Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Last week we went on a field trip to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, D.C. This was a really interesting trip. You get to tour the facilities where they are actually making paper money. We saw them printing $50 and $100 bills. We saw workers loading "paper" into the machines to be printed and the printed sheets into the machines that inspect the money. We saw other workers repairing one of the machines that prints final details onto the bills. We also saw them inspecting the money under special lamps with magnifying glasses.

The tour begins with a video on the entire process of making money, from printing the background color to the money being monetized by the Federal Reserve. You are then joined by your tour guide who takes you along a special corridor that has been constructed for you to walk through and be able to view a portion of the printing and inspection process. Your tour guide explains the process to you and tells you lots of interesting facts, like that they print over $900,000,000 a day at the facility and that most of that money goes toward replacing old, worn money. The tour takes only about 45 minutes. The tour ends at the gift shop. After our tour, we ate lunch at the Department of Agriculture's cafeteria, about two blocks from the BEP tour entrance.

This was an informative and fun field trip. Even the younger children, who might not really understand the concept of money, were interested in watching the machines and the BEP employees. The older children (and adults) learned that making money is a very complicated process. They also learned about the security features that are designed to discourage counterfeiting. (Actually my kids didn't know what counterfeiting was until we went on this trip.) I felt that the tour was a little rushed. At each of the 4 "stops" on the tour you only had a couple of minutes to watch what was going on in the manufacturing process. There were also wall displays along the tour that you didn't have time to look at because you were being rushed along because the next tour was right behind you. Our tour guide was very nice and tried to take time to answer our questions and accomodate us, but the overall tour schedule didn't allow for her to take very much time at any stop along the tour.

We went with our field trip group and reserved a group tour space, but they do have public tours throughout the day. The tour is free. If you are interested in more information visit www.moneyfactory.gov.

Luray Zoo

Last week we went on a field trip to the zoo in Luray. It is a small rescue zoo. When I was a child, it was a very small reptile zoo with just two rooms. It has now expanded to include outdoor exhibits with many different kinds of animals.

Anything that includes animals is always a big hit with my kids, but we went with our field trip group and all of the children really seemed to enjoy it. Some of the highlights were the baby wallabees, the very active capuchen monkeys, the alligator turtle. (We even saw a copperhead passing an unfertilized egg. Our guide had quite a time explaining that to the 4-9 year olds in our group.)

Being a small zoo, our group was able to interact with the owners, asking questions about animal care and particular animals at the zoo.

One of the important things I think my children came away with is that pets are a responsibility not to be taken lightly. This is a rescue zoo. All of the animals were either exotic pets that were surrendered by their owners or animals that had been hurt and could not be returned to the wild.

Visit www.lurayzoo.com for more information.

Reflections on our first week

So, the first week of lessons has come to an end, and I think it would be a good idea to reflect on how things went. Overall it was a good week. My older son (the now fourth grader) got right back into the swing of lessons. My nephew and niece both work very well. It was a little difficult sometimes when everyone needed help or instruction, and noone is doing the same thing.

I would say the biggest problem we encountered was the four year old. He simply refused to do any work or lessons. Each day when I said, "Ok guys it's time to get started," he would tell me what he was going to do. "Mom-mom, I only going to do my calendar today." "Mom-mom, I not do colors now." What am I supposed to do about that? (Seriously, it's not a rhetorical question. I would love suggestions.) So far I just haven't fought it. I don't have time, all the other kids need my time. I let him do puzzles or play with his moon sand, and when a bigger kid has free time they read him stories and can sometimes coax him into singing his ABC's or identifying numbers for them.

I've already encountered my first unplanned interruption, when my husband decided to stay home from work on Friday and take all the boys (my nephew included) camping at Smith Mountain Lake. There went anything I had planned for Friday. The good thing is I hadn't planned anything for Monday because it is a holiday, but we are just going to have to get some work done. My husband will be home, but maybe instead of being a distraction to the boys, he can help me work with each of them individually.

Our homeschool co-op met for the first time this week. We are meeting at a new church, so there were a few snags. But overall I think it went well. I was a little concerned because my older son was moving up a level and his reading skills are not on grade level, but he loved all of his classes. I am teaching Virginia Studies, U.S. Geography, and Spelling. My classes went well, I will have to tweak some things now that I've gotten a feel for the students' abilities and prior knowledge.

I'm excited about next week. We will be going to the Luray Zoo with our field trip group. And, we are starting our Astronomy Unit Study. Now if I can just get the little one to cooperate, it will be wonderful.