About Me I'm Stacy - a disciple of Christ, an Army wife, and a homeschooling mom to our 7 year old daughter. I spend my days doing fun science projects, going on field trips, cooking gluten-free meals, taking photos, reading, blogging & managing the home. I'm constantly behind on scrapbooking and want to learn how to crochet more than scarves, but there are only so many hours in the day.
I believe that shoes should always be optional, life is better at the beach, and chocolate is a necessary food group!
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By Midlife Army Wife, on October 22nd, 2009
Staples, actually…..2 of them….in her HEAD!
This morning, my dad picked up Bug to spend the day/night at their place. Less than an hour later, dad called and said “Bug fell and cut her head open. I need you to meet us at the hospital”
ACK! I was off!
Turns out, she was with him in his workshop and trying to watch something, so she was climbing up on a chair, it turned and she fell – and hit the back of her head on his LATHE machine! OUCH! She is his little apprentice in there, and always loves helping him work on something.
She’s got about an inch and a half gash on the back of her head and had to get 2 staples in it. Of course it was bleeding all over the place, as head wounds do, so dad scooped her up to take her to the ER to see how bad it was.
I got to the hospital and she and dad were already in triage. She was so scared about what was going to happen to her, and also about whether or not she would still get to spend the night at their house (she wanted to!).
She was a TROOPER!!! The nurse looked at it, then the doctor looked at it. They gave me a cotton ball with some numbing medicine on it to hold on the wound. Then once it was numb, the doctor put a shot of more numbing medicine in the wound (YIKES!) – Thankfully Bug didn’t see it OR feel it! Then he used this little disposable staple gun (we got to keep it!!) and put 2 staples in as fast as you would staple paper and he was done!
Bug was more scared about what was going to happen next than she was worried about the pain. Makes sense, when you have nothing to compare it to, or don’t know how all that stuff works. We assured her that I got to hold her the whole time, she wasn’t going anywhere by herself, etc.
I told her I’d go get her popsicles or ice cream or whatever she wanted when we were done. She said “I just want some water”. Silly girl! Poor thing, her tummy was upset (you know how you get a sick tummy when you get really hurt or upset?).
I didn’t think to grab the camera to take with me (you know….when dad said head wound, I just went!), but Bug wanted pictures, so I took some with my phone, and went back for a good one of the staples with the real camera when she got back home.
After the hospital, dad took her home, and I went to the store. I got her some popsicles, ice cream, a coloring book (with an elephant on it!), and some stickers. Then I went to their house, rinsed out her hair and shirt (covered in blood!), and then left her in the care of my dad. She still wanted to spend the night, and once she was all done at the ER, she seems to be almost back to herself. She’s tired, and her head is sore, but otherwise, she’s doing great. I’m amazed really! God was really with her. My sweet girl has cried for 2 hours over a paper cut before, so the fact that she bounced back from this so fast is a huge blessing!!
She asked me to “take a picture of me crying” – she’s on my lap, that wasn’t easy with the phone camera.
![2009-10-22 018[3]](http://midlifearmywife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/200910220183_thumb.jpg "2009-10-22 018[3]")
The Wound
![2009-10-22 020[3]](http://midlifearmywife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/200910220203_thumb.jpg "2009-10-22 020[3]")
The Staples
By Midlife Army Wife, on August 22nd, 2009
In a recent post I talked about Bug’s recent diagnosis with Sensory Processing Disorder, ADHD, and giftedness.
How did we get this diagnosis? What made us seek it out? Why did we even want a diagnosis? What did the label matter? I asked myself this many times, and had it asked of me many more.
We already knew that Bug has SPD, even though it was not confirmed. We had already been seeking out books & information to attempt to learn all we could about this and how to help her. During this process, I learned about a local horse therapy program (a FREE one!) that I desperately wanted to get her involved in, but we needed a diagnosis first. They needed something from a doctor/therapist that listed a diagnosis to be accepted into the program.
The other reason I wanted a label, was so I would know where to look for help. There were so many things that her symptoms could have been, and I wanted to be researching the right ones so I could find the right solutions. I couldn’t help her if I didn’t know what I was supposed to be expecting, or what her challenges were. We had tried for a long time to “deal with it”, or to “fix it” through discipline or behavior charts, but nothing was working.
Anyway, I could get her in to this free therapy if we just get a diagnosis, right? Great, I thought, we’ll call the doctor! Well, her doctor didn’t diagnose this type of thing. Neither did several other doctors I called. Where do I turn, then? Finally, someone on a local message board recommended I contact Our Children’s House at Baylor. What a blessing!!! All they needed, was a prescription from her pediatricians office, which they were happy to give. We made an appointment with the neuropsychologist and were on our way!
Bug and I went one day to meet with the doctor at OCH. There was a brief intro period where Bug played in the room while I talked to the doctor about our concerns. Then, I went back to the waiting room with my stack of paperwork and evaluations to fill out while the doctor evaluated Bug on her own. Several hours later we were done. Hubby and I went back a week later without Bug to get the report and talk to the doctor.
Honestly, when we made the appointment, we were trying to rule out or confirm Asperger’s, which is why we wanted to see the Neuropsychologist first before the OT. From the little we knew and had read, we thought she displayed many of the symptoms. Well, the doctor said she Bug scored “highly probable” for it on all the tests , but she didn’t want to give her that label at such a young age, so she held off on that one. She also hesitated because she was actually able to distract Bug away from her obsession (animals) for periods of time. (Update August 2010: At this point, we have no doubt that she has Asperger’s, but we haven’t gone back and pushed for a diagnosis).
We also learned that she has multiple things going on that, when combined, display themselves in a variety of ways. Often these issues displayed themselves in ways that appeared as though she had behavior problems. From the outside, it would seem she was misbehaving or being defiant, when so much of the time, she was acting involuntarily.
In addition to the ADHD, and Gifted diagnosis, the doctor recommended a full OT evaluation for Sensory Processing Disorder. We were already certain she had SPD, but needed the diagnosis. This doctor couldn’t give it because it wasn’t her specialty, so we needed to see the OT. Makes sense.
To get the OT eval, we needed another prescription from Bug’s pediatrician’s office. That took a couple days, but came quickly. The OT eval was much shorter (a couple hours), and the OT was able to tell me a great deal of information right away!
We started once-a-week OT therapy the next week, but that only lasted a couple times! I wasn’t crazy about the therapist, and our insurance had run out on what they would pay, so we took over therapy at home doing all we can. At some point, we hope to get her back with an OT, but for now we are looking forward to the horse therapy.
In future posts, I’ll talk about what we are doing at home to help.
By Midlife Army Wife, on August 21st, 2009
You all know that due to our daughter’s SPD, we’ve avoided artificial coloring in our food for over 2 years now. Now it seems we should also be careful about non-edible things like finger paint because it soaks in through the skin.
Tonight was just classic! Hubby was in with Bug while she was having her bath tonight and I was doing some other things, so I didn’t go in until near the end of her bath time. I got there just in time for the show!
I went in, just as Hubby has given her the “2 minute warning” (she needs a lot of help with transitions), only to see her acting like a laughing hyena that just finished off a pot of coffee. I truly thank my Heavenly Father she was *happy* hysterical this time, but YIKES, was it nuts in there! She was attempting to clean up her toys, but was bouncing & rolling around in the tub (as much as one can actually bounce in a tub) as the water was draining out and didn’t even stop when it was empty. She was laughing hysterically and her body was just out of control. She couldn’t stop herself, and I was beginning to think she was going to bust her head on the side of the tub with all that slipping, sliding, rolling, & bouncing!
I had to bite my tongue not to laugh at her out loud, as I was so thankful that she was at least in a good mood for this one, instead of the opposite, which is common.
At some point, I looked over and saw the RED finger paint that she had been playing with in the tub, and turned to ask Hubby, “How much of that got on her skin?” He replied, “Umm, a HUGE amount!”. Suddenly, we knew exactly what was going on. Yes, *I* bought her the paints. She’s a sensory seeker, and gets out of control with paint so I figured letting her paint in the tub was a no-brainer. Obviously, it was a no-brainer as I wasn’t using my brain when I bought them  Hubby confirmed that they had a similar reaction last time he had her use them in the tub.
We had to literally pick her up out of the tub since she couldn’t focus enough to step out on her own. She couldn’t even hear us talking to her. We wrapped her in a towel, and I carried her to her room where I laid her down on the floor and prepared to give her a little massage in the hopes that it would calm her down a bit.
WRONG!!!
Instead, the instant the lotion (the same one we’ve been using since she was a baby) touched her tummy, she screamed out that it was HURTING her belly button!
Fine – wiped it off, tried the chest.
Nope! That hurts too!
Ok, I said, we’ll do a massage another night.
She insisted she wanted a massage, so we rolled her over and tried her back/bottom/legs.
“That hurts my butt!” (We couldn’t help but laugh at this one)
We gave up and tried to move on to PJs.
She put her button down shirt on backwards, and tried to convince us that she should get to keep it like that. We told her if she could get it on, and button it herself she could wear it like that. She got 10 seconds. Didn’t make it. We finally convinced her we’d do a “backwards day” for homeschool one day and she could wear it all day long. By the way, I don’t really care if she wears her PJs backwards, but I didn’t want to get woken up at 2 am with her screaming that she wanted it turned back around – something very likely to happen.
Ok, finally PJs on. Check.
Now, we need to get 2 stories read because if we stray from the routine, we’d be in even more trouble. We picked out 2 of the shortest stories we could tonight, and attempted to sit down to read them. She was all over the place, laughing, bouncing, still hysterical, so Hubby and I each read our story as fast as we could. I don’t even think she heard most of it since she was talking pretty much the entire time. Normally, we would have stopped reading if she kept interrupting, but tonight she wasn’t even aware of it.
After the stories, we gave hugs and kisses and put her up in her top bunk. At that moment, she proceeded to kick her legs hard and yell “I don’t want to go to bed! I’m not tired! I won’t go to bed!”
Excuse me?
She *never* fights us about bed when she’s sane. Never. She was given a choice of keeping her light on and having her usual reading time, or throwing a fit and losing her reading time. We did manage to get an apology from her, so she got to keep the reading time.
Secretly, we’re hoping the Melatonin kicks in soon and she won’t need much of the reading time anyway!
During this whole episode, I was reminded of that day in the department store over 2 years ago when we first saw her clearly react to food coloring. It was scary! Tonight, I just praise God that we were able to laugh during the whole thing. No yelling, no tears, no frustration.
And somehow – by the grace of God – Bug actually had a brief moment of clarity when we asked her to say her prayers. She thanked God for her day, for her family, and for JOY & LAUGHTER!
Praise God for joy and laughter! Even if it was chemically induced tonight.
By Midlife Army Wife, on August 14th, 2009
Seems an odd title, don’t you think? Not to me. See, praying about panties is a very regular occurrence in our home.
Our daughter, LoveBug, just turned 5 a month and a half ago. 2 weeks ago, she was officially diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), although we had suspected it for quite some time now.
We also found out through this evaluation process (with a neuropsychologist and an occupational therapist) that she has ADHD, scored as “gifted” in her learning and verbal abilities, and it is “highly probable” that she has Asperger’s, although the doctor didn’t want to “label” her with it at this young age. These things, all combined, make for some challenging times. Unfortunately, to the outside world that doesn’t have all the facts, she sometimes appears to be misbehaving, not listening, ignoring instructions, or being defiant. Truth is, so much of it is involuntary or simply her mind/body trying to make sense of things in her world. Her challenges are invisible just looking at her.
I want to start publicly sharing about this in the hopes of helping others that might be going through this to feel like they aren’t alone. I hope to educate people about SPD because it seems like many people, even physicians are not very familiar with it. I also want to just share how God is using this in our lives. I NEVER want to appear as though I’m complaining about my daughter, so please hold me accountable if it ever appears that way. I ADORE my daughter, and consider her a true miracle gift from God. If you don’t know the story of her miraculous birth, ask me! I love to share! I’ll save that post for another time. I am honored that our Creator trusts Hubby and me enough to put this sweet girl in our care. I just want to learn enough about her, so that I can do the job He gave me to do. I want to learn about these conditions so that I can better help her cope with the difficulties she faces. I want to be compassionate about her needs, while also teaching her to properly interact with others. Most of all, I want to love and appreciate her right where she is! I want to see her through HIS eyes, and I want to see the world through HER eyes, because that is what brings me closer to His love!
Looking back, we can see signs from infancy and toddlerhood that point to this. We were first time parents though, and didn’t have much to compare her to, in order to know what was “normal”.
Normal. I really dislike that word, anyway. God made each of us unique, specially purposed for HIS plan. Why would we want to be (or want our children to be) like everyone else? Yet, we often do. Thankfully, I’m learning to appreciate her differences and to embrace them. I wish I could say I did that daily, but I’m learning.
What made us seek professional help?
Here are just 3 of the reasons that really stood out early on. Many many more followed, and I will list those in a later post.
1) Her reaction to artificial food coloring. We didn’t give her any sugar until she was 2, so we never noticed this reaction before then. God had graciously allowed me to have “heard of” food colorings causing reactions in children through some various channels in the past, so when it came up in our house, I was vaguely familiar with it. At least, enough to wonder if it was the culprit.
One day, R and I were at the mall with Bug, having a great time….until we let her have a cookie with sprinkles on it! We were walking around a department store, and within minutes of eating it, our child turned into some crazed, aggressive, mean person we’d never seen before. She was literally yanking clothes off the hangers and throwing them on the ground left and right. She was out of control….and we were scared. This was not our child. We strapped her in the stroller, and got out of there. After what could have only been God’s urging, we thought to go get her some “real food” and see if that helped. Finally, after what seemed like hours (but was probably 30 minutes), she calmed down. But we knew something was wrong. She never threw tantrums, and was truly a very easy going, well behaved child.
We went on to “test” this theory about the food coloring under controlled circumstances at home 3 more times. Each time, same reaction. After that, we banned all artificial food coloring from our home and we haven’t looked back. It’s been a couple years now. Thankfully, we have been able to find substitutes for just about anything. Whole Foods and NaturalCandyStore.com are my favorite resources for this! We are thankful that Bug has adapted to this lifestyle without a fuss, and is perfectly comfortable telling people she’s “allergic” to food coloring and bringing her own snacks/treats everywhere we go.
2) Her reaction to having socks on her feet. She has never liked socks. Never. Can’t say as I blame her, as I don’t either. The difference is, when I don’t want them on my feet, I pull them off. Bug, on the other hand, would scream bloody murder while slapping and punching her feet as if her socks were filled with fire ants. Not a typical reaction, I’d say. Thankfully, we are able to cope with this by simply avoiding socks. She doesn’t wear them. Ever. Not with snow boots in Michigan in January. Not with tennis shoes. Not with cowboy boots. I figure if it doesn’t bother her, it doesn’t bother me. On a RARE occasion she has worn them in order to play somewhere on a play area that requires them, but 9 out of 10 times, she will ask to go somewhere else if she knows they require her to wear socks.
3) The panties. The aforementioned panties. For a while, she was fine, and then almost overnight, her panties “bothered her”. Every single pair of them. She’d put them on and say they bothered her. I tried checking for things that might be poking her. I checked to make sure they weren’t too tight, or too loose. I made sure the elastic wasn’t crooked. I checked everything. This became a daily occurrence where we spent way too long picking out a pair of panties. Then it happened. One morning, she just melted down completely trying to find a pair that worked. Poor thing, she was frustrated, discouraged and confused. She melted in my arms sobbing, and I just prayed for her. That evening, we went out and bought 50 pairs of panties. Seriously! Every brand, various patterns, fabrics, styles. We even bought some “boy” underwear because she liked the dinosaurs on them. Who knew….many days those were the ones that worked best…when on backwards! Good thing no one would see them anyway, so who cares!
I still pray with her about this multiple times a week. She’ll be getting dressed, and I hear it. The sounds that tell me she’s tried on several pair and nothing is working right today. So I go in and sit with her and pray over her, asking God to please allow us to find a pair of panties that will work for the day. Every time, after we pray, we find a good pair within 1 or 2 tries. Praise God!
Thank you for joining us on this journey! I covet your prayers, and would love to hear from anyone that deals with this in their life as well.
By Midlife Army Wife, on July 12th, 2009
I don’t know what took us so long to get this. We should have had this 2 years ago! We recently bought Bug an exercise trampoline, and it is the best thing we have ever given her!
Bug is extremely high energy, and she is a sensory seeker! That just means she is always on the go – moving, touching, bouncing, taking it all in! Sometimes it is hard to adequately meet those needs inside our home, and we just can’t always go outside and swing, to the park, or the pool.
Now we have a perfect indoor tool to help meet her needs! She uses it first thing in the morning, off and on all day long, and before bed. Anytime she feels she has extra energy she needs to “get out”. For many kids, this might wind them up too much at bedtime, but for Bug, it actually helps to get out some of the extra energy so she can settle down and relax.
Who knows, maybe she will even give Mommy a few minutes to get some exercise on it!
By Midlife Army Wife, on July 1st, 2009
Friday night, we had dinner at “560”, the Wolfgang Puck restaurant inside Reunion Tower.
Bug saw Reunion Tower a little over 6 months ago when we were out driving one day, and she asked me about it. “What is that ball on a stick?”, she said. When she found out there was a restaurant in it, she decided right then and there she wanted to go there for her “5 birthday”. I’d been there before, and while it wasn’t super cheap, it wasn’t bad. What I didn’t know, when I said “sure!”, was that it had been remade into a fine dining restaurant! With “fancy” food! Good thing my little girl loves SUSHI!
So, we gave her the choice – a birthday party with friends, or dinner at the restaurant with family. She chose the restaurant and never changed her mind. I’m so glad she did! She had the best time! We celebrated with my parents, Hubby’s mom, and Hubby’s grandmother. She ate tons of sushi, some samples of everyone else’s food, and an entire apple crumble dessert all by herself! Such a big girl!
The next day, Saturday, we had a family party at home. We had cake & ice cream, opened presents, and mostly played with Emily in the little pools in the backyard. It was a fun, relaxing day!
Now, my little girl has been 5 for 2 days, and she’s growing up before my eyes. All I can do is pray that this next year goes by a little slower than the last, and that I cherish each and every moment with her! I am so blessed to be her Mommy!
By Midlife Army Wife, on June 21st, 2009
What an awesome weekend!!
I am incredibly blessed to be married to my best friend. He is not only a wonderful husband and partner, he is also an amazing Daddy! He truly loves being a daddy, and loves spending time with his little girl any chance he gets!
This weekend, we had a special Father’s Day camping trip…right in our living room! It’s Texas, and it’s hot, so we thought it would be fun to bring it all indoors. It was a super fun time (and still is, since we’re leaving it up till the end of the day)!
BEFORE & AFTER:
It was interrupted for a few hours in the middle of the night Friday night/Saturday morning when we had to take Bug to the ER because she was having trouble breathing and we were afraid her throat was closing up. Turns out, she has croup! A steroid shot in the bottom (OUCH!), and a cool mist breathing treatment later – she’s much better! Still a bit sick and tired, but better! Thankfully, I guess, we gave her Benadryl before heading to the hospital in case it was a weird allergic reaction, so she ended up sleeping through a lot of it (even the S-H-O-T!!) and was able to remain calm the majority of the time. That was a huge blessing!!
Back to the camping trip…
We played games, did some reading, worked on a wooden puzzle, had fun with glow-in-the-dark sticks, and just enjoyed time as a family! We ate all our meals in the tent, cooked Pop-Tarts over a camping stove, ate watermelon, and even had our own version of SMORES! The smores were ‘fondue’ style – dip the marshmallow in melted chocolate chips, then dip in crushed graham crackers – Yum! All while enjoying the conveniences of air-conditioning, indoor plumbing, and the microwave
 
Hubby even got to sneak in some quiet reading time while Bug and I made breakfast for him. Chocolate waffles, scrambled eggs and bacon!
And of course – PRESENTS! We did them a day early because Bug insisted it was Father’s Day already
First, an original drawing of Daddy’s favorite animal!
Then, from Mommy & Bug, a framed collage (click to see it enlarged!)
Babe,
You are an amazing man, and I am so honored and blessed to call you my husband. I love looking at our little girl and seeing so much of you in her. I love seeing how much she loves her Daddy, and I hope and pray that when she grows up she marries someone just like you. Thank you for loving God, and for loving us, with all your heart! Thank you for working so hard to care for and provide for our family. Thank you for always making time for us. Thank you for working together with me to be the best parents we can be, and always working with me to learn more about how to do so. Thank you for allowing God to be the 3rd strand in our marriage and for always leading our family in learning more about Him and looking to HIM for guidance.
I look forward to raising Bug with you, to all the experiences & adventures that God will bring us, and to being married to you for the rest of my life!
I love you with all my heart! Happy Father’s Day, my love!
Love,
Stacy
By Midlife Army Wife, on June 11th, 2009
Last night, we spent about an hour hunkered down in the bathroom because there were TORNADO warnings (meaning they saw one!) near us for quite a while. A rotation had been spotted in our city, so we took shelter.
We threw pillows in the tub, and Bug and I got in there together, while Hubby sat next to us, using the toilet as a desk for the laptop and checking the weather constantly. We got one kitty in with us, but the other refused to come out from under the bed, so we figured she was as safe there as anywhere else.
Here is what that looked like: (excuse the bad photos, I was using my cell phone)
We gave her the Leappad and headphones because when she has something to listen to like that she’s much calmer and less talkative, which helped as we were trying to listen to the news reports.
As you can tell, she was really stressed (not!) In fact, she prayed to God and said “Dear God, please keep us safe from the tornado and if it is close to us, please move it somewhere far, far away”. Complete, total, faith and trust in HIM! Love it!
Weatherman Hubby, and our not-so-thrilled kitty:
We got out of the bathroom around 8:45, got Bug put to bed and then Hubby and I went in the living room to hang out. The storm seemed to have passed by at this point. Immediately after we said it was all gone, Bug (and we) prayed to God and thanked him for providing our safety!
THEN…..
Our power went out at 10:00pm! No rain, no storm, nothing….and BAM! Lights out! Thankfully it was just about bedtime anyway, but not quite. Oh well, off we went to bed.
I knew it would be a loooooooooooooong night because none of us sleep well HOT (and it’s summer in Texas!), and Bug and I don’t sleep well when it’s too quiet (I use white noise, she uses music)
So, about midnight, Bug woke up crying that she couldn’t sleep. I knew this would happen since it was hot and her music went off with the power (note to self: get her a jambox cd player with battery backup)
We gave her a flashlight and told her she could read for a little bit until she was able to fall back asleep, which turned out to be 2 hours later! Poor thing!
FINALLY, after a lot of off and on sleep, the power came back on at 5:30am! Nice, cool, air! WHEW!!!
PRAISE GOD for air conditioning! Something we take for granted all too often. I’m also thankful this happened at night when it was bedtime anyway. So much to be thankful for! Our Father truly calms storms in our lives – in so many ways!
Today, we are taking it easy at home to try to make up for missing most of our sleep last night!
By Midlife Army Wife, on June 4th, 2009
The Bible tells us that unless we become like a child, we will not enter the kingdom of Heaven.
"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ~ Matt 18:3
I learn so much from my little girl each day! God uses her to teach me about His character, and the qualities He wants in each of us. I find that I do much better when I strive to be more like her, than when I focus on trying to make her more like me.
Yesterday, I talked to Bug about her play kitchen she’s had since she was 2. She played with it for a couple years and thoroughly enjoyed it! However, now it just sits in our kitchen taking up space and she never plays with it anymore. Her interests have taken her elsewhere, and she prefers to help Mommy cook in the real kitchen than to pretend to cook in a pretend kitchen.
So, I gave her some choices.
1) She could move it outside and see if she played with it outside differently.
2) She could sell it and use the money to buy something else.
3) She could give it away.
She chose option #4 – “I want to sell it and give all the money to God because helping other people is more important than toys.”
WOW.
Why is it that my first (sinful) reaction in my mind is “Are you sure?? You don’t want the money for something else? You could tithe on it, but then buy something else, you know. “ Thankfully my brain-to-mouth filter was turned on, and I didn’t say any of that out loud. Instead, I told her how proud I was of her choice and of her generosity.
Right now, I’m spending my quiet time in Psalm 119. This morning, I picked up where I left off yesterday and read verses 36-37,
“Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.”
We don’t need to raise our kids to be grownups who seek to “have it all”. We need to cherish our children, and look to them as examples of what God wants us to be like.
By Midlife Army Wife, on April 17th, 2009
I’ve been going to the Dallas Zoo for a long time, but only recently realized what a great resource they have at their Nature Exchange! It’s in the Children’s Zoo area, right near the bathrooms.
You can read the details on their webpage, but to sum it up:
* Children bring in items from nature. Up to 5 items per visit. Things like shells, rocks, bones, animal cast-offs, animal homes (cocoons), seeds, leaves, pressed flowers, fossils, dead bugs.
* They share with the staff what they know about the item.
* The staff then awards points to the child based on what the item is, how unique it is, and how much they know about it. The more they know about it, the more points they earn. The staff there is extremely knowledgeable and takes time with each item and child to teach them more about what they brought in.
* After getting their points, the kids can go “shopping” in the Nature Exchange to “buy” other pieces of nature. Many choices exist including seashells, animal bones, crystals, shark teeth, all shapes & sizes of rocks, and much more!
There are also many things in the exchange that are for ‘display only’, but very interesting to look at and learn about! Here are some pictures of our last visit to the Nature Exchange with some friends!
Listening to Gerald teach them about their objects
Investigating a grub worm!
Items for display & trade
Testing a rock to see if it’s limestone (it wasn’t)
Bug answering questions about her acorn, bark, and leaves
Bug just loves it, and was already planning her next visit before we left! An incredible learning opportunity for child or adult – I know I learned a lot right along with the kids! It’s also a definite plus for homeschoolers, or any fans of Charlotte Mason! You get points for bringing in a Nature Journal too!
But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. (Job 12:7-10)
The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters. (Psalm 24:1-2)
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![2009-10-22 018[3]](http://midlifearmywife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/200910220183.jpg "2009-10-22 018[3]")
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