Today our homeschool group met up at the Seacoast Science Center for a field trip. We started the morning with some guided tide-pooling at the beach next to the Center. The kids found a ton of green crabs, a couple asian shore crabs, glass shrimp, and lots of seaweed. Meo and Link loved this and asked a ton of questions.
photo by Amy F
Photo by Amy F
Then we played on the playground and had a picnic lunch, followed by heading into the Center to explore their exhibits.
Today we went on a homeschooling field trip to Sunflower Farm Creamery. This is a Nigerian dwarf goat dairy that makes delicious cheeses. The field trip involved pasture time, tasting of products, games in the field, acting out a goat related story, time to hold goat kids, and learning about cheese making
First all the homeschoolers gathered around to learn a little bit about goats, including how to hold them carefully.
Then we were allowed to roam around the pasture to cuddle the goats.
And boy were those baby goats cuddly. They were SO, SO very sweet and gentle.
I loved visiting the goats. But it was also exhausting because of LINK. Believe it or not, this guy (pictured in the goat house below) is a HANDFUL. I had to watch him every second because my fearless adventurer immediately started plucking baby goats off the ground. But he wasn't holding them the right way so I constantly needed to correct him. And when he wasn't picking up a goat, he was trying to push them off stumps or was chasing them and making them bleat. Oh Linky-Loo. He wasn't trying to hurt them, and he was patting them gently. He just also thought they were fun to play with. Like his wild puppy.
It's a wonder I got to check-in with Meo at all! But Meo was very calm and sweet. Meo enjoyed feeding them bits of hay and holding them (the correct way).
With assistance though, Link was able to hold the goats properly as well too. And it was bliss.
I think we need a couple of these goats.
The farmer told the kids a version of the three billy goats gruff and had them help act out the story.
Here are Meo and Link trying to be goats.
We learned about the cheese making process, which is surprisingly simple with goat cheese.
And got to try some delicious samples!
They also had two adorable kittens running around the farm that just started purring if you looked at them. We couldn't resist snuggling them a little too.
So despite the extremely hot temperatures, and the exhausting nature of my wild child, we had a lovely field trip. Those goats were so sweet and being able to spend a morning packed with animal snuggles does wonders for the spirit.
