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Homosassa Springs Field Trip

January 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment
One of my favorite places on the planet, Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park is just a wonderful way to spend the day.  The kids and I have gone there many times over the years and there’s always something new and interesting.  There weren’t many manatee to photograph this time, but we spent a lot of time with the birds and even got up close and personal with a bard owl.  If you’re in Central Florida, you really shouldn’t miss it.  Every animal is indigenous to Florida with the exception of Lucifer the hippo, who was made an honorary citizen by the late governor Lawton Chiles.  I really don’t know why Florida doesn’t do more to promote this park … the history and purpose are quite fascinating and it’s a beautiful area.
The weather was perfect – it’s going to be too hot to enjoy the park pretty soon – and we had a lovely day.
I was itchy to play with my new camera and these shots are straight out of the camera. I’m quite happy with my new toy.



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Bleachable Moments

November 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

 

I love being the host of great, big get togethers.  Our home has been the site of many a gathering and that’s just the way I like it. However, that also means that there are lots of messes to clean up, both before and after the party!

I love Clorox and I use it for everything.  Seriously.  I use it to clean my deck chairs after a season of non-use (in Florida we call that February). I use it to clean the grout in my shower, the inside of the toilet, the porcelain sinks.  I take everything out of the refrigerator and put some Clorox on a sponge and wipe it down for a spotless, and wonderful smelling refrigerator… The list is literally endless.

The most surprising thing though, about Clorox is that it can be used on color safe fabrics.  Almost all of my table cloths, towels, kitchen towels, oven mitts, etc – no matter the color get a little Clorox in the washer when they get washed.  I’ve been very surprised by how many things come out the same color they went in! (of course use your judgement on that particular tip).  And whites?  We don’t even need to get into those, do we?

But.

The most useful, the most necessary reason that we have “Bleachable Moments” in our house is because we’re homeschoolers.  That means that at any point in time, we’ll be dissecting owl pellets, comparing beetles, studying the mating habits of dragon flies, the life cycles of worms or even the adolescence of Blue Claw Crabs.  What that means is there are always creatures on our tables, in our bathtubs, or in our sinks and there is absolutely nothing that I trust to clean up those messes like Clorox Bleach.

 

Owl Pellet Dissection

Determining the Gender of Blue Claw Crabs

Trust me, there is nothing you want to make sure you clean more thoroughly than the site of animal science experiments.  It’s not pretty, but it sure keeps things interesting!

I received information about Clorox’s Bleach It Away campaign and am sharing my messy moment for the chance to win prizes from The SITS Girls. To learn more about the messy moment program, check out www.BleachItAway.com.  Sharing your story on the Clorox fan page gets you entered for the chance to win $25,000 and daily prizes, and you can grab a coupon for Clorox® Regular Bleach.




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Periodic Elements

August 30, 2011 By 1 Comment

 

I’m a big fan of mnemonics, songs and poems for learning.  Anything that can help a child (or me!) remember information and keep learning fun is a terrific thing. When I came across William Avery’s site YESnack.com I knew I had to share it.

An obviously accomplished young man, William taught English as a second language in Taiwan, majored in East Asian Studies and Computer Science and has written and produced some very creative songs for learning that have more of a fun, funky, beat and I was hooked immediately. This is definitely geared for the smaller child, but I might have to memorize “Periodic Elements – Little Things Mean a Lot”, myself.

YESnack.com is running a contest right now.  Use the contact form to enter -

The giveaway will be a free mp3 of the song “Periodic Elements – little things mean a lot”.  Especially creative or funny answers to the question from my contact page “what is your favorite element and why?” may be randomly chosen for a bonus prize of the “Learning Buffet” or “Cool Songs Collection”.

A great addition to your teaching tools, don’t you think? His CDs are available for download through his site, Amazon, iTunes and CDBaby.

Full disclosure: I was not compensated in anyway for this post – it’s just something I thought was useful and wanted to share with my readers.



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Eight Years of Homeschooling

April 1, 2011 By 11 Comments

Wow.  Really? Sometimes it seems as if it’s flown by and other times I feel like we’ve been doing this for a hundred years.  Our first day of homeschooling was April 1, 2003, and while it was supposed to be a temporary situation, it’s one of the longest temporary situations I’ve ever experienced.   I was scared to death that morning and by the end of the day, I remember feeling such a huge wave of relief.  The thought “we can do this” was very prevalent and while I was extremely naive and flying by the seat of my pants, we could and did do it.

There have been some very high highs and some very low lows, but mostly it’s been fine. We’ve made some life long friends that we never would have met had it not been for homeschooling and we met some others that I’m happy to never run into again.  Just like any other lifestyle choice, there is good and bad, but giving my children the opportunity to co-create their education and to explore their particular interests and talents has been invaluable.

I’ve said it many times, but I do believe that the most important thing we can teach our children is how to find the information that they need at the time that they need it.  I’m confident that I’ve done that.

This year might be our last homeschooling year – we’ve been discussing some more traditional options, so as we finish up this semester, there’s a possibility that our lives are going to drastically change by August.  We’ll see what the summer brings, but either way – this has been an incredible journey.

To those of you that have been here reading along from the beginning and to those who have joined up along the way – thank you for your interest, your support and your input. It’s been invaluable!


This is a picture of the children in the Florida Keys, on our first homeschool, total immersion field trip/unit study adventure.

 



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EARS Field Trip

February 22, 2011 By 6 Comments

Last week I got to pet a tiger.  A real, live, gigantic, beautiful tiger.  I met lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) and cougars and leopards and bobcats and a 250 year old turtle and bush babies and monkeys and lots of dogs and a couple of really special people who have dedicated their lives to taking care of these animals when no one else can, or will.

When I first heard about EARS a couple of weeks ago, I knew I wanted to visit and when I put the word out to our home school friends I found that lots of people wanted to go, so we set up a field trip.

From the website:

EARS is a not-for-profit organization that exists specifically to provide permanent homes for unwanted and/or abused endangered animals.  We also rescue animals that are in need of help. From tigers, lions and cougars to bears and monkeys… we have them all (over 200 in fact!).  We rely solely upon the support of the public through donations to keep EARS in operation. There are many ways you can help, from purchasing EARSgear, to adopting one of the many tigers, lions or cougars…

When we got there, I was surprised at just how many animals were there and the affection that their caregivers have for them.  It’s a huge operation with more work than I could have imagined.  The animals are behind fences, that have gates that open to much larger areas where the animals may roam at different times.  I have never been so close to these majestic animals and this experience is something I will never forget.

I’m certainly not naive and I wouldn’t go into the fenced area, but I was surprised at how affectionate they were with us.  Here’s one of the moms nuzzling with a lion.

Isn’t that incredible?

Located in Citra, Florida – it’s an easy drive from Ocala.  Visit the website and if you’re nearby, don’t miss it.  And if you can help, please do.



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