We spent last week in San Antonio learning about caves and sea animals.
Before leaving, we read the book Dolphin Adventure. Drew read us Amazing Dolphins, Amazing Sharks and Baby Alligator. I'm learning a bunch!
I have never been in an underground cave before and it was amazing! Here's the natural bridge. The cave entrance is underneath it.
Here we are headed toward the entrance to the cave.
Here we are in the cave. I borrowed J's cap, lest any cave water drip onto my hair.
Here are some pictures of speleothems. There is no way to capture how large this cave is. There's even a river inside it.
I had a million questions for the guide after the tour. I'm sure J was thinking, "here she goes again..." But that's how it is when you're interested in something as opposed to just memorizing information to get a good grade. I remember hearing the word "limestone" in school and I probably filled it in a blank on a test or worksheet, but I had no clue what it was or how it pertained to real life. I was surprised by how closely Drew was listening.
I bought a book about caves from the gift shop. Next week I'm going to read portions of it to the kids and we'll send out some postcards we bought. That's science, handwriting and language arts.
While in SA we hit all our favorite restaurants and ate dinner with a friend I hung out with on a trip to Spain 10 years ago. She has 3 children and is also homeschooling!
No vacation is complete without a medical emergency.
Drew has severe allergies and broke out in a rash. We tried to clear it up by using Benadryl, special soaps and putting a blanket over his pillow, but the morning we were supposed to go to Sea World he woke up with a swollen face and said his throat felt dry. His pediatrician told us to head to the nearest urgent care facility and keep the epipen ready.
After a round of steroids all was well and we were off to Sea World. I have an aversion to touching animals which I am trying to conquer for my children's sake. Here we are feeding dead fish to the dolphins. I even touched the dolphin's head. We used plenty of antibacterial soap afterwards.
And then for our favorite - Shamu!
Here are the kids watching the seals and sea lion.
I had been worried that some of my projects with the kids were too schoolish, but after we got back to the hotel, Andrew grabbed his journal and wrote about dolphins. He drew a picture at the top and looked in the book Amazing Dolphins for information to include. I guess we're doing something right.
This week we're studying light and rainbows. I'll post pictures in a few days. Next week we'll get back to doing some formal book work. It has been a hectic few weeks and I'm so glad my freezer was stocked with homemade biscuits, pancakes, meatballs, chicken strips, ground beef, and breakfast sandwiches and burritos. We've almost emptied it so I'll be restocking and posting recipes over the next few weeks.
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