St. Louis Zoo

Lantern Before & After

I love seeing how the lanterns at Animals Aglow change as the light outside changes…there’s so much beauty to them in both the light and the dark!

2024-25 School Year–Week Thirty

We started the week off with a trip to the St. Louis Zoo!

It was a beautiful day, and most importantly, we got to see Jet, the baby elephant!

We also worked on wrapping more things up for the year. Ladybug completed her psychology course. She continued reading American Nations. Her term paper is coming along. She’s getting closer to the end of Jane Eyre.

Chickadee began her big review in pre-algebra. She finished the final chapter in science by learning about sight and hearing. We finished reading about the Oregon Trail, and she started an end-of-year project about what she learned. She also began working on her final writing assignment…not nearly as long as Ladybug’s, but a big paper for her!

Next week will be a short week for us, plus I have a field trip planned, and I’m really hoping the weather cooperates…just two weeks to go!

Chickadee Thursday

Chickadee loved the elephant lanterns at the lantern festival at the St. Louis Zoo:

But she loved seeing Jet, the Zoo’s new baby elephant, even more!

Introducing Jet!

Monday was a very exciting day, because we got to see the St. Louis Zoo’s baby elephant, Jet!

We usually visit the zoo at the end of the school year, but this time, we had a very specific purpose…we were hoping we’d be lucky enough to see Jet, who was born on November 23, 2024, in his outdoor habitat, a place he’d only been exploring for about a week. We weren’t disappointed…we got to watch his adorable antics, including some attempts at a dust bath!

Like all babies, though, he tired himself out and laid down by mama Jade and an auntie while they had lunch:

We are so excited about this addition to the St. Louis Zoo family!

Zodiac Lanterns

I think my favorite new addition to the Animals Aglow Lantern Festival at the St. Louis Zoo was a series of displays representing the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac Calendar…the designs are both colorful and whimsical!

Animals Aglow Updated

Last week, Ladybug, Chickadee, and I went to the St. Louis Zoo for the second (annual?) Animals Aglow Lantern Festival!

Let’s start with the one thing that was mostly unchanged from 2024…the impressive dragon tunnel…it was just as cool as I remembered it, both in the daylight, and lit up at night!

Most everything else seemed different…there were many animal and flower lanterns, but different types and designs, which made it feel like a brand-new event:

One new display that I really enjoyed was the “9 Sons of the Dragon”…here’s a look at some of my favorites of the group:

They had a special new drink at Starbucks, too…the “Snakerdoodle,” in honor of the Year of the Snake:

Speaking of the Chinese Zodiac, another new display that I loved featured a representation of each of the 12 zodiac animals…I liked them so much, they’ll have their own post later! For now, here’s a little glimpse of them, including each of us with our year’s animal:

Everything about the zoo looks beautiful at night all lit up!

This iridescent dome looked spectacular in every light!

And here’s a look at the fantastic movement in the largest of the lanterns, which was almost 50 feet high!

We’re already hoping that the event returns next year with more new things to discover!

2024-25 School Year–Week Twenty-Nine

This was a fun week! Not only did we finally get to play tennis, but we also took a rare nighttime field trip to the St. Louis Zoo for the Animals Aglow Lantern Festival!

Of course, we did our regular work, too, although that is dwindling down, and our days are getting shorter. Ladybug began volume three of Jane Eyre…the end is in sight! She continued working on her term paper. In psychology she read about aggression, attraction, and altruism. Her final writing assignment was writing a “bad” thesis using subtle and blatant irony. She continued reading American Nations.

Chickadee completed all of the new material in her pre-algebra book with a final lesson on finding the area of regular polygons, and is now ready for the end-of-year review! Since she finished her history curriculum for the year, we’re focusing on topics that bridge the time around the California Gold Rush and the Civil War, including the Underground Railroad and the Oregon Trail. She began learning about the five senses in science. We started reading Amon’s Secret.

Three more weeks of school, and a lot of fun things in the mix between now and then!

2024-25 School Year–Week Sixteen

Time to get back to work after an extended Christmas break!

We eased back into our routine with a visit to the St. Louis on Monday…we really wanted to see it while it was still snow-covered, and we weren’t disappointed!

Ladybug also learned this week that she placed first in the high school category of our city’s winter art contest…she put a lot of effort into her painting, and was very excited to find that it paid off!

We got back into the routine of our regular schoolwork, too. Ladybug identified the appeal to pity and bandwagon fallacies in logic. She picked off where she left off in A Tale of Two Cities. In psychology she read about physical portrayal of emotions. She started reading 1984. In religion, we read about John of Damascus and the Great Schism.

Chickadee calculated permutations and combinations in pre-algebra. We read about the French Revolution in history. In science, we discussed evolution. She continued her literature study of The Trojan War. In writing, she read the “The Highwayman” and learned about reversals in poetry.

Hopefully I’ll find another interesting outing in the coming weeks to break up the monotony that is the time after the holidays!