Sisser's 19th Birthday, and She Came Over (With Visitors!)

Sisser is 19 today, and she came over. Dylan and his younger brother came over too. Seth is taller than Dylan, though, so now Karl is hoping he will be taller than Corey and Josh. I'm hoping he is as tall, but I doubt he will be taller.

Karl is still having trouble counting correctly to 20, he still jumps from 13 to 18, so I'm going to try something new, and that's to make a chart where he is 0, then 1, then 2, and so on up to now, where he's six. Then I'm going to put Sisser down, also, because she was almost 13 when he was born. I'm hoping that showing him that Sisser's age didn't jump from 12, almost 13, when he was born, to 18 (and now 19 - and next year, 20, when he will have already turned 7).

It'll look like something like this:

.......0.......1.......2.......3.......4.......5.......6.......7

12.....13.......14.....15......16.....17......18.....19

And, they said that they'd love to go camping with us, too, so the big camping trip is going to have even more people. Looking forward to it!!!

Future Science Books for Us

Right now, MrBaby's favorite subject is science, and lots of it. We have another frog, who will be going into a larger terrarium soon (after we move), and he can't wait. I'm hoping that needing to learn to read will become less of a chore for him when he realizes there is so much knowledge in books. From the several sources I'm looking over, I really love the detail I see in the National Geographic-style books available online. Books like these have facts, diagrams, photos, maps, as well as text, and are entertaining and informative. There are books on animals, insects, ecology, weather, and many other topics.

The best science teachers know that to teach students well in any setting, be it a homeschool, or a more formal public school, requires getting the kids' attention and holding it. Without that, science is reduced to memorizing facts and figures, tables, charts, and graphs, and that's not something any student retains easily. If a student doesn't retain knowledge, a student can't manipulate that knowledge later on, or even easily build on it.

That is why my materials are so important to me, and I want books and manipulatives that I can use for years and build on. MrBaby will benefit from what I choose for years, so it's really important that I choose right. If you're an educator, it's important you choose good materials, too, and continually build your library.

We have Found a FROG!!!

He is a green and grey, squirrel tree frog. A one-time contributor to Wikipedia made his sole entry states that yes, these cute little critters are indeed poisonous. Glad we know better than that! He's not poisonous at all.

He eats crickets, moths, and whatever else he can find that has crawled into his lair.

Pictures coming soon.

Here's a video of another frog that we found. He's very tiny!

New Use for Shape Sorters

Trace the shapes onto paper, and have your child match the shapes up with the outlines on the paper. We have more than one set, but the second set is only partial. Here are some pics.

This helps with pre-reading skills, eye-hand coordination, fine motor development, and shape and color recognition.

Mean Mama Fish Died Today

The planaria were hard at work, cleaning up. We are wondering what the skeleton will look like. We'd have a funeral, like we have with the others, but I think it is time to see what is inside the fish, if possible. I'm not sure how dense the skeleton is in a fish this small, so MrBaby and I will learn something together.

You can see one of the planaria climbing up on the front of the aquarium in three of the pictures. The other one shows Mean Mama Fish, plus some of the planaria around her.