School

I just have to say that I love Kali's and Sadie's school. They do such a fabulous job at making learning exciting. Right now Kali's class is doing what they call "an expedition" on birds. Basically they're focusing all their studies on birds. And not only do they read about them and do projects on them, but they have been to the Tracy Aviary and a nature preserve twice. Then to top it off, they had a bird expert come in and bring his hawk and owl. He let the hawk fly around the room and then taught the kids about pellets.

Then they gave the kids pellets to dissect. Yes, a pellet is the nasty thing that the birds throw up with all the fir and bones in it that they can't digest. I know it sounds totally disgusting but you should have seen how excited the kids were and how much they learned from it. It was so interesting to look for specific bones from the rodents. I hadn't ever seen any of those bones in real life and found it quite fascinating too. Anyway, my point is that her school does such a fantastic job at allowing the kids opportunities to learn in many different ways. Not only do they use audio and visual techniques, but they do so many hands-on activities as well for all those kinesthetic learners out there. I feel like Kali comes home an expert on so many different subjects. She knows more about trees, rocks, butterflies, and birds than I could ever hope to know. The earliest I can remember going in depth on a subject was in the 3rd grade. We learned about Indians but never did anything that would help the information stick with me long term.