Day 2: The Arch & The Old Courthouse

For Day 2 we went to the Arch. Alexandra had no idea it would be so big, so she was really excited. I went when I was a young teenager, but I barely remembered it.

The Arch

The view from the top - including the stadium - the ride wasn't too bad even

though I sometimes get a little claustrophobic

One of the legs looking STRAIGHT down... 630 feet

Alexandra at the VERY top - 630 feet up

While at the arch, we also watched a National Geographic movie about Lewis & Clark called Great Journey West. It was incredible and we all learned so much and have so much respect for what all the men went through - AND Sacagewa and her baby! (This photo shows the court house in front of the arch)

After lunch, we walked around a bit. I was getting tired, but Alexandra had so much energy. She was running all over the place, up and down the stairs, etc.


Next, we went to The Old Courthouse. This is the courthouse where the famous Dred Scott Decision was made. This sign say: "On April 6, 1846, a slave named Dred Scott and his wife Harriet sued for their freedom in this courthouse. The Scotts had been taken by their owner to free jurisdictions and then returned to Missouri, a slave state. In 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney of the U.S. Supreme Court announced the decision in the case Dred Scott v. Sanford. He stated that Americans of African ancestry were not eligible to be citizens, based on the historical claim that they 'had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.' Taney's opinion also declared that Congress could not prevent the spread of slavery into the Western territories. This decision fueled sectional conflict which led to the Civil War."

This old court house had some beautiful architecture and artwork. There was also a video about the Dred Scott decision, but I thought it was getting to heavy for Alexandra, so we didn't finish it.


The courthouse is also part of a national park (so is the arch) and Alexandra earned her second Junior Ranger badge - for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Most of the questions dealt with the Greek architecture of the building and the layout of a courtroom. Alexandra's aunt is a judge (among other things) so it was neat to learn about the court room. This court room was above the one where the Dred Scott case was heard - that court room doesn't exist as it did for that case, but this one would have been pretty much the same as far as layout, size, etc.

Photo taken on court house steps - across from the arch

photo from base of arch

another from the base looking straight up - I like how the arch seems to twist in this photo

We went out to eat at a restaurant in Union Station. Afterwards, we were walking around and came across The Fudgery. This lady made fudge and her and 2 other workers (guys) made jokes and sang songs. They were great! Then, we got a free sample... and had to buy some for the hotel. Yum!!!

Day 1: George Washinton Carver Nat'l Monument

Our next unplanned stop was the George Washington Carver National Monument.


We didn't even realize it from the site's name, but this was the actual site where he was born and lived as a young boy!


There were so many activities to do inside. And, we didn't even have time to watch the video. The activity above was to use words and pictures to tell a story. Alexandra's story: "One day I was reading the newspaper and I read the George Washington Carver had died and he was a hero. He was kind, he was an artist, and he taught people about growing peanuts."

I had never seen how peanuts were grown. Pretty neat!

Besides being an artist, a musician, and all the work he did in botany and science... these are some of the actual needleworks he created!

This was an exhibit showing some "Carver developed products from A to Z."

We once again braved the 40 degree weather to take a walk out to the site of the one-room log cabin where George spent his infancy with his mother and brother. The actual home is gone, but through archaelogical discoveries, they have found the exact location of the cabin. I was amazed at the small size of this home for 3! Here's what the sign said: "George Washington Carver was born a slave on the Carver farm. After losing his mother and father in separate trajedies, he was reared as a foster child by Moses and Susan Carver. The replica (above) shows the exact location of the original one-room log cabin where George spent his infancy with his mother Mary and brother Jim.

A sickly child throughtout his youth, George later wrote, 'My body was very feeble and it was a constant warfare between life and death to see who would gain the mastery.'"

It was getting late and so cold, that we couldn't make the walk out to where George lived with his foster parents, the Carvers. But, here is a statue of young George. I was in awe when I realized these are the very woods where George played and learned about nature and started to love flowers. This is also the woods were his mother was taken from him. He was an incredible person and I am so glad we visited the place where his life started.

A sign near here said: "Day after day, I spent in the woods alone in order to collect my floral beauties, and put them in my little garden I had hidden in brush not far from the house, as it was considered foolishness in the neighborhood to waste time on flowers."

Day 1: Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center

We're on vacation!!! We headed into Missouri on Sunday for our 4th Annual Girl's Trip - a yearly trip Alexandra and I take with my mother-in-law. Destination 2008: St. Louis, MO. We always loosely plan our trips and freely stop whenever we see something interesting. Our first stop on Sunday was the Wildcat Glades Conservation & Audubon Center.


This was a wonderful nature center with several hands-on activities inside. We also got to watch them feed the fish in several tanks. And, a real highlight was the bird feeders just ouside the windows. We saw chickadees, a tufted titmouse, a downy woodpecker, and lots of other birds. And they were so close!



We knew our first few days would be chilly, but we didn't expect the low 40's and upper 30's. Yikes! We RAN out to look at the glades and RAN back inside. There were hiking trails and one of them went past a wildcat cave. We really wanted to go... but no way in that cold weather! We only had jackets - I didn't think we'd need coats.

Coke vs. Diet Coke Density

While at my mom's this weekend, my sister and I got in a discussion about science fairs and she mentioned an experiment she'd seen where a Diet Coke was floating in a tank while a regular Coke had sunk. One of us (to protect the innocent, I'm not telling who) didn't believe this experiment was true while the other did. So, we decided to try it.


My mom did happen to have both Diet and regular Coke - and it worked! The Coke sank and the Diet Coke floated. The other thing that brought my mom, myself, and my sister into fits of giggles was watching the cans "shrink" every time we put them in the water! (Yes - we all love science, but I think we were just way too tired to have that much fun watching Cokes "shrink.") They look like the mini-cans, but they are full size!

I found an explanation on this site and a great idea about showing kids how much sugar vs. Nutrasweet are needed to sweeten the soft drinks. Nutrasweet is so sweet, you don't need much!
What did you learn today???

Green Hour Challenge #8 : Up Close

We had a lot of fun outdoors today as we did challenge #8. One of the main activities of this challenge was to take a magnifying glass out in your own backyard and look at things. Well, we did that. But, we actually quickly got distracted, so we need to do this again someday!

We enjoyed looking at this weed that grows in our yard - we used to call them baby strawberries, but they're really nothing like strawberries. They start as this little yellow flower...


...then the turn into this white "fruit" covered with little red "beads." Does anyone know what this is? We'd love to know!

Then, we went and looked at the garden we planted yesterday. We planted our gourds that we'd started indoors. They are looking OK. I hope they make it! We also planted some marigolds, verbena, and something else... I've forgotten its name. And, we planted more milkweed. When I looked at the photo I'd taken of it today, I noticed at least two little insects (ants?). I'm amazed at how often I take a photo of something and find something that I'd never noticed before! So, this was kind of like using a magnifying glass. :-)

We also found this neat egg sac of some kind on our sago palm.

Then, I decided to go and get some loquats. For the past few weeks, we'd been noticing trees in our neighborhood covered in yellow fruit. We even thought we saw some kids picking them and eating them. I had no idea what they were. Then, a few days ago, a friend wrote an email to a group we belong to saying that people should go eat some loquats and he briefly desribed them. So, I looked it up on the internet, and that's what we'd been seeing - loquats!

We went to our local park to pick some loquats. They have a thin peel and a texture kind of like an apple. But, they are sour!!! Alexandra really enjoyed them and ate several. Then, I started worrying that maybe I had the wrong fruit! Maybe they were poisonous! It didn't help that the first webpage I found when I got home told about a 5-year-old girl had eaten some that were not ripe and they had trouble waking her up. Yikes!!!

But, then I found this site that had a lot more information. First of all, it sounds like loquats don't produce fruit very often, so that might be why this is the first time I have noticed it. (It says they only fruit once a decade, but I'm not sure they were being literal.) And, the site said they were good to eat, but that the seed contains toxins. They also had a recipe for jam that Alexandra really wanted to make, but we didn't.

I'm also wondering if ours wasn't quite ripe. It was SO sour and another website says the fruit's "flavor is a blend of apricot, plum and cherry." (Doesn't that sound yummy?) It also says the loquat is native to Southeastern China, where loquat means "reed orange."

So, that was our adventure for the day. I feel like our moto should be "Never stop learning!"

More DNA Fun

After Alexandra's classes yesterday, the chemistry teacher helped a few of the younger kids to make candy DNA. (She'd made the models with the older kids during their class.) I had meant to do this when we studied DNA & genetics, but I didn't want to buy a whole bag of candy for just us. So, I was very happy the teacher invited Alexandra to make this model!

And, Toad Haven has some excellent genetics activities that I want to try... soon! Check them out! What a fun way to learn such a great topic!

Mathmaticious

Wow! This 14 year old is amazing!!! I wonder if he's homeschooled... :-)

Fraction Action

We used to play lots of math games and have kind of gotten out of the habit. Well, this week we played 3 new games. I found a link from mathwire to this "Everyday Math" website. They list some great math games.

Our favorite this week was the game we played today called Fraction Action. It's a fraction game that's played a lot like Blackjack where you're trying to get close to 21 without going over, but in this case you are trying to use your fraction cards to get close to 2 without going over. It's a great game to work on finding common denominators as the fractions you use are: 1/2, 1/3, 2/3, 1/4, 3/4, 1/6, 1/6, 5/6, 1/12, 1/12, 5/12, 5/12, 7/12, 7/12, 11/12, 11/12 . Each person is dealt 2 cards and then they decide if they want more cards or not. Alexandra loved this game and I'm sure we'll be playing it some more.

Echolocation

Today we worked more on our dolphin lapbook. One thing we discussed was how dolphins "see" by using echolocation. Toad Haven posted a link to some videos entitled "The Boy Who Sees Without Eyes." (Click on title to see all 5 of this hour long, fascinating story.)

(part 1 of 5)

The videos are about a boy who had his cancerous eyes removed when he was only 3. He has since developed a way to "see" by using a series of clicks and listening as the sound bounces off of objects. This boy, who is of course totally blind, can ride his bike down the street, use inline skates, play basketball, play video games (I still don't get this one), all by using "echolocation." It is truly amazing.

The show also talked about how submarines and dolphins use echolocation to move around, so this tied in nicely to our studies.

I also thought the mom was just incredible. She didn't want her son to feel handicapped, so she treats him as if he is totally normal and tells him he can see - just with other senses. I want to be that kind of mom! One who motivates and helps my daughter become all that she can be. What an inspirational show.

Green Hour Challenge #7: Inchworm

I meant to go on a "real" nature walk with Alexandra this week, but it just didn't happen. And, I've been thinking about how to do Barb's challenge of making our own field guide for our chosen topic, flowerless plants, but we haven't done that, either. So, I thought I'd submit this wonderful impromptu nature study as our challenge #7. But, before I do that, wanted to show a "field guide" we made when we studied wildflowers last year. It is very much like what Barb described in her challenge and has information on the back. It is definitely a keepsake.

Today was my weekly day to watch the kids at Alexandra's "school" for recess. One of the little girls had found an inchworm. I was very disappointed that I didn't have my camera with me! This inchworm was brown and looked very much like stick. When he would "stand" on his 4 back "legs" and have his body stiff, he looked just like a twig on a branch!


Just a few days ago, I posted a question about inchworms and Makita at Twinkling Stars Family School was able to answer the questions. So, when the kids asked me some questions, I was able to answer some of them... but, I had to come home and do some more research tonight.

Inchworms are a specific type of caterpillar. Like most caterpillars, inchworms have 3 pairs of true legs in the front of their body, but usually only 2 pairs of false legs in back where most caterpillars have 5 pair. They move by drawing their back legs towards their front and then stretching out their body. (This caterpillar is moving "up" in the photo - and crawling on lichen!)

Inchworms are also called measuring worms, spanworms, cankerworms, and loopers. They are usually about 1 inch long. They belong to a family called Geometridae or the Geometer moths - "earth measuring." (I think we might discuss words that have "geo" or "meter" in them tomorrow.) You're probably familiar with the Inchworm song that teaches arithmetic. (See video at the bottom of the page.) We actually sing it when we see 8 x 4. (4 and 4 is 8, 8 and 8 is 16, 16 and 16 is 32....)

Two unexpected things happened while we were playing with the inchworm. At one point, something brown came out of the inchworms mouth (I guess) - ON Alexandra's hand. Yuck! (Is this a kind of spit?) And, I was holding it on a stick, and all of a sudden it dropped towards the ground with a thread. It was pretty funny as I wound and wound the stick trying to keep the inchworm from getting to the ground.

Also, one of the girls found a little green spider and brought it over to me. We watched it until it climbed under the bench I was sitting on. Well, on the way home, Alexandra says "That spider is on the back of your seat!" I guess he'd climbed on me at some point. So, I stopped the car and got him on a piece of paper, stepped out of the car, and flicked him off. Well, he just came right up his thread. He did this twice. I finally had to kind of wipe the paper in the grass to get him off.

Speaking of caterpillars (earlier), we bought some new Mexican milkweed this weekend and we have it sitting by our back door. We watched a butterfly yesterday who came and laid 3 eggs! (Or maybe it was several butterflies.) So, we'll be having caterpillars of our own before long.

What an unexpected day of learning, and I'm really enjoying learning with the kids. I love that they're bringing their nature "finds" over to me to share them with me!