Control by Crown

When we first started homeschooling many years ago, I came upon an audio copy of The Story of the World, Ancient Times. We hadn't really listened much to it, and then Zhara became absolutely obsessed with mythology. Ah ha, I thought the other day, I wonder if that is still on the computer, and if it has anything about gods and goddesses on it. So the other day I went looking, and found it. I loaded it on to my ipod, and recently when we were in the car, I asked if anyone would be interested in listening to a bit of it. We listened to the part about nomads in the Egyptian desert, and then today we listened a little bit more. We learned about the upper and lower kingdoms of Egypt, and how about 5000 years ago a war was fought between the two kingdoms for control of Egypt. The kids liked the information about the one king having a white crown, and other a red crown, and that when the Egyptian king with the white crown was victorious, he took the other king's crown. He then placed it on top of his own, and from then on the Egyptian crown had both red and white portions to show that the pharaoh controlled both parts of Egypt. We decided to decorate our own colorful crowns to represent their "kingdoms".

I cut crowns out of poster board, and then the kids painted them with tempura paint.

Angus went with an all yellow theme.

Zhara with six large blocks of color.

Wednesday with a rainbow motif.

Dad was home sick today, so he even got to help out a little with the project.

The kids have been really excited to paint ever since I bought a big pack of new paintbrushes at JoAnn's the other night.

As always, one of their favorite parts of painting, is mixing colors, and seeing just what new unique combination they end up with.


We talked about pictures as representation, and I told them about hieroglyphics. Then we printed out this hieroglyphics translator, and decided that later in the week we would try and write our names in hieroglyphics.

Zhara stapled everyone's crowns together. The crowns were a big hit. The kids even used some of the scraps from the poster board to create other items for their kingdoms. Angus made a flag, and Wednesday and Zhara made arm bands. Angus has, of course, already stolen Wednesday's crown, and placed it on top of his own in a hostile takeover of Wednesday's country. That is, of course, to be expected, and likely to happen many more times before it gets old. :)

Zhara is really rocking the regal look.

Wednesday is one happy, if albeit partially nude, ruler.

Tear Apart Day

My husband is a civil engineer, and according to relatives, spent much of his childhood tearing apart any form of electronic that came near him to see what was inside. Truth be told, he still really likes to tinker with things, not all of which make it back together again. :) So it was natural, I suppose, that we would decide to do a Tear Apart Day, as my kids share his base love of destruction for learning's sake.


The other night, while the kids were at karate, I headed to the local thrift store to pick up some cast off electronics. I got a computer keyboard, an old corded phone, a small cassette tape player, a remote, and a VCR tape. I spent a total of $12. It was worth it, I promise.

We discovered a lot of things. We found circuit boards. At dinner, Adam explained to Zhara how the circuit boards work, and what all the parts are.


We found lots of different sizes of circuit boards in the various items.


We learned that Wednesday is really good with a screw driver, except for when it's aimed at Zhara. Thankfully, everyone survived mostly unharmed.


We learned that the keys on a keyboard can really get some flight time when popped properly.




We learned that sometimes, no matter how hard you hit it, you just have to take the screws off to get inside.
We learned that electronic buttons are super awesome inside. Zhara said they remind her of bubble wrap that never pops.


We learned that there is a massive amount of tape inside a VCR tape. So much so that you can make multiple trips throughout the entire house. Or make your own Rastafarian wigs.


Or mummify yourself.


And finally, we learned that there's not a lot to be done with electronics after you've demolished them. We tried making things, but glue just doesn't really stick to them. It was an awfully fun project, though.

Readiness

The amazing thing about readiness is that it's just so simple. It works. Whether you're helping a child learn to use the potty, ride a bike, read, or do calculus. When they're ready, and interested, it just works, easily, without the "work". In the past five days Zhara has memorized half of the times table. Not because she all of a sudden "gets" multiplication, whereas before she didn't, but because she was ready. She had a desire -- to be better at her Mythmatical Battles card game -- and she saw a need. Plus, she really wants to start Life of Fred Fractions. So in less than a week she has done what takes most school children months in school. She's not smarter, she's just ready. This is a life lesson for anyone, but particularly for me. My kids find their way to exactly what they need, when they need it. Don't worry, they know what they need and when they need it. Trust em, they're smart little buggers those ones. And they'll get there. I promise.

A Dinoriffic Day at the Zoo

This summer the Hogle Zoo here in Utah has hosted a collection of awesome robotic dinosaurs. Because my children are rather obsessed with dinosaurs, particularly the male child, we have gone several times. It is their last week, though, and Angus is mourning. So today, despite the warm weather, we hit the zoo for our last encounter with the incredibly realistic robot dinos.


The T-rex is actually life-sized. And it moves. And growls. And roars. It is pretty awesome. I saw quite a few kids, though, that were rather terrified.

An allosaurus, and I think a stegosaurus, in the tall grass near the rhino enclosure. I honestly wonder what the actual animals think of these things that have invaded their zoo.


They also have a dinosaur dig site. Angus is: a) never one for shying away from digging in the dirt and sand, and b) never one to pass up a chance to discover something dinosaur-related.

They have dinosaur-related teaching exhibits throughout the park, as well.

By far, though, the kids' favorite dinosaurs in the exhibit were these dromiosauruses. It's a mom and baby, and they both randomly spit cold water at the kids. It's a really big hit, especially on a really hot day.


This is a mama and baby styracasaurus, which are pretty cool. The mom actually fusses and brays and tries to get you to back away from her baby.

The kids couldn't pass up the obligatory head in the dinosaur's mouth photo.

We didn't just see dinosaur robots at the zoo today, though. We actually saw zoo animals, as well.
Here Angus is exploring the exhibits in the snow leopard area. A halved ball that the leopards actually used to play with, with enormous holes and scratches in it, and of course, no almost 7 year-old boy could pass up the chance to pick the replica of the leopard's nose. :)


Wednesday is smelling some of the leopard's favorite scents -- allspice, perfume, and cat lure.

We visited the elephants, always a favorite, because of the sweet baby elephant.

Camels!

We majorly lucked out today, too, as while we were walking around, we actually ran into our best homeschooling friends, the McKinney's, making the same last round of the dinosaurs. So for awhile, we hung out and played at the zoo with them.

All seven of the kids here are crammed against the railing, watching the 5 year-old orangutang playing peek-a-boo with them from her big swing.

And they all had to measure themselves against the gorilla shadows.

We spent a good twenty minutes playing on the playground with the McKinney's before they headed home to have their lunch, and we went on to explore the zoo some more.


We had the luck of running into the same zoo docent twice today, so we got to learn a lot about a peregrine falcon and an owl that she was carrying around at different times.


And then sometimes the best part of the zoo is just playing, which we also did plenty of.

We rode the carousel. Even me!

Played on the new wooden tree horses


Ate a little lunch.

Played in the misters.

And with the giant reflecting water ball.

It was a good day, and a fitting farewell to the dinosaurs.