Book Talk Tuesday - Magyk, Flyte, Physik

By Angie Sage

One dark and wintry night, a woman goes into labor.  When her baby is born dead, her husband finds a baby in the snow at the same time.  The family raises her as their own but always feels as if they are missing that baby that died.  He was a seventh son of a seventh son.  Septimus is deeply missed.

I have only read two of the six so far available, but am hooked.  It is a great series. 

My second son (who was previously a very reluctant reader) has been devouring these books!  He has loved every single word and flies through them.  That right there has me picking up another each time I make it to the book store!  (and at only $10 for the paperback...it is a rather inexpensive book to buy)

There is a slightly different take on magic, and the words are spelled a little different also.  I am enjoying the fact that they are very explicit about the difference between good and evil.  They mention several times in each book how very damaging and soul stealing even the tiniest foray into the dark side could be and to stay very far away from such things.  I love the parallels between our lives and the things in our lives that can be drawn here.

I think that with the smaller words, and the non stop action in these books, it would captivate even the younger readers, so I am going to go with about Grade 3 (if they are strong readers) and up.  I also think that both girls and boys would enjoy this series.  There are strong leads in both sexes so there is someone to relate to for both.

I have seen that they are compared to an easier read than Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, so if you enjoyed these two series, and want something similar, this might be a good one to try.  (not having read HP and not finished LOTR yet, I am not a good judge, this is just what "they" say.)

And, if you like your kids to explore the online sites of games and maps and etc, the website is here.

Cheers

Book Talk Tuesday - The Hobbit, A Wrinkle in Time and The Giver

This past summer (as all summers since we started homeschooling) I have been busy reading for school.  I really like to pre-read the books I am going to have my boys read as school assignments, so that means reading many books over the summer to find those ones that we will be using. 

 

Here are three such books.  I still don't have a definite on all the books we will be using, but the Hobbit is one that is for sure. 

 

From the flap:

"Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely travelling any further than his pantry or his cellar.  But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard, Gandalf, and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure.  They have a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon.  Bilbo is most reluctant to take part in this quest, but he surprises even himself by his resourcefulness and his skill as a burglar!"

I figured it was high time for me to read a book that was considered a "classic".  With the movie coming out, I wanted my boys to read it, then we would let them see it in December....maybe, provided it was rated appropriately to our family standards.

I struggled the whole way through this book.

I don't read books like this often, and when I do, I take a long time to read them as the language is not at all the type I am used to.  This excited me.  I want to stretch my brain and gather books like this and read them all.

I love the descriptive way Tolkien writes.  He describes things so vividly and totally different than normal so you have a whole new take on the thing he is describing.

I think, with the difficult language in the book, that this would be more appropriate for older readers.  (Grade 6 or so?) There are some rather large words, and if your child is used to reading today's literature, some difficult passages.  I think that both girls and boys would enjoy the adventure though.

From the back of the book:

"It was a dark and story night.  Out of this wild night, a strange visitor comes to the Murry house and beckons Meg, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe on a most dangerous and extraordinary adventure-one that will threaten their lives and our universe."

Again, this book is written in a different style that I am not used to.  I loved it.

The thing I loved the most about the book is the blatant reference to Jesus, God, and Satan.  The "good" things are attributed to God and the "bad, black" things are Satan's. 

I even found reference to the war in heaven.  Satan wants to take away the agency of the world he occupies and will make a perfect world where everyone is totally free of making choices.  He says they are all happy. 

I thought that it was interesting for an author to so blatantly add her religious views in a book.  That happens rarely and it was exciting for me to find.

The writing style is a bit more difficult than regular books, but a little easier than the Hobbit above.  I would say this would be for an experienced reader and older.  (Grade 4 and up?)   I think that both boys and girls would enjoy this adventure.

From the back of the book:

"Jonas's world is perfect.  Everything is under control.  There is not war or fear or pain.  There are not choices.  Every person is assigned a role in the Community. 
When Jonas turns twelve, he is singles out to receive special training from The Giver.  The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life.  Now it's time for Jonas to receive the truth.  There is no turning back."

This was an interesting read. 

I found that many of the more popular distopian novels that are cropping out seemed to have taken many of their ideals for their new societies from this book, but that is where the similarity ends.  While things are different here, the violence in today's books is lacking in this one.  That made me happy.

I have been trying to find a book like this for a while that I can let my children read, that produces discussion such as this, and I think I may have found it. 

I was also thankful that I didn't have to read so much of the garbage that is in today's novels. 

I think that because of the issues in this short novel, you would want a more mature reader.  I am thinking around Grade 6 for age appropriateness.  I also think that although the main character is male, both boys and girls would enjoy this book.

I would love to hear about your opinions.  Have you read any of these books?  What did you think of them.  Apparently they are rather controversial and are on some lists of books not to read.  What did you think of them?

Cheers

Book Talk Tuesday - The Humming Room

Roo hides.  When her parents are killed, Roo is hiding and she thinks that is what saved her.

Roo hears the earth.  During the quiet of her hiding she puts her ear to the earth and can hear the life inside.

Roo is friendless.  Being the kind of girl she is, she does not attract friends.

Roo finds out that she has a wealthy uncle who lives on an island in the middle of nowhere.  That is when her life changes for the better.

This book is inspired by The Secret Garden.  I could see shades of it inside but those who haven't, won't.

Being a really short book, it only took me a couple hours to read.  (and my oldest read it in almost the same amount of time)  It is a really easy read too.  It is very well written for the younger crowd, but still appeals to the older pre-teen/early young adults.

There is a cute little romantic side story, a thread of loving your difficult relations, a finding yourself through hard work and coming out of your shell, and a finding your joy and life.  So many different issues are addressed and worked into the story.

Although by the middle of the book, the story lines of the two books seem to be pretty much the same, this is a great book.  If you have read both, you will probably find this one to be rather predictable, but if you are starting off your children on a book with language a little easier to read and working your way up to The Secret Garden, this is a great place to start.  (although, I think it is great either way)

I think it would appeal to both boys and girls and probably Grade 4 to about Grade 8. (at the top end of the spectrum)  ...or even their mothers!

Cheers

Summer Links and Lists

This post is also appearing on Latter-Day Homeschooling today.

Are you having a great summer?!

I am.

My boys are busy working on their summer fun chart, interspersed with some other activities. 

I thought that for this links and lists I would give you some fun activities, that cost little or no money, to do with your kids.  These are great for the last min "Mom, I am sooooo bored.  What can I do?!" times in your children's lives!

Enjoy.

• Kids love being monsters right?  Just mine...I am sure it is not!  This is a great idea for those monsters to have big monster feet.  Walk in the sand or puddles.  Leave big monster feet prints behind.
• For my son's birthday this year he got a bow.  Since then my boys have been really excited about bows and shooting them, and even making them.  Here is a simple bow your (older) kids could make.
• Have you seen the baked cotton balls making their rounds?  My boys really want to try them, and we will as soon as it is not so stinkin hot out and I can turn my oven on!  They are practically free though so good fun.
• Are you lucky enough to have a sandbox?  If you are, my boys are jealous because they want to turn a sandbox into one of these mud boxes.  They think this would be so much fun.  (and I think girls like getting dirty just as much as boys do...at least I did!)
• I just picked up a pack of shower caps (12 for a dollar) for this fun activity.  Super fun with lots of kids or just two.
• If you have a few kids at your house and they are all bored, this would be super fast and easy to put together and I think it could keep them busy for a while.  I did a popcorn fight once and it was FOREVER to pop enough popcorn for a 20 min fight...worth it, but this activity seems a little less work to me.
• How about chalk?  Do you have some?  Water balloons?  I am sure you have both.  If you do, this activity looks like lots of fun.
• If you used paper plates, you could do this little man tea party on the super cheap.  My boys are obsessed with moustaches so this is right up their alley.  (Yes, even the big one!)
• And because I secretly long for the simple days of the pioneers, this whistle is right up our alley too.  I think if kids had a little patience it would be a very rewarding activity.
• Right now we live in a rental and spray painting our lawn is kind of forbidden...but as soon as we aren't, this is going to happen here.  What fun!
• OK, we did this last month and my boys had a blast.  I had to make a rule that no hands were involved for the big boys because they were just wrestling, but as soon as the hands were taken out of the equation, this was a BIG hit here. 
• Last year the biggest hit of all was our shaving cream war.  Serious fun here.  Cheap, but not free.
• Here are a couple other ideas that I had featured on my summer camp series on my blog this summer.

Have an awesome summer!

Cheers

Book Talk Tuesday - Shadow

When walking through the library the other day, we saw this book and it helped me remember doing an exercise once when I was a young girl in school.

The book is full of illustrations and you make up the story.  On one side of the book is an illustration of what this little girl is doing, and on the other is a wonderful shadow world. 

Eventually that shadow world ends up leaking into her real world and she even changes places to go play in the made up world.

I thought it would be fun to make our own shadow world things.

First we needed a blank piece of paper folded length wise.

Then we wrote our name on the fold (if you do it in cursive it is even more fun...but my baby only knows how to print so we did printing) and traced an outline around our letters.

Then cut out along that outline and open your shape up.

Inside you draw a creature of some sort.  Be creative.

After you are done, admire your creativity and go play with your shadow creatures.

I love how fun this was and how perfectly it went along with the shadow book.

Cheers

Book Talk Tuesday - King Bidgood's in the Bathtub

One of my very favorite books growing up was King Bidgood's in the Bathtub.

I probably drove my Mom nuts listening to it over and over and over and over...

I found out that I had done a really large disservice to my poor baby and hadn't read this treasure to him.  I had to rectify that immediately.  We discovered a mutual love all over again.

You can get just the book, but if you get the chance grab the CD.



The story goes that the king is in the bathtub and he will not get out.

A few people try some great ideas (the queen wants to lunch, the duke wants to fish, etc) but he just will not get out of the tub.

The poor page has to keep up with all the stuff the king keeps doing and finally gets fed up and pulls the plug.

Glub,
Glub,
Glub.

The songs are super catchy and fun.  The story is very cleverly illustrated and really enjoyable to read.  We love the book here.

Cheers

Summer Fun Reading Chart

Last year I saw a really cute little "bingo" type reading chart on a friend's blog.  She always has amazing ideas and I love her virtual space. (if you click on the bingo link she also has a great list of books) 

My boys did the reading chart and were all pleased with the new books they discovered.

This year as I was sort of loosely planning what we were going to do this summer, I asked my boys what they enjoyed most last year.  Of course they mentioned our Summer Fun Chart (which seems to look a little different each year!) and then they surprised me and said the summer reading chart.  Then they surprised me further and asked for another only with MORE books on it!  Knock me over with a feather!

This year I thought I would share with you what we are doing for our chart.  (and here is the chart just for you if you want it for your kids, just click on it for a bigger version)

There are 50 different words or phrases on this chart. 

The deal here is that they must cross off the ones they read.  For example, if they read a book like "The Red Pyramid" by Rick Riordan, there are a few things they could cross off.  Pyramids, A Boy Hero, A Girl Hero, Action/Adventure, just to name a few.  The trick is that they have to cross it off on their own.  They can not ask me what I think the book is about.

They must eventually cross off all 50. 

I am letting them do this from Mid-June until the end of September.  Then I will let them pick a large prize if all three boys complete their charts.  Last year they were trying to earn a trampoline but one of them didn't finish his.  I extended the deadline and made it so they could cross off multiples for each book.  Hopefully they can all complete their charts.

I hope your kids enjoy it.  I tried to make it friendly for both girls and boys and to make it all age friendly so your elementary and your high school children could all use it.  (of course rules could be changed for each age group as well)

Rules could change for your family too.  If you want to have the complete 20 or something, or choose to have all the blue colored words...the choices are endless.  You don't have to reward your kids either.  Make it work for you.

Please let me know if your children enjoy it.  I would love your feedback.

Cheers

Update...Black and White Version is here

Summer Camp - Summer Fun Chart

To kick off this series of Summer Camp ideas, I thought I would start with something my boys love.  I really hope that you are all like me.  I hope that when summer comes, you try to find things to keep your kids occupied because they need to have something to do each day!

My boys love looking forward to summer though because that means that I make up our summer fun chart. 

For the past few years I have been printing out a list of activities, putting it in a cheap frame (think dollar store) and each time they do one, they cross it off with dry erase markers.  The beauty of having it in a frame is that I can just wipe it off.  Easy Peasy.

This year I thought I would get fancy and make all of you (who want one) a printable list as well.  Just click the photo for a larger one to print out.

Coming up these next few weeks, I have some wonderful guest posts.  These ladies have some really cool ideas for you to try out.  I will be posting summer camp ideas every Monday and Thursday.   Come check them out, and...

Enjoy summer!

Some of these things are just links to a photo, or an idea on Etsy and I figured I could totally do it (without buying them) I hope you will also find them useful.

Make a Catch a Ball             Learn How to Embroider (this is a link for 100 Stitches)
Learn How to Quill            Make a Tin Can Mug
Fishing Tackle Bracelets (for a more "manly" version leave off the beads)
Yarn Dolls                        Salad Spinner Art
Yarn Book Worm               Play Tent (with a hula hoop) and here is another one
Family Dolls (Nesting)          Monster Pillows
Take Close Up Photos (then make a simple book out of them)
Monster Page Corner Bookmarks
Marshmallow Popper           Monster Dolls
Baked Marbles                    Province/State String Art
Bag of Toy Soldiers             Make a Fork Ring
Make Tie Tacks/Earrings out of the end of a spent bullet casing
Make a Giant Flower            Make a Flower Press
Make Rock Candy                Make Rubber band Guns
Tiny Bubbles with straws        Bath Boats with Ice Cubes
Catapult with Popsicle Sticks  Frozen Treasure Dig
Water Hose Gun                   PVC Sprinkler
Flour Tag                            Glitter Balloons
Clay                                   Sumo Wrestle with Cushions
Drums out of Cans                   Fabric Bowls
PVC Periscope                     Superhero Masks
Jellybean Bracelets               Make a Jellyfish in a Bottle
Lip Straws                           Redneck Waterbed
Tape Ball                             Laser Tag with Balloons
Shaving Cream War               Popcorn War
Bubble Wrap Hopscotch         Pudding Painting

Cheers

Worth the Trip - House of Mystery, MT

While travelling through MT we found this little hole in the wall place that was amazing.

The Montana Vortex.

There were some amazing things we saw.  Let me tell you about them.

That house above was a really cool "playground" for us.  The vortex causes electrons to move about in a whirlpool type motion.  This causes some effects like distortions in the way you can stand (think twirling around on a merry-go-round), how tall you are, and how the trees grow. (there was also talk of auras and personal energy)

This yellow platform that my son is standing on is level.  He is not.  It is super hard to stand without tipping over.

There was a ladder standing straight up, when you gripped it and let your feet off the ground, it made you fly!

The trees were growing so funky.  Where the lines of the whirlpool were the strongest the trees grew the funkiest.

We had such a blast checking out the energy in the place.  We had never seen or been in a place like this before.  The tour guide was full of energy and information.  The tour was interesting and so much fun. 

For just over $30 it was a tour well worth taking.

Cheers

Book Talk Tuesday - Cinder and Ella

By Melissa Lemon

From the dust cover:  "If you drink water and breathe air, then you have heard the story of Cinderella.  And, if you drink water and breathe air, you have heard it...wrong."

I picked this book up on vacation.  I have always wanted to visit a Deseret Books and got to go to two!  I am a big fan of fairy tales being re-told.  Something about the way an author sees things differently really gets to me.  (same with fairy tales into movies...sucker I am!)

I was super excited about the premise of this book.  The author splits the character into two different sisters, Cinder and Ella.  The mother is alive, but forgets that she has two daughters and blends them into one, Cinderella.  The father is presumed dead, the prince is not kind but evil, and there are trees...lots of trees.  One for each person in fact.  Their life is intertwined with that of a tree.

There is some very blatant religious references.  You can tell that the King is God, the Prince is Satan, the Knight is Jesus and the girls are us. 

I enjoyed the idea of the story, but the story (and characters) left much to be desired.  It was a book that is very juvenile in the writing style, almost childish.  The idea though was wonderful.

There is absolutely nothing at all in it that is sexual, explicit or language problems.  This is great.

The book was a good little read.  If you can find it in the library for free, grab it.  It is worth reading.  If you have to pay...I would wait until it is really cheap.

I think that the story itself would appeal to young (around 8 to 11 year old) girls, and if I had girls I would hand it over in a second.

Have you read it?  What do you think?

Cheers

Kind of Creepy

The other day when cleaning out our hermit crab tank we found out that one of the ones we had gotten was dead.  Sometimes that happens. 

So, we couldn't leave Grandma Jenny alone.  We needed to get her a new playmate.

The one we chose was a decent sized little guy and was so friendly.  Sideways Bill had on a shell that was kind of funny as it was sideways when he walked around.  We thought it was fun to watch.

Well, today we caught Sideways Bill naked!

I could hear scratching and looked over to see him digging around.  It was kind of creepy looking.  He looked like a spider and I hate spiders.  They give me shivers.

I could see the white part behind him and thought it was his funny little sideways shell until he started digging his way out...

...then I figured out it was that he was missing a shell!

I gathered my boys and we all watched with fascination (and a little bit of grossed out on my part...because it is really creepy gross) as he crawled over to another slightly larger shell and put it on!

Gross but oh so fascinating!

Seriously they are amazing creatures. 

I am so excited that we have had this chance to study and observe them. 

My boys have looked up many things on these little creatures and watched a few videos.  We are now almost hermit crab experts!

Cheers

Floral Foam Carving

The other day for a field trip we travelled to a school art exhibit that happens here each year.  There were some amazingly talented young artists pieces displayed.

One thing that we really loved was the sculptures.

One of the kinds of sculptures that we saw were made out of floral foam.

I thought you might like to do them with your kiddies.  Mine loved it!

First you need some floral foam blocks.  I got mine in a pack of 6 from Michaels for only $5.  You could even make that cheaper by using your coupon. 

We experimented with a few different ways of carving.  Butter knives were great for cutting off large chunks.

I had an iTunes card that made a great tool for the finer details.

Their first sculptures took them about an hour and a half.  Their second was a bit longer as now they took care.  They knew what to expect with their carving tools and had a better idea of how to do it.

We will be doing this again.  They loved it.

Super cheap and easy.

Cheers

Lessons from the Tree House - Review

One awesome treehouse we saw at the Enchanted Forest in BC

A dear friend of mine keeps an eye out on the WWW for me.  She sends me links that she thinks I would enjoy and we have a great little email friendship going.

The other day she sent me a link to this page.  I was excited as I checked out this lady's two e-books that she was offering.  It seemed it was right up my alley.

I mentioned in a post a few months ago about my math/practical gardening lesson I was teaching my boys.  I also had a post about some of the catalogues I order each year.

Take these two things, add them together and you have a perfect mixture to want Carol's e-book on Lessons from the Seed Catalog. 

Then I saw that she had another called Lessons from the Hen House.  HEY, I want chickens!  So I clicked on over and checked that one out as well.

If you are anything like me and you love what you see, you go checking to see if there is more...

...so I found her blog.

Then I read an announcement that her next installment called Lessons from a Tree house was coming out soon and she needed some people to "test" it out.  Hummmm, check out something that I already think looks awesome, or not...tough decision right?!

I got my copy and sat down right away to read it.

It is simply amazing.

I am totally in love. 

In it there are three sections, the design stage, the building stage and the enjoyment stage.

Each section includes many wonderful activities to do with different suggestions for each age group.  For example: In the Design stage she suggests  to draw up your plans.  Under that there is a breakdown for older children (Using a computer aided drafting program) and younger children (drawing by hand).  This takes all the thinking out for me.  I often want to have my older two do something and am left floundering as I try to think of an easy way for my youngest to also be involved.

At the end of the e-book you will have a completed tree house.  How cool is that?!

Just in case I was totally out to lunch in the "knowing what kids like" department, I checked with my boys, reading a few things to them and asked them if it sounded like something they wanted to do.

My oldest was particularly excited about the research that she encourages in the book.  He wants to go to a garden center and check out the trees.  My second son was especially excited about the design phase.  He even went so far as to ask me if we might use some of our funding for buying a drafting program for him.

I am excited to implement a few of the ideas now, and then when we finally have a place to call our own, let them have a few months of just learning in this new hands on sort of way.

Cheers

Disclaimer:  I was provided with a free copy of all three e-books for my review of this new Lessons from a tree house.  No matter what my opinions were, I was able to keep all of the lessons.  All opinions expressed are my own and have not been influenced by the author of the e-books.

Book Talk Tuesday - Painting Cards

I didn't know what to call these, so now they are "painting cards"!  I went to an Usborn party knowing I still had a good chunk of my funding for this year. We haven't done a lot of art type study yet so I was specifically looking for something a little arty.

I was a bit worried because sometimes Usborne has some goofy drawing thing to represent the historical or educational thing that the book is about so I bought these a little wary.

The whole package is beautifully done.  The front of the card has the painting discussed, and the card on the back has all the information.  Things like the name of the painting, who painted it, what years they were active, some fun facts and tidbits, etc.

There are some of the trademark cartoon-y type things, but they are all on the back so it is not a big deal.

I loved how professional they were.  They are on a nice thick card stock and very well done.

I also checked through both stacks to make sure that there are no repeats (because some "Famous Paintings" are "Impressionist") but there are no doubles which pleased me greatly.

I also love Usborne because they are English and all the words are spelled the same as us Canadians.  I love that my boys can see how English is spelled in their own tongue!  If you are in the States, be aware that Usborne is from England and some of the spelling is a bit different than yours.  (we add "U"'s where you don't.) 

I think that it would work all the way up to high school but the box says up to Grade 4.  I am using them for Grades 7, 5 and 1.  They seem to work for all of mine.

Overall I was pleased and thought that it might make a nice addition if you are studying some of the historically significant paintings.  For just over $5 each I think they are a great resource.

Cheers

Teaching English

One of the things I struggle with in Homeschooling is coming up with really good ideas.

I pin stuff like crazy, and use some of the ideas, but sometimes there isn't anything out there that I like or can use with the type of learners I have.

My baby is in Grade One.  He is just learning how to read and loves it.  He HATES printing though. 

Just in case you have one like that, (I really hope I am not the only one!) I thought I would show you something that we are doing that he enjoys.

First, I write him a silly little story using some of the words he has practiced.  (I use the Dolche Sight Words up to Grade Two right now)

Then he reads his silly story to me, and copy's it out below each line.

After much grunting and groaning, and singing of songs, he finally finishes and grabs a piece of paper.  We use blank paper for this.  We divide it into 4 sections on each side and write the little "action" segments in each one.  (eg.  "OK I am going to make some red eggs" goes in one section)

Then he draws me a picture of the little bit of action that is on the section.

This has been great for learning the progress of things happening, thinking of how things could be represented in picture, and encouraging him to write.  It makes for a fun little activity as a "reward" to his dreaded printing!

Cheers

Growing Gunk

A few months ago I ordered a kit for science. 

I wanted to teach my boys about bacteria and all the kinds of stuff that is microscopic on stuff we touch (or live in) everyday.

I knew that my Mom wanted to teach it for me anyway!  She is a lab tech and know stuff like this, so I figured she wanted to do it for me.  Turns out I was right!  :)

So, my kit came in the mail.

It contained everything we needed to do a really basic room temperature bacteria growth experiment.

We prepared our dishes by warming up the agar and pouring it in a thin layer on the bottom of each dish.

But, because I didn't know any better, my first batch had some lumps in it...this is not something you want.

We had 20 petri dishes when we were done.

We divided them so my boys each got 5, and my Mom and I got 2 each.

We labeled them with names (or nicknames) and where we were swabbing, making sure to choose places that were room temperature.  (ex.  armpit is out, but arms are in...rim of nostril is in, inside the nostril is out)

We also made sure that we kept the swabs fairly sterile, opening from the stick end, and only bringing it out to swab. 

(Didn't get a photo of this step)

Using a gentle zig zag motion, swipe all the way across and down the surface of the agar, and close with the lid.

Make sure that you have a control (just in case you math geniuses caught that above, that is where the missing one is)

This may grow things (ours did) but at least you know what to rule out as your "air" bacteria or other contaminants from just making them.

We divided ours into three places to try growing, on top of the fridge (for the warmth), in a box (to keep it dark) and just out in the open.  Not having swabbed all the same things and having 3 controls, this was just something for us to play around with...not a "true" experiment.

Having a control was very useful though because it gave us ideas as to what the contaminants were in the agar, petri dishes, and air.  What we grew there, we knew was not from our swabs.

We then swabbed a tiny bit of "gunk" and smeared it onto our slides.  I just had disposable slides as this whole thing creeps me out.  Germs are not my forte, I do not like knowing what germs grow on my stuff.  :)

We just have a simple little microscope, but we were able to find some fun things on our slides.

Here are a couple views of the fun stuff we saw.

If you get a chance to do this, it was really fun for us to try out. 

We grew some nasty stuff, learned what was germy that didn't necessarily know.  (like my boys really didn't know how dirty the dishcloth was, it spreads the germs each time you use it too.)  We now know how to be more clean.  We also know what kills those germs.  Try it out.  We loved finding out about the stuff that lives on our bodies.

Cheers

Book Talk Tuesday - "No Backbone" Series

While at the library each week, my baby is required to pick 3 books.  Just 3.  This is usually done for a very long time because he really doesn't enjoy reading.  He likes to have ME read to HIM, but he doesn't like to sit down and read a book on his own.  Until these...

We found three on our library's "new books" stand and he grabbed them asking if he could get them too.  (duh, I did say yes!)  Then we went looking for more.  We found a total of 11 of them in our library.  He wanted all of them!

I am in love with these little books.

They have beautiful photos of the bug/organism discussed in the book...

They have repeating themes.  My son now knows what "molting" is because everything that has and "exoskeleton" (another new word for him) molts.  He also knows that most of the insects that hatch are called "Nymphs" and spiders are "Spiderlings".  He knows what an "egg sack" is and what it looks like.  He also knows some really fun facts on eating, hiding and hunting for each thing we have read about.

He also can tell you a few related things for each...

I love that he is sitting and looking through these books, sounding out the words to learn things on his own so that when we sit together to read them, he already has a basic knowledge and he is excited to learn.

I am so glad we found these at our library.  They have been a joy to read, wonderful repeating themes and words, and beautiful photography.

If you can find them in your library (or want to buy some excellent simple books for younger children) these are so worth it.

Cheers