Beauty and the (really cute) Beasts

Sydney got to go to a friend's house on Sunday with my mom (aka Grams). This friend happened to have two four month old Labrador puppies, unbeknownst to my daughter. I must add here that Sydney absolutely LOVES dogs and wants to pet every one she sees, even though we have four of our own. Needless to say, she and the puppies got along great and completely wore each other out. I had to include the small video my mom made when they first let the puppies out of the house.

Cost of two Labrador puppies - $100
Cost of gas to make round trip to visit them - $50
Look on girl's face when she sees the puppies - Priceless!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Links

I have saved hundreds of educational links over the years, but here are some of the ones we use the most:

Nature/Science
Encyclopedia of Life (under construction, but will be up sometime in 2008)
eNature: America's Wildlife Resource
What's That Bug? (this is one we use almost daily)
Steve Spangler's Science Secrets
Voices in the Sea (some great whale videos)
HowStuffWorks.com
Human Anatomy Online
The Yuckiest Site on the Internet

History
EyeWitness to History
Bio4Kids.com
The Civil War Homepage
Kids Dig Reed

Math
Number and Operations (Virtual manipulatives related to the NCTM Number & Operations standard for grades 3 - 5)
Math Advantage
BBC Education - Maths
Visual Math Learning
Teaching Treasures
Math Worksheet Site

General/Misc
Smithsonian Education (includes both history and science)
A to Z Home's Cool (I use this site a lot)
iKnowthat.com
Starfall.com (primarily for 1st grade)
Discovery Education

Worksheets/Printouts
LearningPage.com
edHelper.com
Jan Brett Alphabet
Enchanted Learning

Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival

On Saturday, the kids and I met up with three other homeschool moms and their kids at the Renaissance Festival in Pittsburgh (just over an hour's drive from our farm). We went to the festival a couple years ago, but were unable to go last year because the owners of the property sold it. The new owners have kept it pretty much the same, but better in many ways. It seemed like everything was laid out better and there were more shows to see.

Some of the activities we did included:

• shooting bows and arrows at hay bales and a couple of sorry-looking, arrow-infested foam deer
• shooting ping pong balls with faux crossbows at holes made in a sheet of particle board (I don't remember what the target was supposed to be)
• the strong man mallet game (you know, where you hit the target with a mallet to make the bell ding at the top)
• throwing leather balls at milk jugs
• riding several human-powered rides (see pictures below)
• watching jousting event
• visiting the many arts and crafts stalls
• watching a glass blowing demonstration
• getting to see a dragon egg hatch
• a really good magician act which ended with him swallowing a long balloon and then popping it, much to the delight of the kids. They talked about how he did that long after the show ended
• a really funny pair of comedians called Puke & Snot (the kids loved the tame, but PG nature of this show)
• carillon bells which could be heard throughout the day wherever you happened to be
• it was also Celtic week so, much to our delight (our being us moms, lol), there were lots of men in kilts running around playing bagpipes
  

The overwhelming favorite activity was the jousting event. The kids loved cheering for the knights and watching them sword fight at the end. It looked real enough that Dylan asked me (with a big grin on his face, I might add) if the guy really died at the end. He knew deep inside that it was all an act, but it was such a good show he swore the guy really did get hit in the eye with a dagger. Many of the kids even said they saw an eye pop out, but this was just their wonderfully active imaginations kicking in.

Glass blowing demonstration

One of the human-powered rides

This was Sydney's favorite ride because of all the spinning (that's her...blondie on the left)

Dylan testing his strength

Sir Tucker

Pirate Day...Arrrrrrrrr!

Sorry I have been MIA all week. I have no idea why...I guess I was busy, though really no busier then usual. I think we are settled into our routine now and it has become, shall we say, routine.

Today was the pirate-themed day, I mentioned about in my last blog, at the learning co-op we go to every Thursday. The kids and I dressed up like pirates and they had various pirate activities set up. We even learned a couple pirate songs, one of which I am posting below for fun:

A Children's Pirate Shanty

By Mark "Cap'n Slappy" Summers (can be sung to the tune of Monty Python's "I'm a Lumberjack and I'm OK" - or make up your own!) International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Chorus
I'm a pirate! That I be!

I sail me ship upon the sea!

I stay up late - till half past three!

And that's a peg below me knee!

Yo Ho, my friends I have a tale

Of treasure, plunder, sea and sail

My story's bigger than a whale

It gets so deep, ye'll have to bail.

Chorus

I'm a pirate! That I be!

I sail me ship upon the sea!

I stay up late - till half past three!

And that's a peg below me knee!

I like to fish, I like to fight

I like to stay up half the night

When I say "starboard" ye go right!

Me ma, she says, "Ye look a fright!"

Chorus

I'm a pirate! That I be!

I sail me ship upon the sea!

I stay up late - till half past three!

And that's a peg below me knee!

I've got no hand but that's me hook!

I pillage stuff but I'm no crook.

Me booty's in this chest I took.

They'll write about me in a book!

Chorus

I'm a pirate! That I be!

I sail me ship upon the sea!

I stay up late - till half past three!

And that's a peg below me knee!

And that's all there is to this song.

I hope it hasn't been too long.

A pirate's life might just be wrong
So grow up nice and big and strong!

Chorus

I'm a pirate! That I be!

I sail me ship upon the sea!

I stay up late - till half past three!

And that's a peg below me knee!

Spray-Dye Shirts and the Snapping Turtle Who Went for a Swim

We decided to try attending this homeschool learning co-op today that meets every Thursday in the next town over. Several homeschoolers from our group are members and I have been wanting to go for a couple years now, but our schedule hasn't allowed it until this year. While we were there, the kids got to tie dye t-shirts (my daughter dyed a dress) outside in the neatest way. Instead of tying knots and dipping the shirts in dye, the dye was in spray bottles. The kids really had fun spraying their shirts with the colors they picked out and they could put the colors wherever they wanted them. The shirts (and dress) turned out great!

Today was mainly a planning session and the kids were split up into groups to decide what activities they wanted to do for the year. They also got to play with a big parachute and run around in the adjoining park. There was an area set up inside for dress-up play (complete with various costumes and cast-off clothes), which my daughter did just about the entire time we were there. Next week they will be having a pirate theme, so I want to track down some pirate activities to suggest to the group.

While we were there, some of the kids there noticed a common snapping turtle swimming around in the Wave Tech pool, which is right next to the building the co-op meets in. I took several pictures of it because it was one of the biggest snapping turtles I have seen around here. We were initially afraid he was stuck in the pool, but he did eventually come out and try to squeeze through the fence. He is really hard to see in the pictures I took of him swimming in the pool, so I just posted a couple of the ones I took of him walking around. I have no idea how he got in there, but hope he figures a way back out soon!





Common snapping turtle websites:
Common Snapping Turtle - Wikipedia
Snapping Turtle Page
Common Snapping Turtle, Cheldyra serpentina