Homeschool Field Trips

We love the opportunity we have to homeschool. The kids feel more responsible for their education and ask to do and learn certain things. History continues to be a favorite subject for them. The kids can also focus on subjects they really enjoy. Cade and Abby spend hours and hours on math and computer programming. I'm amazed at how much they're learning and mastering.

Once a week, we leave our books and computers at home to explore and learn things in the world around us. Here's a sample of some of our field trips over the past few months.

Stanley Market

On a beautiful, sunny day in November, we ventured out to one of the popular tourist areas, Stanley. We walked around the small shops and stalls and found lots of fun little trinkets and souvenirs. Our favorite part of the trip was eating lunch along the waterfront

and climbing the big rocks and boulders.

Museums

The HK History Museum and HK Science Museum are located in the same area. In fact, the main entrances are directly across the plaza from each other. In the plaza there are giant dinosaurs that moan and groan and move slightly. 

The pteranodon even flaps his wings.

Although the dinosaurs in the plaza were mesmerizing, our first visit to this museum corridor led us to the History Museum. Since the kids' favorite subject right now is history we were pretty excited about this museum. Unfortunately, we were not impressed. Our disappointment is evident in the lack of pictures. The only proof we have of this field trip are the pictures with the dinosaurs outside in the plaza.

A few weeks later we returned to visit the Science Museum in hopes that the exhibits were more interesting and engaging. We were very impressed! There were many floors of exhibits and countless hands-on activities and demonstrations throughout the entire museum. There was no way we would be able to see and do everything so we focused on the dinosaur exhibit and promised to return again to explore more of the museum. The dinosaur exhibit had a number of mechanical replicas showing different aspects of dinosaur life. A Brachiosaurus moved his head, 

T-Rex growled ready to bite into a large pile of meat,

Ankylosaurus showed off his big pile of poop,

Triceratops tooted, and Velociraptor expressed different moods

depending on where you touched it (watch out for his scary face).

There were interactive fossil digging activities, life-size skeleton and skull replicas, a 3D movie, and  interesting facts and info about dinosaurs discovered in China.

Our most recent trip to the Science Museum was to play with the hands-on exhibits that we missed the first time. Some of the fun activities included making bubbles,

creating a cloud,

exercising,

driving,

and doing puzzles and brain teasers.

There's so much to see and experiment with at the Science Museum that we need to visit a few of more times this year.

Hong Kong Park and Aviary

Hong Kong Park is located in the middle of downtown with skyscrapers all around it and yet it utilizes much of the natural landscape to create a perfect little oasis in the middle of the concrete jungle. We've passed this area a number of times and never knew there was such a lush and peaceful get away so close to the  city.

 Inside the park is an aviary with many beautiful birds, including this bright and colorful

Black-capped Lory.

Ice Skating

Although we lived in Utah for a number of years, my kids' first experience with ice skating was in Hong Kong. Everyone was a little nervous but excited at the same time.

Ian and Leah had a "buddy" to help them keep their balance and learn to skate but they learned quickly that it's still hard to move around on skinny blades on ice.

Cade and Abby held onto the wall the first time around and discovered ice skating is much more difficult than it looks like on TV, especially watching those Olympic skaters.

Everyone slipped and fell and got frustrated and cried but they all got back up again and tried again. Little by little they got more confident and soon were able to skate around without holding on (except Leah - she never left her "buddy").

Ice skating is one of the more difficult activities we've done but the kids persevered and ended up having a good time. I'm so proud of them for not giving up. It wasn't their favorite field trip but they have asked "when are we going ice skating again?".

Learning and seeing new things is a fun way we use our weekly field trips.

Cade's Birthday

Happy, happy birthday 

to our favorite 11 year old boy!

Cade is a great kid who loves math, soccer, computer programing, reading books and joking around. He has a beautiful smile, a contagious laugh, a helpful spirit, and a competitive personality. 

We LOVE our Cade!!

As Cade's getting older, he's less and less interested in a themed birthday party. That means less work for Mom (thumbs up) and simple, uncomplicated birthday celebrations. 

This year, we had one of his favorite dinners, Creamy Lemon Pasta with Chicken, 

gave him a few gifts,

and enjoyed a basic yellow cake with chocolate frosting (his favorite).

Then on Saturday, Cade invited his good buddy to join us at Ocean Park,

 a marine-life theme park with rides, animal exhibits, and shows.

We rode the cable car and loved

the fantastic view of the bay.

As the big boys explored the park for the more adventurous rides, like the big roller coasters, the younger kids enjoyed the less intense rides and animal exhibits. Abby's and Ian's favorite ride was the giant swings.

Every time Ian went around he was in a different flying pose (sorry but this is the best picture we got of him posing) - what a character!

Although Leah was too short for most of the rides, she enjoyed the many animal exhibits, including seeing the smallest monkeys in the world.

The parrots were fun to watch too.

We all enjoyed the dolphin and sea lion show.

And walking through the giant domed Grand Aquarium with thousands of fish and other sea animals on every side made it feel like we were in the ocean with them.

It was a beautiful day at Ocean Park and a great way to celebrate Cade's birthday.

Girls' Weekend in KK

For our Girls' Weekend, we went to Kota Kinabalu, also known as KK, located on the northwest coast of Borneo.  It's the capital of the state Sabah in Malaysia.

The weather in KK is about the same year round; it's warm (90 F high, 75 F low) with intermittent rain. We arrived on a beautiful sunny day and got to our hotel just as a huge rain storm hit. Fortunately, the rain storm passed quickly so we could walk around the city familiarizing ourselves with the different handicraft markets, malls, and restaurants. We ate some pretty good food during our trip.

KK also has some beautiful beaches and coastline.

One evening we enjoyed the beautiful view

from the appropriately named Sunset Bar.

It was a fantastic sunset.

We visited the Mari Mari Cultural Village (mari mari means come together)

to learn more about the culture and lifestyle of the indigenous tribes of Borneo.

First, we crossed this cool suspension bridge to enter the village. 

The different huts featured the different tribes and some aspects of their daily life. 

There were rice farmers (she's making rice wine), 

longhouse residents (many families lived together here),

hunters and fishermen,

sea gypsies,

and of course the infamous headhunters.

There were many demonstrations and hands-on activities including 

bamboo cooking (I want to try this while camping sometime),

making rice cookies,

 collecting honey,

 fire starting with only bamboo,

trying a blowpipe (yes I killed my target - an unsuspecting coconut),

indoor trampoline jumping,

henna tattoos,

a wedding ceremony,

and a traditional dance performance.

One of our favorite parts of the trip was island hopping and snorkeling.

We took a speed boat to 2 smaller islands

for the recommended snorkeling sites.

It was lots of fun and we saw some very colorful fish (my friend took these pics).

Unfortunately, one of my friends also got stung by a jellyfish (not a fun way to end a good day of snorkeling).

Girls' Weekend in KK was a wonderful trip. I really enjoyed all the activities, the delicious food, relaxing in the sun, not having to worry about kids and chores, but mostly I loved getting to know 5 amazing women better.  I'm so thankful for great friends!