Huh, Creative Math Learner, What?

The more I learn about giftedness and education, the more I come across all kinds of new lingo. It seems A. is a Creative Math Learner type of kid meaning he learns through story and application rather than worksheets. I want to be one too! It sounds like so much fun. Well, when I was at the CAG Conference I was quite unimpressed with the exhibits except for King Joe. King Joe is a set of texts that are in storybook form. I purchased the text that teaches problem solving and it is a huge hit. Both boys love this story and beg for more. At some point I may order the remaining texts.

www.kingjoe.com

Our small town, Sunland is actually part of the City of Los Angeles. Home Depot has been fighting to place one of their stores withing 1/2 mile of our house. Here is a great video displaying the characteristics of our town. Tomi is a local realtor and representative to our Neighborhood Council and she put this together.

McGuffey's Readers

Did you know that you can download the McGuffey's readers from this site?

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14640

Click on McGuffey, William to see the other downloads available.

Lunar Eclipse Dress Rehearsal

Did you know there was a dress rehearsal for this evenings lunar eclipse! There was!

Here is the sun, a very small sun.


Here is the little moon. Isn't he a cute little moon!

Here is the little Earth. Ahh, what a sweet little Earth he is!

Can you see how the Sun's light shines on the Moon? It's faint but it's right there in the middle of the Moon's chest.

Hey, what happened? The Earth slowly moved in between the Sun's light and the Moon. The poor Moon is all dark now. You can see how hard the Earth had to concentrate to pull this off. Good job Earth.

I don't have a picture of this but I bet you can imagine what happened next! Yes, the Earth continued moving over, allowing the Sun to shine it's light on the little Moon!

Now, try not to miss the real lunar eclipse this evening!

Happy viewing,

The Sun

Two Happy Boys

When I pick up the boys from preschool each day I ask them what was the favorite part of their school day. A., my dear, always says "You, Mom, you are the favorite part of my day." R., my dear, always tells me what he ate for lunch. Food is the favorite part of his day. Ahh, the simple life-family and food. Come to think of it, family and food are way up on my list of favorite things.

Here are a few pictures of happy boys.

A. after excavating and building his T-Rex model. Satisfaction!

R. preparing to eat his morning pancakes. Mmmm, happiness.

Who Ya Gonna Call - CLUMP BUSTERS!

Today we added some soil to our new raised garden bed. Big A. assembled the bed using premade corners. Here are the corners now!

Everyone participated.

A. was the designated clump buster. See that clump right there? It's about to be destroyed!

I was the dirt leveler in charge as well as documentarian and R. was my trusty assistant. He took his role quite seriously.

Big A. was the dirt dumper. He's so strong. He wowed us by carrying 6 bags of stinky dirt to our work site.

Voila! The dirt is in place! We have about 4 inches of dirt and need another 4 inches before planting.

CAG Conference

I co-presented with Dr. Barbara Klein at the California Association for the Gifted Conference today.

http://drbarbaraklein.squarespace.com/

http://www.cagifted.org/

It wasn't something I normally would do but Barbara asked for my help and I did have a good time. It was nice to step out of my normal role for the day.

Butterflies!

A. and I really enjoy Journey North and their education programs on the subject of migration. Today we watched the amazing videos of the Monarch butterflies.

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/monarch/PoetrySanctuaryVideo.html

Chinese New Year

Did you celebrate Chinese New Year? We started attending the Families with Children from China Chinese New Year banquets once R. came home to us.

http://www.fwcc.org/

The boys wore their vests again this year. These are magical vests as they never seem to grow into them. I think we'll get a third year out of them!

Year of the Rat Stamps

The United States Post Office offers stamps each Chinese New Year.

http://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10152&storeId=10001&categoryId=18401&productId=35901&langId=-1

This year is the year of the rat! I have purchased a sheet each year for our son R.

The New Century Jelly Glass?

Well you know, I'm always up to trying something new especially if it's on sale and I have a coupon. Alan picked up some Hillshire Farm lunchmeat. Typically we don't eat lunchmeat unless it comes from real meat, lol. Alan loves peppered turkey sliced from the deli but it just isn't in the budget. In comes the Vons flyer and the Hillshire Farms coupon for lunchmeat. I bite on the deal and Alan heads out to Vons to do the shopping. So today I try the new lunchmeat. It's so-so, typical suspicious water-added lunchmeat but it does come in reusable Gladware. Now we use Gladware all the time for packing our lunches. I would buy this again for that reason alone. I'm a sucker for Gladware. Aren't the folks at Hillshire Farms smart!

Baby Birds

Who doesn't love baby birds! If baby birds are good then baby bald eagle birds are the best. Please take a look see at these little guys. Look early in the day as it gets dark in Florida before it does out here on the west coast. A. and I kept the birds up on the screen for several hours waiting for the adults to come home and feed the fluffy little babies.

http://www.audubonofflorida.org/friendsoftheeagle/cam.html

Ni Hao Kai-lan

Ni Hao Kai-lan finally premiered. I haven't had a chance to see it yet. Have you? A. saw a bit of it today and was very excited to tell me about it. I'll record an episode for him on Monday.

http://www.nickjr.com/shows/ni-hao-kai-lan/index.jhtml