Lessons & Learning About Airplanes

We recently returned from a 3 day field trip to visit my sister & to see some of the local attractions.  This is a trip that by boys look forward to all year long. We usually try to go once a year specifically to visit her. The boys usually make a list before we go of where they want to go. The Air Force Museum is always on the list.

We start by getting our group shot in the beginning  Then as much as I try to stop them; my kids  begin span out. We walk around, with our heads looking up in awe staring at the massive planes. 

They have so many planes, from replicas of the Wright Brothers to modern inventions. There is information about each plane so you can read all you want. While we were there, we were able to see part of a retirement ceremony for one of the Air Force Officers. It was wonderful to see the men & women that sacrifice for this country.

Our favorite Aunt Heather.

They have an education center, that is all hands on activities that help teach you about airplanes & aeronautics. On this particular day it was closed, but it has some fantastic things. 

Once you get through the inside. We tour around the outside. They have a huge area that has old parked planes. The boys think it is awesome to get close to them & then compare the size. 

We are tiny compared to these planes.  It is fascinating. 

Other planes are a little more "their size." I do recall hearing one of my boys say they thought they could fly this one. 

We made it through the whole museum in a couple of hours. You could take all day there studying  the planes & reading all the information. There is detailed information about every plane by it. They also have various movies playing & retired Air Force Veterans that could talk for hours telling you all thing you never knew. However, this time we went through it a little faster due that this was towards the end of the day & my boys were starting to get tired. 

And though we didn't do this before the trip, here are some additional resources that you could use to study more about airplanes & the air force.

The One Paper Airplane Every Child Should Know { The Crafting Chicks }

Cardboard Airplane {This Mumma's Life}

Airplanes Lessons Plans for K-12  {National Museum of United States Air force}

Paper Airplane Experiments { Learn, Play, Imagine }

Lessons on Flight  {Brian Pop}

Practicing Addition & Subtraction with Airplanes & Travelers  {Kids Activities Blog}

Color By Number Airplane Worksheet Activity { Mama's Learning Corner}



And a few Books for Reading As Well:

         

Working . . .

We have been working . . . a lot lately. One of the great blessings of life. Anyways  we have been working as a family, out of town.  In that time we have spent some hours in this facility. I loved looking around & walking down & through  it, so I had to take a few pictures. Just to remember it by. 

This cute sign is hanging in one of the barns. One day I might have to get one of these. 

I would have loved to see this ranch at it's full capacity. 

I can only imagine each jug full of a mamma & her new lamb. Or even better, twins. 

Beautiful sunset, looking into the drop pens. 

And of course, like all good mothers, my baby hangs our right along side of me in the barn.  Isn't he getting so big, so fast.  I wish I could stop it. Oh well.  It was great to check out someone else barns & to work our guts out as a family. I know more days like these are coming. 

Taxidermist

Awhile ago for home school group we went on a field trip to learn a little more about taxidermy. My kids are great lovers of outdoors & all things hunting (thanks to their dad); so this was awesome. The wife started by reading this cute book about a elk that looses his antlers, but doesn't know why. It was quite cute & she was very animated & had the kids enthralled. 

       The boys did extremely well, listening to her & what she had to say. My boys even brought notebooks so they could take notes. They didn't want to miss a thing.  It was cute.

Touching a moose paddle. My boys have seen many antlers & moose paddles before, but for a lot of these kids & their moms this was a first. 

            About half way through the presentation, just as the kids started getting restless, they were all given a "spotting scope" & were told to search the house for the animals that had used  their natural camouflage to blend in. My kids thought it was awesome. They all took home a toy animal & spotting scope & we played this game for days afterwards.

                         This is what the inside of a taxidermy animals is made out of. This one is for a porcupine. I had never seen the inside up close, my boys that was pretty neat.

They  let the kids after everything was done touch some of the deer & elk that were mounted. My kids thought it was pretty interesting, but were a little sad they couldn't see a whole lot more up close.  Like a current project he was working or to watch him work. But with this many kids & some of them a little crazy, I can understand.  Either way they still left with more  knowledge when they came & they had a good time as well. 

Field Trip

Yesterday we had to run errands in a town away from where we live. So we decided we might as well make the most of it & we stopped at a little museum they had. The boys have been asking to go there since they drove by one time last fall. The whole museum is dedicated to the potato.

The boys got pins & postcards, and when we finished they gave us a box of hash browns to eat.





The boys posing with their pins & postcards.



The baby slept through the whole thing.





The boys looking at this cool collection of Mr. Potato heads.



A slightly better picture of all the potato heads.

(I need to apologize for the poor quality of my pictures, I do own a nice camera , but don't always have it with me. So these are all taken with my phone. But I realized I can blog & take pictures with my phone & even though it is a lower quality it is better than nothing. Someone told me that if there is no picture to remember it, it never happened. I know that isn't all true, but I realized I need to take pictures & record as much as I can. So that is what you have been getting lately. Sorry, but at least it is something.)

Okay off the tangent & back to the museum.

They had all sorts of facts about the potato .& old equipment. Did you know the average person eats 148 lbs of potatoes a year?
And the potato originated from the Andes mountains?





I saw this. & thought it was funny, it is put out by the governor of Idaho. I couldn't tell the year though.









A picture of the enormous potato outside the museum. It was a rather small museum, but fun nonetheless & we came away with a little more knowledge of the great potato.

Signs Of Autumn

We took a break from our regular routine on Wednesday, to go on a field trip with one of our Home school groups, and then to do some exploring all on our own. We spent the morning talking about the signs of Autumn. How do you know it is fall, what do you notice. Then we took our camera & went & took pictures of some of those signs:

Picking Pumpkins  & Apples 

The Changing Colors of the Leaves 

Frost  in the morning 

Mom' has to now scrap her windshield.

They also thought of other things that we didn't catch on camera, like Hunting Season,  geese flying south, the grass is changing colors, people harvest their crops  ect.

Then we met up with our friends to check out the pumpkin patch. 

Everyone was going to wear their costumes, but I made my boys 1st let me take one nice one, then they could can change. This was the best I could do, they were too impatient to do any more. So off they went to change into the Halloween clothes & then to : 

To go through the straw maze. This one was a lot better than last year, they made it bigger & taller so that boys like Cowboy couldn't see over the whole thing. just parts. 

Then loaded into a wagon, pulled by Cowboy to find our perfect baby  pumpkins. 

Cowboy checking his out. 

Little Dude  making sure his will do. 

The monkey happy with his choice. 

Fields of Pumpkins. So cool & gorgeous. 

               Next we loaded up on the train for a little ride around the pumpkin patch.

My Little Dude is so happy to be riding. I love the expression on his face. 

After the ride it was one more quick trip through the straw maze & we were done. 

Of course it wouldn't be quite  fall if you didn't get a nice glazed 

donut after the excursion. It was quite a fun morning. 

Once we got home we started to finish our worksheet about the Signs of Autumn. 

Which we will add into our book later, they didn't get them all the way done before I snapped the picture. I wanted to get one while I remembered.   It was a pleasant day & it was nice to take the time to get out a bit, because I know the snow will fly one day soon.  . . . until then we will be out enjoying the great outdoors as much as we can.