Friday, August 29, 2008

Fact List Time.....

Here is our list for the week. We did the Squid/Octupus and Deep Sea Creatures this week. It was actually kind of a tough one to do. It was hard because there was so many creatures to narrow it down. Lots of Googling was done to make the list. I think it turned out pretty interesting, I hope that you all Enjoy.
Octopus:
(COCONUT OCTOPUS)
1.) Vampyroteuthis infernalis, the vampire squid (literally, from hell). It is actually in an Order of its own, Vampyromorpha, because although it shares characteristics with both squid and octopus, it also has sensory *filaments* that it sends out to learn about the world around it. This fact is courtesy of the Piseco Family, See here. I thought that this was interesting so I looked into other info and found this video on youtube.
2.) Octopus are great escape artists; an adult Octopus can squeeze through a hole the size of a dime.

3.) Octopus are part of the Mollusc family, more closely related to Pipis and Mussel than fish.

4.)The octopus is the ultimate impersonator. An octopus can change color, make itself smooth, or sprout spikes. Some use the changes for camouflage—perfectly matching and blending into their surroundings. Others put all the right bits together and take on the forms and colors of different species of fish.

5.) Baby octopuses never know their parents. They emerge from their eggs smaller than a pea and have to survive by their wits and powers from the start. Some head off to explore the world, drifting in ocean currents. They are mainly see-through but can already change color, squirt ink, and regrow lost body parts.

6.) The mother octopus goes into a dark cave and lays up to 100,000 eggs. Each egg has a string attached to it. She ties all the eggs together and hangs up the entire bunch from the ceiling. She keeps guard over them day and night and does not go out of her den. She starves herself and dies probably even before the eggs are hatched.

7.) Squid swim faster than any other invertebrate.

8.) Some squid have bioluminescent organs that make them glow in the dark.

9.) Giant squid have eyes the size of basketballs.

10.) Scientists estimate there are about 500 species of squid, with the smallest only two centimetres long.

Deep Sea Creatures:

(Comb Jellies)

1.) Deep sea creatures are fish and other creatures that live down in the deepest part of the ocean. It is very cold down at the bottom and there is no sunlight only the light produced by the some of the creatures. Almost every deep sea creature has a cell in their body that makes a light. However scientist have discovered more about this light making process by studying fireflies.

2.) The Giant Squid is one of the very few deep ocean creatures that can visit the ocean surface.

3.) The apple anemone is one of the largest anemones found in the deep sea.The apple anemone has a broad column or base. But it's not immobile as are most anemones. When threatened, it elongates and sways from side to side to detach itself from the bottom. It then "swims" away by rapidly flexing or bending its column or by thrashing its tentacles.

4.) The "fishing rod" growing from the female anglerfish's snout ends in a glowing blob of light. At the tip of this modified fin ray, is a small organ (esca) that contains millions of light-producing bacteria.

5.) Scientists believe the bloodybelly's red belly helps mask bioluminescent light from the prey it swallows. A predator with a glowing gut could easily become prey.

6.) Midwater Shrimp's long antennae—nearly four times its body length—may help it find food or mates by sensing chemicals produced by other animals.

7.) Predatory tunicates are simultaneous hermaphrodites—each animal produces both eggs and sperm. If conditions are poor or there are no other tunicates nearby, each tunicate can reproduce by itself.

8.) Symbiotic clam may take up to 100 years to reach maturity.

9.) When disturbed, sea whips glow with a bright, bioluminescent light.

10.) Japanese Spider Crab is the largest known arthropod; fully grown it can reach a leg span of almost 4 m (13 ft), a body size of up to 37 cm (15 inches) and a weight of up to 20 kg (44 lb).

I hope that everyone joins us for next week. We plan on doing Penguins and Polar Bears. If you have any facts that you would like to share please leave a comment and I would be happy to post it on our next list.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Baking Time.......

We have started baking our own bread lately. This is our lovely bread from today. Keep in mind when you look at it, I really only started making it last week. So I am definatley not a pro at it. Please do laugh. Ok you can laugh because I am. I must say though every loaf is getting better tho. I think this time my secret to getting it even better was .........

My Helpers. How cute are they. They helped through out the whole process, the mixing and the kneading. Of course after it had risen and needed to be deflated, that was the fun part for Gabe to help with.
That is our cooking experience for today. Have a great day.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

A Book List.........

Some very cute books for you guys this week.

Stuck in the Mud by Jane Clarke --- This story was a very cute story about a mom and her mischevious little chld. She wakes up and finds to her little one ran off again. Eventually she finds him stuck in the mud. That is where the adventure truly begins.

The Tale of Wagmore Gently by Linda Ashman--- Wow watch out when This dog happy. His Tail becomes very dangerous and gets him in lots of trouble. He decides to try and control it. That is until he relizes it can be useful. See how he figures it out.
Farm Flu by Teresa Bateman --- Such a cute story about a boy that lives on a farm. He finds that the cow has the flu, so he decides to take care of them like his mom would. Then one by one the whole farm gets the "flu". He eventually figures things out on how the whole farm gets sick at once. See how he reacts to this and deals with it.
Danny Diamondback by Barry E Jackson --- A very cute story about a someone trying to find a place to fit in. Share in all of the goodtimes and hardtimes to and see where he ends up.
My Travelin Eye by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw--- This was a very sweet book about a little girl who is a little different, but finds that is what is makes her so special. Even Gabe wanted to be like her at the end.

I hope that you enjoy the list and make sure to check back for next weeks list. Until then...Go Read!!!!

Monday, August 25, 2008

Unplug your kids.....Cylinders

This weeks theme for Unplug your kids was cylinders. We raided the the recyle bin to find some different cylinders. Once we found them we decided to make rocket ships.
Gabe got some help from his daddy. They had lots of fun putting it together. I even added a cute video at the end of Gabe describing creation. Very cute.
Sam working on his. He said that this was the best part of his day.
Final products... Gabe at the top. I love that Smiling face that he drew, to cute. Sam is on the bottom, the kid went sticker crazy.
Make sure to join us for next weeks project. Until then make sure to check out everyone else's projects over here.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Just an Update.....

Wow things really do go a little crazy don't they. I have no idea on haw things got out of control, but they did. So it is catch up time. Hope you enjoy.
This first image was the other day. As I was working at the desk I heard a knock on the window next to me. As I turned this is the image that I saw. How Cute is he. He was trying to scare me. Lol.
This one I love because of what was happening. It was a self learning moment. I was going to work on Geometry with Gabe but had not made a lesson yet. When I finished saying that to DH I turned around and Gabe was playing with these Geometry puzzles. Way to take control of your lessons.
This is Sam's Finished salt dough map of China. I think it came out really well. The yellow is the deserts. The Gray is the mountains. The blue is the major rivers. Finally green is the forest region.
The other day the boys did some painting with cars. They had lots of fun and made big messes. When they were done with the cars, they gave them a "bath" to clean them up.

For a way to teach Gabe how a clock is set up. I decided to play clock solitare with him. So he could get the basic set up. He had tons of fun with it.
For Gym class they were to play Twister, but Gabe still had his cast on. (He got that off on thursday, Yeah!!!!) Well since he had the cast on though. He could not really play that, so they turned it into there own game, a dance game. Hey it works, they were acitive and that is what gym class is all about right.
Hope you enjoyed the update. More fun to come. Have a great weekend.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Animal Fact Time.....

Well I really enjoyed doing the book list over the last year. Yes I really did. The part that I liked was that it was a family activity. It was great having a challenge for us to all work towards together. I asked Sam what he would like to do for a project this year. He suggested learning new animal facts. Which Dh and I are definetly on board with. It sounds so interesting to us. We thought that we would share it all with you guys again, Lucky you. LOL.


The goal for the year is to learn 10 facts of a 100 different animals, totals 1000 facts. There is that 1000 number again. We are going to shoot for 2 animals each week so that we can make it in the year time limit. To help narrow it down sometimes we will do it by the family, like this first week has the whale family. This includes different types of whales and even dolphins, which are whales. Sometimes it might just be about one animal.


If any one has facts that they would like to share about animal please do. I will try to let everyone know the week ahead of time what we are going to do. If you know something about that animal and want to share it I would be happy to post it on our list that week.


So lets get started....

Up first the Whales..


1. This first one is not really a fact but I thought it was interesting. The picture above was taken at the Science Museum. It is the actual Jawbone of a Sperm Whale. Look at the size of that thing! This sperm whale got beached and unfortunetly died. The scientist burried it in the sand to allow it to decompose, later dug it up, and then transported the bones back to the museum and preserved the bones with chemicals.

2. Dolphins are actually a members of the Whale Family.

3. The Blue Whale is the loudest thing on earth. Its mating call can reach a whopping 188 decibels, which is louder than a jet engine (140 decibels). Noise is painful to human ears at over 120 decibels.

4. Two main types of whales called baleen whales and toothed whales. Here are some distinct differences between these types of whales:

a. As their name states toothed whales have teeth, but baleen whale. Baleen whales have baleen plates instead of teeth, which they use to filter food.

b. Baleen whales are much larger than toothed whales.

c. Baleen whales have two blow holes, while toothed whales have one.

4. Blue whales are the largest animal ever.

5. Whales are unihemispherical, which means that whales never fully asleep. Each side of the brain take turns going to sleep. This is why a whale does not drown when it sleeps.

6. It has been calculated that a single breath from a mature blue whale can inflate up 2000 balloons.

7. It is now believed that the most recent land ancestors of whales were hippos!

8. The narwhal, an unusual toothed whale with a tooth piercing the upper lip, is believed to be the basis of the legendary unicorn.

9. The blue whale heart is the size of a small car, and a small child can stand in the major arteries leading from the heart. It's eye is the size of a small teacup and their external ear is the size of the tip of a pencil.

10. The only natural predator of humpback whales is the killer whale (orcas), and possibly sharks to very young calves or badly injured whales. Up to 15% of humpback whales in an area may have scars from orca attacks that they have escaped.

Up next we decided to do Walruses. Isn't he pretty!!LOL



1.) The walrus' scientific name, Odobenus rosmarus, is Latin for "tooth-walking sea-horse."

2.)When a walrus sunbathes its skin turns red. The heat causes blood to rush to the skin.

3.) Walruses have air sacs in their necks that enable them to keep their heads above water when they sleep.

4.) Walruses lose their winter coat (a process called molting) every year in June and July.

5.) Walruses use their heads to break breathing holes in ice up to 20 cm(8 in) thick. They use their tusks to widen the holes.

6.) Longer tusks mean higher hierarchical position and older age. If a male loses a tusk, he will lose his rank in the hierarchical scale.

7.) You can tell how old a walrus is by the number of rings you can find in a cross-section of its teeth just like you can tell how old a tree is by the number of "growth rings" it has.

8.) Walruses feed in cycles of 9 days: 2 days of resting on the beach and 7 days of feeding in the sea.

9.) Walrus walk on all four fins. He can even move on land as fast as a man can run. Other pinniped have to drag their hind ends around but a walrus can walk.

10.) Walruses have been close to extinction on a couple of occasions due to overhunting. Walrus tusks, oil, skin and meat were highly valued in the 18th and 19th centuries. Only indigenous peoples of the arctic are currently allowed to hunt walrus and there is a limit on numbers that can be killed.

We hope that you all enjoy our new goal list. Next week we plan on doing octopus/squid (mollusk family) and deep sea creatures. The kinds that you don't really see that often. If anyone has any facts that they would like to share please let me know and I will happily add them to the list.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Lessons in Sewing....

One of the things that we are doing this year is to teach both boys to sew. This is the newest sewing kit that we came up with. The boys are making their own building blocks. They really want to crash cars into them to see how far they can fly. Funny.
Kit consists of Foam squares with holes that we punched along the edge. Then the only other supplies are yarn to sew it closed.
Here is a picture of Sam working hard on his.
This is what the final product looks like. This one was made by DH. He does love helping with the school work. These kits were very simple to make and lots of fun. Hope you enjoy.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Science Musuem......

Over the weekend we took the boys to the Science Museum as a surprise. They were so happy to go. Then daddy made them even happier by buying a membership so we can keep going, alot. I have a ton of pictures to share with you. So enjoy!
This first one is outside when we got there. It is a cute 2 person submarine. Now to the inside.

The musuem has a few sections that seem to always be the same. Then the main exhibit hall has an exhibit that is set up for a few months then changes out. The big exhibit right now is robot zoo. It was really cool. They had a bunch of buttons to push that would show how the animals moved. This first one is a house fly.
This one showed how the chamelion changes colors. Also how it sees different things.
This was the platypus. I loved its goggles and snorkle. To funny.
They even had games that the kids could play.
Here the kids could see how a fly saw things. They stood behind the big eyes and it had all kinds of little squares to show how flys eyes looked.
Sam's favorite section is the egyptian section. I thought that this was really pretty.
The even had a real mummy. It was a child. Sad to see that someone died so young yet neat to look at.
Here is some mummified artifacts. The one on the white square is the child mummy's sandal.
This was a mummified falcon.
The boys are playing on a ball run just outside the exhibit. If you look behind Sam at the wall with plaques, it is an heiroglyphics wall. It had a stamper to represent each letter. The kids could stamp out their own names.
Of course who doesn't love a good dinosaur!
This was fun for the boys. It was body of a platypus and kids got to add everything from the beak to the tail. They love the show Phinneas and Ferb, which they have a pet platypus in the show. Gabe kept calling the platypus Perry after their pet. It was sweet he kept saying "It will be alright Perry we will fix you." So sweet.
These last two pictures are of the boys pretending to be astronauts. The top one is Gabe, bottom one is Sam.
It was a really wonderful fun day. We can not wait to go back again. They are actually changing the major exhibit next month to Grossology and how the body works. Should be lot of fun. ;)




Tuesday, August 19, 2008

An Award.....Thank You So Much!

Ok this is why I love blog world. It always gives me a great start to my day. I mean this morning look what I found waiting for me. Kate gave me this, she is so sweet. I certianly do not feel I deserve this, but it so makes my day to get it. So thank you Kate. For those of you that have not read her bog yet make sure to get over there and check it out. She is amazing!!!

There are questions to answer, so here goes...

A. attached or single? Attached

B. best friend? Rob

C. cake or pie? Does not really matter as long as coconut is involved :)

D. day of choice? I love friday because the weekend is going to start!

E. essential item? My computer...It is my connection to the outside world. (I know so sad)

F. favorite color? Usually Green or Blue (the Natural colors) but sometimes I really enjoy the bright reds and oranges.


G. gummy bears or worms? Bears

H. hometown? Livermore Maine

I. favorite indulgence? Coconut

J. January or July? January ( I live in south Florida and the weather is beautiful here)


K. kids? Just a couple of monkey boys


L. life isn't complete without? My Husband and Kids


M. marriage date? July 7th


N. number of brothers & sisters? 1 older brother and a younger step sister


O. oranges or apples? Oranges , I am a Florida Girl


P. phobias? Falling

Q. quotes? "No One Can Make You Feel Inferior With Out Your Consent" ---Eleanor Roosevelt


R. reasons to smile? My Kids Laughter

S. season of choice? A South Florida Winter

T. tag seven peeps! Oh who to choose, Who to choose
Well I would definetly give it to Kate but she beat me to it!

-So I will start with Piseco Mom. She has really amazing things over at her site. If you have not checked her out please do. I promise that you will not be disappointed:)

-Next is Amber. She has been missing for awhile now (3 kids keep you kind of busy). She gives me so many great ideas to do with the boys.

-Then I certainly can not forget about Yasmina. Once again a wonderful site full of great ideas for the kids to do.

-Of course I need to Mrs. Darling on here. She has such an amazing way with words that makes you leaving there feeling inspired.

-Next up is The Crafty Crow. She had such a great, wonderful idea for the blog. She was coming across so many great craft projects to do she wanted to store the ideas some where. If you ever want something to do, check out her site. Warning you will probably spend hours on there.

-Then there is Kari. I love seeing her daily adventures with her adorable little ones.

-Last but certainly not least is Bridget. She has an amazing wonderful blog full of great things to do . She also shares alot to do with her daily adventures. It is a lot of fun.

U. unknown fact about me? Lets keep them unkown a little longer. LOL

V. vegetable? Love Pretty much all of them!

W. worst habits? being my own worst critic

X. x-ray or ultrasound? I guess ultrasound since that is the only one I had

Y. your favorite food? Chinese


Z. zodiac sign? This is one that always confused me. Looking at differnt things over the years shows me in 2 different ones. My birthday is right on the border of virgo and libra (Sept. 23). So it depends what you look at.

Tuesday Book Post

It is time again for a new book list. We got a few good ones this week. I hope that you enjoy them as much as we have.

First up is The Very Best Daddy of All by Marion Dane Bauer. This one is very sweet with beautiful pictures of the animal world. It is a definate must read for all kids who love their daddy.

One of our selections this Pajama Pizza night was Pizza Kittens by Charlotte Voake. It is a really cute story about a family and how supper goes for them each night. Food dislikes, messes, and so much more. That is until the come up with something everyone agrees on.

I loved this story, Nighty Night! by Margaret Wild. What a cute story of bedtime on a farm. The parent animals decide that the children need to go to bed and stop playing, Only to find out that the kids have planned a few surpises. Then later it shows the nightly hassles that happens when you try to put little ones to bed.

I read The Crooked Apple Tree by Eric Houghton to Gabe. It was really well done. It is about two kids that move into a new house hoping for certian things. Instead all they get is a crooked old tree, they say what good is an old tree. Through out the year they find many ways that the tree is great. Their parents make them a photo album to show all of their great memories. The book was titled "What good is an old Tree"? I asked Gabe the same question his reply was, a family tree is good. Such a sweetie.
Monkey Mo Goes To Sea by Diane Goode. Of course I had to have a book about a monkey on the list in honor of my little monkys. This book is about a little boy and his monkey. They get invited to go to his grandfathers ship for lunch. The only thing is that Monkey Mo has to behave like a gentleman. So Monkey Mo watches for a gentleman and tries to act like them. Lots of "Situations" definetly occur. Check it out to see if monkey mo becomes a gentleman or not.

Monday, August 18, 2008

unplug your kids.....part 2

The unplug your kids project this week was trees. I already did an entry but I wanted to share this video of the boys playing in the trees. They turned them into slingshots. So cute.

Unplug your kids.......Trees

This weeks theme for unplug your kids was trees. What to do for a project? You would think something like this would be easy for me. After all I grew up in Maine and the state is 90% forest. I spent a lot of time in the trees. However I live in a city in South Florida now, a little different from then. So here are some things I came up with.

First is a study set that I recieved a long time ago that teaches the boys all about trees. I recieved a link to get the whole set for free. Unfortunate they do not do it any more:( . The set is really great though, It has big poster sets to hang up. Then it has a mini version of them. Also it comes with a nice little book. Sam loves that :)!



Next as I was looking around at some other blogs, I got this idea. Family tree, or other wise Geneology. Which my mom is really into. She knows family stories from the American revolution. I had Sam call her to talk to her about it. I know that the phone is technically plugged in but I had to use it, she lives in Maine. Dh pointed out that it is a cordless so it is technically unplugged. HEHEHE so funny. Sorry about the picture, I know that you can not see her face but it seemed to be the only one that I could find this morning that had her and the boys.


Make sure to check back for next weeks theme....Cylinder. Until then check out everyone else's over here.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

An Arty Kind Of Day.....

Well last week we had such a good week of school, this week we are off to a bit of a rougher start. First The Olympics, so good, it is keeping us up really late. Dh and I are staying up, the kids go to bed on time. Then we have my wonderful oldest child. His first couple of days were rough. I mentioned in a recent entry that he gives struggles in his writing. Monday and Tuesday were bad for this, so it through us behind a little bit. That is an advantage for homeschooling though, the schedule can be adjusted easy. Wednesday was spent playing a little bit of catch up. Our funnest part of the day was the Art Class. The boys focused on Chinese art. Since China invented printing, I thought it would be fun to make some prints of different characters in Chinese. My friend Li Mei lent us this book. Which is really cool and explains different chinese characters. I picked out a couple of them and made some tiles for the kids to make prints with. I used old meat trays (clean ones of course) to make the templates.

Time to choose the one we want to use. Tough Choice! LOL! It was a very simple technique. The boys painted the one side and pressed it down.
It made some really cool results. This is actually the one that Sam made.
This is Gabe's. He was having more fun making the colors blend with the roller.

As you can see he was very happy to be painting. The bottom one he did when he learned about folding the paper in half.
Once they had started painting they did not want to stop. Look at all the beautiful results.

I did want to make a quick note that if any one is reading this that reads Chinese, I am sorry if I made a mistake on one of my characters that I made. I know that one slight line difference can change the whole meaning of the word. I just hope that it did not become an offensive word. Sorry if it did. :)