Missouri Botanical Garden

Chickadee Thursday

Last week we had fun at the Missouri Botanical Garden checking out their new art installation, and at Eckert’s, where we enjoyed tulip-themed sundaes:

Patterns in Nature: The Art of HYBYCOZO

On Friday, a new art installation opened at the Missouri Botanical Garden, and I am super excited about it!

Patterns in Nature: The Art of HYBYCOZO, explores the connection between art, science, and nature. The large, geometric sculptures by artists Serge Beaulieu and Yelena Filipchuk have beautiful, unique designs that let sunlight filter through during the day to create shadows, and are lit from within at night for a completely different experience. Ironically, it was cloudy on opening day, so I simply enjoyed the sculptures on their own without the light and shadow interplay, and they were lovely! I especially like how some of the pieces are colorful, and others are reflective, but they all have unique shapes and patterns!

I will definitely be going back on a sunny day to enjoy this project, but what I’m really looking forward to is seeing them lit up at night!

2025-26 School Year–Week Twenty-Eight

There’s a new exhibit exploring the connection between art, science, and nature at the Missouri Botanical Garden! Today we were there for the opening day of Patterns in Nature: The Art of HYBYCOZO:

We also stopped by Eckert’s to try the Tulip Lovers Sundae we weren’t able to get when we visited the Tulip Trail last week…the combination of lemon and lavender, not to mention the darling purple tulip lollipop, felt like it was custom made just for me!

In algebra, Chickadee solved literal problems, including ones involving interest and distance. She also found the limits of exponential equations and graphed them. We read about the Six-Day and Yom Kippur Wars, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the rise of terrorism in various countries in history. She continued to work on her big writing assignment. In science she learned about magnetism. We discussed missionary work at home and abroad in religion. This week’s recipe from the American Girl Sweet & Savory Treats Cookbook was Cosmos Doughnuts, inspired by 2018 Girl-of-the-Year and space enthusiast Luciana. Chickadee has been wanting to make this recipe all year, but I’m glad we held off until now, because they were also the perfect treat to celebrate the journey of Artemis II to the moon and back!

There’s also a new exhibit opening at the Missouri History Museum this weekend, and I’m hoping we’ll have time to go explore it next week!

2025-26 School Year–Week Twenty-Six

It was another busy week of school! We started with a visit to the Missouri Botanical Garden to see some of the spring blooms:

In algebra, Chickadee graphed systems of linear inequalities and used them to solve word problems. She learned about the electric field and charging objects through friction and conduction in science. In history we read about the space race, JFK’s “Moonshot” speech, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. And we skipped making a recipe from the American Girl Cookbook because we had an extra special outing this week…we went on a academic road trip!

Turkey was attending a math conference in Columbia, MO, so we decided to tag along and make an adventure out of it. The conference itself was at Columbia College, but our hotel was right across the street from Mizzou, and the first night we were there, Chickadee and I explored the campus and learned about its connection to Thomas Jefferson.

Friday the two of hit the road and ventured farther west to Kansas City. I’ll share full details of our day trip later, but a major highlight was our visit the National WWI Museum and Memorial, which is one of the best museums I’ve been to…we both learned a lot!

And yesterday before we headed home, we did a little spelunking at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park…it was so much fun to get to explore a small cave!

Field trip season is upon us, and I have a few more outings planned in the coming weeks, but they’ll all be much closer to home!

Chickadee Thursday

It was pretty chilly at the Missouri Botanical garden on Monday, but it was a beautiful day to see the Japanese cherry blossoms at their peak bloom!