Learning Every Day

Jonny watched BrainPop today and got curious about something. He looked up some info and found out some cool stuff about the Turkish military elite between the 1500s to the beginning of WWII. I had never heard of the group before. I was thought it was very cool that he had a question, found an answer and shared it. Something learned...completely unplanned.

The girls and I are reading The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett right now. Something came up in our conversation at dinner that allowed us to talk about what we were reading. Each of the girls shared  about a character - who they were, what role they played in the book. It's fun to hear them be excited about what we're reading. It's also really cool to have some proof that they comprehend what's going on in the book as we read.

I checked with Jacob on his math today. He's halfway through a math textbook Layne found (published years ago) at the D.I. one day. He just started it a couple of months ago. I think it's supposed to last for a 'school year' - but, he'll obviously be plowing through it much quicker than that at the rate he's going. The cool thing about him and math lately - he just does it. He works on a little bit of it everyday. I'm impressed with his commitment.

What I Like About Sunshine

What I like about Sunshine (my stuffed lion). I can do some stuff with him. Like cuddling. And he is so cute. That is all.

Dead Birds

I saw lots of dead birds this year. I buried them. And, I saw a pigeon and a robin. I used rocks and sticks as decorations for their graves.
by Megan

The Future

I talked with the kids tonight about what they'd like to do in the future.
Rachel - sing, play the guitar
Megan - design 'something' for the runway (She was trying to be coy...we all knew what she meant.)
Jonny - director, author, programmer, comic book creator (The next Joss Whedon is a common answer for him.)
Jacob - not sure he had an answer this time around...

I love the excitement they display when talking about what they love. Everyone has a dream, right? We have some work to do.

We talked about Dad teaching Rachel how to play the guitar, Megan designing modest clothes, and discussed the idea of Jonny making sure his material/media was appropriate. (I have to sneak the values in there whenever possible - just to be clear.)

License Plate Game

There are many people who play the license plate game while they are traveling. It typically involves looking for consecutive letters in the alphabet. We do something a little different around here during the summer. This is just when we're out and about - it usually involves being on the freeway. We try to find how many different states are represented as we drive around. I asked the kids today if they were picturing where the state was when we said the name. (Jacob nailed it when asked. I think I might have felt an eye roll fest in the back from the others.) They are fun to look for - especially during the summer. We live in a place where people actually come to visit and vacation. Weird, we know.

Here's today's list:

Colorado, Nevada, California, Missouri, New Mexico, Arizona, Washington, District of Columbia, Illinois, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming...there might have been a Kansas in there too...or maybe it was Kentucky. I guess we won't count it.

How many different license plates did you see today?

The Leanardo

We went to the Leanardo yesterday. There is a new exhibit called 'Animal Inside Out'. They had a discounted price to go along with the Arts Festival that's going on this week-end. We decided to write down some of the things we learned and thought were interesting.

Jacob - horses can't throw up. The way their throats and stomachs are made it's impossible for it to come back up.
Pigs blood system (circulatory system) has a lot of blood through most of it's body. The middle part has a minimal amount of blood.
Sheep can move tail only left to right. Goats can also move tail up and down.

Megan - we're all connected. Octopus and squid eyes are different. I think the octopus have eyes like people and squid have swirly eyeballs.
Reindeer hearts are huge.
Cats have lots of veins connected to the brain. And, their eye ball muscle are next to their brain.

Jonny - the word 'muscle' comes from 'little mouse' because the Romans thought it looked like mice moving under the skin. (Creepy!)
Horses brains are smaller than I thought they would be.
Oxen have big butts.

Rachel - I didn't really like anything. It scared me.

Mom - so many things animals are formed in a similar way. The same parts are just put together differently. Humans take the longest to reach sexual maturity. We also have the longest life span.
Birds and mammals have the same types of hearts. Small bird heart only had left and right ventricle.
Giraffes are the only animal that can regurgitate their food while running.

Dad - I don't know right now. (Maybe we'll have him contribute something later.):}


There were quite a few things we were able to see and learn. I thought it was fascinating and would have loved to have spent more time there. They had a large cross section of a giraffe (plastic) hanging from the ceiling. There was information to read and displays to look at throughout.