A Visit to the Campus

Imagination & enjoyment at any place.

January 19, 2022

A Visit to the Campus

(Note: This post was written November 30, 2021 when whomever had decided my computer’s operating system can’t load wordpress anymore – or any other website haha!)

We found ourselves ending the month with a visit to the Palatka campus of St John’s River State College.  Becky and Kimberly were doing college stuff.  The littles and not-so-littles-anymore found themselves doing schoolwork at a stone table in the warm sunshine on a frosty morning.  By 11am, though, it had warmed enough to allow for shedding of jackets.  (This is Florida anyway, locals know autumn calls for bundle with layers in the morning, regular clothes by noon, swimsuit at 2pm, all clothing back on by 6pm, and windbreakers at 8.)

Lucas took a little stuffed animal and started playing hike (his version of one-boy football).

Thea yells, “look, scissors jumps!” *does a few scissors jumps, “tuck jumps!” *does a few tuck jumps (I’m impressed, she’s landing on both feet simultaneously) and other gymnastics steps as she stays in “the warmness” (aka sunshine). 

Jillian finishes with bases and exponents after too many, “Mom!  X equals what am I doing?” because when she’s in a hurry, she forgets to read the directions.  She promptly joins in the grassland fun (now Lucas and Jillian start a wrestling match). 

Jaquline lags a bit behind as “poetry has too many grammar errors!”  (Her assignment is to edit the grammar errors and rewrite.

We meet people we know!  (Okay, people whose children I know.)  Lucas lands in a prickly bush and waddles up with “prickles in my butt like Pooh” (Pooh Bear landing in a gorse bush, anyone?) which I have to pick off without laughing. 

Jillian wants to do pull ups on the big tree limbs but can’t reach them.  Even with her biggest high jump, she is still too short.  Jaquline’s attempt to help her up is hilarious. 

Thea plays with squinkies at the stone table.  Jillian says “both college schools have stone tables.” (They had given nicknames to places we did school at the Saint Augustine campus before Christina was a driver.)  Lucas “made friends” with the ants – not something I would suggest. 

Throwback pictures to The Tortuga aka the gazebo over the center of the water at the Saint Augustine Campus of St Johns River State College.

I love how my children can find entertainment in any situation.  From grass, trees, imagination, or teeny tiny toys they bring along with them everywhere; there is always something to do even if we are at a brand new college campus on a lazy late autumn day! 

Thank you for reading,

Type at you later!

~Nancy Tart

A New Spot for Adventures

Naming their school work spots! Today is at the Tortuga past the Black Spots and the Outer Rim…

January 23, 2018

A New Spot for Adventures!

Today we discovered the Tortuga!  Lucas and Jillian spied dozens of turtles from this vantage point.  We were also visited by a crane.  (Lucas screamed “Baby bird is cold!” because the crane folded his long neck up like Becky hiding in a blanket.)

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Here in the middle of a long walkway over a gentle pond, sits a pretty octagonal wooden pavilion with two benches.  Kimberly and Jaquline have been naming the locations where we do schoolwork and wait for Christina and Rebeccah to come out of class.

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Kimberly: “It looks like a turtle.”

Jaquline: “No, The Dead Marshings, because the water is black.”

Kimberly: “But it’s so fun.  This place should have a fun name.”

Jillian: “There’s bunches of turtles here!”

Kimberly: “What’s the name of the turtle in Wild Kratts?” (A favorite TV show about animal-loving brothers who turn into cartoons to save animals.)

Jillian: “Tortuga!”  She jumps around.  “Let’s call this place the Tortuga!  It looks just like it and we can see turtles.”

I tell them that Tortuga is Turtle in Spanish.

Kimberly: “Perfect!  It’s shaped like a turtle and we can see turtles from it!”

Jaquline: “So this is our Tortuga, the turtle ship to see turtles from.”  (Jaquline decided the benches on the outer ring overlooking the water would be the Outer Rim since they “needed a Star Wars spot.”)

Three more turtles rose to the surface.

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Lucas spied them, ran to the edge, and introduced himself to them.

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Jaquline and Jillian peeked between the floor planks to watch turtles swim underneath them as they created their sentences for Language.

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Lucas announced the arrival of every turtle, bird, crane, and bug.

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Kimberly took a break from arithmetic periodically to point out new sunning turtles on the edge of the pond.

So now they have the Stone Table, the Black Forest Table, the West Wing, (all of these are picnic tables), the Black Spots (we are reading Treasure Island right now and the black metal tables are round – so they are the Black Spots), the Tortuga, and the Outer Rim.  I wonder what other imaginary places the girls will find hidden on the college campus!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

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