Summer has arrived

I have been slacking on the blog lately. Sorry! We have had a very busy May and June. I would like to share some of what we have been up to lately.

We took a trip to visit family. My Sister is a homeschooling Mom to 4 little girls aged 8, 6, 4 and infant. The kids had so much fun visiting with their cousins. They played together so well. We spent a long weekend at their house and then drove to the big city where my Mom lives.

B with her newest cousin K

As homeschoolers, we wanted to explore some of the educational activities the city had to offer. Our first stop, as it often is, the Zoo! Most of these photos were taken by my 8 yr old niece A, she did a great job.

Brown Bear

Juvenile Snow Leopards

T's fave, Polar Bear

E's (6yr old niece) fave, Giraffes.

Elephant

A close up shot of the snow leopards

Our next stop was the Art Museum! We had never been there before. The kids really enjoyed all the kid friendly activities they offered.

Drawing using magnifying glasses

Drawing in sections

Little art cases you could check out and take with you throughout the museum. The kids loved being able to sit down in the exhibit area and draw.

T saw a sailboat on the lake and sat down to draw it.

The little ones played with puppets from another kit we checked out.

The exterior of the museum

We needed a little break from activities the next day and just spent some time at the park. The kids loved the large sandbox.

That is T buried in sand behind B

B with her Cousins

 The night before my sister and nieces left, we celebrated T's 8th birthday. It wasn't actually his birthday but it was close and we wouldn't see them again before it. We had cake and the kids played. They gave him an awesome bday gift. It was a little can with a real mollusk that he pried open to find his very own, natural pearl. T has wanted a pearl ever since he found out that it is his birthstone. The fact that he got to harvest it himself, made it even better.  Being homeschoolers, T kept one half of the shell (and the pearl) and sent the other half of the shell with his cousins so that both homes could have one on their nature table.

After my sister and the kids went home we were a bit bored. We took Grandma out with us on some new adventures (she had been with us on all the other trips as well).

We visited two museums, the first was a hands on museum for kids and the second was a natural history museum.  Here are a few pics from those trips:

T on the bed of nails

Controlling a robot Dinosaur

Cool miniature versions of the Great Lakes. Michigan

Lake Erie

Some different types of eggs

Touching some fish fossils

Rain falling over the Great Lakes

There was a small Aquarium in the museum

Aquarium tunnel

Touch Tank with stingrays and sharks

A shark egg

T loved the stingray barbs and shark eggs

Trying out some pulleys

...and Levers

....and more pulleys

The natural history museum had so much more than pictured but couldn't see everything and we visited at Christmas time to see the rest.

Checking out some insects with Grandma

T's fave

Looking in the window of an early American toy store

Looking at insects under the microscope

The Butterfly garden room. There is a butterfly on B's knee in this pic. They kept landing on us but flew away before I could get pictures.

A Mammoth skeleton

We had such a fun time visiting family and enjoying some educational activities that we don't normally get to visit. Once we returned, we had a few days left of regular school to finish up before summer break started. Now that summer break is here, T has been enjoying his time off. He is continuing his reading each morning and occasionally we will be working on other subjects as needed.