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Showing posts with label Life Science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life Science. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Vacation Education

We are spending this week in South Carolina on Hilton Head Island. This is the first time I have been here. I've been very pleased with the area. The beaches, the pace, and the general atmosphere is great for taking time away from regular life.

While here, we've had the opportunity to do many things that have been good for fun and education.

On Sunday we visited Coastal Discovery Museum. There were many things to be done at the museum. The best part, of course, was that the admission to the museum was 100% FREE. I love FREE stuff that provides entertainment AND education.

We played dress up and pretended we were colonial kids.



We looked at a really large skeleton of a sea turtle. Seriously, we could have used that turtles shell to build ourselves a really awesome cave.

We walked through the butterfly pavilion and saw "flying flowers" and the caterpillars that make them. (Translation: We saw monarch caterpillars and swallowtail caterpillars, along with a handful of butterflies.)

We walked out on two different boardwalks that stretched out over the salt marsh. This, by far, was my favorite part of our visit. I thoroughly enjoyed walking out over the marsh. It was low tide when we made our visit, so the water was way down. We were blessed by visions of thousands of fiddler crabs as they went about the business of life. It was absolutely amazing. I really could have sat and watched those crabs for hours. Marisa was with me on this one. She would have gladly sat and watched the little crabs going about their business for quite a long time. Unfortunately, Kira and Daddy were way too impatient for that. They figured that twenty minutes of fiddler crab life was plenty enough for them.




When we were making our way back to the car, I came across an interesting creature. It appeared to be a caterpillar, but it was shaped like a scorpion. I couldn't see any type of stinger and whenever I touched it with a stick it would curl up like a grub worm.I did find some photos and learned that this was, in fact, a caterpillar. It's the caterpillar for a tussock moth. The one we saw was red/black fur and a red head with black antennae and tail.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Library Visit

We made a visit to the main county library last night. I don't go there very often because it is a bit of a drive for me, and there is a local library that is generally sufficient. Every once in a while, though, I like to go to the bigger location because they have such a wide selection. When I select movies for our viewing, I tend to drift through the stacks and pick up whatever appeals to my interests as I wander. The selection of movies is far better at the main branch. I drifted along and selected about 16 movies last night, only to find that the checkout limits have decreased to a maximum of ten movies at a time. I had to finagle to get a card for my husband so that I could bring home all the movies I had chosen. It's just easier that way. In the end, I brought home all the movies I had selected, so it was worth the extra hassle.

I talked to the library assistant for a bit about audio books last night because Kira adores The Magic Treehouse audio books. Unfortunately, there is a limit to just how many of those books there are and how many my library actually has. After a bit of discussion and browsing, I chose to bring home 4 new audio books.

     - Judy Moody Declares Independence
     - Cam Jansen and the Ghostly Mystery (Kira enjoyed the story, but I did not enjoy the narrator.)
     - Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the U.F.O.
     - Kit: An American Girl (Okay, I have to admit that I was prepared to dislike this. I have a natural aversion to History in just about any form. I decided to bring this home at the last minute even though I knew I would be seriously miserable having to listen to the story. Last night, in hopes of boring Kira to sleep, I put this in. Kira and I sat up until nearly 1:00 AM listening to Kit's story. Even after Kira was asleep, I continued to listen. I was absolutely captivated. The narration is engaging and the story is just amazing. I will definitely be finding more of these. )

Along with the four audio books, I also brought home several movies.

     - I Want to be a ... Firefighter: Explore a Career in Firefighting (I would really like to know where THIS movie was last year when Kira first became obsessed with fire. This movie would have saved me a ton of hassle and frustration.)
     - Savage Skies: Fire and Rain
     - Wetlands: Georgia's Vanishing Treasure
     - National Geographic: Ballad of the Irish Horse
     - Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: Going to School (I watched all of 5 minutes of this and turned it off. Did I really used to watch this show? )
     - National Geographic: Ocean Drifters
     - National Geographic: Dolphins, the Wild Side
     - National Geographic: Born of Fire
     - National Geographic: Killer Wave: The Power of the Tsunami
     - Life Science: All About Fish
     - National Geographic: Dinosaur Giants: FOUND
     - Eyewitness: Shark
     - Amazing Animals: Endangered Animals
     - National Geographic: Volcano!
     - Amazing Animals: Armored Animals
     - Eyewitness: Elephant
     - Eyewitness: Jungle

I also picked up one book - Real-Life Homeschooling by: Rhonda Barfield.