Playing Catch-Up -- Big Family Friday

It's been quite a while since I posted anything. We've had Spring Break, which was supposed to be our family vacation - and wasn't, and then a lot of time just passed where I couldn't get on the computer, so I didn't post.

Partially finished School Room

During Spring Break (the spring break the school district has), my husband took off work so that we could go on vacation and work on the school room. We ended up not going on vacation, and instead, just worked on the school room. It took A LOT of work. Our basement before this project was horrible - I would post a picture but, thankfully, I don't have any pictures of it! It took almost half of the break just clearing things out of the school side and into my laundry side. This picture is disproportional, but this gives a little bit of what it looked like before we cleared out all my husband's wood and started bringing in more supplies. The desks are chaos now, as I'm sorting things out still. Organization isn't my biggest skill, but once I get it all organized, I'll be good. We've bought probably 200 more books (or more) since we took these pictures. We're starting to need more shelving. We have also added to gigantic bean bags to the reading area.

The picture doesn't give a clear view of all the desks, but there are three. One for both of the boys, and one for me. I also have an armoire with my computer in it on the other side of the tall bookshelves. All of the girls toys are on the other side of the desks so that they have a play area. I have a white cabinet (I know, white doesn't go with my black stuff!) that holds our supplies across from the desks. It's all coming together - now if I could just get organized! -- The unorganized state of the school area is the reason I haven't been on the computer to post, I'm not ready for the kids to be down here because they would just mess with everything that isn't organized, especially the baby.

Malaki's butterfly

One of the big, fun things we did recently was go to Kaleidoscope. It's a fun children's art creation studio. The kids get to go in to all these different art stations and just create. In one station we made butterflies. It was so much fun, but we only get 30 minutes to go through the whole thing. Each station takes probably 10-15 minutes, and there are quite a few stations. The good thing is, they are free and you can come back after your session to the next session so that they can finish up the projects they started and move on to the next stations! The kids had so much fun. If you're ever in Kansas City and need something to do, this is at Crown Center in Kansas City, Missouri! Another fun thing we did while we were out there was a cool exhibit they had in Crown Center called Animal Tails & Trails - I'm not sure how much longer it's up, but I think next month a Dinosaur exhibit starts. They are free exhibits, and they are fun! The kids got to explore a trail of different exotic animals. They got to sit on a camel's back, swing on a monkey's rope, and jump like a kangaroo on a trampoline.

On our way home from picking up our daughter from my grandparent's house, we stopped at a scenic outlook. It had a beautiful view. We've been looking for more places to walk and take pictures at, and we recently found a trail a few miles away that I'd never heard of. The funny thing is that we saw a fire blazing the night before we found this trail - we went out to see the fire and it turns out they were burning fields to prepare the crops. It was awesome watching it. The next day we were driving down the road and found this trail. At the time, we didn't realize that it was next to the field that was just burnt. As we were walking we ran into the burnt field. This gave us the chance to explain to the kids that they were preparing the field for the crops. We've seen the big machines that water the fields, and gigantic tractors, and have taken those opportunities as well to talk about crops and how they produce food for us to eat. I love these learning opportunities!

I've never really looked in to any of the resources in my area that could help with learning. Crown Center, I always knew it existed, but I never realized that some of it was free. There are, of course, a lot of things there that AREN'T free, and we probably won't experience those very often, but I'm excited to learn that there are some awesome free things. As I learn more about some of the free resources in my area, I'll be sure to post them. If you're a homeschooling family, these things will be good for your family in the future. If you find resources that I don't mention here in the near future, please let me know so that we can let others know as well.

What are some fun, free things you like to do with your family?

I've linked up with Big Family Friday for this post! Check out some of the other awesome posts around the homeschooling / Big Family arena today!