I feel like (for once in a long time) we have not been up to much. Just school, regular days, mundane chores, and some sickness. We don't have any extracurriculars right now, we don't have many obligations, and we haven't had many adventures. But I think it's what we've needed as winter closes out and spring is on the horizon!
We have been learning about the weather together. We have watched videos, read books, and done science experiments all related to weather. Isla and Ewan have been tracking the daily weather and have made tools like anemometers and rain gauges to help us track. Coincidentally enough, our co-op event was a learning day all about weather AND the homeschool class at the children's museum was all about weather (and in the same week too!). It's perfect timing as my sinuses have been gearing up for the temperature fluctuations and crazy storms too.
Other "happenings" (Eleanor's word for "things going on") in our life have been zoo class, hikes, playdates with friends, new and favorite recipes, hours outside, crafts inside, church, game and craft club with co-op, reading, garden-planning, house projects, time with grandparents, tornado warnings, and everything in between.
There is one mini trip we took recently to Chicago... just a little something to break up our days. And it counts as our "monthly trip challenge" that I have decided we are doing again this year :) It also counts as the best kind of field trip and days of learning. Every time we do something like this, I see how amazing it is that this is my children's education and Michael and I get to do it with them!
It was just a quick, overnight trip; but, lucky us, Chicago is only 2.5 hours away! We started with a visit to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum mostly because it was a free, reciprocal museum for us with our Children's Museum pass. It turned out to be a pretty cool place, minus the copious amounts of field trip visitors.
Then we walked a block to the Lincoln Park Zoo, which is free of charge... minus, the $80 we spent on lunch (oof!). We feel like we missed a lot of animals because of the cold, but we did get to see some fun ones like lions, gorillas, and Isla's favorite- parrots and snakes :)
Then it was off to the hotel, which is easily the kids's favorite part of any vacation. This one was really cool as we overlooked the city and the river. We swam in the freezing cold pool before ordering some famous Chicago pizza, which all the kids loved! And, for the first time ever, we all slept in one hotel room pretty well, which is a HUGE first for us (gone are the days of booking some kind of suite or putting a pack n' play in the bathroom).
In the morning, we headed out into the cold to a teeny, tiny, closet-sized donut shop where we bought the BEST donuts any of us have ever had. We ate our head-sized donuts in the hotel lobby :)
To end our trip, we visited the Adler Planetarium. It was also part of the reciprocal program so we only had to pay for the show, which was all about the moon. It was a really cool place with TONS of interactive learning, play spaces, and fun! Isla spent time making a parachute that she was able to test, Eleanor experienced her first planetarium show (where she asked me every 2 minutes if the room was moving), and Ewan spent a lonnnnng time driving a Mars rover :)
It was a (mostly) fun trip minus some bad coughs and poor communication ;) but we had a great time! I love adventures with my family and I love how much we ALL like to learn. We can't wait for our next trip!
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