Friends + Wildlife = Fun

Many of the animals at the Maine Wildlife Park were brought here because they were injured or orphaned, or because they were human dependent - raised, sometimes illegally, in captivity. The Park serves as a permanent home for wildlife that cannot survive in the Wild. All kinds of animals are here for their protection and healing. And they're here for you to enjoy and learn more about. Maine Wildlife Park

My kids and I spent a wonderful afternoon at the park with another family. The park is perfect for a nice, meandering walk to enjoy special friends and interesting native wildlife. We didn't let a few sprinkles slow us down!

Our young navigators' poured over their maps and came up with a plan on what direction we should meander through the park. (Sam knew not to trust MY directional abilities...) Eventually both gave up on the map reading for animal viewing and an occasional game of tag.

I know that porcupine's aren't the cutest, sweetest things around, but how can you not just love this little guy "standing up" and looking at us through the wire? He had a strange gait so perhaps it's healing from leg injuries.

We saw lots of different bird species including owls, falcons, vultures, quail, and even eagles, but peacocks have to be the most beautiful...with some of the LOUDEST, most ANNOYING calls ever. Have you ever heard them?

The kids especially seemed to enjoy the bears. There were two of these - one smaller, black and anther larger, brown, both shedding out their coats and a bit shaggy looking. It was interesting to see a lone chipmunk snagging some of the vending feed visitors can toss into the bear enclosure. It looked WELL fed!

And just past the coyotes, behind the "not on exhibit" mountain lion, and the lynx and bobcats enclosures are the moose. We couldn't miss the moose!

But look! We found some "monkeys" in a tree near the parking lot after our visit ended. (Why yes, that kid is mine!)

Take a Hike: Along the Kanc

It's peak foliage season in northern parts of New Hampshire and Maine, and one of the most beautiful places to visit, IMO, is along the Kancamagus Highway in the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire.

The Kanc is a 34.5 mile scenic byway through central New Hampshire.  The road winds through evergreen and broadleaf forests and along flowing streams, and rises to an elevation of 3000 feet over Mount Kancamagus. There are numerous scenic pull-outs with amazing views as well as miles of hiking trails, small waterfalls and even covered bridges. An amazing nature experience!

So, Friday morning we packed up a hearty lunch cooler, filled water bottles, laced up our Bean hiking boots, and headed out for a day-long "leaf peeping" road trip. 

But it turned out to be a day of waterfalls!

Our first stop was Sabbaday Falls. A quick 1/3 mile walk in on a wide, tree-lined trail and you're at the falls. It's cool, damp and slippery! Sugar Maple and I enjoyed the antics of a chipmunk on the return trip.

Our next stop was the Rocky Gorge Scenic Area. Rocky Gorge was SUPER busy and even finding a parking spot was difficult. We didn't stay long and skipped the 1 mile hiking loop. But it did have beautiful views!

We stopped at Lower Falls for a picnic lunch and lots of wet fun! We've been here a few times on past drives and it's always a favorite. Although the falls aren't impressive, the Swift River with its shallow pools and smooth rocks is an endless supply of explorations and we stayed for a few hours. Balsam Fir ended up slipping into the water while wading and got soaked. He took FULL ADVANTAGE of his "wetness"! ::wink:: Lower Falls is just one of those nature spots that the kids never seem to tire of.

But we saved the best for last! After meandering through the rest of the Kanc and finding side roads around heavy "leaf peeper" traffic, we found Diana's Baths in Bartlett, New Hampshire. Diana's Baths are a series of small waterfalls, shallow bowl-shaped wading pools and a rocky gorge in the middle of the forest. It's a popular spot in the summer and with school groups, but we arrived later in the day and only a few families were there. There was lots of opportunities for "bouldering" (i.e. climbing rocks) and wading in the icy water, and if we weren't getting tired and hungry, I think we could've spent HOURS and HOURS exploring!

After dinner at 99 in North Conway, we finally headed back home. Unfortunately, traffic was backed up for MILES heading into Maine for the Fryeburg Fair. White Pine was able to use my Tom Tom and plot a route through side roads to get us around it, but it still took about 45 minutes to go 2 miles to reach a road that would work. ::sigh:: We were quite amused to see a man jump out of a car in front of us, walk to a gas station and then return with refreshments for his friends in the car...and we had only moved about 100 feet. We hit the road at 8:30am and arrived home at 7:30pm. Phew! But what a great day of exploring!

Curds and Whey: April 28 - May 4

In My Life This Week
Closer and closer! Why does it seem like the last few weeks of the end of a school year drag? It's not that we don't WANT to school anymore, but we're certainly ready to enjoy summer-ish weather (I hope) and less structured days. (I can't say LESS BUSY because summer seems busier than the school year does!) T minus 5 days...maybe!

In Our Homeschool This Week
Blue Spruce and Balsam Fir spent the weekend being Wampanoag on Plimouth Plantation, Massachusetts with other Cub Scouts. They even ate a traditional Wampanoag dinner! But before they even arrived, they spent some time at the Museum of Science in Boston.  (I sent them along with my latest Bento creation for Balsam Fir's lunch and snacks. LOL) A FULL weekend of Daddy-Son fun!

Kozy Shack Apple-Cinnamon Bread Pudding Cup, Cocoa
Roasted Almonds, PB and J on Wheat Cubes, Hard-Boiled
Egg, Cheddar Cheese and Turkey Bites, Pineapple and
Apple, and Green Pepper, Celery and Carrot Sticks

Ms. P at the farm was nice enough to hold a 3 hour cheese-making class for "older kids" (i.e. 7+) on Tuesday. We requested this class back in February so a SPECIAL THANKS to Ms. P for doing this! We visited the cows and the farm creamery and learned about the SCIENCE behind making cheese...and then made cheese curd! Cheese curds = yumminess! And then watched a man catch fish from the pond - Balsam Fir had LOTS of questions for him, but he was very patient and showed Balsam Fir his FISH DINNER! ((wink)) - and found tadpoles with frog legs just peaking out by their tails. And finished the day with some Grammar and Math and "chicken chasin'" at home.

Separated Curds and Whey

Squeezing Out the Whey - Cheese Ball!

Cow Kisses!

The Pond

All 3 Saplings continued to prod through their remaining Language Arts and Math lessons. There's a pretty good chance that both White Pine and Sugar Maple won't be finishing up ALL their Math lessons this year. Does it REALLY matter?

In our "downtime", we watched "How Stuff Works: Food and Beverage", "How to Train Your Dragon" and (of course) "Surviviorman" from Netflix. "How Stuff Works" is pretty cool because it shows how our food is processed and changed into both food and non-food items, how it effects our bodies, where the food or drink is grown or produced, and why it's important in our culture.

Helpful Homeschool Hint
Oh, do you have kids in K-2? I found this NEAT website on Pinterest for educational games, videos and stories for Language Arts, Math, Science, and even keyboarding. Free! (Free is good, right? LOL) Check out Cookie here!

Linking Up

Fabulous Fall Fun: September 24 - 30

Homeschool Happenings

Safety! One of our favorite fall traditions is to go to our lil' town's Safety Day at the fire station and see all the shiny red fire trucks and the inside of an ambulance. The kids learned what to do in a smoke filled room. "Get low!" "Don't answer the phone!" We watched rescuers dismantle a Ford with the jaws-of-life and a bucket of firemen rise HIGH into the overcast sky. Sweet Tart got to drive an ATV (with a helmet of course). But our favorite - the K-9 demonstration - is the best!

Awesome Apples! We picked a 1/2 bushel of MacIntosh and Red Delicious apples on Sunday, making our first yummy apple crisp of the season! So, we decided to drop John Cabot this week, and study another John - Johnny Appleseed! We watched these You Tube videos of Disney's 1948 Johnny Appleseed.

But we had to do some apple activities too, right?

Sweet Tart's Color-by-Number from Printables 4 Kids

Sprinter's Parts of an Apple, Map of Johnny's Travels and Summary

Sweet Tart's Finger/Hand Print Apple Tree

Sprinter's Finger/Hand Print Apple Tree

Solar Power! This week our Astronomy studies focused on the sun. We made  a pizza box solar oven to bake English Muffin pizzas and used a paper sun dial to tell time. Our oven didn't quite bake our pizzas, but the inside temperature did reach 110.1 degrees with an outside temperature of 83.1 degrees. And our sun dial was accurate within 10 minutes, but we discussed how the sun's shadow in the dial could be affected by how close to magnetic north our paper was pointing and how straight our gnomon was. (The kids are already talking about changes they could make to increase oven temperature! LOL)

Our Pizza Box Solar Oven with Pizzas

Our Paper Sun Dial Around Noontime

Jag and Sweet Tart had their first Saxon Grammar and Writing tests. Both kids are working a grade level ahead and the work is challenging, so I was QUITE happy with Jag's 99% and Sweet Tart's 89%.

Here's what Sweet Tart and Jag are reading:

Places We Went and People We Saw

• Soccer, soccer, soccer! (Did I mention this already?! LOL) 
• Another Saturday at Rec Hoops! Lovin' this! 
• Junior Girl Scouts bake sale was a SUCCESS! 
• 3 Scout meetings 
• Hangin' out with the neighbor's boys 
• Ice Cream at the Space-themed Parlor! (We each ordered a "Mars". LOL)   
• Toot! Clarinet Lesson for Sweet Tart 
• An evening of babysitting a little girl for Sweet Tart (while we're around to help of course)

Our Favorite Thing(s) This Week

Field Trip Friday! This week we drove through the beautiful White Mountain National Forest on the Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire and explored Lost River Gorge and Boulder Caves.

Mountains Galore on the Kancamagus Highway

Lower Fall Scenic Rest Stop

Sprinter's Getting A little Big for HIS Cave

Lemon Squeezer Cave -  You HAVE to Fit Through This

Jag's Rock Finds

Sprinter Making Friends at Mt Willey on the Saco River

Linking Up With: