A day at the zoo!

I am incredibly proud of myself today. I made it all the way into the DC zoo without once getting lost. The weather the last couple days has been amazing- 70 degrees, sunny. just perfect for a midweek zoo trip to beat the normal crowds. The zoo was not busy at all and we got first class looks at some of the animals. We got up close to the Komodo Dragon, and we got to talk to the volunteer about the Spiny Lobster. The man was passionate about the spiny lobster and really attached to the one at the zoo. The lobster was older than spiny lobsters usually got and he had hidden himself and wouldn't eat. The man told us he was afraid the lobster was dying, but hoped he was molting. It was nice to be one of only a couple people in the invertabrates building. We went into the think Tank, which talks about the way animals think and Rachael was intrigued by the casts of the animals brains. They had a whole row of them, from little to big and we talked about the differences in the brains. Then we went around the room and looked at other things. About 15 minutes later we passed the brains on our way out and Rachael ran over and listed which brain belonged to which animal. She remembered them! We finished the afternoon with an ice cream break while the girls ran around. Unfortunately, Trevor has a cold and was feeling pretty run down after 2 hours of meandering the zoo. So he lay down next to me while the girls ran around. All in all, it was a wonderful day! If this had been a weekend, the zoo would have been PACKED!


New homeschooling supplies! I got my Rainbow Resource order today. It is fantastic! I can't wait to start. Story of the World (top right) is a classical style history curriculum. The small book I read out of and the bigger book is the activity book which outlines different activities, supplemental reading, crafts, narration, etc I can do based on what we have read in the smaller book. It goes through history chronologically, which I like a bit more than his current curriculum. Top left is a Grade one math book which has geometry, fractions, etc in it. We'll work that but mostly in Developmental math (in the middle top). Bottom left is our main science curriculum which was I really impressed with. It's Chemistry and there's a hardcover textbook, with a teacher's guide and a student's lab book. Lot of experiments. The first chapter talks about atoms. It looks really neat and very kid friendly. I have two other Singapore science books- very supplemental. They are definitely not complete. Finally, we'll do Spanish once a week with our other curriculum, which I hope is good.


Trevor on the bears during our zoo trip.


Looking at the lions, which, oddly enough, i can't see in the picture now. Most of the enclosures were empty and guys were working on the "moats" around them. But there were two lionesses in this one.


All three of them fit in that T Rex skull!


The Komodo Dragon spent a long time studying us from the middle of his cage. We were the only ones by his cage. Suddenly, he lumbered right up to the front of the glass and sat there, head high, flicking his tongue in and out at us. He was soooo cool. I think he was our favourite part, just because he was so close.


My favourite animal EVER.. LEMURS!!!


Taking an ice cream break.


Girls playing ring around the rosy. Trevor didn't feel good, he has a cold, so he was laying beside me on the bench. Rachael picked her pretty outfit today. :)