Year: 2015

 

We had a great morning of Homeschool PE and then Homeschool Swim Workshop. At the end of the swim class we all got a chance to jump or dive off of the diving board. I had never done this before and was super nervous but got up and did it! I was so proud of myself and excited to get back in line for a second turn!

 

The Dali museum in St. Petersburg has always been on our to do list. This year they offered a homeschool day. It was completely free, if you signed up in advance, for the kids and one chaperone. What a savings!  We arrived early, at least 30 minutes before they opened, and walked the grounds. The windows were very neat to see and I loved the design.

We walked across the street and checked out Albert Whitted Park. The marine was calm and cool. We are really loving our few days of fall.

Up next was the Dali gardens. I thought the giant mustache was hilarious.

We searched for a while but I finally found the mustached bird. I had read about it in a book. I was thinking it would be bigger!

The melting bench was cool as well. I told Mom that I think Dali was NUTS!

 

We enjoyed the garden maze and the wish trees.

They provided us with free Dali chinch bags and audio headphone tours. We listened to all the kid (mustache) talks and most of the adult (headphone) talks. I was amazed how small some of the works were and how GIANT others were.

There was a giant orb on the wall that asked you to interact with it using a camera. My first show was straight on.

They we worked with some angles.

Finally I think we found the perfect way to interact with the art.

There was also a traveling MC Escher exhibit. I really liked his works. I liked the animals and nature and the patterns. My favorite was the staircases. It reminded me of Harry Potter.

Up last was the hands on room, just for us homeschoolers today! We worked on tessellations. I picked a lizard and stuck with the entire project.

Then I colored two pictures.

We ran into friends and I was more into the art them chatting, which Mom found odd. I was really in my zone. I was feeling creative today. We also found a hidden hands on room and played around for a while with the toys.

What a fantastic day! Mom is alas happy to find FREE homeschool educational activities.

We were up early on a Sunday as usual. Mom said we needed to clean our rooms and get rid of clothing that was too small and other junk we have saved up. That meant that we all needed to get out of the house instead. We drove to Moccasin Lake Nature Park for a hike on the trails. The weather was very nice and almost fall-like. Part of the trail was closed due to a collapse in one of the drainage areas making the boardwalk unsafe to pass.

Our stroll ended with a walk around their honey bee festival. We played a few games and saw several animals. What a great way to start out a Sunday morning.

We then came home and cleaned the house. That took most of the afternoon but my room is SO clean now!

 

This is how you eat dinner when you are filthy from being outside most of the day. I was hungry but didn’t want to wash up for dinner because E and I were having such a great time outside. Filet mignon covered with blue cheese served on top of a cardboard box on the porch. That’s how I roll!

 

We had a great field-trip to the airport. We got to explore a UPS plane. I enjoyed sitting in the cockpit and seeing all the controls.

The cargo part of the plane was amazing. It was huge. They told us that this was the smallest of the cargo planes in their fleet. We liked checking out the rollers and learning hot the containers packed with packages are loaded and sent off.

We also got a tour of the airport firetruck. It is much different than a normal fire truck. We learned that this fire truck will respond off site as well to accidents if they are the closest unit. It has 4 minutes of water on board plus foam and gear for dealing with very high temperature airplane fires.

The fire truck gave us a water solute as it drove away. 

We also had a class on the principles of flight. I knew the material and was bored with this part of the program but I stuck with it. 

The end of the field trip took us through the new exit pods at the airport. It is supposed to be a long term money saving way to exit the terminals. The first door closes behind you and you wait for the second to open. If the machine detects anything left in the pot (even a penny) the pod won’t reopen the first door. This is to keep people from sneaking into the terminals.

We also saw the classic Beinoist airplane that hangs in the lobby.

 

What a great field trip.