Museum of Science and Industry - Part One

In Illinois State where we live are a lot of museums, most of them in the Chicago area. The entry fee not to mention the parking is a bit pricey and so what better than go to on one of their FREE days! One of the benefits of home-schooling is that we can go on a free day when everyone else is at school! 

So I went in January with a seminary family to the Museum of Science and Industry on one of their free days.We still had to pay for parking (which is $20) but apart from that the entire day was free! We even took our lunch! The girls and I had an absolute ball so much so that when Albert had some 'spare' time before he started the Spring Semester we went again (on a free day of course!)

One of the main highlights for me was the U-boat (U-505) that American's captured and salvaged. In doing this the American's got hold of the German Enigma 'typewriter' decoder. The Americans reckon that capturing this submarine was instrumental in winning WW2. Not only were the displays VERY fascinating which included, video, elaborate pictorial displays and physical displays but the ACTUAL captured U-boat was on display! WOW what a treat, the submarine is restored and the museum built a special 'bunker' to accommodate the U-boat! 

The second highlight was the restored Zephyr. This train broke the record between Denver to Chicago. The tour was very interesting and included a talking donkey! Apparently a real donkey made the trip as a mascot on that record breaking train ride!

The third highlight was the science area where they had real tornadoes, tsunamis, avalanches, lightning and a wind tunnel. No earthquake house though! 

On this trip we didn't see the space exhibit and so will elaborate more on this in part two! 

We are SO blessed to be able to go to these places which we haven't got in NZ. Here are some pics for you to see and there are plenty more to come in part two!

Talking donkey

"First Class Passengers"

Part of the U-505

Other side

Zara in the gallery Submarine Kitchen

Michaela on right 'steering' the sub

Grace on left

You could even see the bullet holes!

Taste and Smell Show with Kate and Michaela

Humongous Tractor 

Combine Harvester, VERY impressive

Airplane - been there done that ;)

Tornado 

Girls in the Tornado!

Taxidermy

Here are the promised photo's of Cabela's. As Albert said in his post we went there during reading recess. We were not disappointed.  We look forward to going again when we have our visitor at Christmas as it is always hard to look at everything the first time you go.

One of the signs in the carpark, you leave your
dog (or horse?) outside while you shop?

HUGE deer

Entrance 

Moose

look at the size of the display

Albert and the bear (his favourite)

Polar Bear

Zara and Kate took Lumpy and soft toy elephants
 to 'meet' their friends, very cute!

Very Impressive!

Did you know why God created Zebras
 with black and white stripes?*

Shelter for ice fishing, so it doesn't just happen just on the TV show home improvement!

Looking down from second story

Bro, this one is for you!

*The Zebra's main predator the lion only 'sees' in black and white and the stripes blend in with the surroundings, so making it hard to 'find' a Zebra! (I didn't know this!) See homeschooling isn't that bad after all! :)

Kate's School Trip

I went with Kate on a school trip a couple of weeks ago to the Art Gallery to view orginial works of Lynley Dodd. For those of you outside NZ you are missing out on one of NZ's best children's author! She has written lots of books but one of her most famous one is Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy. What a fun morning it was, it was a privilege to come as parent helper! At the end of the viewing the kids got to make their own animal. Some very interesting animals were created! 

Hairy Maclary

Listening to instructions

Making our own animal

Kate busy drawing hers

Kate's Hairy Maclary

School's Raukawa Day Trip

At the end of the year the girl's school went on a day trip to Raukawa Adventure Camp. Both Albert and I went and Albert had Michaela and a group of her class and I had Grace and some girls from her class. We had to get up early, as we were going on a bus to take us to the camp. It was a full on day, the weather was very warm which was a blessing but as helping parents we had to make sure that the kids in our care, drank enough, ate at the right times, got sunscreen re-applied, got toileted etc. Out girls had a ball trying out new things outside their comfort zones. The water slide was a big hit. In this photo there are the two teacher of the classes that went. I hope you forgive for putting this on my blog :). Good on you Maree and Judy for giving the waterslide a go!

Grace on the flying kiwi. Once she was harnassed, she got pulled into the air by a the rest of the team of kids and adults and so the kids 'flew' for a bit. All our kids in our group had a go, well done.

At lunchtime those who had energy to burn, were taken on a walk to see the waterfall. The view was well worth the 'stomping through the bush'. Thanks so much to the teachers for organising this AWESOME day out!