Occupations and Maple Syrup Time

Last week Grant got out of the school room to learn about occupations.  On Monday, amidst a light snow fall, we took a field trip to a local radio station.  Grant loves listening to the radio, so I thought he would like to see one in person.

The one we went to was a country radio station that actually had a live AM station, and a mostly pre-recorded FM station.  It was interesting to see how the two worked differently.

Grant's favorite part of the tour was watching the DJ for the AM station announce the numbers for bingo, more specifically he thought the bingo balls in the spinner were neat. 

This is where they do interviews.

The DJ for the FM station was the one who gave us the tour.  This is the room where he programs everything into the computer.

Lastly, the DJ took us into the production room where they do all the pre-recordings.  He recorded Grant saying the call letters for the radio station, and then told Grant he would play it during the noon hour, at which Grant was TOTALLY embarressed, but I thougt it was pretty cool!

Tuesday was VALENTINE'S DAY!

The kids woke up to find some Valentine goodies. 

 

 No occasion for gift giving can ever be complete without something "Lego" related.  Just so you know, I didn't purposely give Johanna a Lego minifigure with a weapon.  The space girl with a laser shooter just happened to be what she got in her "surprise" minifigure pack.

More Lego assembling with the help of Uncle Jeff....

In school, Grant and I went through the normal morning school work, and I showed Grant the cursive letter z.  After we had finished with that, I showed Grant the proper layout of a letter, including the date, salutation, body of the letter and closing.  We used this layout to write a thank you card to the radio station.

(P.S. I had Grant skip over writing the salutation so I could double check on the call letters for the radio station.  He did go back and fill it in once we knew they were right.)

On Tuesday night, Grant was more than happy to go to Grandma and Grandpa Hedberg's house to spend the night so he could go in to work with Grandma Cindy on Wednesday morning. She works as a purchaser for an aerospace company.  She showed Grant the warehouse, and all the parts they stock, showed him around the office, and finally explained to him what she does.  Grandpa was nice enough to pick him up from the office and take him to lunch before Cory picked him up that afternoon on his way home from work.

The girls and I were back in the school room on Wednesday morning, and I read them this book:

After I was done reading the book, Johanna wanted to draw a picture from the story.

Once she was done with her drawing, the three of us made some "maple leaf kids" using maple leaf rubbings.

These are Johanna's drawings:

These are Julia's drawings: 

On Thursday, we were all back in the school room, were Grant wrote  more thank you cards for his day at Grandma's office.

I also read the kids this book:

So why all the books and activities related to maple trees and making maple syrup, you ask?  Because, on Friday, we took another field trip to a local nature reserve called Rockwoods Reservation, to see how sugar maple trees are tapped, and the sap made into syrup.

We started out by following a trail into a sugar bush (that is a group of sugar maple trees), where our sugar maple guide/instructor told us how the sap has been harvested from the time of the Native Americans up until now.

We also got to try sugar maple sap.  It tasted pretty much like water with a little sugar added to it.

We also got to take a closer look at one of the collecting buckets.

From there we moved onto the next "station" where we got to learn (and see) how the Native Americans, and then the early pioneers cooked the sap down into syrup. The Native Americans would hollow out a tree, and put rocks that had been heated by fire into the sap to boil it.  They made mostly maple sugar as it was much easier to travel with, and lasted longer than syrup.  They would also trade blocks of maple sugar for beaver pelts.

The pioneers would cook the sap down using a three-pot method to help avoid burning the syrup. 

This time of year was very busy for everyone involved in the harvest.  It would pretty much go non-stop until all the sap had been harvested.  The children had the fun job of collecting the sap and keeping the firewood stocked.

We had a brief wait before we could go onto the third and final station, so the girls had a little time to make some new friends.

At the third stop on our maple sugaring adventure, we got to see how they cook down the sap today, learned about the grades of maple syrup, got to taste some fresh maple syrup, and taste maple snow candy.

To make the snow candy, they boiled the syrup and then poured small amounts into a tray of ice shavings.  Our guide picked up each syrup "glob" with a toothpick and then passed one out to everybody.  It tasted like thick caramel.  Yummy!  That treat has been a favorite for all kids during maple sugaring time since it first began.

We learned a lot that day, and enjoyed the different "samples" from the sugar maple tree.  Unfortunately, they don't sell the maple syrup.  They only make enough for their field trips and the Maple Sugar Festival they host every year.