Days of Science
We took a field trip this past week to the Greensboro Science Center. It was a wonderfully fun day. Carlos, Jeremiah and Natalie all told me that they had “such a fun day, mommy!” And that’s always nice to hear. Carlos said that his favorite part was seeing the two headed turtle. It was really fascinating. This turtle was 10 years old……very ancient for a two headed turtle since most of them don’t live even to adulthood. Jeremiah said his favorite part was the dinosaurs……which is really funny because I did not even know he was interested in dinosaurs.
Natalie was fascinated by the Nurse Shark and the bigger white fish that were swimming in her tank. I don’t remember what variety they were, but they were very active and very interesting to watch. Ben did not care for the dinosaurs at all! He’s not overly fond of large fake animals. But he does love real animals!! The petting zoo farm was by far his favorite.
(this is the Explore Kids Alley a huge favorite with the little kids)
GSC has a large barnyard area that you can enter and pet the goats and the sheep…..they had probably 6 or 7 sheep and the same amount of goats. And I loved watching Ben and Natalie…..a hilarious observation of differences.
Ben charges full speed ahead into the barnyard area and makes a bee-line for the animals. Upon arriving at an unknown substances…..small round black “balls”, he skids to a stop, bends over, picks up the “balls”…..aka sheep/goat poop…..checks it out for a second and then attempts to take a taste…..which mommy promptly put an end to. And then he’s off again hunting for the largest goat to harass.
Natalie slowly and very carefully walks through the barnyard…..brush in hand to give some poor little goat a new “do”. She has already scoped out the path ahead and knows exactly where those wretched little black “balls” are located. But alas, several of the sheep are being herded through the gate and she must sidestep to avoid the sheep, and the unthinkable happens, she steps into a pile of black “balls”. Immediately she begins jumping up and down screaming at the top of her lungs……you would have thought she stepped into a fresh cow pie with her bare feet! And they say that boys and girls are the same just conditioned differently….ha! 
Yesterday we rode the trolley together downtown to the Glazed Bisque-it to learn about art and to paint pottery. This field trip came at just the right time because in our history this week we started leaning about Michelangelo as part of our Renaissance study. Carlos has not been all that interested, but I have found it fascinating! For example, he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel standing up, not laying on his back and the ceiling was 5800 square feet!! I cannot imagine painting with my arms above my head and painting that vast space.
Carlos did enjoy the pottery painting…..all 4 of the kids got to paint their own plate. I missed most of the talk about the artist and the making of the pottery because Ben was very unhappy about not being able to color on his plate with the marker. But the snippets I did hear were very interesting. The kiln, where the pottery is “baked” is heated to 1800 degrees! And the glaze that is put over the painted pottery is just melted glass. Anyway, once Ben settled down he too enjoyed making his master piece….it’s just a bummer that when mixed together the beautiful colors all turn into an icky grayish color! Oh well, he will always have the “plate I painted when I was almost 2”. But I think of all my children Jeremiah has the most “art talent”. I’m excited to see how the plates look once they are “fired” and glazed.
House of Smooches 