Random events.

I realized I haven't posted in awhile so figured I would make an update. Last week was so full! Monday we spent at the Children's Museum and at the Pacific Science Center. Daddy was off on holiday and so we wanted to show him everything. Unfortunately everyone else was on holiday also. There were so many people!!! It was truly frustrating!! My first reaction was of "where did all these people come from and why are they in our areas?" Kind of a terretorial feeling. I was later ashamed of this feeling and knew that other people had as much right as we did to give their children these experiences, but it didn't make it any less frustrating. I wanted to tell them all to come back on the weekend when it was "their time" for I felt like the weekdays were ours. Maybe we have just been spoiled in that we get used to going places and having all the activites availiable for us to use at our leisure without waiting in line forever. One of the perks of home-schooling. Still I have to keep a logical head and try to remember to not get frustrated in moments like these.
Tuesday was our coop day. The children are really enjoying it now. I am an aid in a science class for 5 and 6 year olds who are studying volcano's. The teacher was out sick and asked if I would fill in. Little did I know that she wanted to do paper mache volcano's before I said yes! But I survived and we actually had fun.
Wednesday one of the local radio stations was airing from the Seattle Aquarium and was offering admission for a dollar, so of course we were all over that! Again there were a ton of people, I think mostly due to all the daycares and day camps as this was "mid-winter break" (what that is I have no idea- didn't they just have christmas break?). But we figured out the secret, stay late, after everyone else goes home, for it seems they do not have as much staying power as we do :) The children had a blast and really loved watching the seals. At one point I left Isaac and Ser in an area coloring octopus tentacles, when I came back I was surprised to see Isaac's name written on each tentacle he had been coloring. I knew it wasn't Ser's writing but asked her if she had written his name on them, she said "no, he did". So, I asked Isaac to show me how he wrote his name. I'll be danged if that child who just turned four at the end of Dec was writing his name!!! Funny part is, I do not remember specifically sitting down with him to teach him this task. We have had many impromptu moments where we have discussed how to spell and write his name, but nothing substantial. Definetly one of those moments that confirm that children can learn to do something outside of a small room with twenty of their peers and one authority figure. They can even learn it without being "formally" taught how. Go figure....
Thursday we went to an exhibit on Leonardo DaVinci at the museum of flight. It was a fascinating exhibit for me and Michael, unfortunately the other two lost interest really quick. I would love to have explored it "kid-less" but a time and season to everything, right? After the exhibit we looked around a bit but the kids were antsy. You can definetly tell we have a membership and visit often, the kids were just not in the mood to look around at all. I think we may have been running to hard over the week.
Friday Isaac had science class with the Audobon society, but we all joined in. They studied birds and were shown several stuffed birds. Discussed the different purposes that feathers have such as flight, decoration, warmth, stability, etc... They also talked about the different calls and migratory habits. We were then armed with binoculars and went on a bird watching walk, it was so much fun!!!
So that was our week, lest we forget the wonderful adventures we have been on.

Busy......

The past two weeks have been really pretty busy. We did Coop last tuesday and then on wednesday went to the White River Valley Museum in Auburn. It is a small museum, but very interesting.
It describes the founding of Auburn and the different people and events that shaped the city. They had a life size replica of a cabose and so of course that was the childrens favorite thing!! Here also they had a game for the children in which they were given a bookmark with a picture of a significant person and an "interview" of them. The children had to look at the displays until they found "their person".
Thursday we went to Soundbridge which is a musical experience for children. They took a small group class on beat and rythm ( ok so how do you spell that word, I'll have to look it up later). Then, they went into another area that had all the musical instruments that they could play and get aquainted with. The children really enjoyed it.
From there we went to the Pacific Science Center to meet Laurie and her children. The new exhibit "grossology" was opened and we learned more than I ever wanted to about the "impolite science of the human body".
We then went to Red Robin (our favorite dinner place) and met daddy there and then headed to the flight museum. There is always a ton to see here, and daddy thought it was about time that we got a membership instead of just going on the free night. So now we will be there a lot more often.
The kids were all not feeling good so we called a sick day on friday.
Daddy left for San Fransisco on Monday and we took Nana back to grossology, we also saw an Imax film of the human body. The film was very well done, but again somewhat more than I wanted to know.
At the science center we watched a presentation on Combustion and the different elements required for combustion and the different fuels, complete with explosions of different sorts.
At lunch we happened to be near the Seattle Tram station and the children have never ridden on the sky tram so I thought it would be fun to take them. While on the tram we heard them say that Pike Place Market was not far from one of the stops so this began our trek through Seattle to go to the market.
Pike Place is a very interesting old-fashioned market where people hand make things and set up booths to sell them, they also have flower vendors, fish vendors and vegetable vendors. Luckily since it was in the middle of a school day there were not very many tourists which gave us a chance to really look at things and talk to the vendors. One of them was making jewelry with designs painted on them out of rocks. He explained that he was attempting to make miniatures of art that is indeginous to the Pacific Northwest. So he talked about that art for awhile and then showed the children how the rock was prepared, and designed and then he sent them off with a rock of their own to make something out of.
Farther down there was a lady selling bee products and she had jars of bee comb and honey "natures candy". We had just finished reading "Sign of the beaver" as a family and are halfway through "Birchbark house" so this gave them a chance to taste some of the things the natives enjoyed and talk about the differences between this and modern candy.
Tuesday was back at Coop and then mom got sick, sick, sick..... So I called in a sick day and stayed in bed all day.
We have started on a disabilities unit and the children and matt are taking sign language classes. We also watch sign language videos and peruse books on baby sign. The children are excited about the prospect of Sariah learning to communicate with signing before she an talk.
So, that was our week.
It got me to thinking though. I feel bad that the kids and I get to run around having fun all the time, while Matt has to work and often misses out on the great experiences we have. I am so grateful to him for being such a great provider and for letting the kids and I learn by having fun, even if he doesn't get to join in. He will probably never know how much that sacrifice means to me.