The Iburgs' European Adventure: June 2016

Sunday, 26 June 2016

RBINS

Today called for thundershowers, so we took a trip to the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.

First up was the special exhibit - Wonders of Wildlife. The exhibit was of spectacular feats of taxidermy. Simply amazing.

Then the human evolution gallery. This exhibit was eye opening for Calvin. The life sized models of the human ancestors helped him see how short they were.

And the interactive a were great. The kids loved testing how long they could hang like an ape.

And Peter loved the juxtaposition of Victorian architecture and fossils in the dinosaur gallery.

I think the afternoon tired out Em and Peter...

Emily graduates from lower primary to upper primary next year. That means more privileges. In preparation for this she has had many special introductions: a lunch in the cafeteria, checking out a book from the upper primary library. But the most exciting thing is that next year she gets to take a school journey - basically a sleep away field trip!

In preparation for this the school hosted a sleepover at the school.

So Friday after dinner, bags packed, she went back to school for the night.

"I was pretty nervous. I was sleeping beside two Canadian girls. It was exciting! I'm looking forward to school journey next year."

Judging by how much she napped on Saturday, I doubt much sleeping happened at the sleepover.

And the award goes to...

On Friday we were invited to an awards ceremony at the school. Calvin was to win an award for the values of learning taught at the school.

His award was for the value of "knowledgable". He has displayed a love of learning, going beyond what is taught in class, and then sharing that learning with his class.

He was one of three kids in his grade to win an award. We are very proud of him. He can't wait to spend the gift card that came with the award!

Saturday, 18 June 2016

Cal's school journey (4 days)

Last week year four went to Malmedy for school journey. We went to a hostel and no parents were allowed to come but the teachers came.

We went to the Tintin museum a.k.a. the Hergé museum. We saw how he made the books and what paper he wrote for and about Tintin.

The next day we went to the coal mine. And we saw how they mined for coal in the 1800s, the 1900s and the 2000s. First ride we went down 30m, then we went down 30m more. And we saw how they dug through tunnels and we got test out some drills they used in the 1800s. And we got to see how they set up dynamite.

And the next day we went to Hidrodoe. It is a water museum, like Technopolis. It explains how you can make water, how water is formed, the science in water. We watched a 4D movie (4D is like 3D except it looks like you can touch it and wind blows in you so feel like you are going fast).