Second Saturday Fun

It's that time of the month again, Second Saturday at R.M.S.C.  and Insectamania (the list of choices) was the theme this month.

In the past we had started at the Hall of Natural Science & Technology, as we did this time.  These rooms are filled with different things to discover.  There is a ecology lab, discovery rooms, Tropical Rainforest room, Earth Science Lab room, Marine Lab room and outside beside it all is a butterfly garden & the pond I've taken those Lilly pad pictures.  Down behind all this is the Living History Farm with an old schoolhouse, a cabin, vegetable & herb garden, blacksmith area, woodworking area, spinning, weaving and more.  Up the mountain/ hill is the Daniel Observatory (sun viewing  & star gazing on Fri. nights), Symmes Hall of Science and Hooper Planetarium (with Fri. night star shows).  All the areas are set up with some kind of activities for one to try and do from 9AM -1PM.  I think we always manage to get a lot in, but wish we had more time to linger & learn more.

Holding a caterpillar. 

You can find these on your tomato plants.

Always munching on our tomato leaves. 

This was cool! A tower of butterflies!

Fireball Coyote noticed a whale skull.

Can they match the question to the answer?!?

YES! :-)

 Down to the Marine Lab we go ...

This time we got to HOLD the sea urchin! :-)

  To me it was like holding a moving comb in your hand.

LOVE the smirking smile!   He said it felt rough & kinda spiky.  

Fireball Coyote was so NERVOUS! He was afraid it would prick him, but it didn't.

It was neat to see the spikes rise again when it went back into the water.

 On to the Ecology Lab room ....

"Mommy, come here!"

Osprey parts to touch. 

Where's that queen bee?

He enjoys the peek-in doors. 

Monarch butterflies.  The black one was getting ready to hatch today they said.

I heard one lady say that in 10 years they will be extinct since people aren't hosting them any more.

Now he wants a falcon for a pet!

 Down at the farm ...

People from the Greenville Woodworkers were there and making a Shaker Bench. ( We are now trying to sign up for classes here.)

Since we were the only ones there, for at least 30 minutes, the boys got to behind the rope & watch :-)  They LOVED the close up view and added attention.  

 Two boys in this group were chatting among the group and told their friends they were homeschoolers, my boys faces lit up!  One of them even made sure he gave the boys added attention & explained in more detail about what was going on. They LOVED IT!  They didn't even know we are homeschoolers ;-) 

A Shaker Bench was to project. 

 Up the mountain to Symmes Hall ...

In the Health Education room they looked through a kaleidoscope like bug eyes, saw bed bugs in a jar, made a paper grasshopper & made it jump.

164cm

100cm

 Then they added their names to the list and the number of centimeters.

On to the Weather Lab for ...

Can it climb a paint pan?    No.

A floor tile?     No.  Why?   Since there is a powdery substance on it it can't grip.  Plus they had nothing  for it to gab on to unlike a brick, stone, or the metal bar with holes (near the brick).

This picture will be a blog in it's self!  COMING SOON! 

Back down the mountain to the butterfly garden for tagging & releasing.

Back into  Hall of Natural Science and into the Earth Science Lab.

What are you looking at? 

Dragonfly Nymph

 I saw this there & think we may try this on day.

The white blur near the middle of the picture is a termite.  They had termite races.  Apparently, they follow the ink line.

 Dad called on the way back & asked if we were going to be there soon.  His friend gave us a deer for our freezer. (we talked about my Amazon Wish list & all that I was doing to try & help, so he reached out too.)

*****WARNING*****

NEXT 3 PICTURES GRAPHIC!!!!!!!

Dropping off our bagged deer.

Fireball  Coyote enjoys looking in the cooler.

He asked for a deer tail to keep & small piece of skin to tan. We got a piece that was used for marking trees & was too smelly the next day to use.