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Denver Zoo has a free day! ~ field trip

November 14, 2012Written by Joy

We recently found out that the Denver Zoo has free days for the public. One of those days was last week. I asked our neighbor who homeschools her 7 year old son if they wanted to go with us. They said yes, so off we went! We packed a lunch, snacks and bottled water for the day. We got to the zoo fairly early and there were already a lot of families who were taking advantage of this wonderful opportunity.

King of the Jungle

As you walk in through the front gate, the first animals that you come to is the African Lions. They were absolutely gorgeous! And huge!

Cape Buffalo

Being a zoo with a lot of animals, the one thing you do notice right off is the smell. I kept giggling at Samuel who kept asking why the animals smelled so badly. He walked around the zoo with his shirt over his nose, most of the day. The smell was really horrible at the Cape Buffalo area.

Dall’s Sheep

I have seen mountain sheep before on Mt.Evans. Was even able to get some really close pictures of them. So I liked watching these that were at the zoo. The one with the horns was the dominating one. He would go up to the younger ones and push them below him. He was definitely playing king of the mountain and succeeded!

Claire with the Capuchin

Claire had told me before we arrived at the zoo that she wanted to see the monkeys. Her Papa calls her, his little monkey and so she wanted to have her picture taken with them, so we could send it to him.

Samuel seeing how tall he is next to am Emperor Penguin

Samuel thought this was pretty cool, being able to compare how tall he is to an Emperor Penguin.

Grizzly Bears

While we have seen black bears in North Carolina, this was our first time seeing grizzly bears. I loved watching the grizzly bears. Tundra (female bear), kept pacing back and forth while watching Tipani (sp?- male bear) eat his bone. Tundra was waiting for him to walk away from his bone so she could take it, even though she had her own!

Kids checking out an Elephant skull

The Denver Zoo has just recently added a new section to the Zoo. It is a much larger Elephant exhibit. From what we were told, they have added several more elephants to the zoo. It is amazing how large and graceful these animals are.

Elephant

Another highlight for the kids were seeing the giraffes. We also got a lesson in giraffe anatomy. When we walked up the largest giraffe was going to the bathroom. They must have a bladder the size of a basketball or larger. The make giraffe stood there urinating for several minutes. Adults and kids all got a giggle out of seeing this!

Giraffe

The last exhibit we went through, was the Tropical Climate building. This building had so many different types of frogs, lizards, fish and snakes in it. It was very humid and damp. This was also a big hit with the kids. It is so amazing to see all the different types of animals that God has created.

Kids looking at a Komodo Dragon

We spent about 3 hours at the zoo that day. I would have stayed longer, but the kids were all tired. So we left after leaving the Tropical building. The zoo was so big that we didn’t even get to see everything. We are excited about going back again on the next free day. This time, dad is going to take off a half a day so he can go with us. The kids can’t wait to show him all the animals we saw. I can’t wait to see the animals that we missed on our first trip. We enjoyed the zoo so much, that we are planning on buying a yearly membership.

Do you have a zoo that is close by? What are your favorite animals?

2012, field trips, homeschooling 2012, Black Rhinoceros, children, Colorado, Denver, elephant, family, field trip, friends, giraffe, King of the Jungle, Komodo Dragon, Lion, zoo

Manassas National Battlefield Park – field trip

May 19, 2012Written by Joy

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Manassas National Battlefield Park – field trip

I think I have mentioned it before, but one of our favorite things to do as a family is visit national and state parks. Most of the time they are free or only a couple of dollars per person. There is so much history filled into these parks! On our recent trip to Washington D.C., we took time on our way home to stop by the Manassas National Battlefield Park.

I used the word amazing a lot throughout my weekend, and really the only word I could think of for this place was amazing. Just knowing that so many, young and old, lost their lives on the actual ground we were walking. Blood was spilled for some who were fighting for what they believed was right. For some it was father against son, brother against brother, uncle against nephew. Yes, it was a bloody war. Yet, God knew the outcome before it was ever started. He was there through it all.

We didn’t even walk the whole place. There is over 5,000 acres of land here that was fought on. We just walked the loop that they have at this area. Each marker has a number that you can listen to a recording on through your phone. As we walked and read each marker in this one loop, we also listened to a narrator give a few more details. I have to be honest and say that tears did come. I took over 300 pictures of this area and have chosen a few to share.

Reading the second sign with Dad.

Taking a moment to read about this grave marker.

Monument behind the house. I am sad to say that I did not get a chance to read what the plaque said on this one.

The Henry House.

The kids trying to reenact how the soldiers would have stood as they were preparing to fire the cannon.

Reading about Stonewall Jackson.

Looking at a line of cannons.

Dad telling Sammy how far the cannon ball could go.

General Barnard E. Bee monument.

Brigadier Frances Stebbings Bartow marker.

Andrew “Stonewall” Jackson Monument.

2012, field trips, homeschooling

field trip to Judaculla Rock

April 14, 2012Written by Joy

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The same day we went to the archaeological dig, we also stopped by a place called Judaculla Rock. Judaculla Rock is a petroglyph. What is a petroglyph? Petroglyph are pictures or images created by removing rock with different types of tools.

Judaculla Rock was made by the Cherokee Indians. Even though the markings are faint, you can still tell what some of the shapes are. You can see animals, people and even a sun. To me, it also looks like they have carvings of either sugar cane or corn. There are also other shapes and images that are hard to recognize. Scientist are not for sure what its purpose was for.

While the carvings are slowly fading away due to the weather and sometimes vandals, it is a beautiful work of art. I can only imagine the many hours it took for the Indians to carve the pictures.

If you are ever in this area, I encourage you to take time to drive the back roads to see this.

We had never seen a petroglyph until we saw this one. I would love to visit more that have been found in the United States! Have you ever seen a petroglyph? Please share with us if you have!

field trips, homeschooling

field trip to an archaeological dig

April 13, 2012Written by Joy

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*Warning, picture heavy post because I couldn’t just choose a few!*

To me, when I have thought of an archaeological dig, I have always pictured a group of people out in the desert near Egypt surrounded by partially uncovered pyramids. Or out in the plains surrounded by wheat fields with dinosaur bones being uncovered. Never has it dawned on me that even in our local area we could have an archaeological dig! Apparently they are more common around this area than what I thought! We came to know about this dig from a homeschooling grandma in our group. It is happening right on their property! She asked me if I thought our group would be interested in taking a field trip to see what all they were doing. I don’t know who was more excited, the kids or the mom’s! It turned out to be a beautiful day for the field trip.

The reason for this dig was the state decided they needed to put in a new bridge in this area. Before they could do that, they had to have a team of archaeologist come to do a little research to see if any Indian artifacts was found. This area is known to have been a place where some Cherokee Indians lived. Sure enough, when they started digging, they found areas where outbuildings had been built, broken shards of pottery and arrowheads. One of the biggest finds they came across was an area where they would dump their food and broken pottery vessels, like a garbage hole. They have been able to date most of the pieces from the early 1700’s.

This is Bruce Idol. He is heading up this archaeological dig. Bruce was gracious enough to host our group at the site and answer the questions we all had.

He is showing the kids an arrowhead that they had just found that morning!

I thought this was a cool looking area that they had searched. Loved it being in the shape of a cross.

One person is shoveling a thin layer of dirt and tossing it into the sieve box where the guy will shake it to see if he can find any shards of pottery or arrowheads.

These two workers were making sketches on paper and mapping out the rocks they had uncovered. Once they finished with that, they removed the rocks and then went down another layer.

The guy that was working the sieve box was showing the kids what all he had found. The workers were very nice to the kids, answered all their questions and even let them hold a few pieces of the broken pottery.

I loved how all of the kids were attentive. They were so well behaved and respectful of the history the guys were uncovering.

I think this was the “garbage hole” that they had discovered. She was carefully scooping up the dirt in a dust pan. She was taking out the larger pieces and putting them in the bucket next to her. Then she would take the dirt and sift it through a sieve box to find smaller pieces.

This field trip has been one of the most memorable ones we have taken in a while. I love history and to see it unearthed and come back to life was truly amazing. That is one of the reason I love living where we do. The Great Smoky Mountains and surrounding area is so filled with history that you just never know what you will come across or learn next.

Have you had any fun, interesting or unusual field trips lately? I would love to hear about them!

field trips, homeschooling, Uncategorized

Cataloochee Valley Field Trip with Grandparents

November 25, 2011Written by Joy

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Cataloochee Valley Field Trip with Grandparents

We had a wonderful visit with the grandparents while they were here. One of the things they wanted to do while visiting, was to take a trip to Cataloochee Valley. This is the place where they re-introduced the elk back in to the Great Smoky National Park. It is also a settlement from the late 19th and early 20th century. They have several homes, a couple of churches, and a school house, that are still standing in the park that you can look at. It had been a while since our family had been to the park, so we were happy to take them.

I will warn you that this is post has many pictures!

The first place we stopped was the school. As you can tell below by the sign, it was built in 1903.

This is a creek running beside the school house. I can just see the kids taking turns going to the creek to get water for the teacher.

The isn’t a one room school house. It actually had 2 rooms! I was able to get a couple of my kids to sit at a desk.

Even those it is no longer in use, the school is still a beautiful building.

I loved this picture of Papa and granddaughter talking!

The next place we went to in the park was the Caldwell House. However, before we looked at the barn and house, I had to get a picture of the mountains. While it was a rainy and overcast day, it was still a beautiful day in Cataloochee Valley!

This was the view of the opposite direction of the picture above. Again, it was a beautiful day in the mountains.

Remember, the whole reason for us to come to the park to begin with, was to look for elk to show Papa. We are halfway through the park and have yet to see any elk at all. All that we have come across has been turkeys! So we continued on with the buildings, which led us to the Caldwell House, built in 1903. The barn is built out in the field in front of the house. My son enjoyed sitting in the opening of the barn. As long as he didn’t know I was taking his picture, he was okay with his picture being taken. *wink*

I caught him off guard here, however, he was showing me that there were little doors in the floor of the barn. They opened to different sections of the bottom of the barn. I was told that this was for the family to push hay through the little doors to rooms below, to feed the animals. Please correct me if I am wrong. I did not do any research on that information given to me.

To get to the Caldwell House, you had to cross a bridge over the creek.

The bridge is a little bouncy, so the kids had fun walking back and forth over the bridge.

There is also another small bridge that crosses a wetland area. You can see the kids looking at an area where the ground had been torn up. We were not for sure if it was caused by the elk or wild boars.

This spring house was out to the side of the home. It looked to have been built right over the spring. While our kids have seen a different spring house, this was the first one they had seen that actually had water running directly under it.

We had decided since we had not seen any elk and the day was moving along , we would go ahead and leave the park. Which means we did not stop to see the Palmer Chapel in the park. I am hoping to go back soon so that I can take more pictures. As we were headed out of the park, there was one lone elk on the back side of the field. I am very thankful we had a zoom lens with us. She was so close to the tree line and the brown grass was so high, that I didn’t think we would get a good picture of her. It was hard choosing which one to post!

There was an abundance of turkeys in the park. I think they decided to head there to miss being on a table this Thanksgiving!

Our biggest surprise was almost at the opening of the park. On the side of the road and in a ditch, was this beauty. He was about 20 feet from our van. We stopped and took pictures and just watched him eat for several minutes. The elk is a gorgeous creature made by God! Just look at this wonderful creation! He looked so majestic just standing there. I am looking forward to when we can visit Cataloochee Valley again!

2011, field trips, photography