Field Day 2015

 The day before school gets out is Field Day, a day of outdoor fun for the elementary schools. Enough preschoolers were there they got to have a race too. Looks like they were talking as they raced!

One of the classic favorites is the three-legged race.

And then the wheelbarrow race.

These two couldn't get enough of it.

Sometimes coordination required a mother's help!

Look who's back at it!

Balancing an egg on a spoon was also a fun race.

The preschoolers quickly figured out some strategies to keep the egg better balanced, like holding the spoon up higher.

Or using two hands!

The obstacle course was lots of fun.

And the long jump provides some great action photos.

We had a delicious lunch and then the kids went on to relays in the afternoon. It's such a fun tradition and the weather was perfect for it this year. Next year Desert Girl and Isaac will be participating officially. Wow!

Summer School

Summer school was held the last week of June. It was four hours every day for a large range of ages. I went for one morning to do a magic show (aka physics for kids) and stayed around to help. The attendance was really good all week, with 21 kids one day. (Out here, 21 people all together is a lot!.)

The incoming kindergarteners were very eager to check out their new classroom. (Kindergarten will be a class of 3 or 4, which is medium-sized, especially since there were no kindergarteners last year.)

Desert Girl had special permission to attend, even though she has one more year of preschool. She enjoyed her turn "reading" her journal entry for the day.

Then she got 30 seconds to bounce on the trampoline. I loved how her little pigtails flew up in the air!

Desert Girl's best friend was also able to go, and he also really enjoyed being a "big kid."

The older kids were glad to see their friends.

We really appreciate the teacher doing summer school, as it gives the kids some good mental stimulation while allowing them lots of play time.

Here's Desert Boy enjoying his time. He was a little hesitant about school at first, but he enjoyed each day. I'm still not quite used to him with his gap-toothed smile!

Of course the best part of summer school was recess!

Finally I saw someone who knew how to use this part of the playground! It was one of the new kindergarteners.

It was a good week, and we are very thankful to the patient teacher.

I asked Desert Boy yesterday if he was ready for school, and he said yes. He misses seeing his friends.

An Egg-citing Experiment

 I went over to Desert Boy's school the other day and we talked about how birds make different kinds of nests. The kids made their own nests, which varied from a hole in the ground to some grass on branches, to a big platform of sticks. Then we had time to talk about what goes in the nests--the eggs. I had the kids inspect the shape of the egg, and we talked about how arches are one of the strongest shapes and how an egg incorporates arches. To make sure they remembered that eggs are strong, I then had them stand on a fresh eggs. They didn't want to do it at first, but they were all quite excited once they saw it worked.

 Every kid in the class stood on the eggs, and none of them broke, much to their amazement.

We had one more science experiment: try to crack a raw egg by squeezing it as hard as you can with one had.

 We actually did have one egg break open (good thing we were outside!). I think it probably had tiny cracks in it before we started. Or maybe Ava really is the strongest one in the school!

So if you have extra eggs lying around, give it a try! There's a tiny bit of fear as you wonder if you will have a big mess to clean up, but most likely you won't.

Happy Earth Day!

Winter Carnival

 The local schools hold a winter carnival to raise money, and this is definitely a win-win proposition. Somewhere to go on a winter night, delicious food, fun games, and lots of prizes. You can see how excited Desert Girl was to go (in her new flower hat).

 The theme was year of the horse, and I enjoyed seeing the horse drawings from the first and second graders.

 For the adults, one of the big events of the night is Bingo. There are some very competitive players (even though it's rather hard to be competitive in Bingo!).


Bingo draws out people I hadn't seen in awhile!

 The face painting booth was very popular. Somehow I didn't manage to get photos of my kids with their faces painted, but they looked great.


What a beautiful butterfly!

 The photography booth, where you choose your own costume, was also very popular. It was fun seeing some of the adults give it a try!

 I haven't been around that many people in awhile, and it sure felt chaotic! We were glad to be running a booth in the corner, where we could go hide once in awhile. Our winter evenings are usually quite calm--or I guess some people might call them boring, but with little kids around, I don't think it's ever boring! Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun to get out of the house. Plus the school raised over $2,000.

Living Planet Aquarium Visit

 The Living Planet Aquarium from Draper, Utah sent two outreach educators to our area to talk about the water cycle and show some animals. This was a great opportunity for the kids to learn some science and learn about the bigger world around them.

 The kids started off on the floor.

 But soon they got to see the water cycle model up close. It was really cool.

 The kids made movements as they reenacted the parts of the water cycle.

 Soon it was time for the rain cycle dance.

 Jackie and Holly brought some animals with them to show, including this garter snake, which the students could touch.

 Then it was time for a neat experiment--pump up a bottle with a little bit of rubbing alcohol in it to make a cloud. They got to do it over and over again and really enjoyed it.

 A red-spotted toad.

A gopher snake.

The kids were really well-behaved and enjoyed the special presentation. Thanks Living Planet Aquarium for coming way out into the desert to share!