Stone Mountain Membership

Homeschool field trips are about my favorite part of homeschooling. Learning while just hanging out with the family - it's an amazing perk (and one that the best traditional schooling families also practice).


This Monday, I took the boys to Stone Mountain Park. We purchased memberships (which are good until the end of May 2009) and then had a blast.



Our first stop was at the Granite Quarry Exhibit. B10 was thrilled to see an actual quarry, he had read about them in his Maine History/Geography Workbook.





This is the boys in front of a large block. We learned that the long lines in the rock are how they kept the blocks relatively straight - this block weighted 66,000 lbs.

After the trip to the Quarry Exhibit, we headed to Crossroads. Stone Mountain Park is a vastly different place than when I was a little caterpillar. Ever since Dolly took it over, the little stores and the general atmosphere of the park has become friendlier (with so many things to do).

In the SmartyPants shop, we were able to watch Miss Shae make candles. She went out of her way to answer our questions, and talk to the boys about what she did. I very much enjoyed her lesson on weather and how it affects her candlemaking, and appreciated how sweet she was to the boys.

We had lunch at Miss Katie's. Way to much food, but the fried dill pickles were delicious! B10 had a cheeseburger and fries, while CW ate chicken fingers. I had melt-in-your-mouth chicken and dumplings, with fries and applesauce.

After lunch we went back to the store and each boy was able to dip a homemade candle. Miss Shae observed their candle-dipping, and gave the boys a hug before we left to put our food and candles in the car.

We rested for about 15 minutes (Mummy needed a quick break), before going to the Barn to play Harvest Quest. B10 and CW had the entire place to themselves, until one little girl and her mother showed up. The little girl stayed pretty much on the bottom floor, while my Caterpillars raced up and down the four floors of web ladders and slides for about 1/2 an hour.

Our second to last stop was at the 4-D Theatre, which was showing the short movie "Tall Tales". B10 loved the snake that shot out towards him, and sprinkles of water splashed in his face. CW liked the glasses, and not much else. He ended up putting them on his head and not watching the movie with them on.

Finally, we took the 5 mile train ride around the mountain.

B10 spent the entire trip staring out the side of the open car. He was enthralled by the passing trees, many of which still had the Christmas decorations up. He took particular joy in pointing those out.

The rocking of the train very quickly put CW to sleep on the seat in front of B10 and I.

It was a very fun day, and made me wish for the day when I'll be able to take them places more often.

~Lone Butterfly )i(