Sunday, September 14, 2008

I made a solo library trip the other day. It was nice to be by myself for a change because I could take my time browsing. I picked up some random books that I thought the kids would enjoy. I got several on magical creatures, although I still have not found exactly what I'm looking for. I want a magical creature encyclopedia, with realistic illustrations of dryads and centaurs and things like that. Ever since we've read Harry Potter and C.S. Lewis, there's been a real interest in magical creatures. Their interest started even before that, when I got out a huge hardback book on gnomes, a book I had loved in my own childhood. I'm still looking.

I got, "A Wrinkle in Time" for myself. I own most of the other books in the series but I never owned the original for some reason.

I also got another spider book for B. It was in the same series as the book on Wolf Spiders that he enjoyed. The book is about orb weavers. B and I both love spiders and we've both been taken with a particularly pretty spider that makes a large web on our deck, one that we've determined is an orb weaver. We used a field guide to narrow it down, but the field guide doesn't include all species of course.

Anyway, when I got home, I placed the stack on books on the bench near the door. The kids found them and got very excited, more excited than I expected. B spotted the spider one and yelled, "Orb Weavers!!" I have to read it to him at some point. And they really loved the books about magical creatures.

Early this morning, I did something that I very rarely let them do, which is I let them use the computer. Computer usage leads to zombie-like behavior, horrible fighting and a bad case of the "I'm bored's". So we try to refrain from giving them computer time at this point. But I found a really great spider website. The website allows you to narrow down your search by state or region. So now, we can finally see which spiders have been recorded in our state. B was thrilled.

I showed B a picture of an orb weaver that I thought was ours, but he thinks that the abdomen is a different color. We need to investigate that one a bit more. I explained how orb weavers belong to the "Araneidae" family, so he could click on the links with that family name in it to see only orb weavers. Later, he wanted to see wolf spiders. With the help of wikipedia, we found that they are in the Lycosidae family. Then, just to satisfy curiosity, we looked up jumping spiders, because we get a lot of those inside and we like those. Jumping spiders belong to the Salticidae family. I told him that I was sure that salta was "jump" in Spanish and that it would make sense since Spanish comes from Latin. Later, he wanted to know who the Pisauridae spiders were; we found that they are the family of nursery web spiders; we then read about nursery web spiders and B was really taken with how maternal they are.

Earlier, I read him the myth of Arachne. He has really enjoyed Greek and Roman mythology, ever since I recently told him some myths. I think it started when I explained why the cat is named, "Artemis". He's very keen to hear more Greek myths so that's something I have to find for him. It's hard to find Greek myths that don't have rape and things like that in them. Still, there are many that would be fine for him.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

I have to get back into the habit of blogging

I use this blog for the mandatory homeschool portfolio I have to keep. I just need to get back into the habit of using it. Sometimes, I forget that I even have a blog.

This year, B would be in second grade. T would miss the K cutoff by a month.

Math has just been life-learning so far this year. They're both into multiplication right now and they ask us things like, "What are 2 6s?, what are 3 3s?", etc. B initially had interest in doing formal math but now he's saying that he doesn't want to. I'm not sure how formal math will play out this year. T has been inadvertently teaching himself addition and subtraction facts when we play Parcheesi; he always wants to count the dice individually before making the total move.

As for reading, B reads at or above grade level. I'm not sure what he can read, because he seems to read fluently in general. I did find that one non-fiction picture book he read was 4th grade level, by the AR group. But he doesn't often sit and read. Instead, he reads environmental print all around him and he browses through his science books. The other day he told me that when a human egg and sperm come together that it's called a "zee-gote", because he read it in a book. I've discovered that he will read things like knock-knock joke books so I'm on the look-out for those. Anyway, in general, he's good with reading.

For read-alouds, we've recently read the first Harry Potter book and "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". Harry Potter sort of opened B's eyes to a more sophisticated kind of book. Every night, when I would finish a chapter, he would absolutely beg me to read more. He's done the same thing with the CS Lewis book. I plan on reading the other Narnia books to the kids. And I think they'll be Ok with the second Harry Potter book. I have two other books on my radar screen for the near future, favorites from my own childhood. They are "No Flying in the House" by Betty Brock and Wallace Tripp; and "Black and Blue Magic" by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. I think we're going to continue exploring the fantasy genre because both kids seem really excited about it. I have also been making a list of library books that have descriptions and illustrations of magical creatures. I was actually really surprised at how many encyclopedic books there are on magical creatures.

B's current obsession is with bugs, insects and spiders. Also, since we've moved to the country, there's just a general interest in nature and biology. We got a shipment the other day which included bug-catching supplies and a few nature books. For the bug supplies, we ordered a bug net that zips up. Up until now, B has been catching locusts with a butterfly net but then it's hard for him to observe the locust because there's a good chance it will get away. The zippered bug net will allow him to clearly observe the locusts (and whatever else) while keeping the locust safe and preventing it from getting away. We also ordered a small bug jar that has a lid with a built-in magnifier. The latter will be good for catching spiders. B has no fears or hang-ups about creepy-crawlies and I'm good at catching spiders; between the two of us, we'll catch stuff for him to look at. He really wants to make a grasshopper habitat but I think it might be too late in the year; I don't remember the locusts sticking around long after summer was over.

For the nature books, we got a field guide on dinosaurs and an animal scat/tracks identification book. Until I looked at the animal tracks book, I didn't realize that we could preserve deer tracks with plaster of paris. Of course, now that we've figured it out, we haven't seen any deer around for a while. But we'll find them again in the future and we know roughly where to look for their footprints. Oh! And we also ordered a set of 72 buggy pictures, half X-rays and half identification cards. They were a HUGE hit with B.

Several weeks ago, we bought an Audubon field guide for identifying bugs, insects and spiders. B often wants to know what sort of creepy crawly he is looking at. Unfortunately, such a general book can only include a small number of buggy species. We really need a book that is specific to our geographic area. In particular, we really need a book that only includes spiders native to our state. I'm still looking for more specific resources.

We often get interesting looking spiderwebs on the outside of our house and deck. B really enjoys looking at the spiders. There's one spider in particular that really caught his interest (and mine!). It is brown but it has a pretty reddish tone to it. It makes a massive, meticulous web and it seems to move around every day. We still can't find the species name but we've narrowed it down to an orb weaver. The spider makes a new web every night and the web is a perfect circle suspended with support strings in a vertical position. The spider's cephalothorax (spelling?) is larger than its abdomen; we've learned these terms. And the spider hangs upside down, i.e. heads-down. All of these things suggest it is an orb weaver. I've taken some pictures of it and hopefull we'll identify it at some point.

That's all I have for now. If I blogged more often, I wouldn't have to write mammoth posts!