Free Day with a Twist

  We shuttled Hubby around for work one day this past week, but it wasn't a normal free day, we had a furry companion with us too.  A couple of weeks ago we took in a miniature pinscher for a friend while they are away.  She has some health problems currently so she needs us to stay close at hand, so she got to come with us.
  We started out our time at the Kansas Historical Society.  Pup stayed in the car while we played in the Discovery Area.  It was a beautiful spring day of about 50 degrees, we cracked the windows and set a timer for a half hour in the play area.
  We really enjoyed the newly re-vamped trails section of the play area.

We'd loaded the covered wagon before, but this time I made them add up all the packages to see how much they weighed.  Bubby is carrying over 1500 pounds in the picture.  Boy is he strong ;)
After our time was up, we headed outside to the playground.  Pup and the kids enjoyed the cool, breezy day and mom, well, she just sat and took it all in :)
  Our next stop was to the library.  We set another goal of a half hour.  When gas was so high and we were cramming all kinds of errands into a day in the city, we got this down to an art ;) We came out loaded down with books and took Pup to the park across the street for some leg stretching.

This accomplished one of my goals for the year.  To take time doing little oddities along the way.  We do the big trips and do them up well, but to stop and go to that tiny park right across from the library that has those cool gargoyles salvaged from a historic Topeka building - even just for a few minutes.  Doing those things you always pass by, but don't take time to do - that's what I want to do more of this year!  One checked off of the list :)
  Daddy was working in rural Shawnee County which allowed us to oogle wonderful historic houses like this one when we were dropping him off and picking him up. The big kids have come to appreciate looking along the way, Shorty begged to watch a movie and Mommy responded with "watch the movie that is going by out your window..." lol.  Poor kid...

We love our libraries!

  Yesterday we took advantage of one of our local library's programming for a "school's out" day since Lawrence Public Schools had the day off.  They had staff from the Kansas Cosmosphere come and talk on different subjects, including the one we attended which was "Life in Space".

Our speaker's PowerPoint presentation included neat videos of astronauts in space doing their everyday thing.  He brought a variety of space foods, and other props for hands on pass arounds for the kids.  They left the talk totally thrilled!  The library also has had on display an indoor planetarium and spaceman "Steve".  We'd looked Steve over the past couple of times we've been, but got our picture taken with him this time!

I love the Lawrence Library.  They just went through a major renovation a couple of years ago and while there's parts of the new I don't appreciate they kept alot of the essence of what I always have.  They have unique books.  Interesting books that we can't find at other libraries.  Sure, they have the run of the mill, but they are eclectic in some of the things that they carry.  They have wonderful reading nooks and of course the fish and train table.  They also have walls of windows!  There is nothing more inviting than an area that seems to have no barrier to the outside...

Shorty playing puppets in the kids section

We not only utilize the Lawrence Library, but we are in the unique situation by virtue of where we live that enables us to use our small town library, Lawrence (1/2 hr. away) and also Topeka (which is also 1/2 hr. away). All have great programming for kiddos and some specifically for homeschoolers.
  Our small town library we use for everyday reading - fiction chapter books, picture books and general background for studies we are doing.  They can interlibrary loan most things which is a blessing, just takes a little planning.  We also utilize the local one a ton because it has no late fees, the other ones do.  Those are stinkers!  We try to stay on top of overdues, but there's always that one time...
  The Topeka library is a typical big city library.  We make it to Topeka and Lawrence at least once a month, so it's not too bad of a balancing act with due dates of every 3 weeks.  The Topeka library has more variety of the mainstream books, so that next Boxcar Children might be on hand there.  Or if we need a bigger variety for our Chemistry studies we can grab some extras in the regular kids section or the teacher's library (that's a neat bonus!).  Their children's section is one of a kind too.  One of my artist buddies did a fantastic job painting murals that really draw a person in.  There's a bookshelf made to look like a bus, and a dinosaur standing in the middle of one of the rooms and his upper body disappears into the ceiling!  And of course, the fish.  What kids section would be complete without them? ;)
  A library is the homeschooler's best friend.  We are still finding ways that we can better use what they offer in our schooling.  I am so pleased that the ones we have in our area are homeschool friendly and readily accessible :)