Friday Field Trip: Space and Rocket Center

It’s no secret that one of my favorite things about homeschooling is the field trips! I adore field trips. I love getting out with my girls and venture to new and exciting places we have never been before. And when it fits in with your course of study, SCORE! This week we have spent a lot of time studying space travel. We discussed the space race and the launch of Saturn V and Neil Armstrong and the Hubble telescope. Lots and lots of fun stuff. Since MA has worked very hard at staying focused on her schoolwork this week (sometimes a challenge!) I decided to “reward” her with a trip to Huntsville’s Space and Rocket Center to see some space artifacts up close. Y’all, it is such an Alabama treasure! There is a wealth of information on space travel there. It fit in perfectly with what we have been studying. I love it when I can find field trips that so perfectly reinforce what we’ve been reading and studying about.

Since we were last there, they have added the Saturn V/Space Race exhibit in the Davidson Center for Space Exploration. It was fascinating! They had video footage of President John F. Kennedy’s missive to “put a man on the moon and return him safely to earth within the decade.” He issued the challenge in 1961, and of course, was killed in 1963, so he never knew that the US, in fact, was able to complete the mission in 1969. We learned about how Wernher Von Braun led the team based in Huntsville to design Saturn V.

They have added a cool space-themed play area for little ones. It was a life-saver since the Space Race exhibit was too advanced for my three-year-old. I could actually let her play in the play area while I walked my third-grader through the exhibit. Yea for the new play area!

I sure hope she doesn’t launch anything!!

They have really cool interactive exhibits. This one simulated pedaling some sort of lunar rover bicycle thing through Rocket Park. It measured your pedaling and gave you a report at the end about your speed, force, thrust, etc.

Did you know that the US has FAR more women astronauts than any other country. According to this exhibit, the US has sent 42 women into outer space, while the most any other country has is 2. Go USA and go girls!!

They have fantastic educational movies at the Space Center. We took advantage of our time there and saw two. We loved a movie called Sun that was in 3D. My girls have never seen a 3D movie before, so it was fun to them. PattiGirl got a little freaked out when the asteroids started coming at her, so she watched the rest with her glasses off. We also saw Hubble at the Imax theater. It was incredible and fascinating. The astronauts traveled to the Hubble telescope to make repairs and took cameras along to film the movie. They showed so much incredible footage! MA said that Hubble was her favorite part of the day.

I don’t remember the rock climbing wall being there the last time we went, but my little one was super excited to try it. She zoomed right to the top!

Both of my girls had a great day and were really intrigued by the things they saw.

On our way home we chose two spots from the “Alabama” list – Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ and Morgan Price Candy Company. I am happy to report that the chicken with white sauce was fantastic. The baked beans at Big Bob’s are also delicious. I’m a little picky about my baked beans, but these were really good. They were a tad sweet, the sauce was thick, and they had a touch of zing. We brought home a chocolate pie, which we haven’t cut into yet. It has mounds of meringue on top. Can’t wait.

Toffee is one of my favorite candies, and the toffee from Morgan Price is buttery and crunchy and sweet – a perfect combination. I’m glad we tried them!