Tadpoles

As a responsible pet owner - before buying this tadpole kit, I did some research online and discovered that these frogs are called African Clawed Frogs, and that they can live up to 30 yrs in good conditions - I also learned that they CAN NOT just be released into our environment because they are not native here and so have no natural predators and can also be harmful - due to whatever possible bacteria they carry!  SO before engaging in one of these kits be prepared for a life long pet!
 

A couple years ago, we purchased a tadpole from the Grow A Frog Company.  It was a kit that provided a glass tadpole, which would grow into a frog and my dd could watch it's metamorphosis.  




Anyway  One thing lead to another and somehow we ended up with 2 Frogs.  Just my luck they end up being male and female.  The Frogs  (Lily and Tad) are now about 3 yrs old.  (Tad is the male and the littler one of the two.)

Despite reading literature on the Net - that these frogs are supposedly sterile - it turns out ours are quite fertile! LOL!  Low and behold, this past December - we ended up with a pair of Tadpoles.

(the little line off center in the above picture is a newly hatched tadpole.) 

Here are the twins Saguaro (big at front) and Barrel (smaller barely visible in the rear - seems to have growth issues) a month and a half later.  Saguaro has visible back legs and is in the state that Tad was when he arrived.  Barrel seems about 2 weeks behind in growth but also has showing back legs.  (if size is any indication, we think they are also male and female - if they are - they will be separated.)

This was an excellent science lesson for my Frog-obsessed older dd way back when and even now.  She beginning to assume the responsibility for cleaning the tank and caring for them.

I'm hoping that the 6 yr old will gain the same appreciation for this lesson!  She has claimed responsibility for the twins and will eventually end up with the resulting frogs as her pets.  So while we dabble with plants at the moment, we are also watching real life metamorphosis!

Science Experiment - What Plants Need

Some time ago, I purchased a plants kit from Little Labs, to teach my 6 yr old a little bit about plants.  The first experiment involves learning what plants need in order to grow and survive.  A little over a week ago, we took 3 paper cups, some cotton balls and water.  We planted some Cress seeds in the cotton.  One we placed in a sort of sunny location, one we placed in a dark cupboard, and one we put blue food colouring in, just for the fun of it to see if colour would affect the plant.

#1#2  

#3

#1 - The Sun Plant - Sprouted the following day and grew very well producing fine green leaves.  (this plant was healthy and as tall as the other 2 plants but got dropped just prior to the photo being taken.)

#2 - The Closet Case - Also sprouted the following day and grew well but produced sickly yellow leaves.  (I would continue to grow this plant in the cupboard for a little while longer, but my 6 yr old feels very bad that the plant doesn't look good and she is afraid it will die - can't argue with that - so now we will see what effect placing it in the sun will do to it now! - I may put a secret plant in the cupboard and watch it for a few weeks.)

#3 - The Dyed Plant - Also Sprouted the following day - grew well, and had slightly blue tinged stems.  (we're going to add more blue food colour when we water it next time and see if that will have an effect.)

So our experiment provided that in order to produce a healthy Cress plant with green leaves a plant needs water, sun and "soil".

Our next experiment, we picked up at Michael's this afternoon.  Involves a little "Egg" Terrarium.  I'm not sure yet how I'm going to present this to the girls, but I just wanted to grow a little terrarium of Herbs and Cacti and see what would happen.... I am the notorious assassin for Cacti - apparently I water them too much! LOL!

Grade 1 (2011/12) -Update

Updated from the original post on May 2011

The school year is in progress and as suspected there are things I didn't like about our original plan and things that just don't work for S.  So here are the current changes. :)

Again I will continue to update as we progress through 1st Grade! :)

LANGUAGE ARTS
- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons - DONE (Oct 2011)
- Various reading level books - read alouds and reading together
- Explode the Code (1, 1.5, and 2)  (didn't work for us)

-  Learning Language Arts Through Literature (looks like a better fit)
- Spectrum Reading (gr 1) - was a grasping at Straws move.
- (no spelling yet) - eventually Spelling Workout (probably start in Jan)
- writing practice - some cards to family and various workbooks (working on this)
- (no Grammar yet) - Growing with Grammar 1

MATH
- Singapore Math US Edition (1A and 1B) - (love this making great progress!)
- Various online computer games

HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY
-K12 Grade K and 1st History - not loving this thinking of doing my own material

SCIENCE/HEALTH
- K12 Grade K and 1st Science - not loving this seeking to do my own material


LANGUAGES
- Sign Language at home
- Possibly Rosetta Stone (French or Spanish)

ARTS/CRAFTS/MUSIC
- Artistic Pursuits
- Piano

EXTRACURRICULAR
- Swimming
- Soccer
- Possibly Dance Class
- Daisies (??)
- others as interests permit!

I will continue to update as we progress through this first year! :)

Computer Technology

As always I browse the net when time permits.  I look for ideas to embellish our materials, I look for ideas to provide more coverage in our schooling.  I don't teach to test, and I don't teach because the schools require certain things.  We cover a variety of subject material and I like it that way.

We follow the core materials of Language Arts (Reading/Phonics/Spelling-Vocab, Literature, Grammar, Creative Writing), Math, History/Geography/Social Studies, and Science.

I still haven't found an art program that makes me happy, or a music program that works - though both my girls have recently decided Piano is the way to go.  This week, I'm searching for Computer Technology and general computer stuff.  My oldest is more adventurous than my middle and I need to get them on similar pages or paths at least! LOL!

My oldest began exploring more of the computer when she was about 6 or 7 in Brownies.  She created a blog, learned about word processing, and learned about searching the internet safely.  So now I need to take her a little farther and see where we can go.   Dh tells me to teach her to program spreadsheets.  I feel she needs to start with basic computer languages.  I'm torn so I search the internet and look for what others are doing.

My middlest has her favourite games and loves the idea of a membership renewal of some sort 1x a month.  She haunts Jumpstart.com, toontown.com, webkinz.com and acouple others to name a few.  She's not keen on wordprocessing, but that may have been because she was not reading yet and she hasn't had a word processing program on her computer (need to fix that!)

So ya that's where I'm at this Friday afternoon.  Looking for a place to further the computer technologies part of their education!

Moving Right Along

Apologies for the gaps in the posts here.  I've been horribly side-tracked by FB lately and am just coming back into my own.  The recent changes there did it for me, and I've come to realize that I liked being able to come here and check out our progress and easily review things from the past.  So ya, I think I'm back to stay this time! LOL!

When we left off:  my 5 yr old was just beginning 1st grade materials.  She was not reading though we had begun 100 Easy Lessons.  Today I am pleased to say that she has just completed the 100 Easy Lessons book.

YAY!! CONGRATS Miss S! :) 

We have started working our way through the Explode the Code Books.  And I'm just pleased as punch that we've made it this far. She is reading way more fluidly and fluently than I did at her age! LOL!  So there in itself I consider our work so far a success! :)

She seems to love math.

Our first few weeks with 1st grade were a struggle.  She is a high energy kid, who loves to move and is never still for long, unless something so occupies her mind that she is too distracted to move! LOL!  I read a book over the summer "How to get your child off the refrigerator and on to learning" and OMG if S isn't that child!  Our first day of school she was on the chair, on the table, and the floor, falling off the chair, under the table, on the floor, before we had even gotten past the first page of what we were doing.  I spent far too much time wrangling her in the early days, trying to get her to sit and work with me, yelling and getting very mad.   Finally, I plead with my dh and my sis and my mum for ideas... and the best advice I got was from dh.  We decided to plan our school work in snippets of time, we started off with 15 minutes.  And then she got to play for 45, ya I know a little excessive but well it worked.  We are now down to 30 mins work and 30 mins of play!  (which leaves time for the other 2 -  15 for littlest and 15 for the oldest if she needs it!)  We do 3-4 subjects a day, depending on her attention span, and my ability to keep it together too!   So things are working out slowly and we are making great progress.  We do struggle some days.

We took all our school materials off to the beach for the month of September, where we had an awesome time.  The girls spent some good time on the beach enjoying the sand and surf, and learning so much about marine life and the stars, and so much much more.  I wish I could say I was glad to return home, but I was not.  I have much work to do here to get thing organized and feel better about this place.

So there you have it.  That is what we've been up to!

In the Jungle

So this week we begin our 2nd week of tot/prek with my littlest who turned 2 this June. We're following the Letter of the Week Prep for week 2, which is Jungle. DD(2) loves books, so the real aim of at the moment is to move away from the same old books she always stuffs in my hand while I'm typing and into a wider variety with a bigger subject base. Sheer entertainment value, I'm not expecting her to learn or retain anything that I teach her at the moment. It is just time dedicated to her for the purposes of having fun, outside our normal interactions!

So a couple weeks ago (yes I've been slacking,) we picked up a stack of books at our local library, which included but was not limited to:
"Slowly, Slowly, Slowly, said the sloth", by Eric Carle
"Dandelions," by Eve Bunting
"Hug," by Jez Alborough
"Jazzy in the Jungle," by Lucy Cousins
"Rumble in the Jungle," Giles Andreae

RR/ LS (reading readiness /listening & sequencing): We have read a couple of them already but, this week I'm aiming to read 1 a day to her.

CS (Colours/Shapes): I also printed off a booklet from Enchanted Learning on the colour green (I think it is in the member section), I had to readjust it so it would fit our purposes! But she loves using descriptive words like red, blue (fav word), green and pink so I thought it might be fun to show her what green really means!

Number and Size: I borrowed some ideas for a combo file folder game / Lapbook for her which I will assemble over the next couple days. It includes a counting book to 2. And will include a Size pouch so she can stack the cards from small to large!

Motor Skills: will include the activities suggested at LOTWPrep, and will include a sensory box found here

GOOSE (nursery Rhymes): which probably falls under reading readiness but I'm giving it, it's own heading, will be "I Had a Little Nut Tree", which I will dress up with maybe stick puppets or some kind of printable thing which can be stored in the lapbook!

So there you have it. While the bigs have summer vacation, the poor little has to do school work! The aim really is to get into a routine with her, and then add the bigs to that routine one at a time, so that I don't feel so overwhelmed come the start of school in August/September!

Toddler School / Pre K

Since I'm not sure when Tot School (Toddler School) ends and Pre-School begins, I figure as long as I'm working with the littlest things are good! So here is my plan

This is the 3rd and final time I race through age 2-5 materials with my kids, so you'd think by now it would be old hat! But no! Each time I re-invent the wheel having either discovered something new or trying a new method so of course this time is no different.

I'll be using Letter of the Week Prep to cover the basics
* Colours and Shapes
* Reading Readiness
* Listening and Sequencing
* Numbers
* Size
* Position and Direction
* Motor Skills
* Nursery Rhymes

I'm adding in sensory boxes like I have found on many Tot School blogs and other arts and crafts type things that suit dd's tastes. Hopefully I'll have more to share this year! :)

I will continue to update as we progress through this first year! :)