Categories: 4 kidsClassical Conversationshome schoolhomeschoolvacation

Field Trip Week: Rose Gardens and Santa Lucia Preserve

I have found some of the most beautiful rose gardens in California.

We declared last week “Field Trip Week”, and had ourselves a grand ol’ time. We visited the aquarium, a beautiful rose garden, a robotics show, and Santa Lucia Nature Preserve.

The big boys practiced their lines for their upcoming end-of-year parent night, we squeezed in a few math lessons, read a few books, and welcomed Nonna and Aunt Janet to town.

I don’t think it’s possible to walk through a well tended garden of roses and not feel inspired.

The boys saw the perfect rows of hedges, declared it a maze, and started running.

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Now for stop two on our Week of Adventures: Santa Lucia Preserve

This place, located in Carmel Valley, is thickly wooded, and it is, unfortunately, not open to the public. We only got to go because we all tagged along on Daniel’s Preschool Field trip as chaperones, drivers, and siblings.

We were supposed to be relatively quiet, stay on the trail, not touch anything, and always stay behind the guide. They told us these rules before the trip began, and I began to question in my mind if JD and Caleb were going to make it…..but I am happy to report that we were all as good as gold, even me. I was actually quite content to not touch the owl pellets, the mosquito larvae, or the spiky leaves.

Looking up

They had photos of animals that have been seen in recent years on the bridge on the property. Yep. A black bear.

There were also pictures of bobcats and coyotes. I said, “Oh. We have those in our neighborhood.”

Then I saw a photo of a mountain lion. I added, “Oh, I hope we don’t have those in our neighborhood.”

The nature guide smiled. “You do,” she assured me. Apparently, central California is the mountain lion zone.

JD, counting something on his fingers, hopefully not how many wild predators he’s seen on our street….

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We also had a “family presentation” two weeks ago at our Classical Conversations campus.

Joshua and Caleb created this poster, which I thought was pretty doggone cute. Caleb is especially interested in prehistoric Megalodon sharks.

This week Donna and Aunt Janet are going to Point Lobos.

And now for some good ol’ fashioned fun. Nothing like balloons under shirts.

I’m afraid last week will be a tough act to follow! But here we go…

Wishing you all a happy week! I’ll leave you with my current theme song, via YouTube:

aprilmomoffour

April is an upbeat, Christian, blog-obsessed, military wife, and home schooling mom of four little boys. She writes about education, travel, and humorous adventures in parenting. Follow along if you’d like a little bit of encouragement and a whole lot of crazy.