with some sort of cannon- I don't know what it would be called, but the barrel was a couple inches in diameter. Imagine those going off right next to you in an enclosed cement building. It was deafening, even with ear protection. After a few minutes of that noise, my own gun seemed like a baby's toy.

Valentine's Day- I completely missed posting about this because we were in the midst of drama with Sarah's intense infection last month. The children woke to a Cupid-style breakfast. Scottish oats with blueberries, homemade bread with homemade peach-blueberry jam, and pink milk. Daniel took a few excited bites, then tentatively tried to fly!

My sweet darling made me a complete Indian dinner from scratch. He worked on it for hours, then we enjoyed a delightful dinner together after the children were asleep. MMMM! Chicken Tika Masala, Palak Paneer, Hot Naan, Saffron Rice, and chutneys. A perfect meal! I love gifts of time, they are so meaningful.

We enjoyed having visits from Cupid- have I ever explained our Cupid tradition? I don't recall if it's already on this site. Cupid flies to the windows to peek in the rooms. He hates chaos and messes, so it's important that the children clean their rooms so Cupid will want to stay. He is also very shy and will fly away if there is contention, so if we want to make him feel welcome, w sing songs together. If there is love and harmony in the home, he will stop for a visit. When he visits, he leaves treats and little token gifts on the doorstep. The gifts are given in one big bundle, and the children practice equality skills in working together to divide the treats amongst themselves. It's really fun and the kids look forward to it every year. It's one of my favorite days as a mother- the children were cleaning cheerfully (gasp!) and singing together all day. It really makes for a beautiful day in our home.

We took a home school field trip into Austin to see the Slim GoodBody show. It's a musical comedy show that teaches children about anatomy and physiology. It's done in a kind of Broadway style. It was a-maz-ing and we really enjoyed it. Before you ask, yes- yes I did check Matthew out of public school for the day. I'm one of 'those' parents. I think he learned more at this than he would sitting in a desk all day anyway.

Afterwards we played on the UT campus grounds for a long time. The children all played in the fountains until they were absolutely drenched. Thank goodness for warm Texas winters!

The rest of February was spent dealing with Doctor's appointments and severe illness with Sarah's infection. We were worried for a long time. Thankfully the Lord blessed her with a return to health. Her lab work yesterday came back clean, so now it's time for the specialists to investigate her kidney function, access scarring, and do lots of invasive exploring to make sure her body is working properly so we can avoid another round of this E. coli playtime. We are immensley thankful for modern medicine and for health insurance.