3-2-1 Blast-Off and Creature Feature Camps

Benjamin has been really looking forward to his camps at the California Science Center! This week's, 3-2-1 Blast-Off sounds really cool. Joshua has the Creature Feature program this week. Perhaps he will either learn how to catch lizards or teach him that trying to catch the ones in our backyard is almost futile. Monday morning (after the kids were done fighting over sidewalk chalk), we spent exploring the science museum. We saw the temporary Science in Toyland exhibit first, which was fun, but not all the displays worked well. The kids had trouble getting the car to go all the way around a track with a loop and the dominoes exhibit took lots of patience. The sailcar and the building exhibit were really fun! Then we spent a few minutes in the 'Identity, an exhibition of you' special exhibit and the Transportation section. They loved the moving the light around to power the solar car. Finally, we headed to the World of Life and the Discovery Room because I thought that the live animals would be fun to see. The kids also enjoyed making butterflies, but we will have to return to check out the non-computer activities in the tech room.

Then we went outside for lunch, and I dropped the kids off at camp. Laura was not happy again about not going to camp herself. I promised her camp after Grandma leaves (it starts on Aug 3 and Grandma is leaving on Aug 2). Benjamin said that his group visited the Air and Space exhibit, learned about galaxies and saw a movie about a sun exploding. Joshua saw a gecko and learned about habitats by visiting the World of Life exhibit.

Tuesday morning we saw a magic show, Illusions by Allen, at La Pintoresca branch library in Pasadena. The show was very impressive, and the library was packed with kids. After the show, we played outside in the best playground we seen so far with a web climbing area that Joshua and Benjamin liked (Laura was too small) and a water play area. I gave the kids lunch while sitting in the park so that Benjamin and Laura might be able to dry off a bit. Then it was time to drop the kids off at camp. They were all anxious to pickup Grandma at the airport after camp. During camp, Joshua identified creatures in a pond in the education building and decorated his camp t-shirt. Benjamin brought home projects about the moon phases, constellations and asteroids and comets. After camp we headed to the airport. The kids loved watching planes landing and taking off as we approached it, but seeing Grandma was the highlight of the day!

Joshua here--On the second day of camp, we painted fish habitats on the back of our t-shirts and then we looked at the pond to see how many mosquito fish, crayfish, red eared-slider turtles, and bullfrogs there were. There was only one red eared-slider turtle and one bullfrog, but we found a rare crayfish with spots.

My favorite thing was finding habitats (on Monday in the museum). We found chicks habitat on a farm. (Laura calls a habitat a 'tat'). And we found fish in a kelp forest habitat. And we saw a bug garden habitat.

Last Two Days of Tar Pits for Mommy and Laura

Yesterday, we said good-bye to Grandpa and then headed off to camp. Laura and I went to the Hollywood Bowl to try to buy tickets for Summersounds next week, but they were sold out for the days and times that we want. Then we went to the Farmer's Market and saw part of a performance of Twinkle Time (see http://www.twinkleandfriends.com/). I was glad that we found something for Laura to enjoy while the other two were at camp. After camp pick up, we went to a Pasadena Branch Library to see the very animated storyteller Jim Cogan. The kids got to participate in the story by following his motions and sound effects, though Benjamin and Laura got impatient towards the end.

Both Benjamin and Joshua seemed to learn something from their camps. Joshua learned a bit about the culture of people living during the ice age as well as the animals. The last day they saw the excavations at Pit 91 and Project 23 and showed me some homemade "tar". Benjamin did a museum scavenger hunt the last day, but on Thursday brought home a hidden picture worksheet that not only seemed easy for 1st-2nd graders, but also had nothing to do with the camp topic. He also said that they watched Tom and Jerry cartoons everyday (I didn't send him to camp to watch TV--they do plenty of that at home!).

Friday, while Joshua and Benjamin were at camp, I took Laura to the Zimmer Children's Museum (see photo) which was nearby. At camp pickup, Joshua had a bead necklace and a clay pot (learning about ice age people) as well as the homemade tar. After lunch, we went to the Glendale Library to play with their wooden trains and get the summer reading club prizes, which were a tatto, pencil and book. Joshua and Benjamin both chose a Pokemon handbook that they hadn't read yet (the same handbook). Laura picked out Diego and the Blue Morpho Butterfly.