Not Back to School Field Trip

It seems that this week is the start of our local school districts. Several begin today for a part day while others had this day as their first full day of attendance.

K called me this morning and thought it was a great day for a spur of the moment field trip. Their friends in the community have headed back. they saw old co-op friends at the meeting last night and are beginning to feel the pressure is on to begin again.  I think K had a great idea!  All of the other children are attending school and the local centers will have a much smaller crowd. SO WHERE TO GO?

Missouri Botanical Gardens is what she tells me.  OK, I have not been for longer than I can remember.  She pick me up and off we go.  The girls had a wonderful time.  We only spent two hours there as it was getting rather humid and hot and we got a late start to the day. We wanted to be sure as well to get out of St. Louis and back to Illinois before the traffic crowds the bridge.  So many things have been added since I was last there and it was not just a walk through a garden.

We are going to be sure to include The Missouri Botanical Gardens into our curriculum plans.  I am probably going to join as a member like I did the zoo and have a huge savings over the course of the year.  We will begin sooner so we are not stuck in the heat, as K is really blooming with new baby growth she was feeling pretty darn hot and miserable at the end.  We were happy to discover that there is a water play area and the girls cooled off a bit while playing.

We are not going to begin our first structured learning class until August 29th but will consider this day into our school year and call it our Kick off of Not going Back to School. We will repeat it again on Tuesday next week as a Still Not Back to School  trip.  I will have them do the tree hunt next week that is taking place as part of the learning center's program. 

Here are a few pictures of our day:



F the youngest, K the mother, G the oldest




There are blown glass sculptures through the gardens. G loved it which is great as it is in the lesson plan this year.