Not sure what this one is… Bronze Copper maybe?	Eastern Tailed Blue photography by Sam

White Dotted Prominent?

Before starting out we looked up butterflies we have seen in the yard before. This site on MO butterflies was very helpful. Of course today we only saw 2 types and neither were what we’d looked up. LOL! Sam chose and ID’d a small blue butterfly, called an Eastern Tailed Blue. We see small flocks of these blue beauties around puddles. This and the small reddish one we found on the damp pavement near our trashcan. Of all places! Jessie found a moth and I think it is a White Dotted Prominent

Here are the kids drawings of their chosen fluttery insects:

Jessie’s	Sam’s

This site on Butterfly anatomy (caterpillars too) had some great information on parts. Sam used it to label his drawing. We talked about the details he omitted and how they would be important if he were trying to ID this for the first time.

Jessie refused to label hers. Sigh. We talked about the parts we could see. She did really well there but… Next week I’m going to have her do a tracing paper overlay of her drawing to label. She agreed this would be a good idea.

This link will take you to a Picassa album of all our nature study photos. I only put a few of each study on the blog. We usually take more than that!

So there ya have it! Next week we’re doing  #30 Weeds & Seeds

Pinnacles hike

Finally found the Pinnacles youth camp area to hike around. Had to come back early but it all worked out well. Sam and I played a bit of tennis. Rather we chased the ball for an hour. I am sore and he is now snoring. LOL!

Made another loaf of WF bread today. The recipe is from Gluten Free Baking. I substituted 1/2 cup of soy flour for the same amount of brown rice flour. The bread is moist but not as firm as I want. I’m hoping for somthing as firm as the Bob’s Red Mill “Wonderful” bread mix. Still, it did not collapse completely.

I am now off to plan next week’s lessons and study Latin for a bit. Will get pictures up as soon as I can from our hike today. We will be going back there!

Oh! All 3 of our monarch caterpillars are in their beautiful chrysalis stage now. They look almost too pretty to be real. Will get pictures of those too. Next year I want to plant milkweed to see if we can attract some here too!

New computer set up continues. Going to give Open Office a try. Thought I’d share the latest picture of our baby wren. Amazing to watch how fast he/she grows!

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b'ware the minibeast!

Picked up a book from the library last week, Snails and Slugs (Keeping Minibeasts), one of many on the subject that Jessie picked out.

This one however goes into a little detail on care and feeding. So now, in addition to the dog, cat and frog… we have 3 small snails. Here is a close up of what one of them looks like. Not sure what kind it is yet.

One of my requirements for these “pets” is that they are FREE or they will BE FREED. So instead of the cuttle bone for calcium, as the book suggests, I’m using bits of well rinsed egg shell.

So far, Jessie has been quite diligent on their care and feeding. And I have to admit that I do enjoy watching them too.

So, how do I take this spur-of-the-moment project to the “next step” for a 5yo? Some kind of snail theme or something? Can’t yet decide but I’d like to do something to carry this further.

But for now, it is time for Latin.

Mardi's first parade

Despite frigid temps, Mardi made his first appearance in this year’s T/F parade. It was great!

There were some equipment failures… the velcro that secured the sleeve to the mobile hand came loose. It was so cold that even duct tape didn’t stick the sleeve to the hand. And almost at the end of the route, the belt Sam wore (to take most of the weight of the puppet) just slipped down around his knees. Doh! We were able to get off the street and out of the way of the phenomenal drum line. (They were seriously amazing!) There Bob came to the rescue and held Mardi aloft while Sam finished the parade waving the hand.  There at the end, Sam was interviewed by the Columbia Tribune and asked if he’d participate again next year. His answer was a resounding YES! (he is even quoted about halfway down the page).

Definitely a big success. Mardi will be getting some upgrades before his second performance, such as a harness/back pack system for the main operator, a second shoulder to support the mobile arm and sleeve. He would have had an enormous green bow tie but the weight was too much for the velcro at the neck.

Yep. He’ll be out again in a month or two. Don’t know the specifics yet. I’m thinking Mardi needs his own Facebook page, no? I think one of those pet cams would be da bomb! ‘Specially if it could be live during a parade. LOL! (yeah, I had fun too)

Next week we’re back to more mundane studies. Ancient India, Latin, Japanese, and Art & Music appreciation to name a few.

Mind you the week will be far from boring! Sam will compete in his first Karate tournament on Saturday. So I anticipate a bit more umph from his daily practice.

Off to bed with me NOW!

Meet Mardi

One of the things that has kept us so busy lately is the upcoming parade for the True False Film Festival. Sam has been busy making a huge parade puppet with his Puppet Pals friends. We’re down to the wire. The parade is this Friday. I hear there will be a couple dozen of these ginormous puppets in the parade!

Pictured here is the puppet’s head. If you follow the link you’ll see more images of the process we used toget here. Sam did such a great job on this. Iam so proud!

But now the hard (and not as fun) part of making the body has begun. Told Sam that this was the fameous “last 10% of a job that takes 90% of the effort.” Though he is too young to really appreciate that saying yet.

Sam’s decided to name the puppet “Mardi” because he looks like he could be in a Mardi Gras parade. LOL!

Wish me luck in getting any science done next week. I’m up late doing my copy of the exercises for the next chapter in Discovering Earth’s Landforms & Surface Features (Great Science Adventures). It really helps me wrap my brain around what needs to be done (as well as finding any sticking points ahead of time) and it gives me an example to show them. And last time it seemed to give Jessie a bit of incentive to make one “just like Mom’s.” By hook and crook I will educate that child!

Ooh! Speaking of that, she read the word “off” in the car today… “Daddy why does the car say ‘off’?” She was reading the labels on the rear temp control dial in the minivan. Sigh. We’re  not in the car a lot by any standards, but both of them have started off their reading careers this way. It’s. just. weird. Good. But weird.

Before I’m off to bed I wanted to mention a great “tweet” from Khatzumoto of All Japanese All The Time

Perhaps instead of trying to become fluent in a language, we should try to make it impossible NOT to be fluent. Subtle but useful difference

I agree with this… but how to do just that on a limited budget (and time too) escapes me at the moment. In our particular instance we’re listening to podcasts, learning hiragana (to be followed by the other alphabets), we’ll have some children’s books in Japanese soon (thanks to Bookmooch), Sam listens to JPop. What else could we be doing? (that is free or very nearly that )

With that I am off to enjoy the warmth of my beloved before he must dash off again. Until April, we’ll be missing more than seeing each other with all the conferences he must attend. Thankfully he does not have to travel this much all the time!

With Jessie, I started some activities centered around the book “The Pokey Little Puppy.” I found them at Homeschool Share.

Jessie agreed to color the cover coloring page and looked at a US map with me. (that is the hardest part most of the time… getting her to AGREE to it) We colored MO and outlined the places she’d been or where family lived. That was our “wide, wide world” discussion. Sam read the book aloud to us. He did such a great job using lots of inflection in his voice. Jessie laughted (genuinely) often which I think spurred him on. It was a rare peaceful moment between them. Then we made rice pudding.

I don’t ever remember liking rice pudding but what we made today was delish! I didn’t quite follow the recipe (more raisins and cinnamon) and cooked it A LOT longer than called for. The results made my tummy very happy and also made me feel very, very tired. (‘course I was very tired… and cranky already).

Jessie and I also colored a life sized paper doll made by tracing her outline on some packing paper. The clothing colored just like what she was wearing. She wouldn’t let me tape it on a wall though. Sigh.

For Sam there was lots of reviewing today. I had him do another assessment at MathScore.com. Where he did better on the fractions he did poorly on the long multiplication and division. BUT he had several “ah-hah” moments on percentages which we haven’t even covered. Sigh. So according to the assessment, he’s at a 4th grade level because of “uneven performance.” I’m trying hard not to think about it but I’m not getting very far. I think we’ll do another assessment next week in hopes that this week’s review will help but in the future I should have him do a few multiplication/division problems at least once a week. He can do them but for some reason he just makes a lot of little mistakes.

He did so well on Japanese Hiragana today that I’m not sure I should even “test” him. He knows the first 16 Katakana. No prob. Hmmm… maybe I’ll have him see if he can recognize them in his Japanese comic book.

History review was good… I think. He didn’t answer the questions the way I would but then that doesn’t make it wrong. He also stated his opinion on one case and did so very appropriately. By that I mean he didn’t wander off in a completely unrelated tangent.

For Science he found pictures for all but one of the Astronomers we’ve studied. Need to print them out and glue them to the timeline cards. Then review planets and such. I may do a reverse review… have him write the questions for me to read and answer.

So review continues tomorrow and maybe next week. I’ll still be planning next quarter and fixing the last 2 months.

OKay I am offically and completely wiped out. Off to bed with me.

Don’t know what it is other than tiny. I believe it is Persian Speedwell (Veronica persica). Matching photos found here. If you can’t find a “wildflower” ID online, search for “weed.” Can’t wait to add it to my nature journal.

The weather has been gorgeous the last few days. Tomorrow it is supposed to snow.

Finally started a nature journal. This is my second page in it. I found these things on our nature walk in the yard today. The “club” moss isn’t really club moss… just moss with club-like things on it. Have yet to identify it… or the leaf. I thought the leaf was wild geranium but nope. Not even close. Maybe Corn Butercup?

The feather is definitely blue jay. Part of the remains of something’s evening meal or maybe midnight snack. I still have it in the journal. The colors are Derwent’s watercolor pencils. Love ‘em! The colors get more intense with water.

I splurged (retail therapy) on a journal made by Global Art Materials out of Kansas City. It has a nice black linen cover and elastic strap. The heavyweight paper is off white and has rounded corners.

So here’s to a full journal by the end of the year!

Here are drawings from both Jessie and Sam for week 7 of Wildflower Morning’s Wildflowers in Winter blog-a-thon. (click them to see a larger version in a new window) I didn’t expect Jessie to draw for it but she heard Sam and I talking and wanted to join in on the fun.

Sam’s drawing is from a flower seen in the front yard last spring. Jessie’s flower sprang from her fertile imagination. Both are done with Derwent watercolor pencils. We just got some. I love how the colors intensify with a little water.

This week’s activity includes a contest too! Here’s the info from WFM’s site:

on Wednesday, March 5, we will open up the voting, which I will keep open until Thursday, March 6, at 6:00 P.M. PST. take time to look at all the week 7 entries, choose your favorite and then send me an email with your choice to: joyinthemorninglight at yahoo dot com. (Remove the spaces and fix up the email so it will work.) The winner will receive a really cool Dover Publications Wildflower Coloring book and a neato set of Prang watercolors, some watercolor paper and a piece of graphite paper.

So, please vote for Sam or Jessie if you get a chance.