H is for Helping Hands

H is the letter this week for the ABC's of homeschooling meme. My H is for Helping Hands.

My helping hands!

If there's one thing I believe strongly in its my children helping out around the house and contributing. They are only 4 and 5 1/2 but they have chores and have had them for some time.

Some of the chores they currently do are:
-pick up their toys at least once a day
-bring their laundry to the laundry room and sort it - whites, lights and darks
-feed the ferret
-assist in folding and putting away laundry
-vacuum their bedroom

My personal  belief is that children are part of a family unit and should do certain chores without receiving a reward. With that being said once I am home full-time and homeschooling they will have two types of chores. The chores they do because they are part of the family and the chores they can choose to do to earn a reward. I feel that this will teach them a valuable lesson in that if they choose to go above and beyond what is being asked of them then they get rewarded, much like the real world works with raises and job promotions (well most of the time).

I am pretty sure we are going to be using the chore chart we picked up at the dollar store and maybe some stickers, magnets or markers to help us track their chores.

Chore chart from dollar tree

Rewards will be either money or maybe small toys from the dollar store, I haven't quite decided. I like the idea of money because then we can work in some lessons on finances, like why we save money, why we give to others etc.

Feel free to share your thoughts!

E is for Extinct Edmontosaurus

This week my A B See Photo Meme is E! E is for Extinct Edmontosaurus. We encountered this amazing Dinosaur on our trip to Tellus Museum in Cartersville, GA last Friday (be sure to check out my 2 field trips in 2 day post).

The Edmontosaurus (ed-MON-to-SAWR-us) or Duckbilled Dinosaur was 24 feet in length and 9 feet at the hips. It was one of the largest herbivores of its time.  

2 Field Trips in 1 Day = Great Fun!

The kids and I did two field trips in one day last Friday! We had a great time and were all tuckered out by the end of the day.

First we went to the Etowah Indian Mounds in Cartersville, GA. This is one of the many GA Historic Sites and it was absolutely breathtaking. They are also part of the GA State Historic Sites Geo Challenge, so we were able to log our first historic site cache.

It was home to several thousand Native Americans between 1000 A.D. to 1550 A.D. It is 54-acres and contains six earthen mounds, a plaza, village area, borrow pits and defensive ditch. It is the most intact Mississippian Culture site in the Southeastern United States.

This is a model of what the village may have looked like.

Wattle and Daub house.

This is the largest and smallest mound. The larger mound was where the Chief and his family lived.

Chiefs Mound.

The kids sitting on top of the Burial Mound.

The kids with the GeoCache box. The each took a GA State Park Whistle and left some little toys.
We also signed the log book.

After the mounds we went to Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, GA. This museum offers a fossil gallery, mineral gallery, planetarium, science in motion gallery and a hands on big backyard gallery. They also have gem panning and fossil digging

Located in Cartersville, GA.

This showed all of the earthquakes that were happening around the world that same day and also within the last 2 weeks ago, 5 years etc.

 

Checking out Amethyst.

T- Rex!

The kids touched this unusual object then we lifted the flap to reveal what it was...fossil Dinosaur poop, yuck!

Gwyn in a space suit.

Gem panning. Each child get to take home a baggie with the gems they find.

Fossil digging. Each child gets to take home an actual fossil. My two decided on the shark teeth.

The kids and I stopped to take a photo on this very large rock as we were leaving the museum.

The kids learned a lot on these trips. When we got home they colored their Indian pages they got at the Mounds and told Daddy all about the cool things they learned. I am going to put their gems and fossils into little glass bottles and make necklaces out of them.

Next time your in GA be sure to check out these great places. They are only about 10 minutes apart from each other and both can definitely be fit into one day.