Finally they did the "Clover Hop", which is this challenge where you climb a telephone pole or rope ladder and hop from platform to platform. Both Marc and Julia did it twice!
I spent my day with Tucker as he learned first about insects. They learned not only the parts and characteristics of insects- they learned about decomposers, pollinators, predators and parasites. Then we went out into the woods to hunt for these types of insects. Tucker was saying, "Oh look- here is some great food for a decomposer..." :) He found several insects and was quite proud.
The second class was Herpetology. They did a really interesting exercise using the Venn diagram on the floor. They classified the various animals and their characteristics.
Then she brought out a water turtle, land turtle, sand tortoise, small alligator and snake for the children to pet. They loved it!
After the first two classes we had a nice picnic lunch on the high walkway in the trees.
Tucker's third class was on macroinvertebrates. They learned about how you can determine water quality by looking at how many macroinvertebrates are found there, particularly if it has the type that are intolerant to pollution.
So we hiked out to the lake and went in search for them!
I spent the whole day redirecting Tucker. "Turn around- look at at the teacher. Pay attention!" He's just so squirmy and kept turning and reading everything on the walls and not listening. In fact, when the herpatology teacher came in she said, "who knows what herpetology is?" and Tucker said,"Oh- there's all kinds of information about it on that back bulletin board." :)
Anyway, when we got down to the water the teacher said, "What are we here to collect?" And everyone just looked and Tucker said, "macroinvertebrates." She said, "Where will they be found?" and he said, "in the Benthic zone." I was shocked- little man had been listening after all. She said, "yes, the Benthic zone is the bottom- the lowest part of the water." Tucker said, "I thought the lowest region was the Abyss or trenches." She said, "wow- yes, in the ocean that is true." :)
We found crayfish, fish eggs, a dragonfly larvae and a sow bug.
The last class taught them all about fish. We had a talk about fish characteristics and then went fishing!
My last thought about why I loved this trip so much. One, I got to spend a whole day with Mr. T- a rare treat for Mommy! Two, I feel like they treated the children with dignity. Instead of dumbing down the subject matter (and thereby taking away the beauty and wonder and making it trite) they talked as though the children could understand large words and ideas and the children rose to the occasion. And there were no meaningless work sheets or wasted time. Everything was ordered to communicate with the children in an interesting and engaging way. We all just loved it!
Charlie, meanwhile, spent the day at BB and Poppy's farm. He rode his gator and had a grand old time. Here he is playing with blocks and Mr. Potato Head- living the good life!
After we got out at four I went to pick him up and then we went to Kobe for Marc's birthday. I tried to talk him into somewhere else, but he's gone there for the last several years and now it's our tradition. He loves it.
"Take no risks with your reputation." :)
Oh, and on Tuesday night the boys had Troops of St. George. When Daddy was getting the flags from his car for a game of capture the flag the boys made a circle with the tug-of-war rope and started a little Greco-Roman wrestling. They LOVED it and decided to keep going. They learned a lot about how lowering your center of gravity is more helpful than being taller or even bigger sometimes.
Even little Charlie won a round or two!
Today was the birthday party- such a fun week!
