Sugar House Field Trip

Today we went on a field trip with our homeschool group to the Dry Brook Sugar House. It was a very pleasant day, with sunny skies and not too cold. I kept Rachel, Hannah and Dan home from school so they could come and our friends Julie and Alexius rode up with us. Bessie's schedule did not allow her to attend this time. This happens more and more and is a more difficult reality of her growing up. Lots of lively conversation and a stop for donuts made the drive enjoyable.

The children watched as they saw a tree being tapped in the more tradition way with a drill, spile and bucket.

Then they learned how this particular sugar house does it with taps, tubing, large tanks and an oil fired evaporator. It is still a very labor intensive operation and during sugaring season, these folks work very long hours.

We had lunch in their very nice dining room and were treated to ice cream with maple syrup, yum.

The entire evaporating process was explained and questions were asked and answered. All the kids were given activity books and little bottles of syrup.

Before leaving, we wandered around the cow barns (the family that runs the sugar house also owns a diary farm). Everyone is always reluctant to leave their friends.

Gabe especially enjoys spending time with his buds.

I think Dan wanted to climb right in with the cows. All the kids had a great time.

If you live in or close to NY, they will be having Maple Weekends on March 19-20 and March 26-27. Many sugar houses will have open houses with demonstrations and activities. Check here for participating sugar houses. Visiting a sugar house is great family fun.

The Boston Museum of Science

Our trip the Boston Museum of Science on February 26th!

We had a wonderful visit at the museum. We arrived at 10am and left at 4:30pm. It was a full day, but so much fun.

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SHS Gals Meet at BMOS

We love acronyms in the family...military and all. Support4HomeSchool (SHS) is an online yahoo group that I have been a member of for 8+ years. It is a wonderful group that supports and encourages those of us that are homeschooling.

Cynthia, one of the group owners and her family were planning a trip to the east coast and wanted to know if some of us could meet and that was the start of a plan to get together at the Boston Museum of Science (BMOS).

So, on February 26th, Brian took the day off and we kept Rachel, Hannah and Dan out of school and made the trip to Boston. The weather was iffy at best, but decided to make the trip. The roads were marginal in places, but Brian did a great job. We made it to Boston without incident.

It was a great day of meeting old friends for the first time. We spent several hours exploring the museum, hooking back up with each other, chatting and trying to get in as much visiting as possible. It was all too short and I would really enjoy meeting these ladies again.

Here is most of the group, Laura from CT, Jeannine from NH, Jodi from NH, Lisa from ME (Lisa and I have met many times before and it was great to see her.), Me from NY, Rene from MA and Cynthia from MT.

Cynthia and her family (Minus Amanda, who had to head back home.) with our crew.

Lisa, her youngest son "J" and me.


We met up with Christy later on and took this picture. Me, Cynthia, Laura, Lisa and Christy.

I know I lot of people would never dream of meeting "strangers", but these ladies are so dear to me and have been a tremendous source of support and encouragement over the years through all the ups and downs of life.

Children's Museum of Science and Technology - CMOST

The Children's Museum of Science and Technology (CMOST) was a recent destination for a field trip with our homeschool group. CMOST is a fun little museum with lots of hands-on displays.

We picked up Ethan, one of the boys in Gabe's class to go along with us as his family wasn't going to be attending. Ethan and Gabe had a great time.

Here they are playing with a giant sized Lite Brite. I couldn't get it in a picture, but one of the highlights for the boys was a large light wall. It was heat sensitive, so when you moved your arm along the wall, it would change color, like a mood ring. We spent a lot of time hanging out by the wall. At one point, the graphic changed to the solar system with all the planets bouncing around and as you moved your arm or hand toward one of the planets, it would bounce up like a ping-pong ball...very fun.

They had a nature demonstration. The kids got to hear about several animals and touch them.

The snake was a hit with our crew.

Another fun exhibit was a green screen set up like a weather station. There was a tele-prompter and you could pick what type of weather you wanted to report on and then it recorded you and you could watch it playback.

Gabe and Ethan really enjoyed this.

Bess got into the act and did a great stereotypical weather girl impression. She hammed it up big time and had us all in tears from laughing. And yes, she is on her knees...these exhibits are made for much younger children.

Here is her recording, well a picture of it. I wish I would have thought to put the camera on video. It was very funny. Gabe was playing her assistant, being blown around by the stormy blizzard in the background.

Checking out the battery and light bulb table.

Finding out about the head waters of the Hudson.

Playing in a dugout canoe.

The last thing we did was see a dome show in their planetarium. That was really fun and is similar to an IMAX experience. We got to lay down on the floor and with the dome over us, they played this great movie on astronauts.


It is times like this that I really miss having all the children at home. I think next time we go on a field trip, I'll let the public school children have the day off from school to join us.