Field trip (S)

Last week I decided I would take the boys to the Natural History Museum for their free home-school day on the following Monday.  Sometime between last week and this past Sunday I forgot I had decided that.  But I had told people that I was going apparently.  Sunday I got a Facebook message from someone I didn't know, a friend of a mutual friend, asking if I was still planning on going and that she had heard I was.  Well although I had never met this sweet lady, I decided it was a good kick in the butt for me and thought why not lets go, even though it seems like a lot of trouble this late in the game.  So Monday morning she came with her bigger than my van and picked us all up and we got to know some new friends while riding up to LA.  We ended up having so much fun and the boys and I met a new friend that lives right here local and they are super sweet and fun.

We actually ended up hitting both the NHM and the California Science Center right next door.  The boys loved the dinosaur bones and the woolly mammoth bones.  They got to touch some real fossils too.  We also barely escaped a dino stampede

 Next we headed over to the CSC and the boys got to test their physical abilities on the rock wall.  Adam made it all the way to the top along with his new friend!  But what could be better than a day full of bones and dinosaurs for a bunch of boys?  That same day ending up at a space shuttle, that's what!!  The boys were excited to see how people pottied in space for sure...that was the dinner conversation that evening along with all the glorious things they saw in the Rot Room.  We had to quickly change the subject so that no one truly lost their appetite.

I'm so glad we went and got to meet some new friends and see some fun and exciting new things!

Energy and Motion Cont...

Today we learned about energy using ramps. The boys got to roll their bouncy balls down a ramp at different heights. I wish I could claim the idea, but I got it off TPT. They learned that a ball gains more energy making it faster going down the taller ramps.








We are getting so excited for school to end! I am not sure if me or the boys are more excited. I did lesson plans through the end of April and we are sooo close to finishing all of our books. This year has been crazy easier than last year which I will attribute to a few things. 1. Little man (4) is in preschool 3 days a week. School is pretty smooth without his cute face wanting endless attention. Little Guy (2) is still at the into everything age but can be easily entertained with activities like this.


He loves putting it away and even more fun dumping them out...but then he has to put them away. This can go on for 30 minutes.
2. I am a little more seasoned and so are the boys. By the end of this year I felt we have had a great rhythm and my tough one (8) stopped being tough. The things he was struggling with really clicked midway through this year and he has been an ace ever since. I have enjoyed this year but oh how I love summer days, no schedule, vacations, beach days, tide pools, swimming pools, pop cycles, and a good tan! Hurry May we are so excited for you to get here!

Forces and Motion Playground Lab

Last week we spent some time at the park learning about force and motion.  We tried out all the equipment and decided what kind of force we were using to move it or us.  Pushing or Pulling. The boys had a blast.  We met our friends, Viktor and Carmen, there to do our experiments.

Then yesterday we did another set of experiments about Motion this time.  We had several objects that we tested.  We tested whether bouncy balls bounced higher when dropped from a higher or lower place.  Then we learned about friction with race cars and tops.  We learned about energy with bubbles and pinwheels.  The boys had fun, even Isaac got in on the action.

Owen loves his tub of small objects to put in the hole in top.  He does this a lot during school time.