Field Trip!!!!

           We had to take one more field trip this year and of course it was to the Gainesville History Museum! The new exhibit that is set up is all about bats and we LOVE bats! Yes, they are cool. No, they are not rats with wings! I used to feel very scared about bats but after learning about them I am just in awe of them. Bats are seriously cool and no, they won't suck your blood!

       The entrance was set up like a spooky mausoleum and it was awesome! I love spooky too and Halloween is my favorite time of the year!

        We have studied bats several times now but there is always something else to learn or see as far as I am concerned. I also enjoy doing things we have sort of done before and get excited as my kids remember stuff from the past! It is always fun to see what they can recall in a fun setting and not on some dry boring test!

         We had so much fun seeing what bats lived where in the world. 

       They had really neat models of different bats so each kid picked their favorite to pose with!

   
        The giant ears were a really neat thing to do. Hearing things like a bat was very cool! My kids love interactive stuff!

       We saw a really neat model of a bat house and it once again brought up the wanting a bat house in our yard! We have wanted one for years so maybe that can happen this summer! 

     
       They had really neat screens set up showing images of bats skulls that the kids enjoyed as well. 

       There were just so many things they got to do and learn in a hands on environment. This is extremely important for so many kids and even adults. It has just been proven that you learn best by doing!

       They all enjoyed playing with the microscope. Fox just had to put his hand under it too!

   
       The dreaded mosquito! I hate these blood suckers and they are a bats favorite food! This is another reason I want bat houses!

  
        I love looking at specimens. Seeing how things fit together to work. 

      
       I also love fossils of animals from long ago!

        A few years back we had studied the rain forest and these little "cotton ball" bats were one of our favorite things we got to learn about. Once again I was amazed at the information my children could recall. I guarantee if I had given them a written test half of that wouldn't be answered because again a test is almost worthless. In my opinion it measures nothing but the ability to recall facts and I don't want that for my kids. I want them to remember and have fun doing it, not just taking a test.

        They had this cool interactive cave like set up for the kids to see bats in their habitats and how they make homes in places. 

        They also had fun making rubbings of bats!

        We all enjoyed the bats!

  
       This was a really cool electronic maze showing how a mother bat will locate her baby. 

        Of course we had to take a pic of Bat Man! 

        After the bat exhibit the kids got to run the museum as usual. They all love The Discovery Zone no matter how old they are. 

        The girls had fun playing with poop! Yet again hearing them talk about another field trip and things that they remembered from earlier this year. 

        We of course had to stop in the gift shop! Fox fell in love with a baby hedgehog puppet. SHHHHHH, he doesn't know one is on its way to him through the mail!

        They really love the museum. Even seeing the things they have seen a million times before still amazes them. 

  
       The new screen in the front entrance is awesome! You can watch yourself on it standing there while different creatures are around you! What fun! Fox had to stand near a woolly mammoth and the girls had to be by a sabre tooth!

        What a fun school year we have had! Hopefully next year will be even better!