Happy Thanksgiving!

Painting Turkeys

We had a bit of fun painting turkeys with friends.  The girls love to paint.  The boys always go with best intentions, but after a bit they are ready to go outside and let their energy out.  Ms. Ashlee is very patient with the kiddos and allows their creativity to shine.  It is nice for the children to express themselves without worrying about a grade given to their art work.

Backyard Balancing

Little Man is fascinated with parkour.  Evidently most 9 to 15 year old boys are very interested in parkour.  I have listened to many details and how to do x,y, and z from him.  We have a trampoline and he jumps a good bit.  He wanted to set up some kind of parkour course in the backyard.

I decided to move the trampoline over and create an area devoted to him bouncing, jumping, and balancing.  We had scrap lumber sitting around from deck construction, some concrete blocks, and tree stumps.  All things that could be re-purposed to create an area to satisfy his needs.

Now he can walk balance beams (skinny and wide), run up ramps, use different balance boards, hop from stump to stump, and jump until his heart is content.

It is still a work in progress.  Now, Hubby wants to add a heavy bag to workout with and who knows what else!

Honoring Our Veterans

We spent the morning of November 11th doing what we have done for the last five years.  Attending our small town's Veterans Day Parade.  It has become a tradition for us and we love sharing it with our friends.  Now, we share it with you.  It is so important to say thank you to their service.  All the freedoms that we enjoy are because of the men and women in uniform.  They are our protectors.  It is a shame that so many in elected government offices are using pen and paper to undo the freedoms and rights given to us by our forefathers and fought for by are military.  Still, we need to honor these service members and teach our younger generations of their sacrifice.  Thank you!

Primitive Compass

Mr. Jack just loves to introduce the children to interesting scientific wonders.  He has had them use compasses in past classes, but this time he had them make a very rudimentary compass.  Most of the children love survivalist activities, so this ranks high on the list of coolness.

As always, Mr. Jack explains the reasoning behind the lesson of the day.  He is great about keeping things simple, yet full of facts and cool stuff.

He then demonstrates what is expected for the assembly of compass.  After any questions, he releases the children to gather materials and begin construction.

Next, they worked in teams of three to try out their compasses.  They were given a list of coordinates and began their journey.  Everyone's group did a great job using their compass and got within a foot of the actual target.

We just love Mr. Jack!

Boo in the Zoo

The kiddos are growing up and they are beginning to get 'too big' for the kiddie stuff.  However, they still like to see the decorations at the zoo.  Since we have been attending the zoo talks this fall, we noticed that the zoo was decorating for Boo in the Zoo.  We invited a couple of friends to go to the zoo with us and see the decorations and the animals.  They hate to admit it, but they had a great time!

Here are a few pics we got of the kiddos in front of various Halloween displays at the zoo.

Our zoo does a wonderful job with the animals it keeps and the activities for the patrons.  It is a nice little gem for our upstate area.