AHG Spring Camping Trip 2018

One of the things the AHG Pioneers and Patriots did was go on an overnight backpacking trip to Stone Mountain (NC) State Park. This was a girls-only trip and they had to do a lot of the planning and execution of the necessities for the trip. 

They had to plan and map out hikes, carrying backpacks and equipment with them, using compasses and orienteering skills.

They had to plan and prepare meals.

And setup camp for the night.

They all worked very hard to make the trip a fun time and I think it's clear from the pictures below that it was a success!

Sleepyhead

Irene is probably the hardest sleeper we've had yet. That kid is so hard to wake up in the mornings, you would think she's a teenager already. 

She buries herself in the midst of numerous blankets and pillows on her bed. It doesn't help that her bed acts as a bit of a gravity well and attracts things from the other girls' beds...

 And when you do manage to get her out of bed, it takes a while to get her going. 

If ever a child needed her morning coffee, it's this one.

AHG Family Camping Trip

The girls' American Heritage Girls troop had their annual family camping trip last weekend. We packed up the camper and all our stuff and headed over to Jordan Lake for a couple of nights.

 It was a pretty relaxing time of getting to hang out with all the families and get to know each other a little better.

There was fun time with friends.

Some worship and food.

But there was also time for learning and experiences. The rangers at Jordan Lake gave the kids a presentation about birds of prey that can be found in the area. They had some really cool stuffed birds like owls and an eagle.

Afterwards, they went on a hike through the woods near the lake and then spent sometime cleaning up around the shore. 

Also, at the nearby marina, they had a family fishing day, complete with informational booths, vendors demonstrating their equipment and even some fishing gear that the kids could borrow for free to try their hand. It was really crowded, and they were able to catch anything, but they still had a great time!

They got to learn some things about fish and birds in North Carolina. They also learned about how air and water pollution and trash are harming the lakes and rivers of our state.

This is a live raptor that's native to our area. We couldn't believe how small it is!

 Olivia got to try her hand at securing her food so that bears won't get it.

Arts and Sciences Night - EMMA Classes - Spring 2018

It's that time of year again! The kids have had an amazing term at EMMA classes, continuing their courses from last fall. once again, one of the boys' favorite classes was Art. Their teacher, Ms. Patti, had them using various styles and media to create some very cool pieces.

 

 

 

Emma also loved her art class! She got to do so many awesome things with her class!

 

 

 

Other than their art class, the boys had a geography project where they had to make salt dough maps of a country that they had studied. Ezra chose Italy and Gabriel picked Israel.While I did help them some with the dough portion of the maps, they handled all the painting and labeling.

 

Olivia didn't have an art class this year, but she did have a couple of science classes that had projects for her to put together. She's gotten to be very independent in her work, so these were done with almost no input from us.

Her first one was a presentation on the Appendix. She had to research its function and purpose, plus talk about how it can get infected and interesting stuff like that.

Her other science project was to create a salt water acid battery.

She had to sand one side of a bunch of pennies down to remove the copper coating and expose the zinc.

 While she was doing that, she had to soak cardboard in a solution of salt water and vinegar.

 once all that was done, she stacked the pennies, copper side down with the cardboard between them.

Then when you attach a small LED light to opposite ends of the stack, it lights up! Something about the different metals interacting with the salt, vinegar and water causes an electrical current. So long as the cardboard stayed damp, the light would stay lit.

We really do love EMMA classes and so do the kids! It gives them a chance to learn and do things with kids their age that we might not be able to do at home.