V is for Vintage, a field trip

We took a field trip to a local antique mall but before we stopped at our local Walmart for a Subway lunch. Nathan loves going to Subway because he can make his sub exactly the way he wants it.

We arrived at Lafayette Schoolhouse Antique mall as a history lesson. Thankfully there were not a lot of cars or a lot of people at the mall today.

Nathan was captivated by the vintage cars, he was thinking he might like to add a few to his collection of Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars.

Mommy on the other hand was dreaming of a new to me couch for the living room, hey a girl can dream can't see.

Nathan found a gate leg table like we have in our hallway, he thought this one was better because it had a drawer in the middle to hide treasures in.

He also found an old Playskool brand wooden take a part truck he thought would be lots of fun, even if he is a little old for that.

Overall he learned about toys and treasures from by gone days and we talked about when the various toys were made and what kinds of things were happening during those eras. 

2012 a few of our favorite things

2012 has been a crazy year. I thought I would share a few of our favorite things. (in no particular order)

   In January Nathan learned to drive a car being towed. He has since been a huge help in the shop.

The boys participated in several Champion for Kids service projects while shopping at our local Walmart store. They learned about giving back and helping out.

We took a couple trips to the Oregon Zoo including a special Summer Concert trip. The boys loved watching the giraffes.

We attended the OCEANetwork Homeschool conference where Nathan and Daddy got to dissect a sea star.

The boys found out that our backyard pond is a great place to learn and play in the summer heat.

The boys participated in the summer reading program through the local library, each earned a t-shirt and trophy and Nathan won a huge box of fuzoodles.

The boys got a true living history unit study with Papa when he did a unit on the Korean War from the perspective of someone that served. I am proud to say my Dad is an Army veteran of the Korean War.

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We participated in the Homeschool Day at the Oregon Gardens with lots of other homeschoolers on a beautiful September afternoon.

Nathan and Daddy learned a lot about working trucks as they pulled the well pump out with a rope truck and put a new well pump in with the same truck as their tool

We spent several afternoons at the new local indoor play and party center Imagine: Play

Mostly we had fun learning together as a family.

Field Trip to the Oregon Gardens

This has become an annual event for us and I am so glad I decided to do it again this year.
This year I decided to add a more organized activity to the mix by giving the boys a scavenger hunt to notebook as they made stops at the various activity stations. I found a wonderful full color printable scavenger hunt at The Taylor House blog. I printed copies half sized so they would fit inside the boys' composition books and add a pencil and crayons to their backpacks and off we went.

Cameron was excited to take his backpack and add his Gtuzy Gear straps just for the occasion.
We headed into the garden knowing that we would have at least 8 or 9 stations with activities to try plus exploring the garden. I knew we would likely run into some of our homeschool friends as well. My plan was to be to the garden by 11:00 and heading home by 1:45 at the latest. The idea being, that we would be there when our friends were there and we would be done before the local school let out as to miss traffic.
Ready , Set , off we Go!

The boys found a larger map to look at the figure out their plan. Since this was our third year attending this activity we already knew where most of the stations were located. We decided to only do the upper level activities in an attempt to combine our scavenger hunt and keep our timeline.

Nathan was very excited about the scavenger hunt and made a point to stop and draw in his notebook often.

Cameron found one of his homeschool friends and they checked out the insect station taking on the sorting activity to test their knowledge.  Watching Cameron do this activity reminds me that I want to print and laminate some sorting cards for various activities.

Nathan couldn't help himself, he surveyed the crossing  for several minutes before deciding he had to jump it.

Nothing but air!
He is such a dare devil, no fear!

This is just one of the plants we decided we want to find and plant in our yard. I'm dreaming up a plants unit study for the boys and maybe a landscape design project for them.

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures I took on our field trip, check out my Google+ album

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Staycation, School , and Adventures

Are you staying home this summer?

 Do you school year round?

 Are you looking for adventures this summer?

 If you answered yes to any of the above I'd like to share some ideas for some fun, simple, and some affordable field trips for this summer.
My boys love nature hikes, even ones in our own backyard are fun. If you have a local nature preserve or a nature park these are great field trips especially during the summer, take a notebook and coloring supplies and draw what you see. 
Local museums are always a great thing to check out, but what about your local historical society? Are there interesting local mysteries or myths. Historical society museums are a great field trip and sometime even if you have lived in the same area for a long time you might learn something new. 
Letter boxing is a great summer activity for the whole family. You can search online for local hidden boxes so if you don't or can't travel far you can still have fun. 
Another fun stay-cation type field trip is the local library. We like to make a scavenger hunt or "I spy" game out of it. I will tell them I am looking for a book about_____. and then let them find it, it sounds simple but we have found so many rabbit trails because of this activity. The boys will spot a book while they are searching for the one I asked for and want to read it or ask a question about something the see on a cover.
Check out local children's museums and water parks. Many tourist destinations also have group rates, get a group of friends together and save money on many field trips. 
Play tourist in our own county by checking out all those travel brochures usually found at the visitor information centers in rest stops, you may even find something new.


What are your favorite summer field trip type activities?

F is for Free Fun #educational

Local Free Fun ideas!!! Especially with summer coming, I thought I would share a Free Fun activity we enjoy locally.

The local Aviation and Space Museum has an awesome outdoor play structure for the kids to play on.  It is convenient to most other activities we enjoy. The cell signal is strong so Mommy can get some work done while the boys climb, slide, explore, and generally have a fun time playing on the various structures.

Cameron enjoys the short slide

and climbing up and down the ladder pieces

Nathan enjoys the tubes 

and climbing the chain ladder

Now if you are interested in the educational museums on the same grounds, there is a fee but it is worth the money to take the kids to the air museum or the space museum. There is also an awesome IMAX theater as well as a great water park which have separate fees.

Favorite Field Trips

Do you have a favorite Field Trip?
I do!

During the summer we had the amazing opportunity to spend the day at Evergreen Wings and Waves waterpark. You might be thinking that isn't a field trip, oh but it was. Wings and Waves has an amazing upstairs room filled with stations that teach about the water cycle, submarines, the Mars rover, the moon landing, tidal waves, and the various states of water. There is also a serious of symbols about energy efficiencies in the building that kids can see out the windows.
Downstairs in the waterpark itself there is a wave pool, a wirlpool , a hottub, 4 tube slides that start inside the 747 on the roof, and a kids play area that includes a helicopter that dumps water on the forest.  Of course this is the fun area of the field trip, but as you are waiting in line for the slides you learn about the 747 and when you get to the top of the stairs you are actually inside the 747 where you can watch a video of the lifting of the plane onto the rooftop.


Admission and Schedule, you can also contact them about group rates.
The water park as well as the Air and Space Museums on the same campus have educational programs and scouting programs available

First #FieldTrip of the #Homeschool Year: #Aquarium

Thursday was Field Trip Day at Unionvale Homeschool.

We traveled 2 hours South West to Newport for a visit to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. The boys received a Groupon gift certificate from Auntie for Easter this past year and it was about to expire so off we went.  We made a stop in Lincoln City at McDonald's for a quick lunch (I didn't have enough time to get a lunch packed in the morning...)


We finally made it to the Aquarium and headed in. The path from the parking lot is a very nice paved nature trail with a small stream which Nathan was very interested in. He wanted a picture of the stream and plants so I let him take the photo.. Not too bad for a 6 year old wild kid.

 The boys thoroughly enjoyed the touch pool although at first they weren't sure if they were going to actually touch any of the creatures. I told them it had always been my favorite part of the Aquarium when I was little and showed them it was ok to touch the creatures, then they started gently touching each different star fish and anenomi. We spent probably 20 minutes exploring the tide pool , touch pool.

 We all found a quiet solace in just watching the fish  through the glass. And even more so once we made it to the tunnel to walk through the water and see all the fish in their own environments.  We sat on the floor and got lost looking up to the fish.

 We found the children's outside play area and all enjoyed the animal statues to climb and sit on. Even unvlDad got in on the fun.  It isn't often you can get my boys to sit together , this was about as good as it gets.

We made our way back to see the Aviary , the seal lions, and sea otters  The Aviary was actually really neat we got to see the birds up close. It was amazing to interact with the birds as if they understood what we were saying. The boys had a lot of fun with that.

 We left the Aquarium and headed back across the Yaquina Bay Bridge to find some beach to play on. We ended up at a neat little park with a very long windy path down to the beach.  The boys and Mommy played in the water while Daddy hung back and rested a bit.  Yes I was in the water, I hiked my skirt up so I wouldn't get too wet.

We ended the day with a drive back to Lincoln City for dinner at the McMennamin's Lighthouse Pub where we reviewed all we saw and drew pictures. After all was said and done I had to see the sunset on the beach so we went around the corner to Road's End beach park to watch the sunset before we drove home.

Field Trip: Willamette River Queen and RiverFront Park

We joined SASH for a fun afternoon on the Willamette River Queen today. Although the sky was cloudy and the wind was lightly blowing we still had fun. Cameron even decided to "drive" the boat and was put in an sailor's hat to take the wheel. Perfect as our mascot is a sailor.



Cameron tried out some new toys at the park and found out you can fly!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="375" caption="Cameron can fly"][/caption]

Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

We joined SASH on a field trip to Bauman Farms for a pumpkin patch trip to beat all. The whole family went and made day of it. We each got to pick a pumpkin, a gourd, and an Indian corn. There was a maze with 1 way out (down a tube slide), a play ground, a pirate ship with another huge tube slide, and lots of hay bale art. I won't post all the photos as I think I ended the day with about 50. Needless to say we had fun and it was great to meet some of the moms I have been chatting with online.

[caption id="attachment_101" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="SASH field trip to Bauman Farms"][/caption]

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