Enriching experiences

This week the boys and I watched Dolphin Tale, based on the true story of Winter, the dolphin who was rescued and has a prosthetic fin. They were enthralled, and after the movie we went out to the web cam where we could see Winter swimming in her tank. There is a link where you can "adopt" an animal and Ethan chose to adopt Winter. He printed out a picture of Winter and an adoption certificate, they also have coloring pages to print.

I loved the part in the movie where the mother said her son was having a much richer experience with the dolphin than in his summer school classroom. That is one of the primary reason why I homeschool. To provide enriching, hands-on, real life experiences.

This school year so far we have traveled to sixteen states, visited countless zoo's, science center's and museums, hiked Sand Dunes National Park and Zion's National Park, milked a cow, grew mold in a petri dish, grew some potted plants, made yogurt, spent lots of time at the farm, dinosaur museum and gardens of Thanksgiving point. Next week we're headed to the Aviary and in a few weeks we'll be taking a trip to California where, among other places, we'll visit Sea World where they can continue their lesson about dolphins and the beaches in La Jolla where we'll (hopefully) see some sea lions sunbathing on the rocks.

I enjoy the adventure of hands-on learning and love to see the excitement in their eyes when they discover something for the first time!

p.s. sorry if you got this twice on rss, my 2 year old published it before I was finished ;)