Tag: Science

My Day Camper

On By debweeksIn Art, day camp, Science6 Comments

Lili is off to day camp this week and because I’m such an awesome mom, I didn’t take one photo of her on her first day at camp.  That’s right folks!!!!  Not one photo of my daughter on her first ever first day of day camp.

But not to worry!  I managed to take some second day of camp pictures.

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So far, she loves Art and Science in the Woods.

On the way home yesterday she told me about the turkey vulture they found as well as a Goldfinch and some other birds she couldn’t remember the name of.  She was also thrilled to learn what poison ivy and sumac look like.  She was able to try out some Native American instruments and made a teepee from sticks, a rubber band and some cloth she decorated.

Overall, it was an awesome first day of camp and I look forward to hearing all about her camp adventures this week.  And to make up for missing day 1 pictures, maybe I’ll take day 3, 4 and 5 🙂

Day Camping

On By debweeksIn Art, Camping, NatureLeave a comment

Last weekend we went on our first camping trip in Georgette.  This weekend we’ll head out on camping trip number two and next week, Lili will head out on her first week-long day camp trip.

I’m a little envious and somewhat nervous about her venturing out on this camping adventure.  She is going to Art and Science in the Woods, hosted by the Sun Foundation.  She will spend the week on her major, “All About Birds” and each afternoon she will learn something different from Native American art and culture to drawing and sculpting.  It really is the perfect fit for her.  Being out in nature while learning art and science, but it’s also the first time she is spending hours each day for five days out learning and exploring without me.

She won’t be totally amongst strangers since 5 other kids from our homeschool group will be there.  One will be with her each day learning about birds and am quite sure she will leave camp having made several new friends along the way.

She’ll have a great time while I spend the week playing chauffeur and hearing all she has learned each day.

On Friday though, we will head out to pick her up, but this time we get to stick around to see what the kids have done all week.  It’s an opportunity for all of us to learn and experience a little Art and Science in the Woods.

Here’s to great camping experiences for all of us over the next 8 days.

 

DNA Testing

On By debweeksIn Adoption, Science2 Comments

For the last 2-3 years, I’ve been interested in having some DNA testing done on the girls.  There were a couple reasons for wanting the testing.

First of all, we don’t have a tremendous amount of family history on either of them.  For a matter-of-fact, we have 0 family history on one of them.  I thought testing DNA would be a good way to get information on potential health risk factors.

The second reason is the possibility of finding biological family members.

I know many adoptive families who went thru a company called 23andMe and spoke highly of their experience.  Several found cousins and I know of some who actually found the biological sibling(s) of their adopted child(ren).  Obviously, you can only find these bio family members if they have been tested thru 23andMe, but with a large number of adoptive families having their kids tested, it’s possible one or both of my girls have bio family members who have also been adopted.  Those are important connections for an adoptee.

After all this time, I finally ordered the DNA testing kits for each of the girls a few weeks ago.  The testing is done on saliva, so I had each of them spit in their test tubes and we shipped them back to 23andMe and began waiting.

Unfortunately, the FDA stepped in and decided they needed to be involved in a regulatory review process.  So at this time we are unable to get any health information.

What we will get is ancestry information and any DNA matches that are in the 23andMe database.

Today we received some general history regarding each girl’s ancestry, which is fascinating, but we won’t have all the information for a couple more weeks.

For now, let me just say that “Science is AWESOME!!”