Author: Louanne

The last day of Museum School was 4 days after Amelie’s surgery and I knew she would be so sad to miss, but she had been in a lot of pain. But she slept all night on Monday so I gave her some pain meds and warned them not to let her operate heavy machinery when I dropped her off 🙂

Nadia wanted to make candy for her teachers for a goodbye and then decorate the bags. All the little items on there had something to do with what they learned this year or something about the teacher. It was really sweet to see all the effort she put in for them. I found myself feeling a little emotional that it was her last day of Museum school after taking her up there for 3 years. What a wonderful place and she has learned so much and loves science more than anything else we study at home. The good thing is that she will be able to visit when we drop Amelie off next year.

I am so glad that the girls were able to go for one year together and the teachers told me that frequently they would be outside at the same time. They said that Nadia would always check on Amelie to be sure she was okay. I was told over and over, by both sets of teachers what a great big sister Nadia is to Amelie. Another great year is in the books!

And for reference – the first day of Museum School 2012-2013 on September 11, 2012.

A really exciting thing for the kids who get to go to the 3rd year of Museum School is the parent/kid field trip to the Botanical Gardens. It’s lead by one of the scientists from the Science and History Museum named Ms. Spotted Bear. We dropped Amelie off at the school and then headed over to meet up with the group at the gardens.

The first thing we did was walk over to one of the ponds and Spotted Bear had a net to scoop up some of the water. She asked the kids for observations before we started and then put the pond water in a bucket. She let the kids look and also put things in a containers for the kids to pass around and get a closer look.

Nadia was a little timid at first since most of the other kids are a lot more boisterous than she tends to be in large groups. But I encouraged her to get in there and look because she loves science things so much.

At each stop, Spotted Bear encouraged the kids to point out the things they were seeing, smelling and feeling. Several times she had the whole group close our eyes and she asked us questions about the sounds and the breezes. She pointed out a lot of very cool trees and had facts about them and why they do so well in Texas, even if they are transplants from other places.

The kids had a good time feeding the fish and turtles in this area of the gardens. Nadia was trying to throw hers out as far as possible so the turtles would pop up and grab a bite.

This is a duck box high up on a tree. While I was taking this photo the kids on the other side noticed a large snake working his way into a crack in the back. They started screaming and jumping up and down yelling, “Don’t get the duck eggs!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” It was hilarious.

Here is the whole class with their teachers who were so sweet! Nadia just loved them.

Nadia and Ms. Spotted Bear at the end of the field trip. What a fun morning we had at the Botanical Gardens.