... for the eleven-year-old, in no particular order:
The Fire Within by Chris D'Lacey
Stoneheart by Charlie Fletcher
Have Spacesuit - Will Travel by Robert Heinlein
City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L'Engle
The Electric kid by Garry Kilworth
Tomorrowland: Ten Stories About The Future
by Michael Cart
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin
My Side of the Mountain by Jean George
The seven (almost eight)-year-old is starting the sixth book in the Harry Potter series today, so he will be occupied for a while.
11/17/09
11/15/09
ZOMG snails
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| From Fishtank Snails |
We put a loupe up to the glass and then the camera up to that. Adon said "Look! The radula!" Yay for the arthropod expert!
11/12/09
lots to catch up on
We have had some adventures to write about in the last couple of months, but I have also been super busy in school myself, so I haven't had much time to write! Let's see:
The Tech Museum
The day after the big storm, we were scheduled to go to The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. We had been there once before, when uncle Toby was in town, and really liked it, so we decided to make a return visit as a homeschool field trip. Almost everything is "hands-on," and demonstrates various principles behind a wide variety of innovative science that most of us take for granted, such as microprocessors, robots, Internet technology, and more. Since it was just us boys, we could spend a little more time examining the exhibits, and spend more time with the things we thought were really fun. Usually an IMAX show is part of the price of admission ($10), but there was something wrong with the projector, so we didnt get to see a show that day. They have kind of a unique IMAX theater, in that they project on a giant dome and it's even more immersive than a flat presentation. Oh, well. The boys had fun, and we got visit my dad afterward and have dinner (thanks, Dad!). See pictures here:
Explorit
Our next science field trip was to the Explorit Science Center in Davis. One of our friends from preschool is now a homeschooler too, and she organizes group trips for other homeschoolers. The subject was nature and ecology, and we did a little nature walk around the park behind Explorit's 2nd Street facility, dug around collecting some detritivores (worms and bugs, yay!) for later examination, and then did some "lab" work after lunch. Nice little trip for seven bucks a kid, led by an instructor, and covered a good comprehensive subject. The other cool bit is something common to and attractive to homeschoolers, the fact that we had a wide spectrum of ages all participating. There were kids from age three to preteen (maybe even early teen, I didn't ask). I'll ask our trip organizer if she has any good pictures she can send us; I forgot to bring the camera!
Pinewood Derby
OK, so anyone who knows Scouts knows it's not Pinewood Derby season. That's not stopping us! The boys both got excited about the idea of building a car, and our local Scout store sells them year-round, so we drew up some ideas and went to get some kits. We have had a few attempts to learn about and use tools in the past that weren't quite as successful as I would like ("Wow! Sawing and hammering are hard!"), but this time they stuck with it a bit more, did all the sawing and sanding themselves, and got a little help from Mom and Dad with the other bits. I did the spray painting on Zan's car, and he did the gold details. See the boy's cars here:
As far as my graduate work is concerned, I have been doing a LOT of reading, got through a class presentation in one class and a ten-page research paper in the other, and have two more big papers to get done by the end of the semester: another ten-page paper in my Classics class, and a twenty-page paper in my Popular Culture class. Crunch time!
The Tech Museum
The day after the big storm, we were scheduled to go to The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. We had been there once before, when uncle Toby was in town, and really liked it, so we decided to make a return visit as a homeschool field trip. Almost everything is "hands-on," and demonstrates various principles behind a wide variety of innovative science that most of us take for granted, such as microprocessors, robots, Internet technology, and more. Since it was just us boys, we could spend a little more time examining the exhibits, and spend more time with the things we thought were really fun. Usually an IMAX show is part of the price of admission ($10), but there was something wrong with the projector, so we didnt get to see a show that day. They have kind of a unique IMAX theater, in that they project on a giant dome and it's even more immersive than a flat presentation. Oh, well. The boys had fun, and we got visit my dad afterward and have dinner (thanks, Dad!). See pictures here:
 |
| The Tech Museum |
Explorit
Our next science field trip was to the Explorit Science Center in Davis. One of our friends from preschool is now a homeschooler too, and she organizes group trips for other homeschoolers. The subject was nature and ecology, and we did a little nature walk around the park behind Explorit's 2nd Street facility, dug around collecting some detritivores (worms and bugs, yay!) for later examination, and then did some "lab" work after lunch. Nice little trip for seven bucks a kid, led by an instructor, and covered a good comprehensive subject. The other cool bit is something common to and attractive to homeschoolers, the fact that we had a wide spectrum of ages all participating. There were kids from age three to preteen (maybe even early teen, I didn't ask). I'll ask our trip organizer if she has any good pictures she can send us; I forgot to bring the camera!
Pinewood Derby
OK, so anyone who knows Scouts knows it's not Pinewood Derby season. That's not stopping us! The boys both got excited about the idea of building a car, and our local Scout store sells them year-round, so we drew up some ideas and went to get some kits. We have had a few attempts to learn about and use tools in the past that weren't quite as successful as I would like ("Wow! Sawing and hammering are hard!"), but this time they stuck with it a bit more, did all the sawing and sanding themselves, and got a little help from Mom and Dad with the other bits. I did the spray painting on Zan's car, and he did the gold details. See the boy's cars here:
 |
| Pinewood Derby Cars |
As far as my graduate work is concerned, I have been doing a LOT of reading, got through a class presentation in one class and a ten-page research paper in the other, and have two more big papers to get done by the end of the semester: another ten-page paper in my Classics class, and a twenty-page paper in my Popular Culture class. Crunch time!
11/3/09
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