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WHY? Our Journey Into Homeschooling
Thursday, August 3, 2006
We're Still Here
Yes,
we're still alive and kicking around here. The computer I used for
blogging crashed in June, and it took me a while to get it up and
running again. Then, just everyday stuff has been keeping me too busy
to blog.
A.J. is still into fish, but he is also now into
almost anything having to do with living organisms in the ocean.
Recently, we were at a friend's house and borrowed two books that he's
really enjoying; we also purchased some books at the used book store.
They all have to do with the ocean except one, which is about space. He
went through there and picked them all himself, giving himself a
spending limit (of my money, of course) of $10.
The two books we borrowed are Usborne Discovery titles, Sharks and Whales and Dolphins.
If I haven't already done so, I have to recommend Usborne titles to any
homeschooler. They are a great mix of illustrations (both photos and
drawings) and text. (BTW, I don't sell them.) A.J. really enjoys
reading all the little tidbits of information and sharing them with me
from these and other books. Some of his recent favorite tidbits of
information:
- An elephant could fit on a blue whale's tongue!
- An
ocean sunfish, also called a mola mola, can lay up 300 million eggs at
a time. This is a big feat for the biggest bony fish in the sea. The
adult fish can weigh up to 2 tons and be 13 feet across.
- Blacktip reef sharks are "foot biters."
One
of my favorite features of many of the Usborne books are their Internet
links. We don't take advantage of them nearly often enough, but when we
do, we always have a good time. Recently, A.J. "won" a certificate
online from the San Diego Natural History Museum for playing a game and
"knowing fact from fantasy about sharks." He went to the web site with Alan but answered all the questions himself.
Yesterday,
we visited several interesting sites. We visited the Nature (TV
program) site and read about and watched videos of humpback whales using bubblenetting to herd and eat herring. We visited the Discovery Channel web site to watch videos about shark teeth and getting data on whale sharks through satellite transmitters. We also visited the web site of the Monterey Bay Aquarium to watch a video of blacktip reef sharks and play a game called Crunch, Nibble, Gulp
about what different fish eat. A.J. got them all right, proof that he
is remembering all that he reads. Mind you, these short videos (the
longest was 7 minutes or so) are perfect for A.J. as he really doesn't
like to sit still watching TV or videos for long (we don't even have
cable, although I'd love to have it for things like the Discovery
Channel). On a side note, he did recently watch and enjoy Finding Nemo, which a friend lent to us, but he had to do it in two sessions because "This is too long, Mom."
A.J.
has recently expanded his attention span greatly. This summer, he has
started to sit down and read on his own for long lengths of time. He's
been able to read just about anything since shortly after he turned 3;
however, now at almost 6, his focus has just recently expanded so that
he wants to sit down and read for a while. Grandma R., he's even been
sitting down and reading those great copies of Zoobooks, to which you subscribed for him. I think they're a great resource as well.
So,
we're definitely heavy on the science and biology nowadays, but boy, is
A.J. learning a lot! I've been telling folks it's like we've been doing
one big unit study on oceans and ocean life. Since I wanted to be a
marine biologist in my former life, there are lots of books sitting
around the house for him to pick up and learn from as well.
On
paperwork notes, I sent in our first NOI or notice of intent to
homeschool to our school district in July, so we are officially
homeschooling for the 2006-2007 year. Alan, A.J., and I have also gone
over a list of things we'd like to go over this year. Alan would like
to see him get started on Latin, and there's a whole list of other
things we'd like to review or get him started on, but like all things,
we're taking it one step at a time.
Straight from A.J.
Go to www.shop.com
For Great Books. We are going to see Joel and Laura on August 5, Hope you have a good day!
More from Mommy
I
have no idea if that is a real web site or not. A.J. laughs at all the
Internet ads he sees when I'm online or when we're online. He thinks
they're funny because I refuse to click on them in almost every case :)
He's also a little capitalist and is always trying to sell something.
There is a nice woman that also visits my chiropractor who draws him
pictures (she's an artist). The first time she drew him one, he tried
to sell it to someone else in the office for $250. The whole waiting
room was laughing, but I let him know that was rude, and he hasn't done
it since. He just wants to find a way to make money 
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About Me
Learning to homeschool and homeschooling to learn.
Links
Home
Archives
My Blog's RSS
Interesting Homeschool Links
Kids Do Ecology
Enchanted Learning
Minimus Latin Web Site
Kinetic City science games and activities
iknowthat.com
Good Books We've Used
Math
G Is for Googol by David Schwartz
Science
Usborne First Nature: Fishes by Alwyne Wheeler
Usborne Discovery: Sharks by Jonathan Sheikh-Miller
Usborne Discovery: Whales and Dolphins by Susanna Davidson
The Nature Company EcoXplorer Series: Under the Sea by Priscilla Wrubel et al.
Questions and Answers: Mighty Machines by Stephen Angel
Cooking
Emeril's There's a Chef in My World by Emeril Lagasse
Emeril's There's a Chef in My Soup by Emeril Lagasse
Languages
Minimus Pupil's Book: Starting Out in Latin by Barbara Bell and Helen Forte
Sign With Your Baby by Joseph Garcia
Sign Language for Kids by Lora Heller
Good Magazines We've Read
Moo Cow Fan Club
NG Kids
My Big Backyard
Which Way USA?
Zoobooks
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