Reptile Show

Did you know that I am terrified of snakes? I think that they are beautiful creatures, when they are on TV or behind glass. This past week we had a Reptile Expo come to town. I did what any good mom would do...had a mild panic attack at the entrance and went in. The most amazing thing happened. I actually fell in love with some of the creatures. I loved the lizards, bearded dragons and turtles. I especially fell in love with a fire beaded dragon. It had the most beautiful red coloring. By the end of the 2 days I had been convinced that I need to get a snake for the house. One vendor actually had me holding a snake at the end of second day. My kids were so proud of me. Now we have a wish list of pets...snakes, spiders, and bearded dragons.

Mandalas, Symmetry & The Noun Game

Today we started off focusing on life skills. The boys tag teamed the dishes and Squirrel learned how to properly fold clothes. Of course, she would not fold her brothers' clothing. She had a lot of fun. After we all did a little cleaning the kids jumped on the Wii and played for about an hour.

While I was cooking lunch, the children were coloring in mandalas. While Dragon was coloring his, we noticed that it wasn't symmetrical like the others. This lead to a conversation about what is and is not symmetrical. Dragon argued that there really is no such thing as a mirror image. He said that it cannot be the same because the mirror image is backwards and it is our eyes that fix it. I told him that I was proud of him speaking up. That he did a very good job of making his point. I honestly did not know what else to say. LOL.

After lunch, I read to the children from our current read aloud: The Seekers: The Quest Begins. The children are really enjoying this book. I am only reading one chapter a day. Today we talked about jealousy, compassion for those that are sick, and parental love. There is bear in the book that thinks he is a burden to his mother because he is healthy. I talked to the kids about how mothers never see their children as burdens. We see them as individuals and we love the fact that they are not alike.

After reading a chapter we moved onto math. The kids did their lessons. I have notived that Tracker & Dragon are really getting distracted during math. If I am not sitting at the table, they are goofing off. I have tried to talk with them. Nothing is working. Dragon is taking 45 minutes to do 3 problems. I know that this are a little bit more difficult, but he is spending most of the time staring into space. I am going to have to come up with something else, that or I cannot leave the table to go to the bathroom. LOL.

After math we took a break and watched an IMAX movie, Deep Sea. I get all of the IMAX movies from Netflix. We love them. This movie was no exception. We saw the Pacific Giant Octopus eat a crab. Talk about amazing. The kids favorite thing to watch was the sun star. This thing is HUGE and fast. I am going to try and find a way to make one. I am not quite sure how to do it. After the movie and a snack we moved onto grammar. We played the noun game. I asked Dragon if he wanted to play and he said No, but in the end he had just as much fun. What I did is label the board A-Z. We had to come up with three nouns for each letter. But they had to be different. They had to be a person, place or thing. The kids had a blast. After we played the game the kids then created their own Mad Libs. It was alot of fun.

The kids went out to play until they got hungry. All in all it was a good day.

Nutrition

Right now we are studying Nutrition. We are making a notebook/lapbook. I haven't decided exactly what to call it. The kids are enjoying this unit because it deals with something they love... FOOD. Yesterday we started a Healthy Food Journal and each of the kids tried to plan 3 balanced meals. They found it rather difficult.

Today we worked on vocabulary words. The kids also made a chart of healthy foods and unhealthy foods. They did a good job. They even debated on whether pickles are healthy or not. They decided that it was not healthy because of all the salt. We talked about Vitamins & Minerals and fats.

Once the children finished their charts, they worked on creating their own superhero and villain. The job of the villain will be to tempt children to eat bad foods. The good guy is going to help children make healthy choices. Once the kids design their characters they will create a story or comic strip. Dragon has decided that he will make a comic strip, Squirrel has not decided and I think that Tracker will write a story. I have never seen the kids attack an assignment with so much enthusiasm. I believe that they created their superhero today and will work on their bad guy tomorrow. Once they are done, I will post the pictures.

We Are Expecting....

5 baby finches!



Every year the purple finches like to build at least 1 nest in hubby's ladder. We have even built them their own birdhouse, they don't like it. Last year we had 2 or 3 sets of babies born in the ladder. The ladder is hanging right outside our door, so we get to hear the mama while we do school.

Here is a shot from inside my house.


If you look at the end of the ladder you can see the birdhouse that they don't like. The nest is on the far left of the picture.


I managed to snap a picture of mama protecting her eggs.

The Family Times

Today for our read aloud we read What Was It Like? Benjamin Franklin by Lawrence Weinberg. The kids loved the book. When I tried to stop and finish reading another day, they begged me to continue. We learned that Ben Franklin created the first lending library, the first American fire department, and the lightening rods. When we finished reading about Benjamin Franklin the kids did some activity pages from school express. They are all in love with word finds at the moment.

Dragon had the idea to start a newspaper called The Kids Times. He said that it will be a 16 page paper put out every Sunday. I told him that was a lot, but he really wants to give it a try.

I have always liked the idea of a family newspaper. We are going to be creating our very fist family newsletter/paper. It will be called... The Family Times. We spent a little bit of time giving out assignments. The kids decided that we had to have a kitchen section. Dragon wants to put in his special spicy sauce recipe. Squirrel wants to add her favorite snack recipe Pan-Seared Black Bean Dumplings. Tracker is going to write a review for our favorite restaurant Red Robin. We are going to have a picture section that I am responsible for. We are also going to have a News sections. The kids decided that we needed to have a review of the remodeling that we are doing in the house. They also said that their dad needed to write this article.

We are also going to include a school section. It is going to include what we are currently studying, what's next and any field trip information that we might have. I think that the kids will really enjoy this.

Riverbanks Zoo 1

We just got back from a mini vacation. We went to Columbia, SC for the night. I cannot say enough about our hotel it was fantastic! It was a great place to stay. If you ever have to go out of town, look for an Embassy Suites. They are very family friendly.

While in Columbia, we went to Riverbanks Zoo. We love the zoo. While we were there we saw the new lion cubs. They are just too cute!!

I fell in love with the howler monkeys. They were very talkative. I was unaware that their throats would swell to make the noise. Similar to a bull frog.

I could of sat there for ages listening to them. The kids were ready to go. Please excuse the fuzzy picture..it is a new camera.



Another one of my favorite things was to see the tortoises get fed. The older one was guarding his food. I really like this picture.

We also went for a short hike. I loved being in the woods with my family. Squirrel found a tree that looked like it had faery steps(look to the right of the tree). I love her imagination!!

To see more pictures from our trip you can check out these posts:

Riverbanks Zoo 2-Farm
Riverbanks Zoo 3-Snakes
Riverbanks Zoo 4-Penguins

Riverbanks Zoo 2

Here are some more of the animals that we saw while at the zoo.

We also stopped by Riverbanks Farm where the kids found a friendly bunny that they wanted to take home.

Tracker & Squirrel tried their hands at milking a cow.

This goat just wanted to be everyone's friend.

You can see more of our trip here:
Riverbanks Zoo 1
Riverbanks Zoo 3-Snakes
Riverbanks Zoo 4-Penguins

Riverbanks Zoo 3 - Snakes

Before you read any further let me post a disclaimer. There will be some pictures that will be a little graphic. It is a picture of a snake eating. If you think that you or your child will get upset by this please skip the end of this post.


One of the boys' favorite places to visit at the zoo is the reptile house. They love looking at the snakes & lizards.

*****End here if you have a queasy stomach******

One of the neatest things that we saw was a constrictor eating a bird. It was gory, and creepy, but really neat. Here are the pictures that I previously warned you about.

You can see more of our trip:
Riverbanks Zoo 1
Riverbanks Zoo 2-Farm
Riverbanks Zoo4-Penguins

Riverbanks Zoo 4-Penguins

I promise that this is the very last post about Riverbanks. We have been to the zoo many many times. Every time we go the penguins are not very active. Not this time! They penguins were putting on a show. Squirrel was in 7th heaven. She loves penguins.




We also had the opportunity to view some of newest resident flamingos. Tracker was able to pet an adult flamingo. The babies looked very cute with their changing feathers.

I will be posting a few pictures from Edventure tomorrow.

First Day Back

We started school back up today. We started off easy. The kids did some P.E. on the Wii this morning. We then went to the library and A.C. Moore. Once we came home we made lunch and watched Iron Chef America. We sat down together and did math. I must say that it was a little bit of a struggle today. They just couldn't get back into the school frame of mind for math. We then read part of Nature's Paintbox A Seasonal Gallery of Art and Verse by Patricia Thomas. This is a great way to introduce different art mediums to your kids. We did drawings today with pen. The kids could use very little color. Some had an easier time understanding this than others.

Nest we started our solar system unit. We are starting with the sun and then working our way out. I read 2 books on the sun today, Sun Where Do You Go? and Why the Sun & Moon live in the Sky. Both of these books were great! One was very cute and one informative in a fun way. After we read the books they painted suns on canvas panels.

Year of Science 2009

You have got to check this out!!!

Year of Science 2009

There are many reasons to celebrate science. With the many seminal anniversaries that are on the horizon in 2009, it seemed only logical that we should celebrate them as a community! From astronomy to zoology we are all here - ready to support public understanding of the process and nature of science in an exploration of "how we know what we know."

Basic statistics:

Dates: January 1, 2009- December 31, 2009

Web site: http://www.yearofscience2009.org

Overarching Theme: "How We Know What We Know"

Scientific Themes:

* January - Process and Nature of Science; Communicating Science
* February - Evolution
* March - Physics and Technology
* April - Energy Resources
* May - Sustainability and the Environment
* June - Ocean and Water
* July - Astronomy
* August - Weather and Climate
* September - Biodiversity and Conservation
* October - Geosciences and Planet Earth
* November - Chemistry
* December - Science and health

Who is celebrating: Participants in the US based COPUS Network as well as colleagues from around the world.

Christmas Craft of the Day 1 Pictures

We made our Christmas Countdown Chain last night. The pictures don't do it justice. It is really cute. (please excuse the wall. We are getting ready to paint the living room.)




We used 4 shapes, an ornament, present, stocking and a bell. We then used paper clips to attach them to a piece of yarn. We did this while watching Shrek the Halls and Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

We also spent part of the day watching Storm Chasers on the Discovery Channel. Tracker is fascinated by tornadoes right now. Thankfully we have a dvr so that we can record these things.

It's Shark Week On Discovery Channel

Shark Week is a big deal in our house. Tracker will be glued to the TV every evening and the dvr will be earning it's keep. LOL. Discovery Channel is offering games, podcasts, a blog and many more things. You can find out what shows are on and when here at their TV schedule.

Here are some activities that you can do:

Shark Crafts (watercolor & headband)
Ocean Locomotion
Shark Totem Pole
Snapping Shark
Ocean Diorama

General Information on Sharks:
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Sharks at Enchanted Learning
Sharks
Sharks at Kidzone
NOAA Fisheries Shark Web Site


Movies:
Shark Tale
Dk Eyewitness Shark
Shark Mountain
Island of the Shark: IMAX


photos are from google images.

Compost Pumpkins

After Halloween last year we out our jack-o-lanterns in our compost pile. We were mighty surprised to find pumpkins growing in our compost pile. This things are HUGE. Here is a picture that I took maybe a month ago if that.Here are some pictures that I just took of them. I am going to have to go back tomorrow and get one of the flower open. It is as big as a dessert plate.
Here is picture comparing the leaf to Squirrel's hand.

If nothing else this is a great science lesson on how compost can help your garden. LOL.