Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Field Trips Galore

We had a week filled with field trips. This is the closest we are getting to a Spring break this year, so I am glad we had so much fun during this week.

Monday was a normal school day.

Tuesday was International Pancake Day, and the IHOP was giving out short stacks for a donation to charity. We happily attended and had a delightful breakfast.

Wednesday we went to the symphony. It was a special school show and we loved it. You can read more about it here.

Thursday some friends asked us to go to the Biltmore Estate with them. They had extra tickets and gave them to us at no cost. We had all seen the house in the past, so we decided to skip the house this time, because the weather was marvelous and we all wanted to be outdoors. We visited one of the shopping areas and got ice cream, spent lots of time with the baby animals (the goats were three weeks old), and spent a good long time exploring the gardens and greenhouses.

A perfectly wide balance beam for cartwheels

Friday, we attended the Compassion Experience. If you have a chance to see this traveling exhibit, GO! It was wonderful. This is just the kind of event I like my First World kids to experience. What a contrast it was with their having gone to the Biltmore Estate just the day before. I won't kid you, this was a teary field trip, but it was executed in a very organized manner. You have the opportunity to go through three different children's lives to their adulthoods. We went through Kiwi's life (Philippines), Olive's life (Uganda), and Carlos' life (Guatemala). We walked into several rooms for each child. The rooms depicted important aspects of their lives, such as a realistic setting at home, school, and hospital. We listened to their stories on an electronic device, which gave us a tour and provided sounds that correlated with each setting, such as insect noises for an outdoor setting. Actual artifacts were in each room. To leave, we walked through a room with many photos of adorable children's faces along with their background stories. These children are from all over the world and one could be sponsored for $38 a month through Compassion International. We were not required to pick a child and there was no pressure to do so.

We did manage to get some school accomplished as well. The kids logged more hours in most subjects, as follows:

• Literature ~ 3 hours ~ (both)
• Math ~ 3 hours ~ (both)
• Language Arts ~ 3 hours (Dean), 4 hours (Anne)
• History ~ 5 hours ~ (both)
• The Arts ~ 9 hours ~ (Anne) ~ 5 hours (Dean)
• P.E. ~ 5 hours ~ (Dean) ~ Anne already completed P.E.
• Science ~ 3 hours ~ (Anne) ~ 4.5 hours (Dean)
• Sign Language ~ 2 Hours ~ (Anne)

Blessings, Dawn