all about frogs

We attended a fabulous frog-themed Homeschool Day at the Springfield Science Museum last week. The entire day was dedicated to studying amphibians. This photo was taken at the start of our day, as the program was introduced to us and we divided into groups.

First we visited the special traveling exhibit on frogs, and saw many amazing species. Here the boys and their friend C check out the poison dart frogs. They played a scavenger hunt game -- they were given a playing piece with a frog's picture on it, and they had to locate that frog's exhibit and information board to discover where in the world that frog lived. Then they had to locate that country on a world map and put their frog in the right place. I will post separately with some frog pictures from the exhibit.

Then they moved into another room in the museum to play a frog vs. toad amphibian trivia game. Our group divided in half to form two teams, and they took turns answering questions about amphibian biology, ecology, morphology, and physiology. Our group was quite knowledgeable about frogs!

Next we joined with another group and headed off to the classroom for a program about amphibian biology and morphology. Lots of good questions from the entire group!

Rosebud plays with Laurel during the program. I'm often asked how I can manage to keep going with our busy schedules as usual despite having Rosebud along, but this is how. She just comes along and hangs out wherever. It's really not hard, especially when I have so many fabulous friends willing to step in and lend a hand when needed. (Or even when not needed, but just because it's fun to play with Rosebud.) I can honestly say that having her has only added to our fun on outings and in our schoolwork, she hasn't been the least bit disruptive in our regularly scheduled schooling. (We'll see what happens when she starts to crawl!!!!)

After a nice long lunch-break on the green outside the museum, our group went back indoors for a live-animal program about reptiles (as a comparison to the amphibian programming in the morning). I don't have any photos, Rosebud and I chose to stay outdoors and enjoy the beautiful day some more. But after their reptile program, our group came outdoors again for a very active habitat resource game. The kids were divided up into 4 types of "animals", each with a special adaptation. (Some kids had tongs, some had spoons, etc.) They had to use their adaptation to pick up and bring to their "shelter" items representing food, and also fill a bucket with water from a central bucket using only their hands. Meanwhile, they had to avoid a roaming predator (an adult with a sign that said "predator") -- if the predator tagged them, they were dead, but they could either run away from the predator and seek the safety of their shelter, or they could play dead. It was a lot of fun, both for the kids to play and for us adults to watch!

GREAT program, I was very impressed by the quality of the content, the consistency of the theme, and the overall organization of the event. We will definitely attend ANYTHING they offer up there for homeschoolers in the future!