School Days: Harvest Time

Fall is in the air! This week we extended our prior lesson on autumn with a lesson on harvest time. It was perfect timing because we ended the week with Autumn Fest at the arboretum.

Sean's scarecrow:


And tractor:


Autumn Fest
The kids had fun at Autumn Fest but might enjoy it better next year. They had many crafts for kids to do, including making a scarecrow, but Sean wasn't interested. They really enjoyed the tractor and hay bale maze though. And as always, kids love to make their parents liars and make us scratch our heads in confusion. Shy guy Sean who didn't want to do crafts b/c of the other people around had no problems with Woodsy Owl (mascot type thing who's motto is “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute”). He actually asked to meet him, walked up to him, said hi and gave him a high five.










*A little note; I'm going to start adding our week's reading list at the end of bloggings so I've gone back and edited past posts with the books I can remember.

This week's reading:
The Little Red Hen -Byron Barton
Strega Nona's Harvest -Tomie DePaola
The Scarecrow's Dance -Jane Yolen
Hello, Harvest Moon -Ralph J. Fletcher

School Days: Fire Safety

October 3-9 was Fire Prevention Week so that was our theme. We started this week with talking about what fire was and why it was dangerous. We did an experiment with a candle and water. Sean watched how the water put the fire out; like a fire fighter uses a hose to spray water on a fire. I tried to teach Sean stop drop and roll but he just laughed at me. We talked about what would happen if there was a fire in the house....smoke alarm, fire fighters... So I went to let him hear the smoke alarm. I pressed the button, nothing happened. Ooops. We got new batteries. Still nothing! Uh oh! Time to go shopping. We are now owners of brand new smoke alarm and carbon dioxide detector. And you better believe we'll check them often! We ended the week with a walk to the fire station a few blocks away. The bay doors were open so Sean got to see the trucks. There were a couple of fire fighters outside washing a truck but Sean didn't want to go say hi. Maybe next year.

This week's craft was making a fire with paint. I placed dabs of red, orange and yellow paint on the paper and Sean used a straw to blow the paint into shape.


This week's reading:
The Little Fire Engine -Lois Lenski
The Fire Station -Robert N Munsch


This past week was a no theme week. Sean just wanted to work with numbers and letters so that's what we did.

Follow Up Endo Appointment

Sean had his follow up endo appointment this morning. (If you don't know about the first appointment read this: first endo appointment ) Today's appointment was so much better. We saw Dr Gyuricsko this time. First of all, the man has bedside manners!! He had Sean smiling and laughing in no time. Sean even gave him a high five at the end. This is big! Our last visit ended with 2 screaming kids and 2 frustrated parents. Dr G also did a very good job explaining things instead of assuming I understood why. He explained the bone age scan that was done a few months ago. He disagreed with the radiologist...but also said that it's b/c the radiologist doesn't read these as much as they read xrays for fractures and such. Sean's bone age is between 2 years 8 months and 3 years. Right on track. Dr G also mention how it's really not easy to pick up on things on the bone age scan at this age. At this age, there are still some bones in the wrist that haven't formed. It's more reliable at 5 years. So, if he's still having growth issues at 5 years old, they'll reorder the bone age.

As things would have it, Sean has had a big growth spurt. In the last 3 months he has grown 4 lbs and 1 1/4 in! That's the most he's ever grown! He's almost at the 5th percentile! The doctor is speculating that he may be trying to catch up because in the last 3 months he has grown faster than normal kids grow. On the growth rate chart, he's at the 90% mark for the past 3 months. This is a wonderful sign. Because he has no other problems right now and he has had this growth spurt, Dr G is not ordering any more tests for now. We are going to wait and see. We go back in 6 months.

Next week Sean has a follow up appointment with the G.I.

School Days: Week 4: Autumn

This we continued working on the letters A,B and C. Our theme was Autumn. Unfortunately, it rained all week so we couldn't do as much outside as I had hoped. We did manage to get out and collect leaves for leaf rubbings. We may revisit this theme a little b/c it's just now getting cool and the leaves aren't really changing colors yet.

Leaf rubbing:


Sean's art work this week. He loved making the hand print autumn tree.


He also loves his abacus. Right now we're just using it to count with.


This week's reading:
By the Light of the Harvest Moon -Harriet Ziefert
Fall is Not Easy -Marty Kelley
Fall -Ron Hirschi

Monarch Butterflies

We raised Monarchs last year (2009) and this year (2010). So far, we haven't been lucky enough to find them in our yard but our friend, Amara, finds a ton. So much in fact, that she doesn't have enough food for them. So we've adopt some.

Monarch host plants:

• Milkweed

Monarchs are really interesting butterflies. In one year there are four generations. The forth generation migrates and hibernates in Mexico. When they awaken, they mate and then fly back to lay their eggs. Except for the generation that migrates to Mexico, the total life cycle of a Monarch is only 6-8 weeks.

Monarchs are an egg for only 3-4 days and they start out really small. Here you can see an egg, a newborn Monarch and a Monarch that is maybe a day or so old.


Then they grow...


And grow..


We've had the best luck with making "trees" for them. We put Milkweed clippings in water with the opening covered -- they can drown. This keeps the Milkweed fresher longer. But as they grow, it still doesn't last long.




In different instars:


Finally they get about this big (about 2 weeks after hatching from it's egg) before they make their chrysalis:


You know they are about to make their chrysalis when they hang in a "J":


They make a little spot of silk and then turn to stick their back feet to it.


Then as their chrysalis forms, their skin splits and falls off.










Monarchs spend about 10 days in their chrysalis before emerging as a butterfly. You will know that they are about to emerge when their chrysalis starts to turn clear (about a day before they emerge).




Finally, the day they will emerge, you can see the butterfly's markings through it's chrysalis.


They emerge from their chrysalis very quickly.












Then they must hang to inflate and dry their wings before being able to fly.






Once they finally open their wings, you can can tell if they are male or female.
Males have dots on the hindwings.


Females do not.


And they are ready to be released.

School Days: Week 3: Butterflies

This week we changed things up. We went with my original idea for homeschooling preschool: a theme a week. I threw in the letters A,B, and C (A and B were more of a review) and numbers. Our theme this week was butterflies. The Monarch caterpillars we had that made their chrysalises last week were born and released yesterday. Sean has really enjoyed the butterflies so we're picking up more caterpillars tomorrow.

Sean's artwork from this week...he made a chrysalis out of leaves and a twig, a butterfly out of more leaves and twigs, and did some coloring and painting.


Making a butterfly with his hands


A look at our Monarchs becoming butterflies












It's time to release them!








This week's reading:
Gotta Go! Gotta Go! -Sam Swope
Waiting for Wings -Lois Ehlert
The Very Hungry Caterpillar -Eric Carle