American Revolution Road Trip: Philadelphia

About halfway through our American Revolution road trip, I checked my email in our hotel room one night and discovered an email from the ballet department stating that the younger kid's Nutcracker rehearsals would begin that Saturday.

Plan A wasn't to drive home from our road trip until that Sunday, but I'd been worried enough about this specific possibility (and for those of you who wonder why I didn't just ask the ballet department when the Nutcracker rehearsals would begin, I give you the following: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!! As if the department is that organized! Oh, my gosh, I'm crying!!! That's too funny!) to craft a Plan B.

Plan B stated that instead of spending two days in Philadelphia, we would stay just half a day, and focus solely on Independence Hall. No City Tavern. No Franklin Institute. No Thaddeus Kosciusko National Memorial (and after I'd learned to spell it and everything!). No Ben Franklin Museum. No B. Free Franklin Post Office. BUT we'd still hit the highlight and climax of our American Revolution road trip, get the kid back in time for Nutcracker rehearsal, and Philadelphia will still be there another time.

And that's how we got up at the crack of dawn, drove into the city, and headed straight to the Independence National Historical Park!

Matt wasn't super enthusiastic about revisiting the Liberty Bell, but it was part of the kids' Junior Ranger books, AND I insisted!

I really like this view of the Liberty Bell, because you can see Independence Hall in the background.

Some Junior Ranger badge disappointments in Philadelphia:

1. The Thaddeus Kosciusko National Memorial is only open on weekends, alas, so I had the kids finish up their partly-completed Junior Ranger books via web research and I mailed them to the site when we were home.
2. The Germantown White House was closed altogether. An outrage! Sadly, the site also says that they do NOT honor Junior Ranger books submitted by mail, but I sent ours in, anyway. You never know when an especially kind ranger will take pity on you!
3. You may know that there's a special Junior Ranger badge this year for the Centennial. If you haven't had your kids earn theirs yet, go do it now! My kids received theirs at Minute Man, and were super proud to have them; in the car afterwards, I heard the story at least four times of how the park ranger told them to hold onto their badges and then when they were old, they could ebay them for a lot of money. So, knowing as you do how I feel about Junior Ranger badges, you will not be surprised that I was absolutely appalled to enter the Independence visitor center and see a ranger standing in the hallway with a box of Centennial Junior Ranger badges, passing them out to everyone who passed. Excuse me, but those badges have to be EARNED! Some children have worked VERY HARD to earn those badges, and the mother of those children does not appreciate seeing a ranger simply passing them out as if they were Halloween candy! I had prepared a firm refusal and a tart comment when we were to pass this ranger, but the kids were all, "Mom, ebay!!!" So now we have two extra, but the kids are going to be disappointed when the badges are worthless in forty years because the rangers handed them out like stickers.

 Nevertheless, we simply didn't have time in Philadelphia to fuss about all of these little things. Must keep our eyes on the prize!

One of the prizes? It turned out that we had just enough time after the Liberty Bell but before our guided tour of Independence Hall to hike over and check out Ben Franklin's grave!

And then: onto Independence Hall!

There was a line to get through security and onto the grounds of the site, and a middle-aged woman behind us who was clearly trying to edge her way in front of us in this line. Fortunately, when you have four people in your family, you can take up a good amount of lateral area when you're so motivated, and so cutters rarely prevail against us.

Once we were on the grounds, however, this woman continued to act super sketchy. As I was trying to take photos of Independence Hall from the other side--

--I noticed that as soon as the woman got through security, she immediately pushed herself to the front of the line waiting for the next tour. "She must have been running late for her tour time," I thought. But after a few minutes standing in that line, she left it, and then Matt and I totally saw her sneak in the back entrance of Independence Hall!

"She's a terrorist!" I hissed to Matt. "We should tell a guard!"

"Nah," Matt said. "I bet she just doesn't have a ticket." Tickets ARE pretty hard to come by. I bought ours a month in advance.

The woman only spent a couple of minutes in Independence Hall before she came back out--security was pretty tight in there, so I bet she was caught and asked to leave--and speed-walked into another building that didn't require a special ticket. Nothing blew up afterwards, so I guess that Matt's theory was the correct one. Still, clocking her movements kept us pretty entertained while we waited for our turn for the tour.

Here's my second-favorite detective:

Our tour group was a LOT bigger than I would have liked, but our tour guide had a nice, big voice to match, and the kids and I are short, at least, so people usually give us good viewing spots. We also did credit to ourselves, with me being the only one who could immediately answer the ranger's question of which event a certain painting depicted, the signing of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution.

I immediately piped up, "The Constitution!", and it turned out that I was meant to have determined that based on the presence of George Washington, but just between you and me, I actually recognized Alexander Hamilton and didn't even notice Washington.

Here's the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chamber.

And here's the Assembly Room!!! We'd been waiting the whole trip to see this!

After our tour, we turned in Junior Ranger books and received Junior Ranger badges that were EARNED, went to the bathroom, bought Philly cheesesteaks from a food truck, hoofed it back to the car, and ate them on our way out of the city and on the long, long, long drive home.

We got home around 1:30 in the morning, the kid showed up on time to her 10:00 am ballet class, Matt discovered at this 10:00 am ballet class that they'd changed the time of that day's Nutcracker rehearsal to an hour earlier (because of COURSE they did), the kid showed up on time to Nutcracker rehearsal, and over dinner that night she told me that the first thing they did when rehearsal began is start lining up the kids into rows. The kids who arrived a few minutes late?

BACK ROW.

And THAT'S how I have a front row soldier in this year's Nutcracker!

American Revolution Road Trip: Minute Men National Historical Park

We had a long drive to Philadelphia on this day, but first, we hopped out of bed bright and early, packed our bags, found one more Dunkin' Donuts to get coffee and donuts from (even Syd, who clamored for Dunkin' Donuts every single one of the approximately eight billion times that we passed one, was finally over her obsession and ready to move out of Dunkin' Donuts land), and zipped over to Minute Men National Historical Park to see where the shot heard 'round the world came from.

What, you don't know that song?

Well, if you'd been traveling with ME you would have known it by now, considering how incessantly I sang it.

We started in backwards order, with the North Bridge, because I just couldn't wait to see it:

I'd say that these are my brave Minute Men, but they're on the wrong side of the bridge... Let's kick those darned rebel butts, I guess?

Ah, here we are on the side of freedom and justice!

And here's where I have to tell you that all those times that my children are embarrassed of me are justified, on account of I have no problem singing, loudly, in public, and even forcing my more compliant child to sing with me, even though she is visibly uncomfortable at the singing. Loudly. In, god help us, public:



See? I'm not ashamed of myself at all!

This Junior Ranger book was another thoughtfully-created, challenging one:

The harder the kids have to work, the more excited they are to receive their badges.

I really liked this memorial to the fallen British soldiers. It reads, "They came three thousand miles and died to keep the past upon its throne: unheard beyond the ocean tide, their English mother made her moan."

Still traumatized by enforced singing, loudly, in public, the kid made this face when I said, "Go stand by the British soldier graves!!!"

We attended a Ranger program here on the musket, and were pretty excited that we got to see it loaded and fired:

The re-enactor doing this demonstration told us, before he began, that he could load and fire his musket in 20 seconds or less. He loaded and fired, and I videotaped it, and then he asked the crowd, "Okay, who timed me?"

I helpfully piped up, "Ooh, I did!"

"How long did it take?" he excitedly asked.

"Ummm... 31 seconds?"

The re-enactor was NOT super pleased, so I quickly said, "Oh, but I'm sure I started filming before the ranger said, "Prime and load." They both immediately jumped on that and reassured the crowd several times that that's what had happened.

(Psst! If you watch the video, you can totally see that's not what happened!)

On the walk back to the museum, the older kid was all, "Dude, why did you have to show up that poor musket guy?"

"I didn't know it would be such a big deal!" I insisted, as my entire family, who, I might add, are rarely any help at all when I put my foot in my mouth in public, laughed at me.

I liked seeing these complete soldier mock-ups, but I'm a little dubious at all the light shining on them. There's even sunlight coming in through an unshaded window! That's not how we preserve precious artifacts!

I suppose that they must be modern recreations, to be treated so, but still, do you really want to have to replace them every decade?

We had to loiter in this museum for a while, because we wanted to see the movie (we ALWAYS want to see the movie, except when we're at Independence Hall. Their movie is the worst one that I have ever seen anywhere), and there was already a school group settling in to watch it.

Side note: I was super jealous whenever we came across a school group on this trip, because their tour guides dress up in historically appropriate garb. How fun is that?!?

Anyway, as I was browsing the gift shop and checking out the small museum, I was of COURSE eavesdropping as hard as I could on the conversation between the kids' tour guide and the park rangers manning the place. The docent was busily telling them that this class of high school kids from a school about an hour away was special because their AP US history teacher had made the unheard-of decision to actually take them to all of the American Revolution sites within driving distance. It had never before been done in the history of the school, actually visiting these places, and many of the kids had never been to a single one before. And they'd had to do fundraisers, and the teacher had to justify his curriculum to the school board, etc. etc. 

What an awesome teacher. And what a shame that it wasn't already a given. I mean, we worked so hard to get to Minute Men National Historical Park, fourteen hours from home, just from studying the American Revolution with an upper elementary and middle schooler, that I can't imagine living an hour away from the place, AND studying the American Revolution with an AP US history class (or any history class, from preschool on up), and not simply going there. There should be someone taking these kids to all of these great places every year. 

Maybe the schools spend that time and money on standardized tests, instead?

Okay, off my soapbox. You know what I also like?

Miniature models of historic battles! I don't know who is making these things and putting them in national park museums all over the country, but I freaking love them:

I also love taking pictures of my family posing in those hole-for-your-face things. And I've discovered that these soldier ones are perfect for photographing my tween, who can't seem to take a photo without throwing me some shade these days:

Throwing some shade is very soldierly.

Because everything that seemed a long way away back then is just a short drive now, it took just a few minutes in the car before we were at the site where Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott were confronted by British soldiers, as the were on their way to warn everyone that the Redcoats were coming.

What better way to celebrate than with one more recitation of "Paul Revere's Ride?"

We learned about the National Highway WAAAAAY back at Fort Necessity (read up on it--it's interesting!), so it was especially cool that here it was also the Battle Road, where skirmishes between British soldiers, Minute Men, and even innocent civilians occurred as the British marched forward then fled backwards.

Racing along the Battle Road!

Here's a marker from the National Road. Paul Revere rode half the dang night to get to this place, and it's only 13 miles from where he began!

As we traveled all this week, we kept coming across people who were traveling New England, as well, not to see American Revolution sites (although that's where we all commingled), but to see the autumn leaves. And they were gorgeous! And so, as we walked along the Battle Road, when we came to this well-placed rock in front of a tree showing off its beautiful autumn colors, I convinced my more amiable kid to pose for me:

The other kid hung about, just off camera, looking less belligerent than usual, so I invited her to pose, as well.

And lo! She did! And she genuinely smiled! And she did not push, poke, or punch her sister in every single frame (just some of them)!

It's an American Revolution road trip miracle.

American Revolution Road Trip: Boston's Freedom Trail

Let's hit the road again, shall we?

After spending the morning at the New England Aquarium, we lunched (ie. ate squished sandwiches and crumbled cookies) at Boston Common. The kids quickly tired of squished pb&j and wandered off to see if the pigeons liked it any better--they did!

This photo is awkwardly framed and puts the older kid behind a trash can not because I'm too lazy to get out of my chair, but because I wanted to photograph not the children, but all of the random tourists watching the children. There are two guys actually videotaping my kids there, and there's another small crowd to the right that wouldn't fit in the frame. Tourists are so weird!

 The plan for the rest of our day in Boston was to follow the Freedom Trail as far as it went, allowing the children to earn their Boston Freedom Trail Junior Ranger badges in the process. In all, it took about seven hours, walking all the way!

I should also stop and note here: the Freedom Trail is the best tourist site that I have EVER seen. It's a long walking trail, but it's paved with a red brick line that goes the entire way from site to site, along the entire trail. I never had to look at a map, just follow the red brick road and stop whenever I saw something interesting!

King's Chapel Burying Ground, Boston's oldest cemetery, was actually my most anticipated stop, and I forced the family to spend ages cooling their heels here while I wandered around and took tons of photos.

It's hard to see, but the inscription is a misspelled quote from the Roman poet Persius, roughly translated: "Live and remember death; the hour flies."

This reads, "Bethiah wife to Enoch Greenlefe Resigning up her Spirit to her Creator in hopes of Mercy and acceptance through the merits of her dear Redeemer, departed this life Dec 28 1678 Aetatis Sua 28." Further down, and buried now, are the details for two children who also died.

This is apparently NOT actually where William Dawes is buried.

This is just about the closest that this Benjamin Franklin fangirl got to a Benjamin Franklin memorial, alas. I had big plans to visit the Benjamin Franklin museum and B. Free Franklin post office in Philadelphia, but after we got news that the younger kid's Nutcracker rehearsals were going to begin that weekend, we had to shorten the Philly leg of our trip to a single half-day of Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, Franklin's grave, and cheesesteaks eaten in the car on a LOOOONG drive home.

I didn't photograph the Boston Massacre site, because there were a million tourists standing right on top of it, but we did see it. I also didn't photograph the Boston Tea Party site, even though we walked along the harbor after the New England Aquarium and before lunch, because they have filled in all of that area that used to be water. In some museum or other we saw a map, and the city of Boston and surrounding area used to be so much smaller--when you walk around the edges of Boston, you're walking on actual landfill!

I hadn't really meant to do more than look at Faneuil Hall, but for some reason the Faneuil Hall page of the children's Junior Ranger book was by far the most challenging, so we spent a lot of time there making close observations and answering riddles.

I'd also been on the fence about whether or not to go into Paul Revere's house, as it's an extra admission charge, but the kids' Junior Ranger books required it, so it was a convenient excuse to do so.

I made my more biddable child recite this poem fragment numerous times--basically anywhere that we found a reference to Paul Revere:

We have the entire first third of the poem memorized by now, so we should go back and do it again!

I did really want to go into Old North Church, but it was yet another extra admission charge and the kids weren't super feeling it, so we just admired the belfry arch from below. I'd have insisted if I thought that we'd have been able to visit the actual belfry arch, but I couldn't get a straight answer, and that usually means no.

Even though it was a ridiculously long walk from Old North Church to the Battle of Bunker Hill Memorial--across the bay to Charlestown, in fact!--and I was about to wet my pants by the time we got there, the kids were in much better spirits by the end of the hike, and happily ran back and forth between the monument and the museum to find all the rest of the information for their Junior Ranger books.

The sun was beginning to set as we finally finished up the Freedom Trail and, two plastic badges on two shirts, hiked the two miles overland back to the car.

Work Plans for the Week of November 14: Back on Track

Last week did not go as I'd expected it to. Some surprises, fortunately, were good. I didn't anticipate how much extra time our new family member would use up, from the additional walkies before we left somewhere to the extra shopping (she's a leash chewer, it turns out) to the snuggles to all of the playtime:

She's a great fit for our family, and I feel happy every time I see her with Will.

The kids also received a surprise invitation to participate in the Children's Museum of Indianapolis' Power of Children Symposium, an invitation-only all-day workshop for children with a history of philanthropy. Syd couldn't attend, because she lives and breathes the Nutcracker these days, but it made for an unexpected but wildly wonderful day in Indy for Will and I--she listened to a keynote speech by Ryan White's mother, was mentored by older children who've won awards for their service work, and did various community service and leadership activities with like-minded peers. I did some Christmas shopping and volunteered in the museum with one of their high school interns. It was excellent and exhausting.

Other of the week's activities derailed us in most upsetting ways. The children and I lost TWO of our most talented teachers and valuable mentors last week, on the same day, even. Their funerals were even on the same day, though in different cities, so that we could only choose one to attend. (Un)fortunately, the children are well-versed in funeral etiquette, so we got through it, and on the way out to frozen yogurt afterwards, Will even noted that the funeral had been "peaceful." When I questioned her about what she meant, it turns out that she'd heard her favorite aunt chewing me out after my Pappa's funeral about a sundry of things that I've done wrong in her eyes, and remembered that aunt suggesting that my Pappa would be ashamed of me (I remember that, too, Baby), and had expected this wonderful math teacher's funeral to also have rancor-filled diatribes.

And she loved that math teacher enough that she went anyway, and didn't say a peep about it. 

The fact that she also heard that other post-funeral rancor-filled diatribe, something that I did not know, and didn't say a peep about that to me, either... well, I don't know what to say about that. I suppose I should at least ask her if her younger sister was sitting there next to her at the time.

And then there was the election. You already know how I feel about that. We've had many family discussions about how to conduct ourselves in a country in which many of our citizens now feel empowered to express their feelings of racism, misogyny, and generalized bigotry. I've done a lot of thinking, mourning the country that I thought that I lived in, feeling ashamed that it's my own position of privilege that has blinded me to the dangerous disaffection of many of those in my country. And maybe I spent a little more time that I needed to watching movies with the kids, or hiding and eating their stolen Halloween candy while they played. One has to give oneself some time to mourn, yes?

But this week we are back to business as usual, and I will be happy to take no happy surprises to distract us if we can also avoid the unhappy ones. I'll be happy to have a normal, typical week of math, grammar, CNN Student News over breakfast--

--ballet, fencing, puppy playtime, and plenty of reading:

I'm going to take that wall of presidential candidates down today, though, and good riddance.

 Books of the Day this week include some living fiction and some fiction that I simply want the kids to read (I'm especially excited about Kiki's Delivery Service, the film of which we watched a couple of weeks ago), and some mythology that I previewed to make sure that it remains consistent with the sources that the children are using for the National Mythology Exam. Memory Work is more Sonnet 116 and geometry identifications, as well as various equations that the kids need to keep fresh. We've got fencing and ballet and ice skating and horseback riding this week, but this weekend we'll see a break from at least one of our university-hosted extracurriculars, as all the college students leave for Thanksgiving break.

And here's the rest of our week!



MONDAY: As I write, Will is taking a Hoffman Academy lesson on her keyboard, and Syd is working on trading cards for Persephone and Demeter. Will doesn't love Hoffman Academy, but I plan to make her complete at least the first 100 lessons. I don't care if she learns piano, necessarily, especially since she's completely disinterested in learning piano, but I want her to know the bare basics about reading music, and develop better rhythm and body awareness. Syd enjoys playing the keyboard, but has told me more than once that she doesn't want to take organized music lessons, so Hoffman Academy it is for her, as well.

Now if I could just find another hour in the day to return to my own instruments of choice, the violin and the guitar, I'd be quite pleased!

My strategy of writing each day's Math Mammoth down on the children's work plans was successful, in that yesterday I was able to discern that neither child had completely finished her math for the week, and so I made them sit down with me on a Sunday morning and do it. Mwa-ha-ha! This week, Will is continuing in geometry, and Syd is continuing in decimals.  Syd finds decimals frustrating, and loathes it when I bring out the Cuisenaire rods and Base Ten blocks to explain each new concept, but the method works, so tough. I had no idea when I bought my first sets of Cuisenaire rods and Base Ten blocks that I would find them so endlessly useful!

The kids also fell behind in Analytical Grammar and Junior Analytical Grammar, but I didn't have them make up that work on Sunday. We'll simply continue doing one exercise each school day.

This week's language arts focus is on the middle grade novel, Wonder. We're reading it this week solely because the public library is hosting a children's book club meeting on the book this weekend, but as I wrote out lesson plans last week, I realized that it is really the perfect thing to be reading if you're feeling sad and hopeless and worried about mankind. There are some mean people in Wonder, of course, some bigoted people, some cruelty, but the book is overall an uplifting one, with a message of tolerance and diversity and the idea of kindness as a choice that we can make over and over and over again every single day.

I finally caved and bought two copies of the Student's Quest Guide for Aristotle Leads the Way (although we're using a library copy of the actual textbook). This semester is busy enough without me creating yet another curriculum from scratch, not when there's a perfectly good one available for the text that we were already planning to use. I'd like to add more enrichment activities specifically concerning Ancient Greece, but I'm considering covering Story of the World volume 1 again next semester, so I may hold off and use them then. Will has already completed today's assignment from Aristotle Leads the Way completely independently, but I read the assigned reading to Syd, and she hasn't yet completed her Student's Quest Guide assignment.

This week's Greek mythology study is of Persephone and Demeter. Syd spends far more time on the trading cards than Will does, but Will loves the extra reading that she does, so both are evenly whole-hearted in their studies. It's nice to study something that deeply interests you! In fact, they're so interested in Greek mythology and all things Ancient Greece that I'm just about to change my planning for our first international trip from Great Britain to Greece.

For our daily journal time, there are pen pal letters to answer or story starters to try out. I mean to write with the children every day, but last week I only managed to do so once. Will has the habit of sneaking off to do her writing so that she can put in minimal effort, Syd got inspired to work on a multi-day story instead of the assignments, and you already know about me. I'll do better this week!

Will's Wordly Wise 7 finally arrived, so she can begin that this week. Syd hasn't progressed much in her own Wordly Wise in weeks, because she's remarkably able to skive off of it when I'm not looking. I will be more vigilant this week!

I have been more vigilant with Will's daily typing practice, after seeing her just poking at letters with her index fingers simply to end the practice session. Now she knows that she can expect spot checks, and performs with more diligence, and Syd always gives it her best shot, although she really struggles with frustration and bad temper when she's not immediately perfect at every single lesson.

TUESDAY: The reason why we're studying Persephone and Demeter for Greek mythology today is that the exercise in myth vs. science in the Student Quest Guide uses that myth. We're multi-tasking!

I had thought that we'd be done with our election curriculum last Tuesday, but I have to do just one more thing: a post-mortem. We have a lovely electoral college map that the kids didn't finish coloring on election night, so they'll finish that on this day and we'll discuss how the election turned out. I anticipate having a lively back-and-forth on the pros and cons of the electoral college, particularly as I go back and forth on it, myself, almost hourly.

I have a lovely children's book on George Washington from the library, one of those that is written to the child and includes fun (if not always terribly enriching) enrichment exercises. I won't have the kids do the entire book, as we're finished with our American Revolution unit, but I would like them to at least read the chapter on Mount Vernon, and there's a recipe for hoecakes included in that chapter that will work quite well as our cooking lesson for the day. Our new oven even has a stovetop griddle!

The Good Turn for Goodwill project has Girl Scouts (in friendly competition with the Boy Scouts), collecting donations for Goodwill. It isn't formally educational (although we will talk about economic disparity as we work), but I welcome the time that I'll spend with the kids, thoughtfully going through our possessions and separating wants from needs from neither. We'll also be collecting other donations are our homeschool group's playgroup, and while Will and I are at fencing on this night, Syd and her dad will deliver the final donations to Goodwill.

WEDNESDAY: Syd didn't finish last week's Animal Behavior MOOC assignments, but I'm okay letting those slide for her as long as she completes the reading/watching. Will completed all of her assignments last week, so she can take the test for real, and Syd can take it "open book," ideally absorbing the content then, if not before.

We also didn't do our geoboard activity last week, and that's solely my fault, as I had big plans for us to make our own large-scale geoboards from scratch. Syd and I spent that entire day instead making two matching skirts from scratch for a playmate's birthday party, so I can't say that it was time poorly spent. We'll try again this week!

We did complete the backpack first aid kits last week, and that, combined with a Girl Scout meeting a couple of weeks ago in which the kids learned hands-only CPR, and a prior field trip to the police station, means that each child only has one or two more activities left to complete her first aid badge. On this day, Syd will research how to comfort and care for an ill person, and Will will begin an online class to teach her how to care for a child--I keep wanting her to take the Safe Sitter class at our local YMCA to meet this requirement, but it always conflicts with fencing, sigh.

THURSDAY: Will has been resistant to writing essays lately, and pretending that she doesn't know how (even though she's been writing essays for years, the little rat), so I'm pretty stoked that this Animal Behavior MOOC has so many opportunities for essay writing. On this day, after completing their assigned reading/watching, the kids will each brainstorm a specific positive behavior that they'd like to increase the frequency of in a specific individual, then break down the steps to take when planning this as a project. And no, Will, you cannot write your answers in list format!

FRIDAY: Syd is less proficient in essay writing (although she's far more willing to work at it than Will is!), so I'm using some extra reading on Treacher Collins syndrome, which Auggie from Wonder has, to inspire the guided writing of a good paragraph.

You'll notice that our Thursday and Friday are lighter than the rest of the week; I've noticed that my enthusiasm runs down as the week progresses, and I simply don't have the energy for multiple assignments that need me to mentor them. I may try to put more independent work assignments in these latter days, but for now, I just need the extra freedom to push a kid through any late work and to begin the next week's lesson plans.

Will is missing ice skating class on this day. I normally try very hard to never schedule something that would cause a child to miss an extracurricular (that I've already paid for!), but in this case, it's well worth it: we're going to drive to a university a couple of hours away from here and go see Bill Nye!!! The kids and I are madly excited.

And, AND, we've just learned that Neil DeGrasse Tyson is coming to our own university in March! We're going to see him, too!!!

SATURDAY/SUNDAY: Barring more surprise invitations, this weekend should be much more restful than the last. Will's Mandarin class is for sure cancelled, although I don't know about ballet yet, and the kids' book club meeting on Sunday will give me and Matt a little time to run errands without bored children having to drag along and help.

And then next week, we'll have just two full school days before a holiday that I declare WILL be restful, if I have to break my back to make it so!

American Revolution Road Trip: New England Aquarium

I think this is the last non-American Revolution activity that we do on our road trip, but with two kids who love sharks, and one kid who wants to be a marine biologist when she grows up, when you pass an aquarium on a vacation, you go in:

How adorable is this? The younger kid was thrilled, and I'm pretty excited that I happened to have my camera up and ready to catch it!

 The New England Aquarium has a lovely, large chondrichthyan touch tank, and the kids and I spent almost an hour there, our hands in the water, petting sharks and rays:

Please observe how much of this child's sleeve is IN THE WATER. A worthy sacrifice for petting this ray, of course.

 The children were there so long and so patiently that they eventually attracted the notice of the zookeepers at the exhibit, and were used as models of how to properly touch the animals. I struck up a conversation with one of the zookeepers, after he'd shown my children a little shark hiding sneakily but still in touching distance, and mentioned to him that we'd been studying sharks for the past three months, and had, in fact, just finished dissecting one. He was fascinated, and immediately began quizzing the younger kid about what all she'd seen during her dissection. He heard about the shark's organs, and all the disgusting things that we'd found inside its stomach, and then quizzed me about where on earth I'd found a shark to dissect on top of our kitchen table.

Fortunately, he thought that dissecting a shark on top of one's kitchen table was great, not weird.

Okay, he thought it was weird, too, but still great!

And yes, I had my arms in the water just like the kids. I studied chondrichthyans for three months, too!

We finally managed to tear ourselves away from the touch tank, and wouldn't you know it, there was an entire aquarium full of stuff to see!

This is the one who wants to be a marine biologist, if that look on her face didn't tell you as much.

Lookit! A shark egg! We've also seen this at Shedd Aquarium, and it's never not cool:

I'm not much of a gift shop shopper, and I didn't buy anything in this shop, either, but I SUPER wanted two full sets of these tentacles, nevertheless:

Next time: Freedom Trail and all things Boston!