Our Very Own Junior Rangers!

We have had a fun weekend spending time getting to know some new friends who have been staying with us. Matt has a friend who is a pastor in Colorado, and his family is taking a vacation visiting much of the Eastern US and some of Canada right now. They have daughters who are 8, 6 and 2, and who have fit right in with our kids while they have been here! Most days, we have only seen them in the morning and at night, since they are touring different places, but yesterday we went with them to Independence National Park downtown for a tour of the historic area.
We prepped the kids with two good books: The Fourth of July Story by Dalgliesh and Independence Day by Ansary. I had already done a unit on basic Us/Philadelphia history in the summer, and so it was neat to hear what the girls actually remembered from that. We also printed out a Junior Ranger booklet for each girl from the National Park Service. It has activities to do and questions to answer while on your tour, and then when you have completed a certain number of activities, you take it to the ranger at the visitor center and he checks it and gives you a certificate and badge certifying that you are now a junior ranger. It was a fun way to get the kids paying attention and reward them for their efforts!
So, after much walking and looking and listening, the girls became official "Junior Rangers"! I think they were all very proud of their efforts!

Matt poses by a marker for where Abraham Lincoln stood.

Hangin' with George...

Liam wanted to get in on the action, too, so he "worked" in his journal.

Showing their work to the ranger.

Our new Junior Rangers (and Liam)!