First Karate Demo - with Kamas!

Alexandra participated in her first karate demo on Saturday - complete with her weapon of choice: the kamas. Before performing in small groups to demonstrate their weapons, the students performed in larger groups. Alexandra loves karate and her favorite part is the weapons! (She uses both kamas and the bow.)

Dragonfly

Close-up of a dragonfly in our backyard - it looks incredible close up. You can even see a tear in his wing!

Go Texans!!!

What a great feeling it is to be cheering on a winning team... the Texans!!! We're now 2-0 (which is a first). This if fun. Go Texans!!! (photo: Alexandra at the first game of the season against the Kansas City Chiefs - whom we beat!)

The Tail of a Gecko

Today a small gecko, about 1.5 inches, got in our door jam so we had to get him out to shut the door. Unfortunately, his tail came out so this makes him more susceptible to predators. Usually, a gecko will drop his tail if he is captured and the predator should go after the wiggling tail instead of the gecko. So, now the poor gecko is in more danger - until his tail grows back.

But, I couldn't resist the urge to show Alexandra the tail. And, we got out her microscope and took the above photo at 60X. Isn't it neat?

The tail continued to wiggle for several minutes and we videotaped him with our digital microscope. Even after it stopped wiggling, it would start again if we touched it. Pretty neat defense system! (By the way, it was a lot more active at the beginning. This is probably 3-5 minutes after the tail fell off.)

Nature Day

We went with our homeschool nature group on our first nature day of the year - down by the coast. The group made 4 stops, but we were only able to go to the first 3.




Our first stop was to a nature preserve. There were dragonflies and lovebugs everywhere! I'd really never seen so many dragonflies, though there are often an abundance of lovebugs this time of year.


I also loved the lilypads. We looked for frogs, but I only found one and it was too far away to photograph.



We got pretty close to two small alligators. This is the fourth time for us to see them out in the wild (and all within the past year!) and the novelty is starting to wear off. But, it's still exciting! These two were about 2 foot long. They sat around for a long time and let us get really close.



Here's a close up after one of them had decided he was safer in the water.


Unless you're a real nature person, you might find this gross. It's alligator scat! The kids thought it was pretty gross to start with, but then thought it was pretty neat. There are a lot of berries that aren't digested at all. In fact, the sign with info about the alligators just mentioned different kinds of animals they eat - nothing about berries!



Our second stop was the beach where we ate and played in the water. It was a very hot day and the water was a wonderful temperature. There were even outdoor showers and indoor bathrooms. This is my favorite photo of the day - a wonderful sand crab. (You might click this one to enlarge it. You can see the hairs on his legs!) Some of the kids and I had fun as we blocked the front and back door to his house and he was running around. We weren't trying to be mean - we just wanted to watch him longer and not let him go in his hole. And, we did let him "go home."



Our last stop of the day was a fish hatchery/aquarium. We toured the facility and saw how they raised the fish. It was very neat to see the small eggs and "fry." It was a hot, steamy, fish-smelling tour, though. The kids favorite part was the touch tank where you could touch crabs, fish and anenomes.


At the end, the kids were allowed to feed some of the fish. We were all amazed at how quickly the fish came and splashed around trying to get their food!

Fun with Math

We did a couple of fun math activities this week - both were inspired by Alexandra. First, she was working on fractions and turned one of her figures into a cube with a face. This gave me an idea to teach her how to draw a cube. She caught on quick and even drew some cute hands & feet. So, we made this cute little cubes all over our dry erase board.

I'd also bought some flash cards this week that were story problems. She came up with a tic-tac-toe game. On your turn, you're asked a question. If you get it right, you get to take a turn! But, she made the tic-tac-toe game out of stick pins (with cardboard under the "game board"). I thought this was clever, fun, and colorful!

Magnets & a Compass

We studied (played with?) magnets this week using a kit from The Young Scientists Club. We talked about how like poles repel and opposite poles attract. And, we experimented with finding the north and south pole on different shaped magnets. We also made a compass, above. And, it worked! (The compass was part of studying the Explorers with KONOS.)

And, Alexandra taped a magnet to the top of this little car and showed how she could move the car because "like poles repel." This was lots of fun!

Chicago - Day 5 (last day!)

On our last day in Chicago, we went to Shedd Aquarium. Here's a photo of Alexandra in front of some jelly fish.




We really enjoyed the dolphin show - though it was only 15 minutes long! It was nice that school was back in session as there were not very many people there. They said up until a few days earlier, the place had been packed!



Although many of the computer games were broken, when they worked, they were one of our favorite things! In this game, you tried to save the sea horses!

Chicago - Day 4 - Hershey

Another of Alexandra's favorite places in Chicago was the Hershey's store. Yum! She got to crank some handles and fill her own bucket of chocolate (which we're still eating on).

And, she got to design her own cupcake. Wow! Chocolate cupcake with chocolate fudge icing and Hershey bars for a face. It was yummy, but she (we!) barely ate any of it and then accidentally left it somewhere.

After this, we went across the street to the Ghiradelli store and my mom & Alexandra shared a sundae while I had a chocolate shake. Delicious! (And that was pretty much dinner for the night - great mom, huh?) :-)

Chicago - Day 4 - Art Institute

On Day 4, we spent over 6 hours at the Art Institute of Chicago - and we could have stayed much longer! (Or come back a second day!) We were so excited to see so many artists... and specific paintings!... that we recognized.

Alexandra took a photo of each suit of armor.

I got excited to run into a few Precissionism paintings by Demuth that I had studied just a few weeks earlier!

We saw lots of paintings by Georgia O'Keefe.

American Gothic by Grant Wood - I'd always thought this was a farmer and his wife, but it is a farmer and his daughter!

Alexandra looking at one of the miniature room displays - there were probably 50 or so and they were so small and detailed! We both love miniatures.

I was excited to recognize this as a painting by Thomas Cole, Father of the Hudson River School of Art I also studied recently. And, my mom could even remember his 5 components of art I'd shared with her. He thought each piece of art should have: still water, a water feature, mountains, sky, and trees. (This is from memory - I'll have to look at my notes to make sure I got it right.)

Alexandra in front of Mary Cassatt's The Child's Bath - one of our favorites! We stayed in front of this one quite a while.

Alexandra (and I!) got so excited to see this one. It is one of Picasso's paintings of Sylvette, "The Girl with the Ponytail." This one was titled Portrait of Sylvette David. We came to love this painting by reading the book Picasso and the Girl with the Ponytail by Laurence Anholt. Great book and great story!

A painting by Picasso we see in books - Mother and Child.

This painting is called Rainy Street by Caillebotte. I took it because it was on the cover of a brochure Alexandra was carrying around. We bought the tour book and Alexandra loved looking through it and finding paintings that were in her book. It was like a scavanger or treasure hunt!

Another one Alexandra got very excited about since we'd studied it. This one is Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando by Renoir.

Another Picasso (who we're currently studying) from his Blue Period - The Old Guitarist.

Another example of Seurat's Pointilism which Alexandra was thrilled to recognize - Bathers at Asnieres.

Another we recognized - Van Gogh's Self Portrait.

And another we recognized - Bedroom in Arles by Van Gogh.

LOTS of Monet's!!!

And, a highlight was seeing Seurat's large painting, Sunday afternoon on La Grande Jatte. My mother has memories of seeing this painting when she was a little girl, and I hope Alexandra always remembers this special day when we saw so many incredible pieces of art!