Field Trips

Today began with a field trip to our local fire station. The firemen were wonderful! The kids got to see a fireman in full gear, meet Smokey the Bear, hear the sirens, and watch a video on fire safety. Hannah impressed me with how much she remembered from our fire safety lesson a couple months ago. I think she impressed the firemen too. She announced to them at the end that she wants to be a fireman when she grows up! Even Becca had a blast. She screamed excitedly when one of the fire engines drove up to the station while we were there. "Ruck! Ruck! Ruck!" she squealed over and over, pointing to the truck.

When we returned home, we ate a quick lunch, put Becca to bed, and dashed back outside to enjoy the beautiful spring day. After playing "Sharks and Minnows" with the soccer balls for a while, the kids began exploring the yard. We have an abundant crop of dandelions this year, which delights the kids. They cannot resist the cheery yellow blooms for long and usually come inside with yellow noses after picking and sniffing handfuls of the "weeds."

We had some visitors to our yard today, allowing us to have another impromptu "field trip," right in our own back yard. The bees and butterflies busily moved from flower to flower enjoying the dandelions as much as the kids! First, we talked about the bright colors of the flowers and how they attract bees and butterflies. Then, we discussed how bees' and butterflies' mouths are shaped like straws and how they slurp nectar from the flowers just like the kids slurp their milk from their cups. But Hannah became most excited when we learned about pollen.

I showed her the pollen, which had rubbed off the flowers onto her hands and nose, and I told her that the pollen sticks to bees and butterflies too and ends up falling off into other flowers. I explained that when pollen from one flower goes into another flower, then that flower can make seeds or fruit. We cannot have apples or peaches or any other food that contains seeds if some person or animal does not pollinate the flowers.

Well, Hannah loved this idea! She spent the rest of the time we were outside pretending that her hand was a bee. She rubbed her fingers in flower after flower, spreading the pollen around the yard. A few short moments in a field of dandelions taught her more about bees and flowers than she could have learned from an extensive lesson indoors using worksheets and pictures. She even created her own manipulative! Of course, I probably should have taught her to pollinate something other than weeds... but in a few days, at least we'll have a fresh crop of dandelion seeds to explore!