Ten Reasons Why You’ll Love Callaway Gardens

Located in Pine Mountain, Georgia, Callaway Gardens is a special treat for the entire family. Whether you’re seeking some rest and relaxation amid the beautiful tranquil gardens and easy walking paths, or prefer a weekend of adventure, Callaway Gardens has just what you’re looking for. Here are ten reasons, you’re sure to love Callaway Gardens.

1.  The history buff in the family will enjoy learning about the history of Callaway Gardens in the Virginia Hand Callaway Discovery Center or visiting the Pioneer Log Cabin that was constructed of hand-hewn logs around 1830.

 

2. The beautiful gardens, walking and bike trails that wind through the wooded grounds are perfect for the nature lover in the family.

3. Young and old alike will love the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center and marvel with amazement at the 1,000 butterflies and moths you’ll see flitting about.

4. The Birds of Prey raptor shows are really something to see as the birds soar about unfettered at the Discovery Amphitheater.  

5. With jugglers, acrobats and high-wire acts, the FSU Circus is sure to entertain you.

6. The brand new Light Striker Laser Tag attraction will get your heart pumping!

7. The Blaster Boats are really a blast! 

8. Sun worshippers will love soaking up the rays at the world’s largest manmade white sand beach at Robin Lake Beach.   

9. If you love watching Wipeout, here’s your chance to get in on a tiny piece of the action. Aqua Island is a large floating challenge course for you to slip, slide and climb all over.    

10. The thrill seeker in your family will love the adrenaline pumping, heart thumping, TreeTop Adventure, a series of zip-lines built around an aerial challenge course that will literally have you swinging through the trees.

There you have it, ten reasons you’ll love Callaway Gardens and I haven’t even mentioned the fishing,  golf course, tennis courts or water skiing that’s available. There really is something for everyone.   

What do you think? Are you ready to plan your own getaway to Callaway Gardens yet?   

Pine Mountain

This post is linked to OhAmanda and her Top Ten Tuesday link-up. 

Disclaimer: My family was invited to Callaway Gardens, with a group of bloggers,  for an expense paid getaway to check out one of the newest attractions, TreeTop Adventure in exchange for sharing our experiences on my blog and on Twitter. The opinions expressed in this post are my own and are not influenced by Callaway Gardens. We enjoyed our visit so much that we extended our stay (at our cost) one night to make sure we didn’t miss anything.  Be sure to stop back later in the week as I share more detailed experiences from our visit.   

Georgia 4-H: Homeschool Days

 

This fall, the Georgia 4-H Centers will be hosting their popular Homeschool Days programs once again. Exclusively for homeschool families, these programs are offered at several facilities across the state.

September 8-10; 11-13; and 18-20 – Homeschool Days at Burton 4-H Center

October 17-18 - Homeschool Days at Rock Eagle 4-H Center

November 16-18 and 20-22– Homeschool Days at Burton 4-H Center

If those dates and locations don’t work for you, five Georgia 4-H centers are willing to work with you so you can organize your own group for 10 or more people (children and adults). 

Wahsega 4-H Center, Dahlonega, 706-864-2050

Fortson 4-H Center, Hampton,770-946-3276

Rock Eagle 4-H Center, Eatonton, 706-484-2862

Burton 4-H Center, Tybee Island, 912-786-5534

Jekyll Island 4-H Center, Jekyll Island, 912-635-4117

Tidelands Nature Center (day programs only), Jekyll Island, 912-635-5032

These classes are described as hands-on, experiential learning programs for the whole family, geared towards 5-17 year olds (children will be grouped with children of similar ages). Parents accompany children to classes. Families stay together in dorms or cabins, meals are provided in the dining halls. Class topics include marsh ecology, orienteering, herpetology, beach ecology, pioneer studies, etc.  Through environmental education, Georgia 4-H centers aim to inspire youth with a love for learning by using the outdoors as a “classroom without walls” filled with unique learning opportunities. 

Do you know of any Homeschool Days in your area? Please leave a comment and let me know so I can check it out.

The Homeschool Mother’s Journal~ Summer Edition Week 1

 

In my life this week…

This past Monday I met with a group of moms and teens to discuss curriculum and allow the kids some social time while we moms could yak. I found out about some cool homeschool resources.

One of my friends mentioned The Great Courses. Have you used any of them? She had used the Museum Masterpieces: The Metropolitan Museum of Art before a trip to NYC and graciously allowed me to borrow the program so Nickolaus and I can work through it together before we head to The Met in July.

Summer football practice began this week but my son has been driving himself so it hasn’t been so much running.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

This week I’m off to another tweet-up except this time my entire family gets to go with me. We are all really excited and looking forward to some family FUN!

My favorite thing this week was…

Family night with my husband and kids.

What’s working/not working for us…

Working our way through the unused materials I had stashed away has been great. It gives us some variety and makes me feel better knowing we’ve not wasted any of our resources.   

Questions/thoughts I have…

Have you used any of The Great Courses? Which ones did you like/dislike and why?

Things I’m working on…

I’m trying to get more involvement in our local teen group. Last night my daughter and I were brainstorming some activities and she came up with some really good ideas. Do you have any free or low cost activities that you think teens would enjoy? 

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…

If you find yourself with extra time on your hands, doesn’t this look like a great homeschool summer project?

This 1/12th scale model of the complete shuttle stack only took three Space Camp Crew Trainers about 200 hours and 25,000 pieces of K’NEX to complete! Isn’t it amazing? Now they are working on the Hubble Space Telescope.

This model can be seen at the US Space and Rocket Museum in Huntsville.  

Want to share what’s going on in your homeschool this summer? Stop by The Homeschool Chick and link up to The Homeschool Mother’s Journal.   

Until next week~ Happy Homeschooling!

My Experience at the #SCTweetup at the US Space and Rocket Center

I was 15 when Space Camp, the movie aired. I wasn’t the least bit interested in math or science and my knowledge of all things ‘space’ was minimal, yet there was something so appealing about that movie that afterwards, I dreamed of going to Space Camp for months.  I’m sure that didn’t have anything to do with the fact that I thought Tate Donovan was hot, right?

Last Thursday and Friday, part of my dream came true when I had the unbelievable opportunity to attend the very first tweet-up sponsored by the US Space and Rocket Center, in Huntsville,  home of none other than the official Space Camp with 13 other participants!

 Group Photo at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in front of a Test Stand

I have to admit that I was a bit nervous. After all, I’m still not the most ‘space minded’ individual. My kids even reminded me on the way out the door that Pluto is no longer a planet. Yep. They had confidence in me. 

No worries, I wasn’t quizzed on the names or order of the planets. Nor was I asked to recall the past 134 Space Shuttle missions. My job was simply to experience all that the US Space and Rocket Center have to offer and tweet about it with the other participants. I think we covered that.

Aren’t you just a bit curious about my experience? 

I have to tell you that I really enjoyed every minute! Some I enjoyed more than others. For instance, take a look at the MAT or multi axis simulator. It spins you up, down and all around basically giving you a sense of disorientation.  

    In the MAT

If I’m honest, I’ll say that I didn’t necessarily LOVE it, but I was glad that I gave it a try.  If I’d found myself strapped in this seat 25 years ago, I probably would have loved it and you wouldn’t have been able to get me out of it. 

We also had the opportunity to “walk on the moon” in the 1/6 chair. I opted out of that one but other tweeters really enjoyed it and even thought it was fun.

                                                      @buellesbach in the 1/6 Chair

We got a brief behind the scenes look at the Space Camp simulators on our way to eat dinner with former astronaut Richard “Hoot” Gibson, one of the highlights of the #SCTweetup. 

 

After dinner with Richard “Hoot” Gibson

After dinner we practiced our space mission. I have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive about this endeavor. Though the names of our position were on the back of our ID badges, I had no idea what my position meant, I knew that I’d requested something behind the scenes. Maybe it would have helped if I’d re-watched Space Camp before the big tweet-up arrived.

Turns out I was CAPCOM. As part of Mission Control, it was my job to communicate with the Space Shuttle and relay information back to my teammates. Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Well, let me tell you that I learned something during the practice run. I am a bit of a perfectionist and maybe just the tiniest bit of a control freak. I like to know what I’m doing and I like to be able to do my job well. I don’t like surprises. I also don’t like feeling unprepared.  Probably not the best character traits to have for the job.

      My station during our Space Mission

I left feeling totally unprepared for our mission the following day and little did  I know, I would not sleep much that night.

The following morning we met for a tour of Marshall Space Flight Center. I learned so much about our local history as well as NASA’s. I really could have spent all day there just soaking everything up. I’ll share more about this aspect of the tweet-up in another post but in the meantime, you may enjoy reading what Marshall actually had to say about the “Twitters” as they printed on our name badges.

 Inside the ISS Payloads Operation Center

After our tour we rushed back to the US Space and Rocket Center to have lunch with Tim Pickens, part inventor and part scientist with a passion for rockets. He is currently working on the official team, Rocket City Pioneers, to win the Google Lunar X Prize.  I think we’ll really see some exciting developments come out of this contest, so be sure to tune in from time to time to see what’s going on.

After our lunch it was time for the moment I was dreading, our space mission. I have to tell you that our mission did have a few glitches, but it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever participated in. When it was over I really did feel as though I were a part of something. I can certainly see why the missions are so beneficial to team building during Space Camp.

 The space shuttle simulators at Space Camp

After our mission it was time to head over to Aviation Challenge.

 On the grounds of Aviation Challenge

I enjoyed the outdoor exhibits, or aircraft, while many of my fellow tweeters enjoyed trying the simulators indoors.

Finally, I wrapped up the day by visiting A T.Rex Named Sue, the current traveling exhibit at the US Space and Rocket Center. 

 A peek at A T.Rex Named Sue

I returned home exhausted, and grateful to have had such an incredible experience with such a wonderful group of people. Thank you US Space and Rocket Center! You may enjoy reading our  Twitter stream  as well as this post from the Sprocketeers, #SCTweetup an #EPICSUCCESS.   

You may be interested in following:

@SpaceCampUSA, @Check_Six (Aviation Challenge), @NASA_Marshall, @RocketCitySpacePioneers

Have you ever wanted to be part of a Tweet-up? What are you waiting for?

Time for Some Mid-Week Linky Love

This week I stumbled across a few really cool links that I want to share with you.

1. If you homeschool or have young children, this may be just the thing you’ve been looking for. Angie, at Many Little Blessings is offering FREE downloads to her ebook, Finding Educational Activities in the Most Unexpected Places: 200+ Activities and Ideas for Young Children. All you need to do is head over to the Many Little Blessings Facebook page and become a fan.    

2. You know I’m a big fan of traveling and learning on the road so I was VERY excited to run across these two posts, 30 Traveling Families Share Their Best Educational Experiences and Part 2, Education on the Road: 30 Traveling Families Share Their Most Educational Moments. I hope you find the stories as fascinating as I did! My bucket list just got a lot longer!

3. Barb at the Handbook of Nature Study has shared a post that has me itching to incorporate a bit of planned exploration of our surroundings on our next road trip,  Nature Study and Summer Travels- Four Steps to Prepare.

4. How would you like a chance to experience A Night at the Museum for yourself? The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago could by your home for a month. How cool would that be?

5. Finally, this is just too funny not to share! A dad headed outside each day for a year to wave to his teenage son as he passed by on the bus. The funny part? He was dressed in costume each time. No two days were ever the same. This article talks about his antics than points you to the blog that shows his outfit each morning.  My kids and I had a good laugh and then they commented how thankful they are that they don’t ride the bus!

What posts have you enjoyed from around the blogosphere this week? Go ahead and leave a link in the comments so I can check it out too.