Tinker Crate

My son is so excited! I just ordered a subscription to Tinker Crate for him to try. He thinks of himself as a creator but we find it hard to gather all the items he needs for projects. Tinker Crate takes care of that with a kit sent to you.  They call it  "A laboratory for hands-on experiments delivered every month" .  All materials are included.

From their website  "Tinker Crate inspires kids to explore and learn about science, engineering, and technology—and have fun doing it. Every month, a new crate to help kids develop a tinkering mindset and creative problem solving skills."

His first kit has not arrived yet, but I will update you on how he liked it. Just so you know, this is not a sponsored post, I paid for this myself and have not had any contact with the company. They do however offer a referral policy if others buy from your link. $10 off for them and a $10 credit for you. The link in this post includes that code. So if you were thinking about trying Tinker Crate, we both get a reward!

The Hitchhiker Fish

 

Look what we found by surprise, a baby American Flag-Fish! Last summer when we were gathering native minnows and fish from the canal near our house, I also brought back some plants and vegetation to keep in a large tub on the patio. I wanted to grow some plants and algae to feed the fish in the tanks. The only fish I put in the tub were a couple of mosquito fish, to eat any mosquito larva that developed.

Well, lo and behold, this week when cleaning out the tub, I found the mosquito fish doing well and this tiny Flag-Fish. It's a female, only a half inch long. Since Flag-Fish are egg layers, I assume her egg was attached to some of the plants and it hatched in the tub.

We had no idea she was in there and now she has been relocated to a more luxurious residence in my large aquarium. There is a larger female already there to keep her company, so we hope she likes her new home :)

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Incognito

As you may have noticed, the frequency of my posting has declined. The truth is, my life has had some extra stress the last few months and I've been unable to come up with anything much to blog about other than the "less than fun stuff" that we have been going through.

In fact "BlogHer" actually pulled my ad account, due to the infrequency of my posts. Not that I blame them, they are running a business. It may end up being a good thing because now without their restrictions, I'm open to take other opportunities and reviews, that I have had to refuse in the past. So you may see some changes here in the future, in order to makeup for the lost income.

As for my life, my son is now nine years old ( 9yrs old! I can hardly breath when I say that) and I have hit some road blocks with him that I am working on. Educating a highly gifted child has many challenges and I am learning that he also has some social behaviors that make working with others challenging. It's appears that he may be what they call "2e" or twice exceptional. Meaning he is gifted but with learning and/or behavioral difficulties as well. I'm in the process of figuring it out and will hopefully share what we are doing on the blog.

At the same time, my younger sister has been very ill with end stage Lymphoma and has spent much of the last six months in the hospital. She is stable at the moment and looking into clinical trials to maybe give her a little more time on this earth.

My pet sitting has been hit and miss, hence the need to bring in more income. I have spent what time I have in-between other things, working on my Etsy shops and trying to boost the sales there.

So that's about it. Just thought I should let you all know what's up and why I've been absent, without dwelling on it. I plan to continue to post about our home education and about my world, as soon as I get a handle on a few things. Thanks for listening, DJ :)

The Magicstick by Powerocks

The folks at Powerocks have offered to send me a Magicstick to try, and I happily agreed! Now that my son is older, we do a a fair amount of our homeschooling away from home. It never fails that his Kindle will run out of power at the park, etc. 

This compact and lightweight mobile charger will quickly become must have for any person on-the-go. The Magicstick 2800mAH is the perfect size for any pocket, purse, or backpack. Never get stuck with a dead phone or other mobile device again.

They tell me that it will work with his Kindle, so I will give it a try. I'll let you know how it went in another post. In the mean time, this would make a great stocking stuffer for your tech crazy kids!

For more information go to: PowerocksUSA

What We Are Working On

 

From time to time, folks ask my son what he's learning about this year. So in the interest of sharing great resources, here's our list:

1. Life of Fred, Decimals and Percents:  Math was never so much fun! My son has read almost all the books just for the story, then we go back and do the math problems

2. Balance Benders Level 1:  Logic and algebraic reasoning puzzles from The Critical Thinking Co.

3. Word Roots A2:  Teaches students the meanings of Latin and Greek prefixes, roots, and suffixes commonly used in English. Also from The Critical Thinking Co.

4. Developing Critical Thinking Through Science, Book 2:  Hands-on, minds-on activities that help students learn basic physical science principles and the scientific method of investigation. From The Critical Thinking Co. as well (can you see a pattern here?).

5. Jacob's Ladder Reading Comprehension Program,Level 2 :  By the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary

6. The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance :  This text is a very fast read for my son, but it then provides a foundation for further research when an event or historical figure catches his interest.

My son will turn 9 this year and he still loves to read just for his own entertainment (yeah!). He reads both fiction and non-fiction as he pleases. At the moment he is reading a very old volume of Aesop's Fables that was mine as a child.

Those are the only texts or workbooks we will use, but of course video and online learning is mixed in. He has learned a great deal about computer language and skills just from his online game creations and Minecraft play.

In between helping me care for my pet sitting clients, we just follow his interests the rest of the time.

He also has decided he wants to document things more (thoughts, ideas, findings etc.), so he is getting writing time in on his own as well. This is much better than me asking him to write something specific, which never worked!

Florida Tank Update

 Our Florida freshwater tank is doing great!

All the plants are growing and we haven't lost a single fish.

So far the Flagfish are getting along with everyone.

I tried to get some good photos of the males, but it's amazing how hard it is to photograph moving fish!

This is the best shot of the larger male Florida Flagfish.

  Isn't he beautiful!

A River Walk and A Barn

 

 

Last week we took a road trip down historic Indian River Drive to the St Lucie County History Center. The ride alone was an event. Indian River Drive runs directly along the Indian River, 19 miles to Ft Pierce, Fl.  On your right is the river and on your left are some of the areas most historic homes and newer fabulous ones! It's hard to know which way to to look, as there are no bad views. My son was full of oohs and aahs at every turn!

 

 

The History Center had outdoor and indoor exhibits. My son loved the old barn and farming equipment. He's been reading novels about early pioneer life, so this trip was great for bringing images to life for him.

They even had an old (and still working, I was told ) pioneers moonshine still. Wonder how often they test it?

 

Inside the Historic Center was really amazing! Full of exhibits of early Florida Indian and pioneer life. It really was too much for one visit and we will be going back to take more pictures and maybe eat lunch by the river.

Another Fish Tale

I know they may be hard to see, but our Molly had babies! If you look close you can see the tiny fry in these photos. There are about fifteen altogether. Not sure if they will make it, some will be eaten unfortunately. If they did all survive every time, we would run out of tank space fast! So we will let nature take it's course and see.

New Aquarium for our Florida Fish

Our ditch fish are getting new digs!  We have been busy setting up a 29 gallon tank for them. It's quite an improvement over the little 2 gallon they have been in. Right now we are waiting for the water to cycle and establish some good bacteria. There are some live plants, a few snails and a couple of common mollies in it for now.

So far all is well and we will add the others in a week or two.  On our last net dipping we caught two sailfin mollies and a flag fish.  We still have the 10 gallon tank with the pet store fish, but my son is obsessed with the ditch fish we found and wants to keep going to see what else we can discover. Florida has quite an array of critters in our ditches and canals. Not to mention a few not so friendly guys too, but we are steering clear of them!

Our Backyard Hawk

I think I was interrupting his dinner.

He seemed annoyed with the timing of my photo opt :)

Coupon Code for A+ Math Curriculum

It's not often I enter contests let alone win anything, however back in December I signed up for chance to win an online math curriculum for my son.  Low and behold, I was one of the winners!

As a result, my son now has a great year of math ahead of him compliments of A+ Multi-Sensory Interactive MATH Curriculum.

While this is not a review of their product  (we haven't started yet, I'll let you know later what I thought), I do want to pass along a 50% off coupon code they have at the moment.
The coupon code is  SPOFFER50. The coupon code expires March 31st 2013.

Here's a little info from their site:

The goal of the A+ TutorSoft is to help students of all ability and grade levels reach their educational potential by offering expert instruction that is engaging, easy to follow and easily accessible. Using a proprietary learning platform that combines voice, visual and text-based instructions, we make learning MATH easy. Centered on the proven methodology of a test-grade-review cycle, A+ TutorSoft's instructional platform delivers personal, highly-effective, and expert instructions.

So if your looking for a math curriculum, check them out.

New Tires Come With Pygmy Goats

Taking our car into the shop for anything even a routine service, is always a nightmare for us. Not only do they always find more things to be fixed but since I have no way to drop off and come back for the car, we always end up waiting an eternity for it to be ready to go.

Last Wednesday was no different. The car needed new rear tires, brakes and an oil change. We arrived just before noon and as soon as we got out of the car, we hear these pitiful cries coming from the parking lot. There across the lot, on the grass, in a large kennel was a baby pygmy goat.

Now we have been going to this same mechanic for years and they know us there. The owner sometimes has his dogs with him, and they stay in the kennel. He knows that I work with animals and we talk about his sometimes. He brought the baby goat there that day, so his daughter could work with it after school. She was in a 4-H club this year.

The goats name was Sophie and she was just bleating her little heart out trying to get my son to come over to her.  The little girl that raised her was about my son's age and the goat was lonely in the kennel for attention, so he went and sat with her.

Four hours of goat sitting goes by and my son has been entertaining this little goat the best he can. Every time he tries to leave, she starts crying and jumping and kicking at the kennel fence. It also had been raining some and the goat was digging up the mud and getting her white coat all dirty.

Finally the little girl arrives after school. My son helped her get the goat's harness on and practice walking her. Apparently she was also supposed to show the goat for the first time that night at a 4-H meeting. Since Sophie was now all muddy, they decide that she must have a bath.

Sophie had never had a bath yet and the girl did not know what to do. Her dad suggests that she tie her to an empty car lift and get started with the hose. My son decided I needed to help and tells her "My mom can take care of any animal!"  Dogs, cats, yes and even a bird or two, but never have I bathed a goat.

So I tried to instruct them both from safe distance on what to do. However after a few minutes it was obvious that they were getting a bath and not the goat. As expected, I stepped in to help. Now I'm  somewhat tall and this is a very small goat. Without a table to put it up on, I had no option but to get down on the ground and hold on.

It was only a matter of time before the children were watching me and I was doing the work. The goat got a bath, mom got very wet and the entire staff at the auto garage got a good laugh watching the crazy lady wash a goat, in the auto shop, tied to a car lift.

The little girl was thrilled her goat was white again and was suddenly filled with questions about raising her. I'm very patience when in comes to children and questions. I homeschool my son after all, questions are my life, but now I'm getting tired. We had been at the garage for five hours, the car was ready to go and so was I.

As politely as a could I suggested she ask her father to get her a book about goats or to go Google some information. She was happy with that answer, whipped out her Kindle and went searching.
We then quickly said goodbye and hit the road!

In all my years owning a car, that was the first time a trip to the mechanic also involved livestock husbandry! I should have asked for a discount. At least my son enjoyed himself, and he still thinks his mom can take care of everything :)

All About Weather Felt Board Set

 

I've added a few new felt board sets to my Etsy shop. This one is all about the weather and includes fifteen laminated images backed with Velcro dots that will stick to any felt or flannel board.

I also created new, all cats and all dogs sets. You can find these and many others in my Etsy shop. Thanks for looking!

Games for Writing

It's brilliant, really it is! Thanks to a great book I ordered, I found a fun way to challenge my reluctant writer. The book Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye, has given me dozens of way to engage and encourage my son to write.

Like many boys, he loves a good game and loves to try and bend the rules if he can get away with it. In this book, the author describes a game she calls "Word by Word".  You write a story with your child by taking turns adding the next words. The trick is you have to roll dice before each turn to see how many words you can use to continue the story.  So you start with a topic and then each take turns expanding the story.

At first my very controlling son refused to play because he didn't want me to change the direction of the story if he didn't have enough words to finish his thought. After a few tries as predicted, he was begging me to let him throw the dice again and use "more" words.

That's all it took (rules meant to be broken) for him to insist on writing. Brilliant I tell you, brilliant!
Half way through the story, we changed to me writing a full sentence and then him. He still threw the dice because he thought it was fun, but in no time we had completed a full page story.

I will be using this game again and again. There are many more examples in this book that will work for all types of children. However, if you have an intense, obsessive boy who likes to win games, give this a try!

*This is not a paid review. I purchased this book on my own and have never been contacted by the author

Fibonacci ala Lego

 Classic Fibonacci spiral

My son's Lego Fibonacci spiral. He's having fun with math!

Summer Science Projects

image: USDA

This summer we are planning some science projects involving local resources. First up will be collecting water samples and viewing their microscopic contents.

My good friend, the local veterinarian, loaned us her extra microscope for our studies. We are so grateful for her assistance with extra supplies and learning materials, I would not have access to otherwise (not free anyway)!

I found some great links online for identification and experiment ideas:

Protist Park : Contains an introduction to Protists (pond life) and video gallery of mini movies and a cool short story with the movie links included in order.

Nikon MicroscopyU : This site contains many great live video and image galleries for many subjects including pond life. Ton's of educational material here!

The Freshwater Life: Has everything you new to know about collecting samples, growing specimens and identifying them. Lots to learn!

So we are going hunting for pond scum is Florida's swamps and ponds (well, around the neighborhood anyway). Hope we make it back alive!

The Ancients Had The Good Life.

We are studying Ancient History this year and today while talking about ancient China and the Shang Dynasty, my son had a revelation. He suddenly stopped his work and said to me: " Mom, when it's too easy, it's boring!" 

At first I thought he was complaining about the lesson, which he does do if it's too easy.  I said ok then, lets turn it up a notch and go to the library. We can research pictograms or Ancient Chinese weapons.

While he agreed that would be good too, what he meant to say was that  "When life is too easy, it's boring". "I think we should go back to doing more things by hand, so our work will be more exciting!"

Apparently the stories of ancient people who worked with their hands, created their own tools, grew their own food and wove silk for cloth, sounds more exciting than ordering things from Amazon. Out of the mouths of babes indeed.  Just hoping he doesn't want to raise silkworms now! :)

Home Education Resources

Passing on a couple of cool and more important, free resources! First up, a great Venn diagram of the three branches of government. It shows who is responsible for what on each level: local, state and federal. You can download it and print it out here at Kids Discover.

We have a subscription to Kids Discover magazine also and love it (no ads)! They have other lesson plans and resources for parents and teachers there too.

For free human biology and science  DVDs and Cd's,  go to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
They also have some printed materials free that they ship as well.
Check out their Cool Science link for interactive educational help for children of all ages.

I'm always thrilled to find quality resources on the web and will pass them on when I do!

January Sky Watch

Look what we saw in the early evening sky this week!

My son and I were so lucky to be able to see both Jupiter and Venus shortly after dark.

Jupiter is in the upper left highlighted in yellow and Venus is below the moon on the right, in the red triangle. 

This time I even remembered to get my camera (yeah mom!).

To join in the fun, go to EarthSky and see what to look for

each night of the year. If you blink you'll miss them, don't wait!

Life of Fred, Our Favorite Math Books

My son has always had a knack for math. He enjoys patterns and geometry. When he began learning math, everything was new and exciting and then we hit a wall. All of a sudden the textbooks wanted him to do pages of the same problems, just using different formulas to arrive at the same answer. He didn't get it, didn't even want to understand it. He knew how to solve the problem, so why did they want him to waste time doing it ten different ways?  I know how he felt. I was the same way in school. If I arrived at the correct answer, why did it matter how I got there?

Then one day while I was reading posts in a gifted forum, I noticed many references to "The Life of Fred" math books.  I purchased the first one in the series at the time "Fractions". I read the 1st chapter and was intrigued. The best way I can describe them is as an interactive literary math journey.
My son who was six at the time, read it in bed over three days. He loved it! He read it again and again.

I have since ordered three more books including two from the new elementary series that was just completed. Now, I must tell you, these are not ordinary math books and what they have become in my son's world are so much more. They are a continuing story that points out the use of math in daily living and asks the reader to participate along the way. At the end of chapters, are problems for the reader to solve.

Included in the story are also many other facts relating to literature, history and science. Reading these books have sparked my son's interest in so many other areas! Most recently in writing. Currently he has begun writing his own book (adapting Fred's style) typing on the computer. He now has five pages complete. This from a boy who until now, would spend an hour or more writing three sentences!
Needless to say, I'm thrilled.

The best part, is that the series will carrying him through college level math. I'm sure we will do other things along the way, but I know that these books will always be good for when boredom and burnout sets in. The author does have biblical references occasionally but as a secular home educator, I did not find them to be an issue. So if you have a child who is bored with pages of problems and who likes to read, I highly recommend "Life of Fred"!

*This is not a paid review. I purchased the books myself. Just sharing great ideas!