Jasper Johns

We have been studying the artist Jasper Johns for a few days after reading about him at ArtSmart4Kids. I hadn't heard of him before and enjoyed the links Jessica posted. And, I thought Jessica's Johns-style US map fit in nicely with our goal of learning the US states and where they are located. I wrote 'United States' on the map in white crayon before using the watercolors, but it didn't show up very well.

Then, Kathy at Art Projects for Kids came up with this Jasper Johns number project. I found it a good time to practice some math skills. For example, we had to cut 8 1/2 inches into 4 equal pieces. We haven't used oil pastels very much so I enjoyed the chance to use that medium.

30 Poets/30 Days

Gregory K. Pincus at GottaBook will be posting 30 poets in 30 days for National Poetry Month in April! These poems are previously unpublished. He'll begin on April 1st. I think this is a great way to get a taste of poetry - something I neglect in our home! (Thanks to Melissa Wiley for posting about this and alerting me to it!)

By the way, I've been enjoying reading some of Gregory K's poems tonight - like The Best Concert Ever and Reasons Why I Don't Write. They are both really funny and I think children, as well as adults, would enjoy them.

Fascinating Plants

Do you know what this is??? It's part of our new Cape Sundew! Isn't it beautiful? This plant is a carnivorous plant (or CP) and it uses those sticky drops of "dew" to trap its victims. You can see 2 little "meals" in this photo - I think they are gnats. When I touch these droplets of "dew", it is sticky and I can pull the plant towards me when I pull my finger away.

Here's a fuller view of our sundew. In the bowl, the green "stuff" is another CP - bladderwort. It eats very tiny insects. To be a CP a plant must do 3 things - attract, capture and digest its prey. Some are active like the more familiar venus flytrap and the bladderwort which "sucks in" its prey; and some are passive like this sundew and pitcher plants. The sundew actually becomes active when it captures its prey and will slowly wrap its tentacles around its prey.

We learned about CPs while attending a class recently. We enjoyed listening to this passionate speaker tell us about CPs as he showed us dozens of his "babies." Then, he gave us the 2 above plants to take home!

For further reading, we checked out Elizabite by H. A. Rey! The speaker had it on display so we had to see what it was like. Alexandra thought it was quite funny!

This was one of the biggest pitcher plants we saw. It was about 2 1/2 inches long. Some pitcher plants can eat small mammals like frogs and mice!

I was surprised at the beautiful blooms CPs can have. Although this blooming pitcher plant was inside, this was the same kind of plant that grows at this local nature preserve and we enjoyed seeing these blooms out in the wild.

The butterworts became my new "favorite CP" because of these beautiful flowers. Aren't they gorgeous??? By the way, CPs eat meat because they live in poor soil and they need these extra nutrients. You should NEVER give a CP any fertilizer.

Above is a video about pitcher plants that I found really interesting. And, you should check out the videos at Peter's Savage Garden. He has some great videos and shows lots of different plants.

Louisiana Purchase and Lewis & Clark

We have started a new co-op with another Classical Conversations family. Basically, we will be studying about Westward Expansion and pioneers. For a "spine", we are using Great Pioneer Projects You Can Build Yourself by Rachel Dickinson and Learning Through History's magazine, Westward Ho!

In the past, Alexandra and I had worked through most of the small book, "What A Deal!" The Louisana Purchase by Carole Marsh. I wish I would have got this book at again as we would have made some Mississippi Mud Pie or built a raft of pretzle rods.

I also have the Kaleidoscope Kids Book, The Lewis & Carol Expedition, which has lots of great projects in it. But, I just wasn't up to it! I was literally putting together this first study the morning of our co-op.


So, what did we do?

• At Enchanted Learning, we read about the Louisiana Purchase and took a quiz.



• We also read about Lewis & Clark at Enchanted Learning.



• We watched Schoolhouse Rock's "Elbow Room" (shown above).



• We colored a map of the Louisian Purchase.



• I think I found this part the most interesting - we discussed the Westward Journey series of nickels that the US mint released in 2004-2006. I was able to find 4 of the 5 coins at our house and especially enjoyed the coin that has a replica of the Peace Medal the explorers gave to Native American chiefs. "It shows the hand of a Native American and the hand aof a European-American clasped in a friendly handshake below a crossed pipe and tomahawk." I'd seen these coins before, but hadn't really paid any attention to them or what they meant.



• Lastly, I still hope to complete this one: Over the past year and a half, Alexandra has earned 3 Junior Ranger badges. Well, you can earn a Lewis and Clark Junior Web Ranger by doing research online (or in a book), filling out this form, and mailing it in! I've printed it out, I just need to set down with Alexandra and do the work now.

Our next stop in history - The Oregon Trail.

Hang In There!!!

I have been so busy planning our fun-filled school days lately that I haven't had much time to blog! We are doing lots of neat things and I can't wait to squeeze in some new posts. In the mean time, please "hang in there" with me!

Oh, and here's a quick tip - I was at WalMart today and picked up 6 calendars for 50 cents to 1 dollar each. I'm using them to work on my drawings - like this cute kitty! So, you might keep your eye out for 2009 calendars - they are selling cheap! I especially like to pick up the Fine Art calendars, but this is the first time I've picked up cartoon and animal calendars to work on my own drawing skills.

Genghis Khan @ Houston Museum of Natural Science

A few weeks ago, we took a field trip to HMNS to see the Genghis Khan exhibit. Before we went, I'd found a website about Khan that Alexandra and I read through. Unfortunately, I've spent probably an hour looking for the site so I could post a link, but I cannot find it. We also read the book by Demi, Chingis Khan (which is an alternate spelling of his name).


I visited the HMNS site and realized they had lesson plans, but didn't understand how to pull them up. If you go to this site, you actually click on the words "Vocabulary" (this could be useful to anyone studying Khan), "Knowledge Hunt" (I WISH I would have figured this out before we went as it has 10 pages of questions you can fill out as you walk through the exhibit! It would also be a useful guide to anyone studying about Genghis Khan AND Marco Polo), and Extension Activities. Actually, I'm considering going again so I can use the Knowledge Hunt questions!

Camera Tip for Using Macro (Moss)

I love using macro on my camera. Sometimes, the photos I capture startle me! Sometimes, I think it looks like I've used a microscope, not a camera.

While we were in Oklahoma last week, we took a drive out in the country and went on a nature walk. Our main "sightings" were mosses and lichens. I took the above photo of some moss spore capsules using the macro function on my camera. These stalks were about 3/4 of an inch tall. I just love how the "heads" look like goose heads!

The above moss also looked more beautiful using my camera than using my eye. It looks like a bunch of little stars! But, here are my 2 camera tips for using macro:

1. Turn off the flash.
2. DON'T ZOOM IN - Just get closer! I mean REALLY close! You might want to even get within an inch or so. The "don't zoom in" was something I learned by trial and error. Try it out for yourself and let me know what happens!

Google Reader Search Function

About a year ago I discovered Google Reader and it is saving me so much time! Using Google Reader, I can track all of my favorite blogs on one site! I have it set to show all of the posts I haven't read yet. So, when I visit Google Reader, I can catch up on everyone's blog!

Just a few days ago, I noticed a "search" function on Google Reader. It is so neat! If I remember reading about something on someone's blog, but I don't remember who, I can search "all items" and Google Reader finds the post for me! Or, if I'm working on a new topic and want to see if any of my friends have blogged about it, I can type some key words and hit "search."

For example, I typed in "Tall Tales" this morning and came across several of Ms. Julie's posts. I was also able to find several posts on Blog, She Wrote where she's used some FIAR books. I've requested some of them from the library.

I'm so excited to find this "new" tool!

Balancing Eggs with Mark Kistler

As I mentioned yesterday, today is the equinox and some people believe you can only balance an egg on the equinox. I've balanced an egg before and it wasn't on the equinox. Well, we tried it again today, but we weren't able to do it. I know there is a skill to it and last year I was able to balance quite a few eggs. But, today, I wasn't patient enough and didn't remember the 'trick.' So, instead, Alexandra and I drew some eggs standing on their end - Ninja Eggs, that is.

For $40, we recently bought a 3 year subscription to Mark Kistler's website through Homeschool Buyers Co-op and have been having fun learning to draw. I am especially enjoying learning to shade. Anyway, these were our Ninja Eggs and we'd draw them since we weren't able to make any eggs balance.

Tall Tall Tall Tales

We're currently doing a unit called Tall Tall Tall Tales using a free ebook from Rainbow Horizons Publishing. It is written for grades 4-8 and we are really enjoying this study!

We started by discussing what Tall Tales were and reading about Paul Bunyan from Mary Pope Osborne's American Tall Tales. Then, we were given 9 short stories and we were to separate fact from fiction - this wasn't as easy as it sounded!

Next, we discussed some effective writing tools like adjectives, alliteration, exaggeration, simile, and conversation. We read an entertaining story called The Talking Cat and then we did today's assignment: created our own "gross" menu concentration on using adjectives and alliteration. I came up with "Road Kill House" complete with food items like "puffy possum paws" and "smelly skunk burgers."

Alexandra's restaurant was called Gigi's Gummy Guts. She had dishes like "guinea pig noggin juice" and "toilet water" - yum!

A few weeks ago, Ms. Julie at Art Lessons for Kids ran a contest where she would create an art project and lesson plans for someone's topic. I didn't win, but she liked my idea of Tall Tales so much that she went ahead and created both some artwork and some additional lesson plans! We had fun recreating Ms. Julie's picture of Paul Bunyan and Blue. My artwork is at the top of this post and Alexandra's "Blue" is here at the bottom.

A lot of this unit has to do with writing. Next, we'll be working with exaggeration and then similes and conversation. This is a fun, creative writing unit and I recommend it. I know I'll be looking at other units by Rainbow Horizons Publishing.