Notebooks

Reading and Writing are two essential elements to learning.

Yes, Gabi reads. She's been reading since she was four. Taught her sister to read a month later, and reads almost anything she can get her hands on. That doesn't mean that she always understands what she's reading. She just doesn't have the life experience - and sometimes the vocabulary - to fully grasp the story. So my focus is on comprehension.

Trying to find the best way to do this for us, I've done things from writing down questions which she has to answer to just talking about it. I feel that I get the best results when we do both. So, she has a reading journal (a simple notebook) where I can write questions for her to consider and then answer about the book as she reads, or where she can also just write the things she reads about. This second way allows me to see how much she comprehends without guided questions. We also talk about the things she reads. That's not a problem for her... like her mom, she loves to talk!

The second notebook we picked up is for writing... more specifically for creative writing. Gabi loves to write, but I don't want us to keep loosing her work... mostly because she'll do something of her own choosing and then we don't know about it. This will give her a place to write. I also plan to give her "writing prompts" designed to work along side the grammar and writing lessons which I use. (My main guide is free - found online at Scott Foreman Reading. It's not a complete set of lessons and practice, it's only the basic lesson. You do have to supplement yourself. But if you don't mind doing that (which I don't) then it's one way to go and saves you a bunch of money.) The notebook will also help to keep all this writing together as well!

And Then There Were Three...

Butterfly number three emerged today... another monarch.

We have another caterpillar which we think might be a swallowtail caterpillar... we'll know for sure after it goes through the change.

After we get through the butterfly stuff, we'll be on to stars. Gabi wants to learn about the constellations.

Remember The Unknown Caterpillar?

Well, Gabi just recently returned from visiting my mother, and she had a wonderful surprise! She did some home schooling while she was there! (okay, so really it's two surprises) And she discovered what that crazy caterpillar was called.... (go Here to see a picture. It's the top picture.)

Are you ready.....

Milkweed Tussock Moth Caterpillar

Wow... now how hard was that? She found it in a book! Let's hear it for research! Now we'll know what we're looking for when (if) the moths emerge!

Working Simple Math Skills

We love to play games. Games are a wonderful way to learn things, to practice things, and yet some how the kid doesn't think they are "learning" anything. Okay, sometimes they realize they are. But still, it's the fun that matters.

Gabi understands simple addition and subtraction. But when she was in public school she was taught and encouraged to "count it out". I think this is a good method, to a point, and then one needs to know certain basic facts and how to manipulate these facts to get to an answer quickly. (Bob thinks so too). So although we're helping Gabi to move forward in her math skills, we're also working hard with her on "speed" with knowledge (She loves a good challenge - the speed is a way for her to challenge herself - something we're trying to get her to focus on as opposed to racing against someone else).

As fun and reinforcement, Bob spent a late night teaching Gabi how to play Cribbage. She loves the game! She and I also played it again today with me encouraging her to "guess" the number using certain logics when adding the numbers together. She's starting to see how to break things into parts (ie: 5+8 : start with 5 get to 10 (5 more) what is left (8-5 or 3) 10 and 3, total is 13), as well as certain short cuts (like adding 10 to a number only means you increase the 10's position with the 1's position remaining the same). She really loves this. (Though there are times when you can see it's hard for her to work the numbers as quickly as she'd like without straight out counting)

Butterflies, Butterflies Fly Away Home

Well it finally happened. The amazing day of emerging butterflies. No longer caterpillars, no longer chrysalids. An adventure the kids were waiting so long for (okay, only two weeks), and which they were very excited for.

Monday morning I was dragging...the boys were still happy upstairs and I thought I'd grab another half hour of sleep before the noise settled in for the day. But then I heard Gabi's excited voice yelling from the kitchen "Mom, Mom something's happening to the cocoons!" (Just a side note, we learned that Butterflies form Chrysalids and Moth's form Cocoons)

Needless to say I hurried right out to see what was happening (believe it or not, but this was my first experience with this too). Sure enough, where we had still seen what appeared to be green chrysalids the night before, we now saw two "black" forms. We learned that a chrysalis will thin out so much that it will appear black. It will then continue to thin out so that you can see the colors of the wings through the "black". Really, it's all clear. Which, if you don't believe it, you can see after the butterfly emerges!

We did not want to miss this great experience (and it looked like we'd only have the one day to see it - not two), so we stuck real close. There was always someone watching, while the kids took turns playing computer, doing some language arts, and just staying near in the same room. I was back and forth doing lots of laundry. We were able to get some neat pictures of the various stages of the chrysalids thinning out.

The first butterfly emerged about 3:15pm. Gabi was on watch and got side track answering a question for Bethie, but she saw most of it. She called us over, and we were able to see it pull it's wings out behind itself and climb over the chrysalis to get to a good place to "stretch out" the wings to start the drying and stiffening process. It hangs upside down, pumps blood into it's wings, and then waits until they are completely dry. Then the blood is drained out of the wings, the tubes closed off, and the butterflies start to move them, testing them out.

Butterfly number two we were hoping to get a little movie of! Thanks to a very vigilant Gabi, we have one to share with you. It was really neat! Don't mind the back ground noise - not everyone was watching the little miracle!






We mixed up a little "nectar" from the butterfly book we have. I'm not sure if the butterflies ever ate any, but Bob said the butterflies needed to go this morning (though another time we're going to try out some of the gentle "experiments" - really observations - suggested in the book.

butterfly to crawl onto her hand. Gentle, they brought them out, and enjoyed having the onThis morning was very hard for Gabi. Bethie was relieved. She seemed to think it was a problem that the butterflies were in the Butterfly Garden we had for them. In any case, we carried them out in the Butterfly Garden, and then the girls each reached in and allowed onee their hands for a little while, then gentle placed them near to a flower and watched the butterflies crawl onto the flowers.

As today was not sunny, the butterflies weren't even 24 hours old yet, and it was getting ready to rain, the butterflies did not fly away. After the major rain storm, the girls went out to see if "Jack and Annie" (as they had named them) were still where they left them. Sure enough, they found them and the butterflies were willing to crawl back onto their little fingers. This was great for Jeremy, because he was able to have a butterfly crawl onto his finger too!

At one point, the one Gabi was hold flew up and landed on her cheek. It then crawled up and hung on her helmet (which was was hearing). After Jeremy and I went back inside, the girls continued to play with and talk to the butterflies. Then I noticed it was starting to rain again and called them back inside. As I did, each butterfly, in turn, flew off and away! Gabi was so happy to have had the chance to see them fly!

Reading Adventures

Jeremy is learning to put letters and sounds together. He's known his alphabet for quite some time, and with early reading sisters, he's heard the letter sounds since he could remember. So we've been working on his reading. Whenever he gets "bored" and starts to annoy his sisters (laughing all the while), I suggest that he go and get a book or two to read to me. He knows this means the ones with just a few words on the pages, and promptly runs off to get one or two along with his book light (the girls each had their own and that just wasn't fair).

We'll sit together and he'll sound out what words he "has to" and then finish a sentence based on what he sees in the picture. For a three year old, that's remarkable, so I don't complain too much. I do encourage him to sound the word out - and even make him go over the word if I notice he's "reading the picture" and not the word.

He also loves time on the computer, so he now knows he has to work at Star Fall first, and he's also encouraged to explore Super Why from PBS. Both are designed for interactive fun. I really like Star Fall for the phonics and the very basic beginning set up. Super Why, although it has some stuff for learning to put words together, it's main focus is comprehension.

Jeremy loves that he gets to "read" to Peter.... just like the girls do!

A few Spools of Thread

Peter is still young enough that "learning" is all in a day's adventures. Since we still have a few piles of unpacked things from when we had the carpet installed a little over a month ago, he's always finding things of interest. The latest thing was my spools of thread. This was frustrating at first since I'd glance over and see a spool rolling away with thread coming undone. But then I noticed he had also found the hoops used for embroidery.

As I say back to watch, I noticed that he'd made the connection that both things were round. And that one was smaller than the other. So he gathered the spools of thread (even the onces that had gotten away) and began arranging them inside the hoops, shifting them enough to get them all to fit. Rather bright. When he realized I'd was going to let him continue in his fun, he'd ask for help rewinding the threads that seemed to get away!

Homemade Rainbows

Yesterday was warm enough that the kids wanted to fill the kiddie pool and play. So off they went, swimsuits on, to have a little relaxing fun. Then out came the sprinkler. It's one of those crazy all over the place things, but the kids mostly enjoy holding it still in one place. Well, suddenly I hear Gabi say "Hey, let's make a rainbow!"



It took a little doing... and they kept looking into the sky... but finally Beth says "There it is! On the grass!" They each took turns holding the sprinkler and getting it just right so they could make a rainbow and then see how bright they could get it by adjusting the angle or height ever so much! I even got some pictures... I was amazed that the rainbows turned out!


So, how do you do this? Well, first make sure you get the ground nice and wet. It takes the wet grass to create the best reflection rather than hoping to hit the light just right and hoping to have enough water in the air. After that, have the child hold the water spray about chest level. You may need to walk around the child a little to find the rainbow, but it will be there. They can even see it while they are spraying... just be careful that they don't move the sprinkler, or water spray source, while they are looking around or they just might miss it!

Caterpillar / Butterfly Update

Okay, so I said I'd be back the next day and never made it back. I'm sorry to report that we don't have any pictures of the "process". We were very good about staying in the kitchen, and even checking on the caterpillar every ten minutes. However, eventually everyone wanted lunch, and really, I wasn't expecting the flip to happen until dinner time or a little later anyway. Apparently the caterpillar was just waiting for a lull... because, in the 20 minutes we made and ate lunch (fast for us), the change had been made. They must be really fast... and must really like their privacy! Maybe they're just really modest! Oh well... anyway, we're a week and a half since the change over, and excitedly waiting for the butterflies to emerge sometime this weekend or early next week. At that point, we'll post pictures of everything we have!