Homeschool Day at Mainstay Farm

This morning we went to homeschool day at Mainstay Farm. We had a blast. We started in an old dairy barn where they were showing a movie about how pumpkins are grown. Then we went to the scarecrow line-up where you get to dress your own scarecrow in a shirt, overalls, hat, gloves, and shoes of your choice. We talked about how a scarecrow's job is to protect the crops from being eaten by birds. Nicholas seemed interested until he found some dried up vines and he decided he was done with the scarecrows. Did you know that almost anything can be a pirate's sword? Look at this scary spider! Nicholas was fascinated with this prickly weed we found. We talked about the difference in grass and weeds. Next we had to play on the giant bales of hay. Nicholas had fun running on top of them but then he discovered jumping down off of them into the piles of hay on the ground.


Finally we made it over to Goat Scape Mountain. You put animal feed in a can on a pulley and hoist it up to the top of a telephone pole. The goats walk up a series of platforms to eat the food at the top of the pole. We talked about how goats have a unique climbing ability. Nicholas just loved this bumpy gourd so we bought it and took it home with us. There were so many beautiful pumpkins and gourds! There was even a display to show you the names of the different pumpkins. In one section of the pumpkins, we found an old wasp nest that was no longer in use. We talked about wasps and studied the nest.

We stopped to eat our picnic lunch and Nicholas said the blessing. After lunch we went on a hayride. Our driver was a little silly (can you tell by the chicken hat?). Look how cool this tree house is! It's three levels high! We had lots of fun exploring it.
There was even a giant wooden maze to play in!

Thank you, Mainstay Farms, for such a great day!