Ramps

Boy, I had no idea those blocks were so filthy until the flash went off! Guess what we'll be scrubbing today?

Field Trip

Well, the field trip today was supposed to be to the planetarium, only they are closed until September 1st, so last minute we went to the zoo instead. It didn't fit in with our prehistory plans, but it was fun anyhow.

We did manage to sneak some prehistory in there, though.

At one point they saw a faux rock wall inside the sea lion exhibit that had shells embedded and they started hopping around excitedly saying they found a giant piece of fossiliferous limestone, and later the kids spent their own money to buy some polished rocks from the machine.

It's funny how sometimes even without planning things that you are learning have a way of coming up no matter where you are. Not only did the geology manage to creep up on us, but Dodo had fun reading some of the scientific names in Latin. The ones with colors in their names she was able to understand, so that was really cool too.

Sorry the picture quality on these is so poor, I had to set it way low since like a big retard I forgot my memory card in the van!

NOTE: If you look at the picture above you can see how much Scote is growing to look like his father, the likeness is just astounding! You can see a picture of Ssgt Eccentric here for comparison. Please disregard his ridiculous hair...his unit is known as the "mohawks" so they all walk around looking like freaks over there. Maybe it is some sort of psychological warfare to psyche out the afghanis or something. It certainly scares the bejeezus out of me!

By far the coolest thing we saw all day was in the South American aviary... A mother bird laid about 8 eggs in the grass not even a foot in front of us! We could have reached out and touched her if we wanted, but more than likely she would have attacked us, or possibly freaked out and hurt her eggs in panic.

She hissed and reared up like an angry snake as it was.

It was really interesting watching her go through the process of laying, she bounced her rear end up and down in the exact same way as our (dearly departed) evil rabbit Veela did when she was birthing kittens. I might try this trick next time I spawn another Eccentric!

Quick Quiz

Which one is Scote the Goat, and which is the real goat? I'll give you a hint, the real one stinks. Or does the fake one? Oh well, I know one of them did, anyway.

It's Ugha's dream to ride a real "efellent", but this is as close as she's come so far.

FUN FACT

Did you know an elephant can fit on a blue whale's tongue?!

Just look at that sky, it looks painted on! And underneath is El Paso's favorite sea lion, Sunny.

The end of a long, hot day. I can't wait for fall when it goes down to 70 again!

Progressing through Pre-History

8

7
6
2
3
1
5
4
Okay, I posted these in correct order, but this is how it came up for some odd reason and I am too tired to fight with it!

It should have been posted in the numbered order, sorry. I didn't post all the pages, but just enough so you can get a good idea of what he's been up to. Dodo and Ugha usually join us for the read-aloud and the hands-on stuff, but I don't require narrations from them. Dodo has a prehistory journal too, since sometimes she wants to narrate or draw a picture about what we are learning.

The above are some of the pages in Scote's Prehistory Journal so far. Writing is still a struggle for him so he only has to write very short narrations. Sitting with him as he writes I am struck by how far my Dodo has come! I remember doing the exact same thing with her in kindergarten, but by the end of first grade she was writing half a page history narrations with no prompting, and now here she is a rising 3rd grader, and she fills pages! Her handwriting is doctor-esqe, but legible and at least not painful anymore.

The progression was so slow and steady I almost missed it, but my little Scote has brought it all back to me. I look forward to watching the same blossoming happen with him.

Everyone is really into the science, I am so glad I took the time to plan this out!

Rearranged the school room

The changes are subtle, but better, no? The main difference is that I took out the chair which was part of the living room and stuck into the schoolroom at a 45 degree angle, so I was able to straighten everything out instead of angling. I also moved the workbook shelf over where the chair used to be and put another shelf where it was for all the geology/geography stuff I've been making.

I was able to bring the book display lower so Ugha could reach it, and stacked our montessori puzzle maps on the paper storage shelves right next to the geography stuff.

I think it really opens the place up.

You can see the old arrangement here.

Another new game

I was at the dollar tree the other day and bought two 50-packs of colored thread, thinking they would be great for matching and sorting.
Then we were messing around with them and saw that they were just perfect for exploring gradiations of color.

After I took these pictures I realized exactly what they were...
THESE.

Duh.

Sometimes I swear it's like I reinvent the wheel from scratch. But anyway, two dollars trumps montessori prices any day.

~M

Rain

This is part of our backyard, flooded from all this rain!

It is absolutely crazy, it hasn't rained in like 10 months and now it won't stop. The kids are talking about building an ark for our rabbits and hamster!

I swear, I haven't seen rain like this since I left Pennsylvania.

Out here in the desert people go nuts and pull over on the highway when it sprinkles for 5 minutes, so rain like this shuts down the whole town for weeks!

You can read more about it here.