Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

As you might have guessed by now our kids love animals. Since we have the membership to the Erie Zoo we have the luxury of going to the reciprocal zoos as well. One of my goals for the summer is to visit all of the free zoos within 2 hours of us, my parents house and Drew's parent's house. First on our list was the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. It's much larger than our zoo here in Erie. It was well kept but for our first time there, confusing.

At first, I felt like I was in the labyrinth. After we went further into the zoo it got better. Exhibits that stood out were the elephants, the Sarah Allison Steffee Center for Zoological Medicine, the sharks, and the seals. Something else that we loved was the African drumming and dancing in the Elephant's Crossing area. Benjamin was so intrigued with that that when we tried to leave he grabbed onto a pole and wouldn't let go. As we went through the exhibits we read about the animals; where they live, what they eat and other random facts. I am sure that we missed some animals but at least we'll have something to look forward to the next time we go. One thing that I am sure we missed was the rain forest. We actually didn't see the building until on our drive out of the zoo.

The Sarah Allison Steffee Center for Zoological Medicine- Looking at x-rays of a turtle and a snake carrying eggs.

The surgical room that you can actually sit and watch them do procedures. We thought that was awesome! Emma would like to be a zoologist and so we thought this was great for her!

Colobus Monkey Statue- The kids are pretending to pick bugs off of it :)

The Elephants- Emma was so excited to see "real elephants"!

Benjamin feeling how an elephant's tusk is heavy.

The African Drum and Dance group.

P.S.- You can usually tell when I (Kristin) am posting because of the surplus of photos :). I hope you enjoy!

Names, Pizza and Zoo

The kids and their friend Cooper coloring the letters in their names. Then I had them lay out their letters to spell their names. Emma learned how to spell our last name that day.

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Making pizza for dinner. The kids were learning how to stretch and press the dough.

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Socializing in front of the tiger's cage. There was a daycare group there also and the kids were being loud. For the first time we heard and saw a tiger in action. It was roaring and pouncing on the window. I have to say, it was awesome hearing the powerful roar of the tiger, but at the same time, we didn't want to stick around to allow the kids to be frightened by it.

Little buddies. In nursery, these two are usually sitting together.

Friday was my first venture taking the kids to the zoo to meet friends without Drew. Much to our surprise, it worked out very well. All of our kids were well behaved and we all had a great time! We will definitely be doing that again!

Early Father's Day

Friday, the kids and I worked on getting gifts ready for Father's Day. Little did I know that Father's Day is next Sunday instead of today. So, since the kids can't keep secrets yet, we celebrated Father's Day early. As soon as Drew came home Friday from work the kids spilled the beans. There was no waiting. Within minutes Drew was on the couch being showered with gifts.

Emma painted an American Kestrel (her favorite bird)

Benjamin painted an Eastern Bluebird

Hannah just painted

Emma's finished project. Framed and ready to be hung on Drew's wall at work.

Benjamin's Bluebird completed.

Hannah's abstract bird completed.


Squeeze hugs!!!


Daddy Pile!!!

Presidents and Plasticware

...written by Drew

Children these days spend far too much time in front of a tv or computer screen, and not nearly enough time in disease bearing, lyme disease breeding, mosquito infested woods. Why should these young minds be indoctrinated with the imminent threat of nuclear annihilation (evening news) or some gruesome mass murdering sycophant (CSI), when they can find fear in the simple residents of a local wood?

This change in our culture is exacerbated by a disturbing lack of educational materials connecting our presidents with their eating utensils. With the plethora of fundamentally flawed curriculum accessible, and the continued proliferation of books of mass delusion, it is truly befuddling that we do not have an elementary school edition of an authoritative compendium on presidents and plasticware.

Fear not, for our children shall have both, even if we need to use million dollar satellites to do it!

Week of May 28th Through June 4th's Random Activities

Firefighter teaching the kids about the color coordination for the hoses and the levers at the Big Equipment day at the Zoo.

Benjamin on a big piece of equipment (I don't know what it was called)

Emma's turn on the same thing.

Benjamin's first trip to the Library! He got his own card and took out a few books and DVDs.

Practicing her writing!!!

Making our official LIBRARY bag

Side One- Finished!

If You... Last Time... Look at the... Making a Cake at Home!

...written by Drew

I was born on the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, so I've grown fond of peasant revolts - especially when there is cake involved. In a cataclysmic collapse of common sense, in the midst of a minor post-lunch living room revolution, my "keep them engaged" paradigm temporarily overthrew my "Kristin isn't home, must simply survive" tactics. Watch, enjoy, and then imagine all that I cut out...

Surround Sound Stereotypes

...written by Drew

Friends, family, acquaintances, strangers and nine out of ten dentists agree that homeschooled children are socially weird. This stereotyping, though not completely unfounded, is well documented. Until now, I have always attempt to respond to this with reason, logic, and situational argumentation to illustrate the irrationality of the discourse. No longer. No, from now on, I will apply what I have learned so well from the Master - tell a story, and let it be with those that have ears to hear. This will be my story:

A family went to a park one day to give their three young children a chance to play outdoors and enjoy the company of fellow youngsters. Upon arrival, they found the park devoid of others, save two boys around the age of ten.

For a few moments all of the children stand staring at each other as if stuck in a cliche western movie, each frozen while internally sizing up the opponents. They stare. The sun beats down on the hot playground, and they stare. Those glancing seconds feel like an eternity as everyone waits for a first move. As if realizing that the young ones are not worth their reproach, the older boys continue back into their conversation with the smaller of the two saying "Yeah, when I turn 21, I'm going to get drunk and shoot off my pistol."

Recycled T-Shirt Bags

Walking out of the library yesterday, I quickly realized that a bag for our library items was greatly needed. So, when we got home I looked online for a no sew tote bag. One of the main ones I found was a recycled T-shirt bag at http://www.artistshelpingchildren.org. The bag that we created is shown here.

We used one of Emma's shirts that had sentimental value. This Nemo shirt was bought when her Mom Mom took her to Nemo On Ice.

Another bag I found was a recycled T-shirt bag at www.leethal.net. This one had the same idea for the handles but the bottom is different.

This shirt is a shirt Drew's Grandmom bought for Emma from Washington Crossing.

Ideally I would have wanted to sew bags for them but not having a sewing machine really limits the sewing activites we can do.

Library Card

I have to admit, and I'm a bit embarrassed by it, but we have never taken our kids to the library. I don't know why! It seems like it would be a logical place for us to take our kids, especially since we are home educating. Well, I'm not sure why, but Emma has been begging to go to the library for the past few days. We take them to B&N and we buy them books when we can, but she wanted to go to the library. Good for her! We aren't going to stop her from exploring.

So, when Drew surprised us today by coming home after a few hours of working, we took that opportunity to go to the library, just Emma and myself. We did, however, have to be back in time for Drew to go back to work for a few hours ( I love that he is able to flex his time). When we got to the library we opened an account. I got a card for myself and Emma got her own. She was so excited. One thing I learned from this trip is that we really have to work on teaching her how to write her full name, address, phone number and birth date. The Librarian asked her all of those questions and I was a bit disappointed in myself for not teaching her those things in depth sooner. I know they are very important, so that's something we will be working on from here on out.

After our account was set up we learned about how long the books, dvd's and so on are allowed to be borrowed. Then, the Librarian told us where the children's books are located. The Librarian asked Emma if there were any books that she was looking for in specific and Emma replied, "Bird books." So the Librarian located one children's bird book and another bird book from the adult's non-fiction section. We then looked around, found 3 dvd's and 4 picture books, 2 of which were for Benjamin. I was really surprised at the amount of books that we are allowed to take out at once. 100 books is a bit much but it's nice to know that we won't have to worry about a limit really. Another very nice thing about the library here is that we can return the items to any of the Erie County Libraries. That will come in handy when I will have Drew return books or dvd's at the Edinboro location.

When we returned home, Drew had to leave right away to get to a school for his work, but Emma, Benjamin and I sat down and read 2 books right away. Now they are both watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs while I write this post.

I think I might be just as excited if not more than Emma about the library.

Reading in Peace written by Kristin

While having a quiet house last night with Drew, Hannah and Benjamin at the park, Emma and I were able to read together. I read her chapter 2 of the Disney Fairy book and she helped read a little in Danny and the Dinosaur. I am proud of her. She is really starting to get a few of the sight words like the, to, and, he and a few others. The other words we have her sound out and she's doing really well with that also.

After we finished with those, we read "The Mini Page" this article was called "Yesterday's Games." It explained different games that generations before technology would have played. It included games like Marbles, Hopscotch, Telephone, Crack the Whip, three legged races and a few others. A lot of them I remember playing when I was little and I would love to pass them down to our kids. Overall it was a relaxing evening with Emma.