Recital Time!

Shannon participated in the end of year recital for her hip hop class. This is the second year she has taken hip hop and still loves it.

Waiting for her class to go on stage.

Spring Semester of SCOOP

Both Ian and Shannon chose to take two classes for the spring semester. Ian chose Physical Education/Health and Simple Machines. Shannon chose Introduction to Medicine and Simple Machines.

Ian's PE class always included a warm up with stretching and jogging, then the group activity (soccer, basketball, various forms of tag), and a cool down.

Shannon's Introduction to Medicine was composed of western and eastern medicine. She learned to how to help with heatstroke, bug bites/stings (making a paste with baking soda and water), cuts, make soap (to clean wounds with), make electrolyte drink and elderberry syrup (for colds), and use meditation and yoga for your health. At the end of the class Shannon brought home a homemade medicine kit that also included the recipes for everything she made and informational sheets about the body systems they discussed.

The Simple Machines class used K'Nex to build the machines. Each child got a book where they drew the simple machines to help them remember all the machines. The machines are: the screw, lever, inclined plane, wedge, pulley, and wheel and axel. Each week the kids built machines using the simple machines they learned about. Both Ian and Shannon brought home projects they worked on so they could complete them and show their teacher the following week.

Wheel and axel

Inclined plane

Shannon's cake hat that has spinning parts.

This made two different types of elevators.

Secret Agent Club!

Shhhhh, don't tell, but the kids went to the first event for a secret agent club. Shannon decoded the secret message so we could get the address and time for the meeting. The kids ran around Pohick Bay Park following the clues in order to get all the gear they would need for the following meetings. They found hats, mustaches, badges etc.

This club is going to meet up over the summer and very locations in our county. We are anxiously waiting news for the next secret agent club.

VDC Customer Appreciation Day

The family went to the appreciation day at Shannon's dance studio. Food, bounce house fun, and face painting were enjoyed. Shannon, Ian, and I all got some artwork done either on our faces or arms.

Chicks have Hatched

Some friends of ours hatched chicks this year. They borrowed an incubator and did all the work. We missed the egg candling where you put a light up to the eggs to see the chicks moving around inside. But we managed to go and visit the chicks once they hatched and were active. They were cute and fluffy and the kids loved holding them.

National Free Comics Day!

Lately the kids have been getting into reading comic books. I'm not surprised since they both adore the graphic novels we get from the library. This year we went to a local comics store and picked up the free comics that were available. Shannon has also gotten interested in the new Jem and the Hologram comics.

Bluebells!

Around the same time that people are flocking into DC to see the cherry blossoms, the bluebells are flowering in some of our local parks. We decided to forgo the crowds this year (we went to see some of the monuments last year when the cherry blossoms were starting to fade) and enjoy a walk in the woods with the bluebells. We found a special bluebell path at Bull Run Regional Park and enjoyed the flowers, the Bull Run and Cub Run rivers, and the trees.

The initial path was a raised wooden walkway.

We found a flower we hadn't seen before called the spring beauty.

The bluebells were everywhere!

Shannon saw that the bluebells look more purple before they bloom.

Gorgeous trees

Thanks to this informational plaque we learned that we were in a floodplain forest and it's where bluebells and spring beauties grow. I had no idea that part of the park floods. We all learned something.