Our month was cut down to half since we were away from home and most of our books for two weeks.
February 2010 Reading list
Read to Austyn and Zoe:
1. A Birthday for Bear by Bonny Becker
2. Arthur Babysits by Marc Brown
3. Arthur’s Birthday by Marc Brown
4. Arthur’s Nose by Marc Brown
5. Arthur Writes a Story by Marc Brown
6. Boo to You! By Louis Ehlert
7. Carl’s Sleepy Afternoon by Alexandra Day
8. Clifford The Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell
9. Dear Deer by Gene Barretta
10. Dog’s ABC A Silly Story About the Alphabet Emma Dodd
11. D.W., Go to Your Room! By Marc Brown
12. D.W.’s Library Card by Marc Brown
13. Elliot Bakes a Cake by Andrea Beck
14. Fly High, Fly Guy! By Tedd Arnold
15. Fritzi Fox Flew in from Florida by Leah Komaiko
16. Goodnight, My Duckling by Nancy Tafuri
17. Have You Seen My Duckling? By Nancy Tafuri
18. Here is the Wetland by Madeleine Duuphy
19. I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More! By Karen Beaumont
20. If You Decided To Go To The Moon by Faith McNulty
21. Know-It-All Sharks! By Irene Trimble
22. Little House, Little Town by Scott Beck
23. Little Quack Loves Colors by Lauren Thompson
24. Little Quack’s Hide and Seek by Lauren Thompson
25. Little Sharl by Anne Rockwell
26. Looking Closely Through The Forest by Frank Serafini
27. Lousy Rotten, Stinkin’ Grapes by Margie Palatini
28. Max’s Dragon by Kate Banks
29. Mickey Moonbeam by Mike Brownlow
30. Mind Your Manners, B.B. Wolf by Judy Sierra
31. Moonshot. The Flight of APPOLLO 11 by Brian Floca
32. My Visit to the Aquarium by Aliki
33. Nana’s Cold Days by Adwoa Badoe
34. Never Take a Shark To The Dentist (and other things not to do) by Judy Barrett
35. Not Norman. A Goldfish Story by Kelly Bennett
36. Ready or Not, Dawdle Duckling by Toni Buzzeo
37. Silly Billy by Anthony Browne
38. Snow by Manya Stojic
39. Space Probes by Steven Kortenkamp
40. Stick by Steven Breen
41. The Bully Blockers Club by Teresa Bateman
42. The Cat Who Walked Across France by Kate Banks
43. The Little Mermaid by Enid C King
44. The People Could Fly by Leo and Diane Dillon
45. The Tale of Benjamin Bunny by Beatrix Potter
46. The Tale of Mr Jeremy Fisher Beatrix Potter
47. The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-Winkle by Beatrix Potter
48. The Tale of Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter
49. The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Ken Geist and Julia Gorton
50. The Wheels on the Race Car by Alexander Zane
51. Toad by Ruth Brown
52. Touch and Feel Farm Animals by Julie Aigner-Clark
53. Velma Gratch and The Way Cool Butterfly by Alan Madison and Kevin Hawkes
54. Voices In The Park by Anthony Browne
55. What Can You Do With An Old Red Shoe? By Anna Alter
56. What’s So Bad About Being and Only Child? By Cari Best
57. When Giants Come To Play by Andrea Beaty
58. When The Silliest Cat was Small by Gilles Bachelet
59. Where is Home, Little Pip? By Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman
60. Who Hoots? By Katie Davis
61. Wolf Song by Mary Bevis
62. Yankee Doodle by Mary Ann Hoberman and Nadine Bernard Westcott
Read to Zoe:
1. Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown
2. Dinosaur Roar! By Paul and Henrietta Stickland
3. Do Your Ears Hang Low?
4. Good Night Baby Donald by Grolier
5. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
6. Grumpy Bird by Geremy Tankard
7. Happy Easter, Maisy! By Lucy Cousins
8. In The Spring by Craig Brown
9. Little Quack by Lauren Thompson
10. Little Quack’s Bedtime by Lauren Thompson
11. Little Quack’s New Friend by Lauren Thompson
12. Little Red Riding Hood by The Brothers Grimm
13. Mary Had a Little Lamb by Mary Ann Hoberman and Nadine Bernard Westcott
14. My Mommy is Magic by Carl Norac
15. My Mommy’s Wedding by Eve Bunting
16. Sailor Dog Jig by Margaret Wise Brown
17. Ten in the Meadow by John Butler
18. The Gold Cadillac by Mildred D. Taylor
19. Whatever Happens to Baby Animals by Bill Hall
Read to Austyn:
1. Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp by Rene Cloke
2. Django by John Cech
3. Julia Morgan Built a Castle by Celeste Davidson Mannis
4. Kissimmee Pete, Cracker Cow Hunter by Tan Day
5. Space Travelers by Seymour Simon
6. The Princess and the Frog by Vera Southgate
7. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Anne McKie
8. About Crustaceans by Cathryn Sill
9. Between The Tides by Fran Hodgkins
10. Meet the Shark by Catherine Vadon
Austyn and Zoe Read Together:
1. Wow! City! By Robert Neubecker
2. Morning Has Broken by Eleanor Farjeon
Zoe Read:
1. All Around The Block An Alphabet by Judy Pelikan
2. Big Fat Hen by Keith Backer
My Books Read:
1. The Power of Now by Echkart Tolle
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
More faces
Zoe really loves drawing faces right now. She loves to make girls with big eye lashes and she is starting to try different effects to make them more expressive. The one at the bottom with black around the eyes is suppose to look angry.
“Children do not need to be made to learn to be better, told what to do or shown how. If they are given access to enough of the world, they will see clearly enough what things are truly important to themselves and to others, and they will make for themselves a better path into that world then anyone else could make for them” ~ John Holt
Rocket fever
I helped Austyn make this rocket the other day. He gave me directions and I helped him put it together. He wanted it to really fly. I have to admit that I wasn't as confident as he was. I really didn't think it'd fly well at all, but it really flies well. When he throws it it works about as good as a paper airplane or better! It use to have a point on the nose but he took it off and found that it flew even better. I tried to capture it in flight with my camera but was unsuccessful. Here is a picture of it caught in one of our trees.
She knows what she's doing!
She was SO right!! She was practicing. I can see that. She knows what she is doing and doing it in the most natural way. She took her sheet of paper back to the table and continued to make B's including a really tall B with lots of bumps on it. I'm so proud of her, and so glad that I'm learning as much from her as she is from me.
"We who believe that children want to learn about the world, are good at it, and can be trusted to do it with very little adult coercion or interference, are probably no more than one percent of the population, if that. And we are not likely to become the majority in my lifetime. This doesn't trouble me much anymore, as long as this minority keeps on growing. My work is to help it grow. "
Book Sharing Monday
The People Could Fly by Virginia Hamilton is a common folklore. There were many accounts of Africans and slaves who could fly. We've read a couple of stories similar to this one but we like the way this one is written the most. You can almost hear the sound of the person recounting what they witnessed while reading along. The story evoked hope in those who had no hope left. From suffering to magic power to freedom and hope. It's an inspirational story.
"He raised his arms, holding them out to her. "Kum... yali, kum buba tambe," and more magic words, and so quickly, they sounded like whispers and sighs.
The young woman lifted one foot on the air. Then the other. She flew clumsily at first, with the child now held tightly in her arms. Then she felt the magic, the African mystery. Say she rose just as free as a bird. As light as a feather."
Monday, February 15, 2010
Manatee Viewing Center, Apollo Beach, Florida
On our last day we left early and headed over to visit some relatives staying in a campground for the winter. They took us over to see the Manatees. I had heard on the news a few days before that the animals were dying from the cold and were being washed up on the beach. There was a freeze warning on for a few of the nights that we were there. I was a bit worried about the possibility of seeing lots of dead fish, but it turned out to be very interesting. There was only one animal that looked suspicious of death.
On the way we stopped to look at a large eagle next.
The inlet was full of them!
There were walkways out over the water so people could get very close to them.
There were other types of animals that come in for the warm water. The picture above is my attempt to catch a stingray jumping. All I could capture was the splash. They seemed to jump in succession. They wouldn't jump for a long time and then one would and there would be a line of them like dominoes jumping. It's amazing how high they get out of the water.
On our way to the walking trail there were some monarch caterpillars to view.
All along the trail there were speakers and signs explaining details about the wildlife there. We didn't have time to take it all in. We had to leave soon to catch our plane home.
Here is the temperature of the water.
Small fish all over close to shore, in large schools.
A small shark.
We could see the stingrays well.
Another fish.
Pelicans perched on the opposite side.
So... like I said in a previous post... our last day was very interesting and we now have an interest in manatees. I've downloaded and printed a free manatee lapbook and I've ordered many books from the library. Some of those books are listed above just under the title bar. Here is the link for the lapbook if you'd like to check it out: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/manatee_lapbook.php
“The largest known cause of manatee deaths is from collisions with boats. We have no control over red tide or cold deaths so we try to focus on the deaths we can prevent.”~ Judith Vallee
Shuttle Launch
The reason for us visiting Florida after the first reason, which was to relax and catch some rays, was for us to see the very last night shuttle launch. We left our resort at 8pm and arrived in Titusville before most of the crowd. We found the perfect spot along the highway just north of the town and pulled over where there was some construction. We had such a perfect view of the launch pad. If we wanted to we could see it from our van. We brought snacks and drinks and conveniently parked next to a portable toilet. We flattened the seats in the back, made a bed and we camped out in the van with our in-laws until launch time which was at 4:39 AM. We got out of the van about 15 minutes before after listening to the radio station. They stated that everything was fine and that it was still "A Go". We got out with two sleepy kids in arms and walked closer to the water to watch. With only 10 minutes to launch we heard that the launch was scrubbed until the next day. What a disappointment. It took us over an hour to get out of our parking spot and we didn't get back to Orlando area until 8 AM. It was a long night with little to no sleep.
With small children it's next to impossible to catch up on that sleep during the day so we ended up not returning the next night. It might have been too dangerous to attempt that again with no sleep. The news said that there was only a 60% chance that it would actually launch that night, but at 4:15 it did launch and we dragged the kids out of bed to run out to a clear area to see it from our resort. We had seen a night launch before from there and had an idea where to go and where to look. It would have been nice to see it close but we at least saw it. I got some sleepy, blurry pictures of it. The first picture was with the boosters still on the shuttle and the second picture is of the shuttle moving on while the boosters are falling to earth below.
With small children it's next to impossible to catch up on that sleep during the day so we ended up not returning the next night. It might have been too dangerous to attempt that again with no sleep. The news said that there was only a 60% chance that it would actually launch that night, but at 4:15 it did launch and we dragged the kids out of bed to run out to a clear area to see it from our resort. We had seen a night launch before from there and had an idea where to go and where to look. It would have been nice to see it close but we at least saw it. I got some sleepy, blurry pictures of it. The first picture was with the boosters still on the shuttle and the second picture is of the shuttle moving on while the boosters are falling to earth below.
Here is the website explaining the shuttle mission.
The next week they scheduled a rocket launch. The rocket was going on a mission to learn more about the sun. We planned on driving to see that but again on the news they said that the wind had to be under 20 knots and at the time it was 22, so things didn't look good. They canceled it and the next day it went. We slept in and decided not to go since it was only suppose to have a 60% chance of going. It went. We got to watch it on the news live, but didn't make it to see it live. We looked outside to see if it was viewable from where we were but it was just too cloudy.
Here is the website with status reports on rockets that have been launched. The rocket that went up was called ELV-021210.
Austyn was so inspired by the rocket that he made his own with Legos.
We also worked on his Space lapbook. The kids loved working on their lapbooks while we were away.
“I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of mine” ~ Neil Armstrong
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