Though we won't officially cover the Revolutionary War for a couple of years, (We're following the Well-Trained Mind)we are taking advantage of the regional historical opportunities. We have been in Central New Jersey for 2 years now and we have seen a handful of places and events related to the founding of our country. We have about 5 months left here and a couple more places we want to visit. I hope we can do it!

Washington Crossing Park (The New Jersey side)

Reenactment of the Battle of Iron Works Hill

The Liberty Bell

Independence Hall

Mt. Vernon

The boys greeting Thomas Paine in Bordentown, NJ.

Monmouth Battlefield State Park

Patriot Theo

Patriot Henry

While in Kansas City visiting all of the grandparents we made a trip to the Moon Marble Company in Bonner Springs, KS. You can watch a demonstration of a marble being blown by hand They also have one of the coolest toy stores I've seen in a long time - definitely a toy collection a homeschooler can appreciate. Too bad there wasn't much room in my budget for appreciation! Though I did spend $4 on a tube of large hand blown marbles.

The kids made edible landfills:

Then we toured the landfill.

We visited Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center in Millville, NJ yesterday. A very cute village of artisan studios, shops, a couple of museums and a train. We started our visit with a tour through the studios with demonstrations on glass-blowing, pottery and marble making. The artists were all pretty engaging and held the children's attention for a fairly long time. It's great to see them in the process of creating!

After a lunch and a train ride we all went to the Museum of American Glass. where we had the pleasure of seeing the world's largest glass bottle, as well as some other oddities all in glass.

Theo even played hookey from kindergarten to join us, which he will probably do for all of our field trips. I know he will learn so much more by getting out, seeing and doing than by sitting in a classroom all day. (Though I am absolutely pleased with his teacher, as she is very enthusiastic, warm and creative.)

Theo is going to kindergarten, but Henry is not going to first grade.

Having moved from Boston to San Antonio and then to New Jersey in less than a year, plus a few things I never mentioned in the other blog, has left me feeling a little sapped these days.

So when we arrived in New Jersey we decided to put the boys in school. Theo is in Pre-K and has a wonderful teacher. He is in school 2.5 hours a day and does so many fun and creative things. Henry is in full-day kindergarten and is not having the same great experience as his brother. I'm not going to go into to detail right now but I will later. So many of my worst fears about traditional schooling have been realized and I wonder how much longer kindergarten will last for us. Besides, I'm starting to feel more like myself again and really miss our homeschooling experince.

I found a nice piece on the "S" word written by a young woman who had been unschooled her entire life. This sentence really stood out:

Making children face relentless, inescapable peer pressure does not prepare them to face adult life: more often, it weakens and confuses them and teaches them to judge themselves by the opinions of others.

Click here to read all of "Freedom to Learn Who You Are."

When I learned we were moving to San Antonio last year I was really excited to have my children learn about Mexican culture first hand. Well, since we discovered that our stay here has been significantly shortened I am trying to accelerate the experience.

Last Friday we went to the Institute of Mexican Culture to look at the paintings. There were 3 galleries in the main building. The boys really enjoyed the paintings by Luis Filcer. Though that probably had to do with the fact that the title of the show was "La Revolucion" and there were many paintings of soldiers.

From there we went to Market Square, which is billed as the most authentic Mexican market outside of Mexico. We browsed in the shops and Henry charmed a shopkeeper by practicing his Spanish with her. We picked up a Lotteria game which they have played in their Spanish class and a Mexican calendar.

You can't go to Market Square without stopping at the Mi Tierra Bakery for treats. The restaurant still has its Day of the Dead displays out. So we spent quite a long time looking at them while we snacked.

Since it was a weekday there was not much going on there. We will have to go back on a Sunday for the music and to see some dancing.

Seaturtle.org: Really cool site with a google map of Satellite Tracking Projects. Also some quicktime videos of seaturtle crittercams.

Western Pond Turtle "Turtle Cam"

I think a weekend trip is in order: Sea Turtle, Inc.

Turtle Fun & Games:
Sea Turtle Sliding Puzzle
Sea Turtle Concentration Game
Draw a Sea Turtle
Eastern Box Turtle Coloring Page
Sea Turtle Coloring Page
Another Sea Turtle Coloring Page(this one has the names of different kinds of turtle)

And here is one last page- a long list of various Turtle & Tortoise Links.

On Monday we went to Texas State University Aquarena Center in San Marcos for a turtle presentation. The place is actually on the site of an old amusement park, Aquarena Springs, which closed in the 1990s. Some of the old structures are still standing. It is also the home of the actual San Marcos Springs which puts out about 200 million gallons of water a day.

It was really great trip. We started off with a ride on a glass bottom boat and saw a ton of turtles swimming, as well as a variety of fish. We also saw the springs in action: it looked like the mud on the bottom of the lake was boiling.

We then went into their small aquarium and saw a handful of local endangered species, including a very cute soft shelled turtle. We also went on walk across a boardwalk over some restored wetlands and saw even more turtles.

We capped off the field trip with another set of turtle shell paper plates:

(notice my children were still dressed in summer clothes)