Petrified Forest: Our Adventure

Even before we made out journey to Petrified Forest National Park, we started learning about it! Of course mommy did some research through the National Parks website, but Reagan learned a lot by reading Petrified Forest National Park, A True Book, by David Petersen. This book was very informative, and great for emergent readers. It is written in large easy to read font, and includes a glossary of important words at the back, as well as information for further research resources and on the park's Junior Ranger program. Even non-readers can follow along with an older sibling and enjoy the captivating color photos of the park. Reagan loved reading the book, and learning about what she would see at the park, the process of petrification, and the basic geology and fossil record of the area. I thought this book did an amazing job of presenting a lot of complex information in a way that is very approachable for children of all ages.

After reading about it, the kids were even more excited about our trip to the park, and couldn't wait to get there. We arrived just after opening, and they eagerly bounded into the visitor's center to have hands on experience with different types of rock and petrified wood, and collect their Junior Ranger workbooks. We were soon headed out on the road through the park. We stopped at several overlooks of the painted dessert and the badlands. The kids were very excited to look for things on the scavenger hunt that was a part of their ranger program. Then we stopped at the the Painted Desert Inn. The kids had a great time exploring the main building of the building that was once a hotel, and then a restaurant, and enjoying the views. Further down the road they were very excited to stop an see the few things where old Route 66 passes through the park. They weren't as excited about the Puerco Pueblo Anasazi ruins as we were, but enjoyed playing I Spy, finding petroglyphs on the rocks and deciding what they must mean. The best part of the trip was definitely going on hikes through the petrified forest, and getting to see and touch the logs. The kids did a great job looking for the answers to questions in the Jr. Ranger books here. they enjoyed measuring the logs, and looking at their different colors. Their favorite hikes were the Crystal Forest, and Giant Logs.

Both kids earned their Jr. Ranger badges, and each got to pick a piece of polished petrified wood in the gift shop. By the end of the day they were somewhat tired form all the hiking and excitement. But the next morning at home, they were asking when we could go back! We had such a great time, I'm sure we'll go back at some point in the future. :)

Petrified Forest National Park- Frugal Family Day

This past Sunday we went on a family trip to Petrified Forest National Park, and it's a trip that I would HIGHLY recommend to others. Not only was the trip gorgeous, but it was also educational, inexpensive and a ton of fun for everyone in the family!

Petrified Forest National Park includes the petrified forest, the painted desert, petroglyphs, Sinauga ruins, and the only section of old Route 66 protected in a national park. There's a lot to see, but if you're not headed into one of the park's two wilderness areas, it's very doable as a one day adventure. You might not think it would be the case, but the park is a perfect trip for preschoolers! (Mine had such a great time that the next day they were asking when we could go back.) Almost all of the trails in the park are under 1 mile in length, and paved. Most are also stroller friendly! The road through the park is a 28 mile adventure, featuring amazing views and numerous pullouts with informational plaques as well as the walking trails. We would definitely recommend doing all the different trails along the way, and did all but 2 of the park's trails on our one day adventure with 3 children under 5 (including an infant.)

Now that you know what you'll be able to see, let's talk about what you can do. Kids can participate in the Junior Ranger program. These vary form park to park, and in this case the booklet includes a section with activities perfect for preschoolers featuring learning basics such as shape recognition. The booklet encourages them to explore the things in the park, and teaches a lot to us older folks as well. There are ranger guided walks at various spots in the park throughout the day for those who would like to go a little more in depth, though I wouldn't recommend these for those with younger children.

You're thinking this might be a fun day trip, but you're still wondering about the cost... Well have no fear! Aside from the cost of the bag lunch you bring, and the gas for your drive through the park- you can do this trip for about $16- and that INCLUDES souvenirs for the whole family! How? Park entry is $10. That $10 includes your entry into the park for an entire week, and a park map with lots of information. Stop by the visitor's center for a FREE copy of the park newspaper, and also to get your kids the booklet for the FREE Jr. Ranger Program. When your children complete the program they will each receive a Jr Ranger patch, AND pin. For more information pick up the pamphlet for the self-guided Big Logs trail. You can use these for FREE, or pay a nominal 50 cents to take them with you (which I personally would recommend). Now what about those souvenirs? Stop by the Rainbow Forest gift shop and take a look around. A lot of nice things might catch your eye, but if you look up on the shelves next to the register, you can get a bargain box full of actual petrified wood pieces for just $5. There are plenty of pieces in there to go around, believe me! Other great bargain souvenirs in the park shop include post cards for 25 cents, and a small poster map of the park to color, or image of the petroglphs on petrified rock, for $2 each.

(Jr Rangers!)

Getting Caught Up (Again)

I keep getting so far behind on this! Let's give it another go!

Updates on where we are now:

Currently Catie is learning to crawl, starting to self-feed baby crackers and such, and is just exploring the world around her. (Though her big brother insists they watch Your Baby Can Read together at least once a week, we don't plan on any real schooling with her for a long time- but every thing we do is a learning experience, and we love seeing her just take it all in.) Favorite books right now are her picture book made for her by her brother and sister as a gift when she was born- she loves to look at their pictures and drawings, and anything that looks good to chew on.

Currently Adam has started doing some workbooks and LOVES it. He can read some sight words, can count 1-10 no problem, and can get to 20, he knows all of his letters, and is working on letter sounds, he absolutely LOVES to spell, knows his colors, shapes, bigger and smaller etc. Favorite books right now are: Cars- The Spooky Noise, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and pre-1 level readers.

Currently Reagan has started pre-K at the school that she will be attending elementary school. They would like to move her ahead, but state law prohibits it because of her age. She doesn't mind, and is very happy getting to play with other kids her age and do crafts and music and such. Along with those she loves learning new words in sign language and Spanish at school. We continue to do schooling at home, where she is working on a 2nd grade level now. She has recently learned to alphabetize and is working on adding larger numbers and beginning multiplication. She LOVES to read, and recently made the jump to completely silent reading. Favorite books right now are The Magic Treehouse, The Magic School Bus, Berenstain Bears, anything with lots of fun facts! Reagan is quite interested in volcanoes, a fascination which influences her reading of course. She's been concerned since we live near a dead volcano, and she has read a lot about Pompeii and that the people who lived there had thought that Mt Vesuvius was dead before it erupted. She was also concerned about if it would be safe to visit Sunset Crater (a future trip), and whether there would be ash that we should worry about. She loves doing science experiments at home- we have made our own bouncy balls, and are about to do a recycled paper lab. Also in planing are a hovercraft lab, and a tornado lab. We've been keeping up with her school work by doing a couple worksheets a day when she isn't in pre-school, and by doing lots of hands on!

Right now we are reading Bunnicula together for bedtime and the kids are quite enjoying it, especially with Halloween coming up, and since they've expressed an interest in having a bunny since we saw them at the county fair (Adam has also asked for a miniature cow ???) We participated in the fair this year as well. It was a great experience for the kids, and they're very proud of the ribbons that they earned for their work. They were also super proud of the ribbons that were earned by mommy and Oma- especially for quilts they have on their beds, and clothing that was made for them. This was Reagan's second year entering things, and the first year that Adam was old enough. They also participated in the Farmer for a Day program at the fair where they learned about where our food comes from. Reagan's already planning things to work on to enter for next year's fair! lol

Interactive Animals Fun and Summer Camp Planning

Since the last post, we have sure been keeping busy. We took a trip to the local wild animal park, and had a great time. We have a membership, so we try to go out there once every 1-2 months. It's a great chance for the kids to see the animals up close, and the staff there are so engaging and informative, we all learn new things every time! Before I add in a bunch of pictures of this trip there, I'll share what else we have been working on.

We took a trip to the craft store and picked up all the materials we would need (hopefully) for our summer camp craft projects. The kids sat down with me and we made a list of all the things that they would like to do this summer. It was a great way to get a general feel for what things they would like to do. Some of it may be tough to fit in around Reagan's 2 day a week karate schedule, and Rob's work, but we'll find a way. Based on their interests, as well as the craft projects, I've made some weekly lesson plans to do with the kids to make it a bit more structured for them. They love having planned activities, which demands that I do some planning. So, this summer, we'll be learning about trains, drama, bugs and insects, the food we eat, the ocean, and space! We have field trips planned to the Arizona Train Museum (trains), The Phoenix Children's Museum, the aquarium (ocean), and Meteor Crater (space).

We're kicking things off this week with a combined week of drama and trains. Lots of craft projects and interactive stuff for dramatic play, and then some great kid friendly books about trains. We're ending the week with our trip to the AZ RR Museum on Saturday. Thankfully we looked up the info for it early, since it is closed starting June 1 for the hot summer months. Today we started out our drama week with a tie dye project. The kids chose the patterns they wanted and helped with banding their shirts and immersing them in the pre-soak. Then they chose their colors and I dyed the shirts. They're sitting for the dye to set now, but should be ready to be washed out tonight, so I'll post a pic of them when they are done. We can wear these shirts as "costumes" later in the week. But the main intent is for them to last the summer. Just like tie dyed shirts you might make at summer camp! I'm planning to have them wear them on field trip days to make them easier to spot, and also to give them something to wear that can get a little dirty without worry.



Counter clockwise from top left: Adam feeding Kibo the giraffe, the kids at the Pet N Feed, Reagan feeding the iiland (sp?), Reagan checking out an ostrich egg, Adam checking out an ostrich egg- before he accidentally dropped it off the unimog and it broke open.

FUN FACTS:
*A giraffe's tongue is blue because it has extra pigment in it that acts as sunscreen to protect the tongue while the giraffe is eating (many hours a day).
*The iiland is the largest antelope species in the world.
*Ostriches lay their eggs in a community nest. When each female take her turn sitting on them, she moves her eggs to the middle.
*An ostrich egg is approximately equivalent to 18 chicken eggs.

Wow, I knew I had been slacking on the posts here,but had no idea it had been 6 months!

I've been planning some summer schooling, and summer camp type activities, and am really excited to get going on them. An update would be so long, I'm just going to jump in where we are now, and move forward.

Right now Reagan is currently over half-way through her first chapter book: The Magic Treehouse; Dinosaurs Before Dark. And is busy working on her reading list to earn a new level 2 Star Wars reader.

Today was popcorn learning day. We made and ate popcorn, and read The Popcorn Book by Tomie de Paola.


This morning we also went for Reagan's first real hair cut, and she decided she wanted to donate to Locks of Love. :-) On the way home we stopped at the car wash- the kids' first time. It was exciting and frightening for them.

Halloween Salt Dough

Basic Salt Dough Recipe:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 cup warm water

Combine salt and water, and let sit for a minute or 2 to let salt dissolve. Add flour, and mix until dough starts to form. Knead with your hands in the bowl, or on a floured surface until a smooth dough has been achieved. Create project. Bake in a 200 degree F oven for 1-4 hours or until completely dry. Paint and embellish as desired!

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I split our dough in half, and rolled half with a floured rolling pin. Then used Halloween cookie cutters to make shakes of flying Halloween creatures (bats, witches, and ghosts.) I then used a straw to put holes in the Halloween shapes for hanging later. The other half of the dough I split between my kids for them to make pumpkins. (Note that since these are preschool and younger children, the pumpkins were solid and took longer to dry in the oven. Older children can roll our their dough and form it over a ball of aluminum foil to get their shape without using as much dough/ drying time.) I had each child remove a small piece of their dough, then roll the rest between their hands to create a ball shape. They place the ball on the table and made an indentation on top of the ball with their finger. Then used the small removed piece of dough, to attach as a stem. We baked these, then painted them orange with brown stems on a different day. After we painted the pumpkins, I provided Halloween colors of paint, and let the kids paint the cutouts. After they dried, we strung yarn through these, and tied them to baby hangers to hang as Halloween mobiles!

An unpainted salt dough pumpkin, and the painting underway!


Reagan's mobile


Adam's Mobile


Oh, and since we had the paint out, I let the kids paint pumpkins on canvas bags for Trick-Or-Treating! :-)

Halloween Craft Fun!

Starting last week we've been having a lot of fun with Halloween activities. We have been reading lots of fun Halloween books, and I've worked on coming up with several Halloween and fall themed crafts for the kids.

Last week we did drawings that we embellished with foamie Halloween stickers. Stickers are always a hit with the kids and they really enjoyed this one. I'm watching a friend's child, so she and Reagan had a great time doing this together, but before I could get a picture of Reagan work, Adam (who was napping at the time and missed the activity, got a little jealous, and tore all her foamies off!) Ugh. It was fun though, and there are letters in our set, so Reagan spelled out her name on her paper, and we helped the friend do that as well. Then the girls just had fun picking out letters, and naming them before adding them to their masterpieces.

On Friday we made salt dough for the first time! I rolled half and did cut outs with holes for hanging, and split the other half between the kids. Rob was home, so he helped out, and had a good time helping the kids make pumpkins out of their salt dough. I baked them, and we're planning on painting today! I'll post pictures of the salt dough, with a tutorial for our projects a little later. :-) On Friday we also made spiders out of egg cartons. I'll also post a tutorial for this simple and fun craft. :-)

One of Reagan's favorite Halloween books is The Biggest Pumpkin Ever. I think it especially resonates with her because we grew some of our own pumpkins this year. We had to stop by the hardware store for something on Saturday, and stopped to pick up some seeds for next year's vegetable garden (that we are already planning). So of course we had to get Big Max pumpkin seeds (they can grow to be 100 lbs or more!) Next year should be lots of fun, and maybe well get a prize winning pumpkin grown for the fair next year even.

Yesterday we did out first tap dancing class at home. Reagan has been very enthusiastic about this for awhile, but both pairs of shoes we had, were too small. Oma finally found a pair that would fit here, and they came in a package this week, so we were set to begin. Of course Adam wanted to dance to, and luckily one of those too small pairs fit him! The kids had a great time... even though they mostly just liked making a lot of noise. Reagan did get the general idea of some basic steps, and Adam tried very hard. I think well need quite a few more lessons before there's any level of mastery though. lol

Reagan of course, also sat down and did some work on her workbook, and confirmed for us that she can read all of her colors. She can do most activities in the preschool workbook without an instruction, but was reading what colors they wanted her to color specific things and doing it. She also spent a good amount of time in the morning sitting and reading Hop on Pop. She was actually reading it at first (and doesn't have it memorized- we've only read it once,) but then she got lazy and started doing it mostly based on memory and the pictures, rather than actually reading. But it's a great start! She really could read more by herself if she were willing to do it. It's too much work though. :-P