Sea Life Park

Ok, I've just written it for the second time since Blogger ate it last week... If you want to read about Crumpet's birthday trip to Sea Life Park, you can see the post here.

Field Tripping - Geocaching

I've been wanting to write about our new hobby for a while, but haven't had the time. We went geocaching yesterday with friends, though, and it was so much fun that I just have to write this post in case it sounds like something any of you would be interested in. We introduced these friends to it a few weeks ago, and they are completely addicted.
We are a family that loves to be outside, and we love hiking and exploring. That can be difficult with a 4 year old who likes to be carried everywhere though. Geocaching has changed everything for us. It is essentially a treasure hunt using your car GPS, or any of the very specialized GPS units made for geocaching.
There are caches hidden all over the world, and there are hundreds of them on this island. Most caches are small containers which have a paper log and pen, so you can prove you've been there. Many have cheap little toys for trading, which is what Crumpet loves. If you take a toy, you must leave a toy. I usually buy packs of party favors, and leave one in each cache. There are also tracking coins which you take and leave in another cache further away, and you can follow their journey around the world online if you choose. We haven't taken any of those yet, but we're hoping to get to Japan and then we'll take a few with us!
There are a variety of GPS units that you can use. We started out just using our handheld car GPS. You enter the coordinates of the cache and move around until you reach approximately the correct latitude and longitude. Once you get within 20 feet or so, you just have to look around for piles of rocks:
cool trees:
or some other likely hiding spot. Often, there are hints to help you get closer on the geocaching website.
There are very expensive, hi tech geocaching units and I'd love to have one someday. For now, though we bought a Geomate Jr. (about $80) which is a child's GPS unit made just for geocaching.
I find this much easier than the car GPS unit. When you arrive at a location where you'd like to go hunting for treasure, you turn on the unit and it tells you where the nearest 20 caches are. All you do is follow the arrow on the screen until you reach the right spot. SO easy. I admit that I did not like this unit at first though. It is possible that you will end up climbing down cliffs and walking through ponds (yes, we've done both) if you don't prepare before you leave the house. Now we print a quick map of the terrain and the location of the caches we're hoping to find so we know what to expect and what direction we should try to approach from.
Now, when we go hiking, Crumpet is excited about finding the next cache and forgets about the fact that he's exercising. It's not uncommon for us to go on 3 or 4 hour hikes these days. Of course, there are times when it's nice to take a break on Dad's shoulders, like when you're hiking up a steep rocky path surrounded by cactus... This trail led us to the top of a hill
With this view:

Which is something else we love about geocaching. We have ended up in some phenomenal places that we never would have found if we weren't out geocaching. It's a great way to see unusual, off -the-beaten-track places.
A cache was hidden in this hole:
Everywhere I go now, I wonder 'is there a cache in that hole? Behind that tree?' They really are all around, and you would never know about them... Some are in parking lots, and I hear there is one in the mall here!
There were lots of them near this lighthouse:

If you are interested, have a look at www.geocaching.com here. All of the geocaches in the world are listed here, and you can keep track of your finds online.
For more field trip posts, visit Live the Adventure.

Field Trip Friday - Diamond Head

This week, I wrote about our hike up Diamond Head, which is a crater left by the erupting volcanoes which formed Oahu. You can read the post here. For more field trip adventures, visit Live the Adventure.

Field Trip Friday - Dole Pineapple Plantation

This week, I wrote about our field trip to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. Fun AND yummy! You can read about it here.

Field Trip Friday - Atlantis Submarine

Visit here to read about our ride in a submarine! We took the Atlanis Submarine down to the artificial reefs off of Waikiki. Pretty cool!

USS Arizona Memorial and USS Bowfin Submarine

This week, I wrote about our trip to visit some of the World War II memorials near our house. You can read the post here.

Field Trip Friday - California

Here's the link to our California trip at Crumpet Moves to Paradise. After that, visit Live the Adventure for more field trip fun!

Field Trip Friday - Memphis, TN

This is my second attempt to link my new blog to this one. Here's hoping it works... I wrote about our visit to Memphis, TN for this week's Field Trip Friday post. Please have a look! And let me know if the link works!

Crumpet Moves to Paradise

After that, visit Live the Adventure for more field trip fun!

Field Trip Friday - Discovery Place

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Charlotte, NC and visited a couple of good children's museums. The second place we visited was Discovery Place, which is a great science museum. We have been there 3 times now, and each time, the exhibits have been completely different. They even redo the play area for young children. This time was definitely the coolest.

There is a great water play area:

A giant fan with pinwheels, and ribbons and pom poms to play with in the wind:

Crumpet's favorite parts of the museum this time were the many, many building areas. There were endless types of fun building materials. In one area, there are boxes and boxes of flat, rectangular pieces of wood, and people have built amazing structures with these. Here is Crumpet building a pirate ship:

Here's the ship he was trying to copy:

One of many fabulous creations:

We also played with sailboats. This was part of an area demonstrating different forms of motion. There is a fan that blows onto this table, and depending on how you turn the sails and the fan, the boats race pretty fast!

I love this picture of Crumpet and his Gee Gee. They were both concentrating so hard to build a bridge. The challenge was to build a bridge that could hold 300 grams of weight. Ours held 700 grams when we were done!

There was a giant lite brite board. This was my favorite!

We found a wall lined with kitchen utensils and pots and pans that made a great drum set!

Crumpet gave his Gee Gee a rain shaker and they played in a band together:

The traveling exhibit this time was based on the show CSI. It was definitely cool, but gross and so not meant for Crumpet. We tried to steer him away from that area, but didn't get him out in time. He saw a mannequin demonstrating what happens when maggots get into a dead body... We are still talking about this, and probably will be for years. Uggh. Oops!

Also, there is normally a rainforest area with animals, but that was closed for renovation. We did go to a short talk about birds, and the animal keeper brought one of the museum's parrots with her, which was fun.

We had a great day. If you ever get the chance, check this place out!

Oops, the first time I published this, I forgot to include the link to Live the Adventure. Head on over to check out more Field Trip Fun!

Field Trip Friday - Charlotte Nature Museum

This weekend, we drove up to Charlotte, North Carolina to visit my grandmother (80 years old). Every March, she flies down from New Hampshire to stay with her aunt (92 years old). Crumpet and I drive up to visit her. These are two incredible ladies, and this trip has become a lovely tradition. My grandmother still golfs and gardens and travels. Her aunt still does yoga and plays croquet and socializes non-stop. They are both so inspiring! Crumpet is the only small person in their lives, and they really look forward to seeing him each year. And of course, they spoil him rotten. He knows and remembers them now, and he made them both glow by giving them giant bear hugs at the end of our visit. I know it made their year, and I was so proud of how well behaved and kind he was around them.

My grandmother adores children's museums, and so do we. Charlotte has a couple of good ones. The first place we went was the Charlotte Nature Museum. It's small, but we managed to stay busy there for almost 4 hours!

There are some live animal exhibits, as well as a nice outdoor walking trail, which we enjoyed after a huge rainstorm blew past.

Crumpet enjoyed being "the cutest bug":

He played with toy frogs in a small stream made just for playing in. He also enjoyed learning about ways to keep water sources clean.

He put on a little puppet show:

And went "bird watching":

He spun this carousel which shows a bee dance when it is in motion. We talked about the fact that bees dance to communicate with other members of their hive.

There was a butterfly garden, and we spent some time trying to coax them to land on our fingers. No luck, but we did get close to a few:

Here's Crumpet with his Gee Gee (for Great Grandma). She adores him, and is devastated about our move to Hawaii.

So, um, now I'm going to cry because I've made myself sad about the end of this tradition... More about Charlotte travels next week.

For more field trip fun, hop on over to Live the Adventure!

Preschool Week of 4/1

This week, school took a back seat to field trips and fun outings. It was a busy, fun week. I'll start with the small amount of schoolwork that we accomplished.
Crumpet is finally discovering an interest in coloring, and he has started to stay inside the lines!
We played this cute build-a-bunny dice game that I saw at Homeschool Creations, here.

Crumpet got a toy compass in an Easter egg at one of the two egg hunts we went to. He has no idea how to use it, but he has been walking around telling me that it says "Go north. Go left." It's his first use of a compass (he has seen them in pirate books...), and it's pretty cute.

We also did many of the Easter activities at abc teach. We read a rebus story and answered the comprehension questions that followed. (This time he was clueless as to what happened in the story; apparently I was reading gibberish...) We did several good math worksheets, and we colored an Easter egg picture.

Now, on to our outings. On Saturday, we headed to Charlotte, NC to visit friends and family. On the way, we stopped at our town Easter egg hunt.

Then, we stopped at Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC (we go there a lot...). Here's the new baby giraffe - he was adorable with his mama...

Crumpet got to feed the lorikeets again:

He was very careful to make sure each bird got its fair share of nectar:

The flowers were blooming and it was a gorgeous day. The zoo was packed though - I'm so glad we homeschool and get to do these things on weekdays most of the time!

From there, we drove to Charlotte and spent the weekend with some very close Irish friends of mine who now live in the States. They have 3 daughters that Crumpet has known almost since birth, and they had a fantastic time hanging out together in the evenings. During the days, Crumpet and I visited with my grandmother and toured the kid friendly museums of Charlotte. She comes down from N.H. every year to visit her aunt, and I drive up to visit with them. We went to the Charlotte Nature Museum, and also Discovery Place. I'll blog about them this week and next for Field Trip Friday.

We arrived home Monday night. Wednesday, we went with our mom's group to the YMCA's "Eggstravaganza" at their campground by the lake. There was a petting zoo:

The kids decorated bags for collecting eggs:

There was a hayride to the place where the eggs were scattered, and everyone gathered a bunch of eggs:

Then, we had a picnic and played by the water. Here's Crumpet practicing for Hawaii and building sand castles!

Phew, I'm exhausted! Next week, we're off to Atlanta for spring break. We'll be spending a few days with Crumpet's cousins, his favorite people on earth. I'm sure it will be more fun and games!

Field Trip Friday - Edventure Children's Museum

Last week, we went with some friends to Edventure Children's Museum in Columbia, SC. This is a great place for young children. When you walk in the door, the first thing you see is a giant boy. His insides are a huge playground, and you can slide through his intestestines, climb up to his brain, etc. I don't know what else is in there because Crumpet is terrified of this boy, so I never get to explore... It's a really cool idea though!

Crumpet did enjoy playing dentist and cleaning the mannequin's teeth:

He helped a group of kids put giant teeth in the right spots in a big mouth:

He played a life-size game of "Operation":

He used pulleys to move a skeleton:

(It was great to see a skeleton and be able to talk about some of the bones we've discussed!)

He went shopping in a mini-grocery store:

And scanned his purchases at the check-out counter:

He drove a tractor:

And rode a camel:

He played bongos:

And made music by dancing on a musical floor mat:

We love children's museums, and this is one of the best ones we've been to! For more Field Trip fun, check out the links at Live the Adventure!