Protestant Reformation

Today we learned about the Protestant Reformation and the effect that it had on religions around the world today.  We talked about the different men who were part of the Reformation like Martin Luther: known for his 95 theses, William Tyndale: translated the New Testament into English, John Wycliffe: new teachings differing from catholic church and translated Bible into English, and John Calvin: wrote many commentaries on the Bible and taught teachings differing from catholic church.  We also talked about the role of the printing press in making the Bible accessible to the world and not just the priests.  As our activity, we did potato printing to get an idea of what printing would have been like, not quite as easy as typing these days, but still easier than copying everything by hand.

It's Safari Time

On this beautiful spring day, we took a break from our normal school schedule, met up with some friends from our LDS Homeschool group, and went to the Ft. Chiswell Safari Park.  We spent the first little while in the petting zoo where the goats were very friendly and seemed to think they were human. 

Then it was time to load up on the Safari bus.  The bus took us on a tour of 45 acres to see animals from 6 different continents.

One of the first things that happened is that an ostrich reached it's head right into the bus and stole Amber's cup of food, then while I was trying to help her get more food, another bold ostrich reached it's head in on the other side of the bus and dumped Jared's food all over his lap.  We learned pretty quickly to guard the food as the animals were not at all shy.

Krystal is looking on with trepidation, not sure what this ride will bring, but glad to be with her friends.

Amber and Liam are happy to watch the animals from afar, but are a little more cautious when the animals stick their heads in the bus windows.

I had to help feed the animals or the kids would have lost all their food, but they enjoyed seeing the animals, like this water buffalo, come right up to the bus. 

 The ostriches were very bold and obnoxious.  They tried to take everyone's food and with those long necks, you really had to watch them.

 Cody the American Bison was rather large, but very gentle.  He would just hold his mouth open and wait for you to pour the food in.  Amber still seems a little nervous about him being that close though.

Then came the camel.  He was not at all shy and really had the whole bus in an uproar of either crying or laughter.  He was very big and very friendly.  Most of the kids enjoyed petting the camel and trying to avoid being slobbered on.

 

 

 Clarissa and Cailin were two of the ones in fits of laughter over how close the camel kept getting to them.  By the end, everyone was really having and good time and realized that the animals were just fun.

 There were some more calm animals to see as well, like the turtles and the zebra.

 Once we were done with the bus ride, we spent some more time at the petting zoo.

 These are mama wallabies with joeys in their pouches, but unfortunately they wouldn't show them off.  Jared enjoyed feeding peanuts to the monkey and the monkey enjoyed trying to catch them.

 Clarissa's favorite animals were the pigs.  She saved some of her food from the bus to feed the baby pigs, but the mommies wouldn't let the babies get any of the food.  We all had a great time with friends and animals alike and enjoyed being out in the beautiful weather.

Save the Truffula Trees

 In honor of Earth Day coming up, our library did a special story time based off of Dr. Seuss'  The Lorax, which happens to be my favorite Dr. Seuss book.

 After a very lively reading of the story, Krystal and Amber made their own little Truffula Trees.  The library also gave them each their own copy of the book.

They ended the day with watching the animated version of the story.  The library also gave away a free composter, but I wasn't the lucky recipient.  Still, I love our library.