Entry for January 25, 2008

I've been blogging mostly over at my new blog...and it's SO hard to make it copy and paste...besides, that seems redundant.
Let's see...I could say something about all the learning that's been going on around here...
Emma checked out library books on extinct animals and sea monsters today, and Anna read a pile of books while we were still there. They've been watching a pile of movies...they'll come across something, or think of something, and "Oh, that's like movie!" And one leads to another.
I've been strewing a bit lately...as best I can for lack of a good place to put anything, I cut out articles, or print them out from offline, and tape them to the living room mirror. The girls will sometimes sit up on the couch and read one...and if it looks really interesting, they'll notice it and read it as soon as I put it up. Anna asked me last night about how long an inch and a half was, and I measured it out (for some reason she trusts my insane measurements more than a ruler) and she told me that's the size of the bumblebee bat. Right now I have up a map of South America with information about animals found there, a clipping about bumblebee bats, icebergs, a picture of a horseshoe crab, a picture of beavers, the different kinds of clouds, the "real" names for the Big and Little Dippers, a poem, and a WWF ( http://www.panda.org/ ) ad from a magazine...it has a really cute polar bear (I've had it in a pile of papers for AGES, and finally decided to do *something* with it). Plus, there's a couple printed off pages about words...etymology sorts of things I thought were interesting. Things I didn't learn about in school, but they would have helped me understand spelling SO much better.
The girls also have their calendars up there...one is the library calendar which tells about the programs they're having, and the other is one I found online...it's a sort of teacher's site, maybe TCR...I'll see if I can find it...and they have a free printable calendar with something marked for each day...a special birthday, or "Pancake Day"...something interesting about each one. Anna loves to look and see what "day" it is, and sometimes it leads to more in-depth study. Ah, yes, here it is... http://www.buyteachercreated.com/estore/search/ there's a "monthly calendars" mid way down on the left-hand side of the page.
They haven't been reading a lot since we've moved their books around...maybe because we've been so busy moving things. I'm hoping next week we'll get to stay home more and do what we want to...read or watch movies or whatever. Wouldn't that be nice. ; )
I just finished Loblolly, by Frank B. Gilbreth. It's a novel, which to me was a strike against it as soon as I saw it, then it's a bit hard to read with "regional accents" written in throughout...but it was the explanations of the words that got me. I'll figure out what the words are supposed to mean by myself, thank you...I don't need to read explanations as I go along...if it bothers you so much to think that your readers can't tell what they're reading then for heaven's sake DONT TRY TO TALK LIKE THE CHARACTER'S ARE SUPPOSED TO SOUND!! I know...I'm yelling at a dead guy. Anyway, it would have been a good book except for those few things, and once he stopped explaning every second word, I enjoyed it. I've got several more of his books ordered, hopefully they'll be readable,too.
I also got a book about children's book author/illustrators...Eric Carle and all those. I'll probably read it when I get off the computer...unless I decide to curl up with my new Family Fun magazine which came today. ; ) Come to think of it...a nice hot bath, a cup of tea, a magazine...okay, I'm getting off the computer!