Tuesday, August 14, 2012

1st Day of School 2012

I attempted to get pictures of the kids on the first official day of school. They were a little to silly though. 



This is Jayden's 3rd year in Georgia Cyber Academy. He is in 3rd grade math and 3/4 of the way done with 2nd grade Language Arts. They don't allow them to move ahead in science, history and social studies.


Julianna started Kindergarten this week and so far seems happy about it. She gets a lot more computer time than I even allowed before so that makes her want to do school work. 


As always on the 1st day of school the system crashed! So we packed up and headed to the pool for awhile. We LOVE having the pool to ourselves! I don't have to worry about Jayden squirting other people, other kids knocking Julianna around and rude people that thing it's acceptable to sit at the edge of the kiddie pool and smoke a cigarette! We keep Juli away from smoke as much as possible, we just don't know what kind of damage it could do to her already compromised lungs!




Center for Puppetry Arts 7/31/12

We love visting the Center for Puppetry Arts! Our most recent visit was for: The Tortoise, The Hare and other Aesop's fables. They used to ban camera use in the museum but finally removed it! Happy to finally have some pictures of the cool stuff there. Jim Henson made some amazing puppets!

Juli creating her own puppet.


Always have to touch the different puppet materials. ;)


The kids in front of cool window of Bert and Ernie. They are both holding the puppets that they made in the make a puppet workshop. Julianna loves making the puppets best and Jayden loves watching the show best.


Safety Village 7/25/12

Our county has this wonderful place called Safety Village. 
It's a free program put out by the county. The kids LOVED it and learned so much about safety. They even had them exit a house filled with smoke and then call 911 to practice with what they would ask/say on the call. Our group was small so we didn't get to experience it all but for larger groups they even get out goat carts for the kids to drive the streets of Safety Village and learn about the rules of the road!

Jayden learning how to Stop! Drop! Roll!

A fireman put on all of his gear to let the kids see what a firefighter looks like in case they ever have one come in their home to rescue them! 


Greeting each kid to show them there is nothing to fear.


Learning about chemicals and how it's easy to confuse some kitchen cleaners for drinks! 


As soon as the fire alarm went off the kids had to crawl to the front door and get out! They also learned about touching the door and knob to check if it was hot before exiting through the door.



This is what the living room looked like just before the alarm went off. It's amazing what a great job they do of showing kids what it might look and sound like. 


Then they started it all over again but in the bedroom. The kids were taught to find a wall and then crawl along it till they got to the window. Then one by one they got to climb out of the window.



Juli's turn to escape the burning bedroom.



Jayden's ready to jump!



Once the kids were out of the house they all had to wait at the family meeting place, a large tree. Once they were all out they called 911 using the speaker phone so all the kids could hear the call. 

This was our small group when our day was done, minus Jayden because he was pouting that his best friend got to call 911 and not him.


Outside in the Village they had a number of different buildings sponsored by services throughout the Atlanta area. Cobb EMC had a neat truck for pictures and then a fun room where they learned a bit about electricity.


Aiden driving and Jayden in the back.


Julianna and Alannah



Watching how power gets from a plant to your home. Plus the cool race track was fun to watch.


Julianna's favorite room was the CDC! They had music going and the floor and wall was interactive. They were washing their hands in the top picture, followed by stomping out the germs. Finally they got the kids moving with some popular music.





If you have the opportunity to visit Safety Village with your kids, definitely go! It was so neat and I enjoyed it as much as the kids did. I am hoping that Jayden's 2nd grade class goes this year and gets to do everything. Our shortened visit was great but I want to see it all! 
They also had a train, working lights, water department, gas department, fire engine, ambulance, gun safety demonstration, The Strand movie theater..... The list would take to long to tell you all that they offer! They also offer Senior Citizen and special needs education!

For those in need they can make an appointment to have their car seats checked for proper installation with an appointment right next to Safety Village!