Putting the Presents to Work

Winter break, time off from work and beautiful weather made for the perfect combination to use some of our new outdoor adventure Christmas presents.

My scientists

We headed out to Point Louisa to use our new microscope.  Instead of putting a slide under a lens and looking through a scope, this handheld microscope is placed directly on top of the object you want to magnify and its image is displayed on a computer screen.  We set out to find some tidal pools and look for creatures to examine up close.

Sea urchin

Barnacle

Legs of an anemone

Another urchin

Leg of a starfish

Leg of a hermit crab

 There was a group of seals, at least six of them, playing out in the water off the point.  I think they were examining us just as much as we were examining the marine critters around us.

On the Monday after Christmas, we met up with Graham on his lunch break and took the girls on Perseverance Trail, up to Ebner Falls.  The girls tested out their new binoculars, looking at old remnants of the mining company and its equipment.  

We had inside fun as well.  I just couldn't resist taking pictures of Cora working so hard on this scissor activity book she got for two reasons.  One is that she was so stinking cute working on these pages.  She spent hours, literally hours, that day working on them.  She was determined to finish all of them.  And her little tongue was out the entire time.

The second goes back to our first parent teacher conference for Cora. 99% of what she told us about Cora in the classroom we could have guessed on our own.  But then she caught us by surprise with her observation that Cora did not know how to use scissors.  She put it so delicately, making sure we knew it was not a problem but just a goal she had for Cora for the year - to provide some direction to Cora on how to manipulate scissors.  Graham and I could not help but laugh on the way home.  How could she not know how to use scissors?  Sure enough, when we got home and asked her to cut something, it was the most awkward and fruitless but thoughtful attempt.  Somewhere along the way, I forgot to impart that life lesson.  I guess the "don't run with scissors" part of my mothering had taken over.  Anyway, the irony of seeing her so hard at work on this scissor activity book was too much.  Each time we looked over at her, all we could say was, "oh, if Ms. Cheryl could only see her now!