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Lookout Farm – Natick, MA – Homeschooling Field trip

October 20, 2009 By Laura 6 Comments

We recently took a day off from school and work, to enjoy the fall season and have a field trip. The real perk for this trip, was we were first meeting up with a family member to spend the day with us. We all headed to The Lookout Farm, in Natick, MA.

We’d never been there, and boy was it a beautiful place. The main attraction of this place was that it had all kinds of orchards, to ‘pick your own’. Not only several kinds of apples, but lots of other varieties of fruit in their respective seasons, as well as pumpkins of course.

For our trip, there were several varieties of apples, peaches, and pears ready to pick. Besides the orchards, there was a huge outdoor play area, some farm animals to see, and a country store of sorts. A trolley brought you from from the orchards to the animals and play area and back again to the store. It was a really, really nice place to spend such a beautiful fall day.

The kids really enjoyed finding apples that looked great to pick. We really didn’t need as much as they would have loved to pick. They were $2.50 a pound.

And with apples that were the size of these, it was easy for the pounds to add up. I’m not sure how well you can tell, but this apple was huge in {O}’s little hand. Honestly, I had never seen apples so big. Made us wonder. :/

What really, really captivated me at this place, were the grapevines. All of the orchard rows branched off of these grapevine covered walkways, and there were LOTS and lots of them. The smell on the air was so sweet.

Before I get any further here, I have to point out that you will notice that {O}’s eyes are closed in most all of the photos, and they were most all of the day! She had gotten up shortly after going to bed the night before, saying it felt like something was in her eye. Michael checked it, and found nothing. She went back to bed, went right to sleep, and had an uneventful night. The next morning, the day of this trip, she got up, was chatting up a storm, happy as a clam, but wouldn’t open her her eye, and it was tearing. I asked her about it, and she said it still felt like there was something in her eye. I laid her down and with good light, looked again, and found what I thought was a sty under her top eyelid. No biggie. So we carried on with our field trip plans. It was a BRIGHT sunny day and it turned out, the brightness was too much for her. I could not understand it…..for a sty!?

But, it was with good reason, in the end! That story-post will be coming up in the Big Picture next. But take note how she still was all smiles all day, she picked fruit, played on the playscapes, laughed and had herself a wonderful and fun day, never complaining. Because if/when you read the upcoming post, you’ll be surprised.

On the trolley that brought us from orchard to orchard, etc. It was such a nice ride, following the wide brick paths throughout the farm, making stops at all of the attractions.

Some of the animals we saw that day….

Like many of the animals there, this donkey had a wood sign hung up with his name carved out of it. His name was JACK.

I wondered out loud, “Oh….His name is Jack. How clever. I wonder what his last name is.” A father nearby shot me the funniest look. lol. I was just wondering! ; )

We were pretty impressed with this huge hay pyramid in the play area. There was also a burlap maze.

I didn’t take photos of it all, but it was a great play ground.

{O} wore sunglasses most of the day, to help keep the brightness out of her eyes. I peeked in a few times though, and she was still keeping them mostly closed. I was puzzled and growing concerned. Hmmmmm.

There was this kiddie caterpillar ride, that went around the whole entire play area, which really was pretty big. {A} was a good sport to go with the kids. I just felt better.

The driver seemed to be a cool dude though. I talked to him for several minutes before I let him take my kids for a spin.

No driving record; no speeding tickets or accidents, and he seemed to enjoy his job.

{O} up in the tree-house, still all smiles.

Look at this thing!! I thought it was so cute.

But what I was really drawn to….

….were the stairs….and specifically, the natural railings. I am all about ‘simple, rustic, imperfect.’ Michael saw me really looking at them and said, “Here we go. Mama is going to want me to make something like this for our deck or something.'” He read my mind!

We ended up with about 10 pounds of apples, and a few days later we made 3 apple pies. We ate 1 immediately, and froze 2.

We were having such a nice day, we decided to all go get lunch together. Besides, we were hungry!!

Everyone ate well (my kids never ‘not’ eat well. They love all food!). But {O} was so happy to get in the van and close her eyes for good. She fell fast asleep too. But when we got home, I had to take a GOOD look at her eye again, for the 4th time that day, and I finally saw the real problem.

Stay Tuned.

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Herring Run Faster Than Us – Homeschooling Field Trip

May 23, 2009 By Laura 4 Comments

We are very fortunate to live in such a beautiful, historic town, of Plymouth, MA. (Also historically known as Plimoth.) It’s scenic, almost everywhere you look, and as homeschoolers, it’s a world of education. I’ll be showing you more of these parts we live in soon, but this is one place we love to go. It’s a great place to take a long walk, completely away from any streets and traffic.

On one is the famous Jenney Grist Mill, which has a quaint tavern and ice cream shop. (At this point in time.) The mill is only turning when they are grinding corn inside, making corn meal.

Right across a drive way is a surreal little pond, that is just so quiet, it feels like it’s own little world. Quiet enough to hear the nature. It’s full of wild life to spot. There are birds in flight everywhere, and a swan couple. Fish, frogs, muskrats and turtles. There is also a bridge over it all. This is where the herring are born, and come back to in the spring to spawn, by way of the lovely brook that runs through this whole park, connecting of course, to the ocean.

The kids spotted a turtle.

Heading back the other way out behind the mill, is where you can get a good look at the herring, during the spawning time of spring. As they swim upstream, on their journey to the fresh water pond, they are abundant and easy to observe right here. Unfortunately, we were late going to take a look this year. They come through mid-April to mid-May. So they beat us this year, and had already been through, and gone, before we went to check it out this past week. We’ve been in previous years though, and it is a sight to see! Herring fish swimming and jumping on top of each other, everywhere. If you look just on the other side of the slanted stone wall in the photo above, you can see the ‘fish ladder’, that many of the fish use to help themselves along.

We spotted a few fish, but the real active season had really past.

The kids still re-read the herring information board at the location.

They really do have such an amazing life cycle.

Continuing to walk along, it is just so peaceful and serene, following the brook all of the way, and going through a couple overpass tunnels, that the kids love to make echos in. That part is less than peaceful, or serene. lol

I love this photo above. I have no idea what the interaction was about between{J} and {O}, but it just strikes me as a moment full of love and tenderness between siblings.

Just beyond this spot, continuing in the same direction, is a large park, with lots of walk ways, another quaint foot bridge, spreads of green grass, and nice little benched areas to sit.

But we headed back to the direction we came from, because it was time to go get some dinner, and we had a long walk back first. It was a nice evening for a family walk, but I was kicking myself for waiting so long to go, and missing the herring season. We’ll be back here many times before that season rolls around again, because it’s a great place to take a stroll on summer nights, and throughout the fall as well.

Next year though, we’ll be sure not to miss the herring again, and I promise to take lots of photos!!

Have you ever seen herring swimming upstream in the spring?

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Whale Carcass Washes Ashore – A Spontaneous Field Trip

September 23, 2008 By Laura 1 Comment

This morning, after having had an extended weekend away, we were planning a regular school day today, with getting some our book lessons done. That is, until we woke up to helicopters, circling around and around, near our house. So my husband turned on the tv to find out what might be going on, and low and behold, there was a whale carcass washed ashore on our beach nearby. Time for a spontaneous field trip! THIS is the beauty of homeschooling!

So the kids ate breakfast, washed up and got dressed as fast as they could, and we all headed out in search of the whale. After a driving down a few side-roads that had public access ways, and checking the shore there, we finally found the spot. Except the only way down was very steep, very sandy and rocky cliff. But if you know us…..we went for it. We all made it down safely, as I wondered out loud, repeatedly, how we’d ever make it back up! But we’d figure that out later I guess. We had a dead whale to study. : )

Though it didn’t seem to be a full grown adult, it was rather impressive, nonetheless. (And seemed huge to our little kids.) It was so interesting to see all of it’s parts, up close and in person. as a whole, it was not pretty by any means!! Not anymore, anyway. Part of it was really decomposing, as it seemed to have been dead awhile, and just finally got washed ashore.

This side (photo below), was the worst. It was barely recognizable as a whale at all. And in standing on the other side, where the breeze came on off-water, the smell was intolerable. UGH! But it was this side that you could see the bones of the jaw, on the far right, as well as the eye socket. So it was fascinating, visually.

The kids enjoyed walking around it, checking it out, asking questions and stepping on it’s tail. LOL. Naturally, I was taking photos, and thinking about blogging with such yucky, yet interesting photos, about our unexpected experience. Below at this angle you can see the upper jaw bones even better, on the far left this time.

As we were looking at it, yet another couple of helicopters were flying around over head. Other people began to arrive too, and some guessed we were homeschoolers.

Once we had our fill of fascination and disgust, we decided to figure out which one of the many sets of beach access stairs, that climbed the cliff-side, were public. As we made our way down the beach, we came across a scattered intestines of the whale, here and there, that had washed up separately. (Yuck.) Once up the cliff and on our way up the road, back to our van, we saw the environmental police showing up. Marine biologists had already been there, in the earlier morning hours.

When we got home, we did some research and determined that it was a humpback whale. Later TV news reports throughout the day confirmed that. It’s not yet determined if this whale died of natural causes, or by accident due to being bumped by a ship, or caught up in fishing nets. It seems they plan to retrieve the the skeleton of the whale for museum display, and either bury the flesh, or drag it back out to sea.

It was yet another homeschooling adventure our kids were able to witness! They talked about it the rest of the day, and the little ones colored pictures of whales and other sea creatures, and recreated the scene with imaginary play. After we got all of our book lessons done of course.

Tide Pool Study Field Trip

June 9, 2008 By Laura 4 Comments

The kids recently went on their Tide Pool Study Field Trip, and this one was also a Mass Audubon program, lead by their nature experts as well. We were really looking forward this study, as the ocean and shores are such a big part of our life. The day sure did not disappoint in any way! It was perfect weather wise, it was such an educational experience, and we just had so-much-fun! I could not take enough photos, and believe it our not, what’s in this post are only some of them. Recording my children’s lives, and ultimately memories, in detail, is just what I do. So there are LOTS I am sharing in this post, because I hope you too can enjoy seeing all of the interesting and amazing things we did this day. As if you were there with us! : )

For a good part of the study, the kids broke up into 2 groups: the older kids, and the little ones. They basically did the same things, but it just made the large group more manageable, and the kids could explore and learn more on their levels.

Throughout the day, we saw some really amazing stuff, up close, and got to hear more about what we found or saw, from the experts. They were really so very informative.

One of the first things the kids learned about sand. Sand in New England started out as rocks, boulders, etc., being moved from the mountains, to the ocean in glaciers. As the glacier moves, rocks are being ground into smaller rocks, and smaller pieces. Rocks get here the same way. When the glaciers stopped at as far as the ocean, the climate warmed, they melted, and receded back to the mountains, leaving recessional moraine – which is the sand, stones, rocks and boulders. Now the stones and rocks at the shoreline, are constantly being moved by the waves of the ocean, causing them to bang together and chip. These chips are known as sand. Interesting, huh??

As shown below by {O}, they dug deep into the sand, to explore the difference between top sand and deep sand. The deeper sand is more course and wet, where the top sand is finer and dry.

They also discovered how the two levels smell differently. So yes, that is {A} below, sniffing the sand. lol. The top sand is easily dried by the sun, evaporating the water and leaving the salt, so it has a salty smell. The deeper sand smells more like damp mud. The deeper you dig, the wetter it is.

Here are some other things the kids happened to see at the ocean, and learned more about as they were spotted and observed:

Horseshoe Crabs….

Here are two that are….ummm….very close? Self explanatory.

Here is one of my favorite shots of the day. This is an eggshell we found, that most likely was of a baby Least Tern, or possibly a Piping Plover. Sadly, it looks like a predator, probably a crow, got to the egg of the developing bird. It made us so sad! But isn’t it’s shell just beautiful?

All of the kids, both big and small, spent a lot of time exploring, and as they did and brought their findings to the experts, the experts taught them all about what they found.

Seaweed particles….{O} and {S} just loved collecting these things. They are so interesting, with different patterns and colors. Some almost seem to glow, and are a little translucent. They made me think of Christmas ornaments in royal colors.

Below, {A} shows her little siblings all of the treasures of the sea that she found. Some of it is just junk, but to her, it’s all exciting treasures. Trust me on that.

Shown below is a sea snail one of the leader experts was showing us and telling us all about.

It’s amazes us to think that all of these fascinating things of nature, big and small, were created by God. What a wild and incomprehensible imagination He has, and how it is represented in so many ways throughout His Creation. I know I talk about it on this blog all of the time, but it really is a very powerful realization, when you really stop to think about the details and cycle of it all, and how it all works together in such a perfect way. There is no end to the amazement of what He has done.

Anyway, somehow, our kids managed to get some real one-on-one time with the experts too, as the rest of the group were exploring or doing other things. They just had lots of questions and wanted to see and hear about all they could, and the experts were happy and eager to teach them.

{J} had 2 big rocks in his hands, and when he clunked them together, one of them broke into 3 pieces! The look of surprise on his face was priceless. He was feeling pretty strong that day!

What we then had was a 3 piece rock puzzle, to take home! As you can see below, {J} spent some more time playing with it later. It’s pretty cool, and he’s pretty fascinated in the 3 parts and how they fit together, and still kind of in disbelief that he broke it! This is one of those things that we’ll keep in our sun room. These are the kind of things I love to have around our home. Special momentos that remind us of special times together. Our days of learning, laughter and happiness.

At the end of the exploring and learning, we all gathered together as one big group, and were read a story about a sand piper. It was a really nice way to wind down and close such a great, great day by the sea. We all were smiling in the van all the way home, talking and laughing about all of the fun we had, and the great new things we had learned. Hands full of treasures, of course.

We are so grateful to live by the sea, where we can return for new exploring, new adventures, or just hanging out, anytime we want. (Photo taken by Daddy, who is always just another kid at the sea shore!)

The REAL Science Field Trip – Mass Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary

May 19, 2008 By Laura 2 Comments

The kids finally had their real science field trip, to the Mass Audubon Society Wildlife Sanctuary, on the RIGHT day. Michael and I were not as excited to go anymore, feeling like we’ve ‘been there, done that‘. But the point was to meet and experience a homeschool co-op that was having a day there, and the kids were all for going again. So we went, and were all really glad we did. I must say, the weather wasn’t quite as nice as the mistaken day, which was so warm and sunny. This time it was on the cool side, and pretty cloudy and grey out. Rain was expected later that day. (And it indeed started sprinkling before we left.)

But what a great field trip it was anyway! As I mentioned in the post about our accidental trip, the place consists of tons of conservation land, which includes various kinds of habitats: grass plains, marshland, and ponds. These habitats are home to all kinds of birds, animals, reptiles and amphibians. There were experts there from Mass Audubon, who took us in groups and taught us and showed us so much.

I didn’t really get any great photos. Again, I would have needed that big tele-photo lense for some really fascinating shots. But also, our kids were always in groups with other people who may have not wanted their photos taken, and it wouldn’t be right to post them on my blog with their faces showing, (without permission either)…..so my camera did a lot of resting. Although I did get a few simple photos, one of course of the boardwalk bridge, which I probably took one similar last time too.

boardwalk bridge

The first thing we did was go out on a tractor-pulled wagon hayride with a group, and a very nice and informative woman who was a wildlife expert, right out into the grasslands, where she taught us much about the birds that habitat there. The little ones enjoyed the ride, and learned quite a bit just listening to the talk. {A} brought along her notebook and sketchpad. Remember I told you {A} was ‘a bird expert as far as I could tell’? Well, she’s a bird expert as far as a bird expert can tell, too! lol. The woman had large laminated cards of various kinds of birds, not all the kind we see every day in our own yards. The woman often started with ‘Does anyone know what kind of bird this is?’, and {A} always did. She also knows more about their behaviors than I even knew she knew. The woman was impressed! Some of the birds we saw and/or learned all about were Osprey, Red-Winged Blackbirds, Swallows, Bluebirds, Flycatchers, Bobolinks, and Orioles, as well as red and grey fox, raccoons, and some rodent of which I forget the name of or what it really looks like. (Maybe on purpose. lol) ) We saw LOTS of Bobolinks darting around, there was an Osprey there as well, and we learned that Orioles fly all the way to and from South America every year! (Wow!). We have seen them in our yard several times in the past couple of weeks, and I just LOVE them. The woman said if we put a string out on our deck, the Orioles will take it to build a nest. If we put one out every day for them, they just may build there nest in your yard and stick around for the whole season! I definitely want to keep them around….so we did just what she said today. But it was still there last I checked.

When we got back from the hayride, we learned about bird-banding Tree Swallows. The woman explained how they catch the birds, how they harmlessly band them, measure their wing span, weigh them, record all of that info, where they send, and why. She had different strings of leg bands, as shown below, each of all the same size, but with different identification numbers on them. It was fascinating to hear the woman tell us how some years she would have birds she had banned the year before come back, or get notice in the mail from another sanctuary that a bird she had banned had been at their habitat thousands of miles away.

After that little information session, the kids moved on to learn more about bugs and insects. They even went into the tall grasses to catch some in fabric nets, put them in containers, and learn more about exactly what they caught. (You can bet I did a tick check after that little activity!) After {A} transferred what she had in her net, into a container, she discovered she caught syphrid flies, aphids, a spider, beetles, and ants. Did you know there is a difference between bugs and insects?

There were games to play, a bubble blowing table, and a little craft table as well. The kids made these dragonflies out of pipe-cleaners, beads and tinfoil. Pretty cute, huh? I don’t think they’ve much put them down since.

All in all it was a fantastic day. We all learned LOTS, had FUN doing it, and met so many wonderful people. There’s another co-op field trip coming up soon too…….a tide-pool study at the ocean, with more Mass Audubon experts there! We have a few of our own field trips planned as well, but I am sure we’ll be sure not to miss the co-op tide-pool study! The kids will really, really LOVE that, and so will us big kids! We love the beach and ocean, and feel so blessed to have a private beach within walking distance of our home.

The next day, {A} had a parish youth group activity planned. They were having a beach clean-up, and then gathering at the parish center for a cookout and some volleyball. It initially was cancelled that morning because it had been raining and was still drizzly. But some kids showed up anyway, so the leader called {A}, and she was happy to go and help. I did not take photos activity either, because I didn’t go. Michael took her. But I did some shots of her ready to go (one of which is below) with her own trash poker stick, and one to share. She had a really great time, despite how the weather was less than ideal at first. Of course she makes everything she does fun. The sun did break out once they were done cleaning up. As if God was pleased with their work. : )

The rest of our weekend was spent doing some work, some house-cleaning, and some shopping. You have no idea how excited our kids can get over bubble wands and water-shoes! Good golly. We are all knee-deep in enjoying this warm weather season, and still have so much exploring, learning, relaxing and FUN to look forward to.

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