Houston Day Trips

I read an article recently about a family who made it a goal to visit all 50 states before their children graduated from high school.  As I was reading, I was thinking that is pretty neat, we should do that.  Then, I got to thinking that I don't know that I want to visit every state.  Plus, with my husband's job he travels so much while he is working that once he comes home, he is in no mood to go anywhere (usually). 

So, I brought this idea up to my sister and she suggested that I just focus on cities in Texas.  I thought, "What a great idea!"  I mentioned that idea to a friend who suggested a book about day trips from Houston - even better! 

I have been researching some ideas and so far these are what I have come up with:

George Observatory
Shangri-La Gardens
Houston Museum of Natural Science - Sugarland
Brenham - Blue Bell Factory (we have already seen this but it is still on my list of things to do this year)
One Room Schoolhouse League City
Rusk Palestine Railroad - this looks like so much fun!
Matt Family Orchard
Kemah Boardwalk


Do you have any other ideas you would suggest?

Enrichment Day at the Zoo

Lilly and I headed to the zoo this morning for Enrichment Day.  A day where they let us observe the animals as they give them new foods, scents, toys, etc.  It was very informative and I learned a lot and I think Lil did too.  Here are some pics from the event:

The children were allowed to paint like one of the animals.  This is Lilly painting like an elephant.  We saw the actual painting that one of the elephants here did paint and it was amazing.

Part of an obstacle course - crawling through tunnels, jumping over hurdles, weaving in and out between sticks and then digging in the dirt to find "food."

The eland waiting to see what they their "enrichment" was going to be.

Pumpkins filled with seeds and other foods.

Warthogs were in the same area as the elands, so they explored the pumpkins as well.

Silly Lilly watching the warthogs.

I know it is hard to tell, but this is a tortoise and they had a sprinkler going in their exhibit.

At the end of the sea lion show, they threw in a huge block of ice with fish in it for them to enjoy!

We had lunch in the park after we left the zoo - this is Lilly enjoying her "enrichment" by dancing in the park. :)

Our view.

Laughing at people in paddle boats getting wet by the fountain.

Running away from the camera.

School Time

For the past 3 weeks now, I have been doing "school time" with Lilly for about an hour a day.  I have gotten ideas from various websites and books and she seems to be really enjoying this time each day.  In this post, I will share with you some of the websites I use and our schedule.

Right now we are doing a letter a week, so everything we study in each of the subjects begins with the letter we are learning about.  For example, this week has been the letter C so we talked about courageous Queen Esther when we did our Bible story, compared groups of objects to decide which had more or less, counted objects, looked at the calendar, and created pictures.  Also, we read books about counting and cats.

Schedule:
Bible story and memory verses

Journal to Daddy when he is away - she tells me what to write and then she adds a picture to go with the words

Calendar - date, days of the week, months of year, weather, seasons

Monday - talk about letter of the week, sound it makes, what it looks like, what things begin with the letter, finding things that start with the letter, finding the letter in the house, etc 
Learn a nursery rhyme - we've been checking various books out with lots of nursery rhymes in them and so we try to learn one a week.  We have also been reading a fable or fairy tale a week.

Tuesday - math day, numbers, practice recognition of them, couting, one-to-one correspondance, patterns, adding, sorting, etc

Wednesday - Science day, experiements, observations, reading books on various topics

Thursday - S.S. day, reading books on various topics and library day

Friday - We usually have one day where we go out in the morning so we don't get to our school work - Friday is our day to "catch up"

Here are some sites I have been using:
https://docs.google.com/View?docID=dwstdgn_447mphsmf8&revision=_latest&pli=1
http://www.letteroftheweek.com/index.html
http://www.workboxsystem.com/
http://www.preschoolexpress.com/
http://www.first-school.ws/INDEX.HTM
http://cullensabcs.com/
http://simplycharlottemason.com/
For memory verses, I have been using this system from the Charlotte Mason site:
http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/

Mini Pre-school

My daughter is only 2, but she desires to go to school already and she is like a sponge right now - always asking a million questions so...
I decided to take one of the rooms in our house (technically the breakfast room) and turn it into a school room.  The only thing that is missing is a table a chairs, but I'm just waiting for a good deal on those.  This room combined with my degree in elementary education and a preschool website I found: www.first-school.ws/INDEX.HTM will be the tools I will use to "homeschool" my daughter over the next few months.  I am probably going to homeschool her on a more structured basis when she turns 4, but I'm still praying about that. 

Here is my plan for the next 2-3 months:
Bible story and memory verse from 20 Bible Verses Every Child Should Know - focus on one story and one verse a week

Carrie the Caring Cat - character education, making things for others and helping others

Focus on the letter A - writing it, sounds of short and long, things that begin with A.  Finding the letter a in books, making a things that begin with a collage.

Apple exploration using the 5 senses, cutting open the apple and counting the seeds, apple painting, making apple trees in the different seasons, reading books on apples.

Angels - angels in the Bible, make an angel craft to give away at Christmas time, shapes

Astronaut - books about astronauts, talking about space, planets and stars, star crafts, shapes

Acorns - go out and collect some, count them, explore them

Ants - observe them, read books about them

My thought is to focus on one topic a week, with the Bible verse, character education and the letter A being a continuing focus.  Then, after finishing the A topics, I will move onto topics beginning with the letter B and change the character education topic from caring to respect.  My B topics will be: Bible, baker, bananas, broccolli, balloons, butterflies, and bats.

I hope to just give her a general overview of all these topics while incorporating science, math, and reading skills.  I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Elephant Bath

Last weekend, we went to the zoo as a family (along with a family friend). We've taken my daughter to the zoo many times, but it has been a few months since our last trip and as anybody knows with 2 year olds, their minds are little sponges. Well, this time we went and she was asking questions about everything - "What is that called, Mom?" "What are they eating?" "What is her name?" "What is that animal doing?" etc. It was exciting to be able to answer her questions and fill her little brain with a tad more information about some of the animals. It was because of her inquisitive nature that I decided we should go see the elephants get their baths and hear the zookeepers tell us more about them. Lilly loved the experience (so did the rest of us) and had a ton more questions after that. She was able to watch the elephant drink water with his drunk and spit it into his mouth and use his drunk to spray himself with water. We saw the elephant eat apples and swim in a giant pool as well as have a "bowel movement" in the pool - that was interesting.

This adventure got me thinking about how little I'm really teaching my daughter. I mean, I have a degree in elementary education and if I were teaching at a school, I would be spending hours a week on lesson plans and such but with my daughter I haven't set aside that time to think about what I'm really teaching her. So, I have been doing some research online and at our local library and have figured out that I'm going to start setting aside at least an hour a day to "teach" my daughter a new concept. My first topic - elephants. We went to the library the other day and we got all kind of books on elephants - fiction and nonfiction. I also got a book on paper plate crafts, one of which is making an elephant. :) Tying elephants into Noah's Ark was another thought I had - making a big mural of the ark and then adding different animals as we talk about them.

My daughter is going to spend a few days with my mother in a couple of weeks and I want to use part of that time she is away to come up with a plan for the next few months of topics to focus on and ways to incorporate it into our day. When I come up with a plan, I will post it on my blog for anybody who is interested.