Tornado Shelter
Some people may not think that getting a tornado shelter put in is very educational, but we thought it was. The day before they put the shelter in someone came and dropped off the excavator. They had a great time exploring the excavator with daddy. They each got to "drive" and climb in the bucket.
The next day they came early to put in the shelter. I thought we would get some of our normal school activities in, but they wanted to watch. I thought they would watch for a while and then get bored, but they watched ALL day. We watched them get everything ready from the front porch, but had to come in when they started cutting the cement in the garage, but we watched from the kitchen window. When they finished that we watched them get a few pieces out with a sledghammer and then lift the cement out. Then came the long part, digging. It took them a few hours to dig the hole deep enough for the shelter to fit in. After dumping the first load elsewhere we let them dump the second two loads in our backyard to fill in a low place in our yard. That's when we brought out the boots and our "construction equipment" (see picture below).
After the hole was finally ready they steadied the shelter on the excavator and carefully lifted it into place. Then, the cement truck came and filled in the sides. They had lots of cement left and asked it we wanted it for our driveway. We said yes and really regret it now, but that is another story. After it was all in place and smooth, they cleaned up and were ready to go. The whole process took from about 9:00-6:00. Daddy had to teach his homeschool class that evening and I made them wait until he was done to go in the shelter. The boys think it is great fun, but Heidi is scared of it.
I think it is good to see work in action and not just see results. Had they been at school they would have missed most of it.
