Field Trip: To the Zoo!

It's been a long time since we've been to the Indianapolis Zoo, and yet it's still a familiar, welcoming place to be. We still know all the shortcuts to all the drinking fountains, the best shady benches, and the fact that you should really go into the exit to the Forest exhibit and out the entrance, because otherwise you'll have to backtrack later.

Of COURSE we sat in the splash zone. It's just not the zoo if you don't smell like dolphin all day!

The orangutan exhibit is actually new since our zoo membership lapsed, although during our family overnight here, we visited the "backstage" area where the orangutans were already in residence. 

This meerkat's incredible dedication to its guard duty cracked me up, and also, Syd still100% remembers her traumatizing experiences watching Meerkat Manor as a toddler. 

We were in the Plains area, and actually at the cheetah exhibit, less than 48 hours before one of the Cheetahs made its Great Escape. All we saw, however, were cheetahs like sleepy kitties drowsing in the shade, but this elephant was up to pretty great things:

This is the flamingo that nearly bit Will when she reached under the fence to steal a dropped feather. Perfectly within its rights, I say.

It was a super hot day, and it wasn't just the elephants who enjoyed the water!

Sleepy koala! Long after the kids had grown bored with the koala, we stayed to eavesdrop on this older woman who was experiencing the happiest moment of her life to date there. Every time the koala twitched a sleeping limb, she'd squeal and then start cooing to it in baby talk. It. Was. Great!

My favorite place to watch the dolphin show is in the underwater dome.

See that blue blur next to Will's ear? That's a blue morpho, fluttering around looking for a landing spot. See the looks on the kids' faces? That's each of them desperately wishing for the butterfly to land on her.

Winner!

Seriously, Syd was the butterfly whisperer on this day. I told her that she must smell like fermented fruit.

Will was SO stoked to spot this bee. The kids are going to add it to the citizen scientist program's registry on Friday.

Both of these kids are VERY good at petting dog sharks.

I, personally, don't really love zoos--observing animals in captivity bothers me--but both kids have always adored them, and therefore zoos have always been an important part of our curriculum. I try to think of the zoo animals as heroes for their species, sacrifices that are here to teach compassion and conservation, and for my kids, at least, they've done their job in spades. Both of my kids are very aware of the plight of animals in a world overtaken by humans, and they, at least, will grow up to be adults who always have that in mind in the course of all of their decisions.

Even if Will says that she no longer wants to be a zoo worker when she grows up. Now, apparently, she wants to be a pilot.

Work Plans for the Week of September 8: Air Raids and Volcanoes

Last week was one of those "If you're homeschoolers, why are you never home?" weeks. We had a fine day in Louisville, Kentucky, another fine day at the Indianapolis Zoo (visiting the cheetah exhibit less than 48 hours before one of the cheetahs escaped!), and a VERY fine afternoon at the lake with friends:

In between, we spent our rare schooldays at home with World War 2, Hawaiian, coordinate grids--

--and tadpole identification (Will says that we've got either of these two similar species). Here's a picture of the froglet, taken with our USB microscope:

This week, we're spending a little more time at home, or at least, that's the plan--funny how easily plans can change when Adventure awaits!

Memory work for the week includes finishing up Lesson 1 of Mango Hawaiian, which is as far as we'll go with the language (we can greet each other and we've experienced how it feels to hear and speak Hawaiian, which is good enough for me!), reviewing the tones of spoken Mandarin (the kids are starting their Chinese language class again in a couple of weeks), memorizing the eight major Hawaiian islands, and spelling/vocab. Books of the Day include more books on caves, one more book on butterflies, a random living book on New York City for Syd, and a book on Big Questions in science for Will.

And here's our week!

TUESDAY: Will is contentedly flying through her Math Mammoth unit on graphing, but Syd stalled out last week on her big numbers unit, when she was asked to apply what she knows about rounding to them. She muddled herself up so much that it's clear that she hasn't really mastered the concept, so I'm using two math lessons this week to so thoroughly review the concept that it just can't be made any clearer. I'll be modeling my lessons on these wonderfully thorough plans, although incorporating a hundred chart a little more into our work, and adding a game, because games are fun.

The foreign language classes for children at our local university are starting again in a couple of weeks, and I plan to have the kids repeat Beginning Mandarin--I took a peek at the lesson plans for Intermediate Mandarin, and I think my two need another go-round of the beginner's class before advancing. But this time in Beginning Mandarin, I understand much more of what I need to do to support the kids' learning, starting with this online lesson and game on recognizing the tones.

I still haven't found a grammar curriculum that I love, and the kids' lack of it shows (yesterday, Will couldn't remember what a comma is called, although I assure you that she does know how to use it). I have, however, found a spelling/vocabulary curriculum that I could love. I interlibrary loaned it, photocopied the first two chapters of each kid's level, and if they seem to absorb the information from it, I'll purchase it. There are five lessons in each chapter, so the children will be required to finish the first chapter on their own this week as part of their memory work, with the proviso that they can ask me for a spelling test at any time, a perfect score on which will allow them to be done with the chapter early.

The kids are longing to go back to the lake this week, and we should probably do it today, since this is supposed to be our last 90-degree day of the year, but we also enjoy our homeschool group's Tuesday Park Day--ah, well! Perhaps we'll squeeze the beach in afterwards, or perhaps we'll just shiver on Friday.

WEDNESDAY: Our enrichment activity for the 1940 events of World War 2 is a live-action air raid! During the day, the kids will explore this BBC Schools' online unit on air raids, and this online map of the London Blitz, and on this evening, after Syd gets home from ballet, we'll take a picnic dinner, a deck of cards, and flashlights and candles down to the root cellar, where we'll spend an hour or so passing the time while having to listen to an air raid siren. I'm guessing it won't be as fun as live-action trench warfare, but hopefully it'll still be memorable.

The kids loved making stained glass designs with translucent pattern blocks on a light table at the Children's Museum so much that I made a mental note to repeat the activity at home. I *think* it'll work to have them trace their pattern block patterns onto black cardstock, and then I'll cut the pattern out with an x-acto knife so that they can use the template on our light table. It's been a while since we've played with pattern blocks at home, so hopefully the kids will enjoy this hands-on math and art activity!

THURSDAY: Every time I return how-to-draw books to the library and then check them out again a few weeks later, the kids are always completely re-immersed in them. They're great especially for Will, who has little confidence in her artistic abilities and will refer to Syd as "the artist." Thanks to our last session with how-to-draw books, however, she now happily draws lovely, creative dragons and dinosaurs all over everything. This particular activity, then, not only fills a requirement of the Junior Drawing badge and the Cadette Comic Artist badge, but will perhaps open up her drawing into new avenues.

Our study of Hawaii is focusing on volcanoes now, in preparation for the time that I want to spend in Hawaii at Volcanoes National Park and hopefully hiking out to see the lava flow. This BrainPop video and accompanying worksheets provide a good overview, so that we can delve more deeply into the subject next week.

FRIDAY: Today, Syd and I will work on rounding to tens; on Friday, I want to repeat the same activities with her, but this time with hundreds and thousands. If she's still confused about rounding, then, in her unit review in Math Mammoth next week, we'll move on, anyway, and revisit it the next time the subject comes up. But I hope she's not still confused!

I've clearly abandoned the idea of "Independent Work Friday;" my hopes that the children would use that opportunity to work ahead and have Friday free didn't ever pan out, so it's too much trouble to specially plan independent work just in hopes of that. Nevertheless, they've both enjoyed the chance to test out or revisit an educational app on the ipad on this day, and since it encourages them to try new things that aren't necessarily in our curriculum right now, I'm continuing it, as well as continuing having Will choose which ipad apps each child uses--that's one of the ways that she promised to help me with lesson plans, after I agreed to switch to a five-day work week as she desired. This Friday's app is a quite sophisticated music composition tool, and I'm eager to see what each kid does with it. I think this is one app that they won't decide to delete at the end of their play!

I don't remember how we originally got onto the subject, but I showed the kids a few online pics of the fake animal head plaques--dragon heads, unicorn heads, etc.--that people make for their walls, and they were super into it, so I put it on our to-do list. This day is as good a day as any to begin!

At the zoo on Friday, I was delighted that when Will spied a bee, she got excited and insisted that we photograph it for the bee citizen scientist program that we did last month. This time, I'll be combining their submission work with a bee anatomy worksheet, and some comparative bee anatomy using this bees of the world book.

As I write my round-up, I'm just now noticing that our week is heavy on hands-on arts and craft-type activities. Will can get very impatient with these if she sees a shortcut or doesn't see the relevance, but I feel like these particular ones are interest-led, so hopefully she'll be able to immerse herself in each one the way that Syd so easily can.

As for me, I'll be spending my week planning out our Hawaii itinerary in more detail, researching a geology study to connect to our volcanoes unit, planning a couple of Girl Scout meetings and activities, working on patterns for mermaid tail and shark blankets, writing several writing assignments, and completing a couple of outstanding etsy orders.

Oh, and sewing Syd a full Fluttershy costume. From scratch. By next week.

Stay tuned!

Watercolor and Wood Burned Building Block Excess

The kids and I worked on this beautiful building block project for weeks. A commission from PlanToys, who gave us the building blocks, it asked that we do something to embellish and personalize them.

I couldn't think of anything more decorative, and more personalized, than custom-stained building blocks with the children's art wood burned on!

You can find the tutorial for the watercolor staining here, and the tutorial for the wood burning here, but the finished products were so beautiful that I'm afraid that I really indulged myself in taking photos, and ended up with far more than could possibly be put into posts that I'm being paid to write.

Good thing that I have this personal blog, then! I can indulge myself all I want here!

I don't make any bones about incorporating the children into my work; here, I've asked Syd to set up the photo shoot of the finished blocks for me.

Her ideas were wonderful!

Will drew both dragons, the fire, and the cat, and Syd drew the flower, clouds, and sun, and did much of the more experimental watercolor staining.

This is the royal couple, presenting the castle to the various sightseers. That's you!

Actually, here are some more sightseers. They traveled far to get here!

We've got a few more projects to do for PlanToys, including one just for our homeschool and one that's especially for Syd. I'll probably be working on these projects all autumn and well into winter, so stay tuned!

Work Plans for the Week of August 31, 2015: Field Trips!

The kids and I had a fabulous Project Week last week--they read and drew and played outside and rediscovered their racetrack sets, and we went to parks and playgroups and out for ice cream and to the Children's Museum:

We attended the preview of the museum's newest exhibit, Sacred Journeys, which explores the sacred sites of the world's religions. It was a wonderful exhibit! The Children's Museum especially loves to host exhibits that unpack the STEM and liberal arts enrichment behind children's pop culture interests--their next exhibit is on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles--but *I* love these types of exhibits, the ones that allow children to explore a complicated subject in a child-friendly way, the best.

My Master's in Library Science includes an emphasis in Special Collections, and I worked for years in a special collections library on campus, so I dragged the children all around this exhibit to show them how to tell the difference between vellum, handmade paper, and factory-made paper.

DIY stained glass--the kids were fascinated by this, and we have everything that we need to make our own version here at home. Something else for my to-do list!

Little did the children know, but the museum's Anne Frank exhibit was actually part of our World War 2 unit study lesson plans--mwa-ha-ha!

Typical homeschoolers, the kids really only like interactive exhibits when they're otherwise empty, as ScienceWorks was on this afternoon. They played contentedly for ages here.

Although we're back to our regular school day this week, it'll be pretty well broken up by two full-day field trips, leaving us with only three days for work plans, and a short week next week, as well!

Memory work for this week includes more Mango Languages Hawaiian, 1940 events of World War 2, and facts about Christopher Columbus. Books of the Day include non-fiction picture books about caves (we watched an EPIC documentary on cave diving last week!), a random picture book history of Vikings, and a couple more books about butterflies--we finally saw a monarch yesterday, fluttering around Syd's Mexican sunflower in Will's butterfly garden. A homeschool win!

And here's the rest of our week!

MONDAY: In Math Mammoth this week, Will is continuing her study of line graphs, which she likes and finds easy, and Syd is applying her study of place value to a review of adding and subtracting with large numbers--she can do it, but she's going to hate it. Math may be very tantrum-filled this week.

In preparation for our field trip to Louisville tomorrow to tour replicas of the Nina and Pinta with one of our homeschool groups, I found a workbook for the children that provides a good overview of Christopher Columbus--it's lengthy, though, so for our fourth schoolwork slot I'm only asking the children to play a couple of games of Battleship. It's always good to stay familiar with coordinate grids!

We've got our weekly volunteer gig with the food pantry this afternoon, and then an afternoon trip to the library.

TUESDAY: Field trip to Louisville! We'll tour the Nina and Pinta replicas in the morning, have a picnic lunch, and then spend a few hours at the Kentucky Science Center before we have to head back home for Robotics Club.

WEDNESDAY: We're on to 1940 in our World War 2 unit study; the kids will put these timeline figures on the timeline that they're building in their World War 2 notebooks, and then later this week Matt will give us a more detailed lecture on the events of 1940. The kids will have their monthly Magic Tree House Club meeting (this month's book is Leprechaun in Late Winter), and then we'll hustle into the car to take Syd to her first ballet class of the semester--she's advanced enough now to have classes TWO times a week! I imagine that this is the year that less-dedicated students will begin to drop the program, and so I'm interested to see if Syd's interest will continue as the commitment increases.

THURSDAY: I've actually got a few more badge activities set up for the kids to do, but I just finished getting all their badge books and checklists printed out for them, so I thought I'd give them a chance to organize everything to their liking, record what they've already completed in their new checklists, and see if anything else strikes their interest. Next week, however, we'll still likely find ourselves working with how-to-draw books and stamping metal dog tags for our Girl Scout activity.

I printed out a very extensive tadpole identification guide for our home library, and I'll be giving the children the job of using it to identify the species of tadpole that we're currently hosting. Most of them have finished their metamorphosis into frogs and been duly deposited at our creek by now, and I sure wish that the rest of these tadpoles would just hurry up so I can have that counter space back! I need to put jars of decomposing fruit for the children to sketch there!

Although Will would prefer being dropped at the library to doing a project with me during Syd's ballet classes, Syd loves nothing more than to do something together while Will's at her horseback riding lesson. We might work on a plaque for her room, or on a birthday present for her father.

FRIDAY: Field trip to the Indianapolis Zoo! The kids LOVE zoos, and it's been a while since we've been to this one, so it's going to be a great day.

As for my week, I need to make some reservations for our Hawaii vacation this week (Mauna Kea is open again, so our tour is back on!), buy LEGO plates for a DIY project, hang the curtains that Syd's been longing for around her bunk bed, get the fall garden going, and get our Girl Scout troop set up for the new year, among other tasks. I think that we'll all have plenty to do to fill our days!

To the Creek!

I like to take a day trip with the kids at least once a week. It breaks the school week up, gives us a chance to explore and exercise and discover new interests, and, of course, it's fun!

Last week, after a late start and a food truck lunch with Matt, we went to a state park just outside of town, because that park has what may be the kids' favorite thing ever: a creek. There are loads of hiking trails at this state park, but all we ever do there is hike down to the creek, play until the children are filthy, wet, and exhausted, and then hike back.

It's ample fun for a field trip day:

The kids brought their butterfly nets and a large Mason jar, and this day's fun activity was pestering minnows.

And pestering a few snails, too...

This was an especially restful field trip after an especially stressful week that I'd had, and I benefited greatly from turning my phone off, forcing myself to breathe deeply and untense my shoulders, and then pulling a book out of my pack and lying like a lizard on a flat rock all day, reading and taking photos and watching my kids play.

This week's day trip to the Children's Museum won't be quite like that, as I'll instead come home with a headache after a noisy day in the museum and an hour's worth of traffic on the way home, but the kids will love it just as much, of course, just as they'll love next week's TWO day trips to Louisville (to see Nina and Pinta replicas!) and the Indianapolis Zoo.

But after that, the week after next, we're 100% spending another day in the woods. Lizard Momma needs her clean air and flat rock!