Family Field Trip Fun ~ The Holtsville Ecology Center

The girls and I had so much fun visiting the Holtsville Ecology Center today.  We have been coming here since Emily was probably about 2 1/2 years old and always enjoy seeing and learning about the different animals.  I have to admit, we probably haven’t visited in at least a year, so when I saw a friend post pictures of their recent trip on Facebook, I knew we had to visit during our Spring Break from school.  It is about a 40 minute drive from our house, but it is totally worth it.  The girls always have a great time checking out the animals and then there is also a playground and a picnic area, so you can really make a nice day trip out of it.  Plus, since it is still an off season it was free to get in. (Although starting May 1st it is only $5.oo a car, which is totally worth it!!)

All ready to check out the animals!!

Emily and Clara really enjoyed feeding the goats, so I made sure I had a handful of quarters with me to buy the pellets to feed them.

A great view of the foxes.

Emily and Juliette really liked reading the information about each animal. They were very interested in their lifespan and how the different animals got here. The ecology center is a place for animals to live that can not be released back into the wild. The two bald eagles that live here have wing injuries and are unable to fly. We also found out that one of the foxes never learned to hunt and relies completely on humans to be fed.

I love that Emily and Juliette are at the point where they can read on their own and are actually looking to find out more information by reading the signs and plaques at the different places we go to.

It’s hard to pick a favorite animal to visit.

The farm section has chickens, cows, goats and a pig.

Inside the education building we found an Iguana

There was also an exhibit of stuffed animals, owl pellets and other interesting things.

Check out some of our other family field trips.

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Helping Others ~ Bookmark Making

Emily is participating in the Presidential Service Club at her school, which provides the students with some opportunities to participate in community service projects. So far they have made pillows and blankets for a nursing home and helped clean up litter around the school.
Most of the hours are meant to be earned on their own. I really had no idea where to start, since most volunteer oportunities are for children that are older. I was very encouraged as I was looking on the internet for projects that we could do together to earn the service hours and have found a few local organizations that we have really enjoyed working with.

One of the organizations I found to work with is The Book Faries. They are an organization which provides books to teachers and students in underprivliged areas. Emily and I were able to go to their warehouse and help sort the many boxes of book donations one Saturday afternoon. There were many teachers that came in to pick out books for their classroom libraries and it was so awesome to see them getting excited about the books they were able to take for free! It was also cute for me to see Emily finding books that we were sorting that we own or have borrowed from the library. She would say “ooh I loved this one” or “Mommy we have this one too!”

I found out that when they have free book fairs for the children at these schools to pick out a book to owen they also give each child a bookmark. I thought this would be a great project for all of us to work on together. My sister was kind enough to provide us with lots of different scrappaper, punches and stickers from her huge collection of scrappbooking supplies and we went to work.

After we finished designing the bookmarks I laminated them and the girls helped me cut them all out. I like that they are laminated becasue they feel more sturdy and will last much longer!

Even Clara got in on the fun and colored these bookmark pages that I printed for her from Stories by Storie .

I am so excited about this fun and creative way to help other kids, especially since we love reading so much and now can share that with other children!

What kinds of volunteer activities do your participate in with your younger children?

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Clara’s Strawberry Sprout

In Tot School last week Clara planted some strawberry seeds. We placed the container on the windowsill and have been waiting for the seeds to sprout. We were all so excited when we checked on it and found this little green sprout!!

We can’t wait to watch it grow. In the meantime we will be working on lots of fun plant art and science projects and reading books all about gardens, seeds and planting.

We have already really enjoyed these great books about plants and gardens:

The Small Seed, by Judith Nicholls ~ We are loving that this is a touch and feel book. It starts out with a small seed being planted and grows, roots a shoot and then a stem. Finallly, there is a beautiful sunflower. All done in a fun rhyiming text. Clara loves finding the touch and feel part on each page and I think the tactile interaction helps her retain the information better too.

The Surprise Garden, by Zoe Hall ~ This is a fun book that shares the journey of 3 children planting a garden that surprises them with all the wonderful food that grows from the plants. I really liked how it talks about the different parts of the plants that we eat. All of the girls have really enjoyed this book which is always nice. We also really enjoyed the collage like illustrations in this book.

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt, by Kate Messner ~ I really love this book because it shows young readers what is going on not only Up in the Garden where the plants are sprouting and growing, but down in the dirt in the hidden world where the roots are growing and insects creating creating tunnels and burrows. This is the story of a garden over the course of a year. We really enjoyed looking at the illustrations and finding all the fun details on each page. At the end of our book was a quick refrence page that gave a few facts about the different animals that were introduced in the garden and explained that some are helpful and others are not. Again I liked that this books was fun for all the girls to read together.

What are some of your favorite planting themed books?

For more planting fun and activities be sure to check out some of the plant and garden projects we have done already!!!

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Muffin Tin Monday Revisited

It has been a LOOOONNNGGG time since we have had a Muffin Tin Monday meal in our house. My older girls used to love them and I was always amazed at how much better they ate when they had a meal in one of our many different types of Muffin Tins. Recently, I was talking to my sister in law about how to get our girls to eat a little better and remembered Muffin Tin Meals. After talking she tried it with her girls and actually texted me a picture of my nieces muffin tins, then I knew I had to start this up again with Clara. Of course the first one we did she said she did not want and that she does not eat muffin tins. This time I just put together her lunch and placed the Muffin Tin infront of her. She loved it and ate every last bit!! I am so excited about bringing Muffin Tin Monday back into our routine and am looking forward to sharing our different meals here.

Clara’s Muffin Tin Lunch

Top Row: Homemade Hummus and Pita Chips

Bottom Row: Grapes and Watermelon Chunks

Also check out our other Muffin Tin Meals

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