We went on another field trip today.  This morning we went to the Nature Center for a program about fish.  We got there a little early so we watched the birds, squirrels and even a chipmunk(!) outside and then spent some time playing.

Then we learned a little bit about fish and went outside for some fish activities...including killing all the poor fish in this water table, poor things.  The kids had fun catching and touching them so I guess they died for a good cause.

Then we went to a history program at the capitol about the Civil War border wars.  I thought it might be over Gavin's head but it turned out to be really great.  We divided into 'families' and then went through different scenarios.  It was kind of like those books where you read a little bit, then make a decision based on a couple choices and find out what the consequences are. 

So the teacher would tell us what was going on and we had to discuss with our family what our choice would be.  It took Gavin a few minutes to figure out what was going on, but once he got it, he really got into it!  I was on a different family then Gavin and all afternoon he was comparing what my family chose to what his family chose and what the consequences were.  Then he told me that it would be really hard to make those kinds of decisions so I think he learned a lot!

Before we went into the capitol we spent some time outside enjoying the day.  Gavin got some more Civil War soldiers from some money he'd been saving so he played with them and Austin finished the sucker he got after lunch.

We still got to read a couple chapters of our Viking book.

We finished The Swiss Family Robinson so tonight we started reading this book about Leif Erikson before bedtime.  It's not a chapter book but a little long to read at one time so we read half of it and will read the other half tomorrow.  I hadn't had time to pick another chapter book but this worked out fine.