August Has Returned!

We have had unseasonably cool temperatures for August, thus far.  No one has complained about the weather, until Saturday.  August decided to return with the heat and humidity combo!  A double punch to bring everyone back to reality, that indeed we do live in the SOUTH and it is AUGUST!

To escape the unexpected return, we loaded up the SUV and headed to the mountains.  Just like the people of long ago would do, but our trip didn't take as long.  One hour up the road to Thermal City provides relief from the hot days of August.

We panned a bit for gold and then decided to just relax and enjoy a couple of hours in the creek.  The nice cool mountain water is better than air conditioning!

The children played and made a new friend.  Together they built a pool in the creek bed from someone's partitioned sluice dam.  This provided hours of entertainment and like the new little friend said, "This is just like MineCraft, only real!"

Finally the sun was going over the mountain and the temperatures had cooled.  It was time to head back home.

A Day in the Life of Our 'School'

Yesterday, all the public school children reported back from summer vacation.  What were my children doing?  Well, we all slept while buses and cars whisked children to school.  No early morning, first day back pictures for us.  We never truly stop schooling during the year.  The children are learning that learning takes place every day and some days we learn differently than other days.

We started with our lessons around 9:30am.  Egee ate her breakfast as I read aloud the history lesson for the day.  Israel Falls to the Assyria was the topic.  We incorporated the bible during the lesson, so two subjects are taken care of at one time.  After the history lesson, we did a quiz to see what they remembered.  The children did pretty well, considering some of the material was presented last fall and last spring.

I then read aloud the Prologue of 'Rush Revere and the Brave Pilgrims'.  We discussed various vocabulary terms and ideas presented in the introduction of the book. It was a good review on a topic we delved into three years ago.

We moved from the living room to the dining room for our next phase of school.  I gave each child a map of the United States and dumped out a box of crayons.  We traveled back to their first trip to Oklahoma.  (Both children were infants on their first respectful trip.)  We found South Carolina and colored it.  Then I asked what state did they travel through next and colored it.  We did this all the way until we arrived at Oklahoma.  Then we reminisced about the trip we took one time coming back from Oklahoma.  We colored in each state we went through to get back home.  After this 'trip', we moved onto the trip we took to Disney World.  Then our trip last summer to Virginia and our trip this summer to Houston.  They had a great time remembering the trips and seeing how much of the U.S. they have traveled.

Little Man did a hand writing sheet.  He has never been much for writing and we really just haven't pursued it.  He types and hasn't had a desire to write.  Over the summer, he commented on how he needs to start practicing writing.   I asked when would he like to start and he said when his friends go back to school.  So, we began.

                                        
Egee decided to she wanted to work on a few of the diy.org challenges.  We logged on and looked at the various ones.  She already has done things to apply to a few of the categories.  We uploaded the pictures showing what she has done and then searched for more things to do.  Little Man wanted to do the same.

Egee has worked on loom bracelets, baseball bracelets, practiced for dance class, and played her ukulele.  Little Man has been engrossed with the Batman game on the PS3.  Overall, we have had a pretty good day of learning.

Music Sandwiched In - Sparkle City Brass

The Music Sandwiched In series has kicked off for the new school year.  The children and I traveled down to the Headquarters Library to hear the sounds of Sparkle City Brass.  Sparkle City Brass is a brass quintet comprised of two trumpeters, a trombonist, a French horn player, and a tuba player.

The children were very anxious to hear the quintet.  They marveled at the instruments and took delight as the musicians warmed up.

The quintet played a Stephen Foster melody, Bugler's Holiday, George Gershwin's 'Prelude 2' and 'The Man I Loved', Fats Waller's 'Ain't Misbehavin'', Duke Ellington's 'It Don't Mean a Thing, If It Ain't Got That Swing', 'Blackbird' from All You Need Is Love and rounded everything out with an assortment of John Philips Sousa marches. 

It was a fantastic hour of music and we look forward to the next Music Sandwiched In program.

Second Saturday at Roper Mountain Science Center

We decided to go to Roper Mountain Science Center's Second Saturday program.  We have never been and between dance, baseball, and basketball our Saturdays are mostly full.  Not knowing what to expect, I anxiously took note of the weather forecasts.  I didn't want to get soaked if the program was mostly outdoors.  Luckily, the rain did not materialize liked forecasts and I didn't have to worry.

We brought along a friend on our excursion.  Little Man's friend A-Man.  The boys had a great time at the event.

We walked along the nature trail to the Life Science building.  We explored the different classrooms and their contents.  The first one was filled with animals and plant specimens from around our state.  Live reptiles and insects were housed in displays for the children to look at.  Tanks with fish, turtles and even an alligator delighted the children.

A beehive was in one area for the children to look into and see the bees busy tending to their various hive jobs.  We eagerly searched for the queen.  We found her!  She had been marked with a dab of green paint.  A clear tube allowed us to see the bees go outdoors to collect more food.  Pictures were displayed along several tables of the bees and close ups of the hive.  This was all very interesting because we have a neighbor that keeps bees.  Now the children know a little more about the hive and process.

Stereo microscopes were out for the children to observe dragonfly larvae.  Everyone loves looking under the microscope!

We explored the touch table.  Two turtle shells were present.  Little Man asked about the differences and we noted how the box turtle shell had two hinged areas to pull himself tight into the shell; where as the aquatic turtle shell did not have hinges.  We felt the snake skin and wool from sheep.  We looked at the fossilized sea shells and the regular shells.  The table had many interesting things.

Next, came the marine life room.  Various aquariums held tropical fish.  Each display was interactive.  The boys darted from one to the other.  That's okay.  Next time we come it won't be new and more time will be spent learning more.  There were also touch tanks!  We were able to touch a sting ray, horseshoe crab, hermit crabs, and sea urchins.

We finally made it into a reptile room.  There were many different reptiles on display and some were out for the children to touch and hold.  Egee and Little Man were excited to touch the reptiles.  A-Man not so much.

We walked through the rainforest room.  It was very humid and warm.  The room was filled with different plant specimens and nicely done.

Our last destination inside the biology building was the critter room.  The children delighted in the baby mice and chinchilla on display.   They all held the baby mouse and didn't want to put it down.

We finally made our way outside to the living history farm.  We walked in the garden and around the pond.  We looked into the old school house and played old fashion games of graces, ring toss, hoops, and darts.

We visited the barn and the farm animals.  The children helped grind corn and pump water.

We watched wood carving and leather crafting demonstrations.  The children learned about different tools used for each.

Lastly, we made our way to the cabin.  Inside were more games played long ago.

The children had a wonderful time and we only saw a portion of Roper Mountain Second Saturday.  Good thing we have season passes to go back and explore next month!

Summer Beach Trip

We try our best to get to the beach every summer.  It just isn't summer vacation without a trip to our beloved Low Country. I have tried to move the trip to September, but the children's sports and dance schedules just aren't allowing this to take place.  Egee's dance started up early in July and really kicks in for August.  Little Man's schedule for baseball starts to take off around mid to late August.  Therefor, we packed the bags and set off for beach fun in mid July.

We tried a different condo this trip.  Basically, we didn't get the one we wanted because of the last minute decision.  We missed our view of the ocean.  However, it was a comfy condo and we still had a great time.  Of course, I plugged badly for hubby to think about getting our own place down in the Low Country.  I told him it didn't even have to be ocean front.  I would settle on a place with marsh views and deep water.  He would just have to get me a boat to putter around with.  He laughed.

We spent the days by the pool and evenings on the beach.  Little Man tried to skim board.  Although, surf fishing became his passion during this trip.  Hubby bought them gear and the two fished.  Egee likes to walk the beach and play in the water.  MeeMee just did whatever the grandkids wanted.  Isn't that always how it is?

We brought the filtered flashlights out and went crab watching.  Little Man had a blast.  Crabs are so much fun to watch!

We spent a morning at Hunting Island enjoying the larger waves and shell hunting.  Little Man and Hubby tried surf fishing along the jetty.

We relished in fresh shrimp from Johnson Creek Tavern and Gay's Seafood.  Then finished out the trip with a stop to Boondocks for crab legs!  My how the kids, MeeMee and I love our crab legs!

Unfortunately, the week of carefree island life ended and the reality of going home appeared.  I guess it will be time to plan another trip soon!

Clay Camp

Little Man has developed an interest in pottery.  I'm not sure where this interest has come from, but he asks constantly about using a potters wheel. Egee is always my artsy one.  She made sure I knew she would want to participate when I found a pottery camp.  I want to try and allow the children opportunities to tryout their interests, so I began my search for a class to do just that.

I searched and found clay camps that were an hour or more away.  This would not work for our schedule.  Prices were outrageous for other pottery camps.  Maybe, some one income families have the means to spend over two hundred dollars a child for a one week, three hour class.  This one can't!  However, with hours of searching I finally stumbled upon a little gem near us!  East Main Arts was offering a kid's clay camp that included the use of the pottery wheel.  The price was very reasonable and the time fit our schedules.



The kids are having a blast at camp!  Ms. Ellie is wonderful with the children.  She has taught them so much about the art of clay.  The two hours they spend at the studio is fun and creative.  They both can't wait to show me what they have created and tell me everything they learned.

I can see us spending much more time at East Main Arts and letting the children explore their artistic side!

Fishing

Little Man is budding fisherman.  His grandad just gave him a new rod and reel and of course, he was itching to try it out.  The other day was perfect for an outing to the lake.  The sky was overcast and temperatures were pleasant.  I told him to grab his gear and let him invite a friend to go fishing.  He was ecstatic.

We arrived at the lake around 10:30 am and the boys began fishing.  K-man caught the first few sun perch.  Then Little Man started to have success.  I was busy baiting hooks with red wiggler worms and taking small sun perch off hooks.

The boys went through 30 worms in two and a half hours.  I made a deal with them to load up in the car and I would take them to get some lunch and buy more worms.  The day was to pleasant to just go back home.  They happily agreed and off we went.

Within thirty minutes we were back at the lake and catching fish again.  Of course, all the fish they caught were too little to keep.  That didn't matter to them.  They were having a blast just reeling them in!

Next thing I knew, it was four o'clock and we had just ran out worms again!  Time to head home and tell fish stories to the family!