George's Garden Picnic

One day, Curious George wanted to have a garden.  He had an idea of how to get to the garden.  First, he made two compasses.  They weren't just any compasses.  They showed him where to go and which path to take underground.  So then, after that, he started digging.  He dug and he dug and he dug.  But then he realized he had a lot more to go, so he dug and he dug and he dug some more. 

Finally, he had finished the tunnels.  Then he ran over to Mrs. Rankin's barn.  They gave him some wood for his cabin door and everything else he was making.  He collected a bunch of acorns for a picnic with Jumpy Squirrel.  got some bird food for the birds at the picnic. 

And then he got to buying some seeds.  When he had planted them and they had grown, he was immediately surprised.  Instead of growing bananas or oranges, it grew banangerines!  He built him a birdhouse and a pretend squirrel tree. 

So then the day came that he decided to invite Mrs. Rankin  and his neighbor, Bill, to the picnic.  But he told them they would have to stay right behind him because of where they were going. 

George went inside and got a flashlight.  He opened the cabin door and started to climb down.  And everyone else followed him.  And they ran with the flashlight on.  They quickly found their way with the first compass.  They quickly found their way on the first turn.  Then they had to come to the second compass. 

And then they arrived at the picnic.  George filled up the bird feeder with bird food and he put some squirrel nuts inside the hole in the fake squirrel tree.  They all had a great picnic. 

The End.

St. Louis Zoo...Free, Hands-On Education!

The boys and I went to the zoo this afternoon and had a terrific time, as always.  I cannot speak high enough praise for the St. Louis Zoo.  We focused on insects, primates, apes, and reptiles on this trip.  The boys on a sculpture outside of the Insectarium.

Resting for a bit outside:)

  The "begged" me to take their picture with this statue.  They loved the snakes, especially the Burmese Python. 

On the gorilla statue before the real thing.

Ahh...brotherly love...with sun in your eyes.

Ready to go home????

Joshua learned about endangered animals on this trip and tried to figure out if each animal we saw was endangered or threatened.  He deciphered the map for us and we took our time reading along the way. 

Photography 101

Pictures of fan and laundry basket lid

Joshua's self portrait

Fire Station Open House

A local fire station had an open house this past weekend that the boys absolutely loved!Joshua exiting the "smoke house" after being trained on what to do in case there is ever a fire in our home. 

He got to put out a "fire" with a real fire hose!We got to see a very old fire "truck"!

We also rode on the back of a fire truck...totally awesome!

It's All Relative

The kids were pretending to be scientists today and calling themselves Dr. Einstein, Professor Einstein, and Baby Einstein.  I asked them if they knew who Einstein was and they knew that he was a scientist.  This started us on a quest to find out some more information.  We discovered a         nice article for kids about Einstein and the theory of relativity.  Joshua really seemed to latch onto the example of an infinitely tall building in which you are in the elevator  falling.  It doesn't feel like you are falling at all, but if people saw you from the outside, they would see you falling.  If you saw them, they would look like they are flying up.

Caterpillar Investigation

We found a caterpillar and observed (played with) it. :)

Journal

Joshua made a journal at art camp this summer and has started using it for everything under the sun.  He has wrote stories and also narrated short stories that other people have written down for him.  There is some poetry and charting of snacks.  A new notebook has resulted in Joshua WANTING to write, which is great practice for his handwriting without all of the repetitive worksheets that he doesn't like!