State Parks and Photography Contests

Today was an awesome day and a disappointing day all rolled up in one big fat ball.

First I have to tell you about these cute kitties. I am allergic to kitties so they are not mine. However, the neighbors whom my children play with on an almost daily basis, were letting the children decorate the back porch. The kitties were all fascinated by the tinsel as you can see. The fun thing about cats and kittens, is you just need a prop and a camera to get cute shots. They don't need prompting or coddling to perform.

As far as school goes Caitlin did Head of the Class in the morning, then had to clean her room. DJ began his Science assignment, from The National Zoo, on bears. This is an extensive assignment and will require a few days of research and writing. He was enjoying it, so that is good. Then we went off to the park for our playdate. The weather was amazing and everyone had fun.

Later in the evening I checked the Nat Geo Kids website to see if the winners of the photography contest had been announced. They hadn't but there were all the entries for everyone to view. With over 20,000 entries it would have taken me forever to go through them all. So I signed in using my username and password and it said we had not uploaded any photos. Now I am certain we had to put them under my username, but I am hoping we put them under his own username and just can not remember the username and password. But, I am afraid we did something wrong and our pictures were not there. They don't refuse any, so I know it wasn't that. I scoured through my emails looking for the confirmation email that I swore I got when we uploaded them, but it wasn't there. So DJ was disappointed, but he took it well. I feel so awful, ugh! But, I did sign him up for him to have a photo album account on the Nat Geo Kids website, and he can upload his best and favorite pictures. Then after they are approved they can be viewed and receive comments. Next year when the contest comes around again, we will be prepared with all his best pictures right there on his album. Then we can just go from there. Sad and disappointing but a lesson well learned. I wish they had more photography contests for kids available, but most require you to be 18, except 4H which of course we do.

I also discovered that Florida state parks will wave the entrance fee for school field trips, including homeschool groups. If you live in FL and you are interested the park ranger I spoke to said that a letter must be sent stating why you chose their park and what curriculum the field trip is focusing on. Cool!