Adventure Club: Valentines Day Party 2/3/2010

Lakes Area Homeschool Adventure Club: Valentines Day Party

Wednesday, February 3rd 10:00

I AM I Learning Center at Weaver's Bottom: This is located on Robin's property in Kingsland. Directions can be found by clicking on the link that says "Directions To Adventure Club Meetings".

Activities: Celebrate Valentines Day with us as we play group games, do some Valentine crafts, enjoy potluck treats and exchange Valentines with all our homeschool friends.

Bring: Please bring one food item to share with the group- sweets, healthy items, anything you would like- have fun with it! We will be supplying paper products and drinks. If your child would like to pass out Valentines to their friends you will also need to bring those. If weather permits, we will be outside for much of this meeting so dress for the weather, bring along hats or sunscreen if needed, and wear closed shoes. If you suffer from outdoor allergies please be aware that Robin's property is full of beautiful plants and trees- a good day to take any preventative allergy medicines that you use. Wear your LAHAC shirts if you have them. Bring $2 per participating child to cover the cost of meeting supplies. If you would like to pack a lunch for your family Robin welcomes you to picnic at her place after the meeting is over.

RSVP: Please RSVP or send questions to Robin & Jennifer at lahac1@gmail.com by January 27th. Let us know how many children will be coming so that we can give a head count to people for how many Valentines to bring, and how much snack. **If this is your first time attending an Adventure Club meeting at I AM I Learning Center you will be asked to sign a release upon arrival for each person attending. If you would like a copy of the release sent to you ahead of time please let us know in your RSVP.

Christmas Crafting Meeting Summary

Our crafting and cookie exchange meeting was really fun! A big thanks to Cassandra for arranging all those great crafts for the kids, thank you to the Kingsland library for loaning us their space and also thanks to all the wonderful moms who helped the kids at the meeting. We made many crafts: personal elf ornaments, ball ornaments that opened up for the young ones, jingle bracelets, beaded candy canes, decorated cookie bags and colored Christmas pictures. We also ate and exchanged lots of delicious cookies and had a storytime with Robin. Merry Christmas!

Crafting Meeting Comments/Suggestions

Thanks to everyone who came to the Christmas Crafting Adventure Club meeting! We hope you all enjoyed it and would love to hear from you about it- how can we improve on a crafting/cookie exchange meeting for next year? If you have comments on how the meeting went or suggestions for things you would like us to add/change to the classes or the environment to make it a more enjoyable and educational experience for your family please let us know by commenting to this post. Kids comments/suggestions are welcome too!

Adventure Club: Christmas Crafting 12/2/2009

Lakes Area Homeschool Adventure Club: Christmas Crafting and Cookies

Wednesday, December 2nd 10:00

Kingsland Library Large Meeting Room

Activities: Join us as our expert crafting mom, Cassandra, leads our group in a Christmas crafting meeting. There will be ornaments for all ages to make, as well as other fun crafts. We will be learning about some of the history behind popular holiday symbols...What is an elf really? Why do we hang things on trees? Why do we kiss under the mistletoe? And many more. We will also be having a cookie exchange and snack at this meeting. Parents- be ready to help out at this meeting- we will have many tables of crafting going on at the same time and will need one parent at each table.

Bring: Please bring at least 2 dozen cookies to exchange with the group. Wear your LAHAC shirts if you have them. Bring $2 per participating child to cover the cost of meeting supplies. Snack and water will be provided. Some of us will be having a picnic lunch at a park afterwards (location to be decided later) if you would like to bring along your lunch and join us.

RSVP: Please RSVP or send questions to Robin & Jennifer at lahac1@gmail.com by November 20th. Include your name, contact information and the names and ages of children who will be attending. We only have the library room from 10-12 and we have so much fun to fit in to the two hours, so try no to be late!

Bird Meeting Summary

We sure have lucked out with beautiful days for our meetings so far this year...this was an excellent day for a little bird watching. We started off by splitting the group by age into older (7 and up) and younger (under 7) which seemed to really help manage the chaos a bit and help the kids to focus during "class" time. While with Robin the kids took a hike around the property to check out the local birds (including the chickens) and learn a little about how to be a good bird watcher. Then the they had time to sit with Robin and learn all about birds: their relation to dinosaurs (and reptiles in general), bird anatomy, bird reproduction, habitats, diets and tons of interesting facts that were new to us all. They also had some hands on time with eggs and feathers. Staci took a turn with teaching this time and taught them all about how birds fly, thanks Staci. Inside the classroom Jennifer taught the basics about barn owls to the kids and then everyone got to dissect an owl pellet and identify the bones that were found. And of course we shared a snack- this time it was "Pigeon Poop" (thank you Cassandra) and it was very tasty! Several families were able to stick around and share lunch after the meeting, and watch the kids happily run around outside. A very nice morning all around.

Bird Meeting Comments/Suggestions

Thanks again to everyone for another great Adventure Club meeting! We hope you all enjoyed it and would love to hear from you about it (hopefully this comment thing is working now). If you have comments on how the meeting went or suggestions for things you would like us to add/change to the classes or the environment to make it a more enjoyable and educational experience for your family please let us know by commenting to this post. Kids comments/suggestions are welcome too!

Helpful Bird Links

National Geographic Birds- pictures, videos and facts about all types of birds
Texas Junior Naturalists Birds- some really great printable books about Texas birds as well as projects and links
Virtual Owl Pellet Dissection- check out this video of an owl pellet dissection, we'll be trying this at our meeting
Bird Sleuth- Cornell Lab's site for bird education, some more great printable lessons and homeschool specific bird watching links
Hornsby Bend- a good birding spot in Austin
Science Projects- a site with science fair type projects on birds
Enchanted Learning Birds- bird information, crafts and printables for younger children
What Bird- a national bird identification site
Travis Audubon- learn about ongoing projects, local sanctuaries and how to join the Travis Audubon group