First Field Trip! Skirball Cultural Center, Noah's Ark Exhibit.

Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles

What do you do to celebrate your 3rd day of homeschooling? Go on a field trip of course! I'm trying to do some fun stuff in these first few weeks of school to get the kids excited about what we're doing - yesterday was definitely fun!

Outside the Ark

So, why Skirball? We've ordered all of our curriculum for the year, but none of it is here yet! In the meantime, I put together a week of studies centered around the story of Noah's Ark! (I'll write another post last on what we did for the week in case anyone's interested.) And this exhibit fit perfectly in what we were talking about all week. And of course, the kids LOVE ANIMALS, so this was perfect.

Make it rain!

I think they were expecting a museum where you look around, but don't touch anything. This museum is the furthest from that - it is totally interactive for kids! There isn't anything that they can't touch! From making it storm with lightning, to a scavenger hunt to find all the animals throughout, the Skirball has done a great job with making this kid-friendly and interesting.

Using simple machines to control animals

Climbing the ropes to the top level.

Animals in the Ark

Gorilla family

Pull the rope to make the Elephant move and trumpet.

Friendly game of checkers.

Recycled Materials

 After you spend up to 2 hours in the exhibit, you are welcome to check out the rest of the museum. Since it was still technically summer, they have daily art projects. We stopped into the Art Studio where they invited the kids to make Ark Animals out of recycled materials (egg cartons, toilet paper rolls, buttons, fabric scraps, etc.). Sophia jumped right in - just like her Dad. Brandon had a harder time getting started - like me - but eventually came up with a creative and original idea all his own. In the end, we added a Panda and Crocodile to our family and a new-found interest in recycled art! What a great idea!

Finished Recycled Art Animals

So, definitely a successful day! Fun and educational! The kids and I loved it! Definitely worth the drive!

First Day of School

Today is our FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! 

We are super excited to begin our new family adventure that is homeschooling.

The beginning of school has been a test of patience for me. If you know me, you know that I am a super planner - it's a blessing and a curse! Our curriculum has been ordered through the charter school we are using, but it has not arrived yet. So, even though I am chomping at the bit to get started the the meat and potatoes, we are taking our first day slow and fun - working on self portrait art, letters to our future selves and goals for this year. The real fun will be later when we make our own ecosystem at home! (We're buying red-bellied toads for the "classroom".)

The rest of the this week is a unit study on Noah's ark that I put together. More on that later...

Twas the night before Homeschool...

Tomorrow morning starts our big adventure that the kids and I are very excited about! Since they've gone to bed, we have been quietly re-decorating the loft for a few surprises in the morning. Since the kids have been working with us throughout the summer on painting, choosing furniture, shopping and everything in between, I tried to save a few finishing touches to set the mood for homeschool tomorrow. Here are some photos of the Del Rosario Academy of Awesomeness!