Rocks and Minerals Winner!

Hullo everyone!
I'm sorry this took so long to give away... just got busy, I guess.
(And I now know to put up a firm deadline for myself! :) )

I've written down everyone's entries (including the extras!), and the winner is...

Affectioknit!!

woohoo!

I have let her know, and hopefully she and her Scout will love exploring with the book!

George Washington begins today, friends.
And the 2011 Science Fair entries begin tomorrow! Hopefully we'll get lots of wonderful icky, gooey, amazing, startling, and mind-bending ideas.

Book Give-away : George Washington

George Washington : 25 Great Projects You Can Build Yourself
(recommended by publisher for ages 9 and up)

This give-away will be open from now until Saturday, February 12, 2011, so the winner of the book will hopefully have it by February 21st, President's Day.

Here's what Nomad Press (love them!) has to say about George Washington:
"George Washington: 25 Great Projects You Can Build Yourself offers a fascinating look into the life and times of our nation’s first president. Readers ages 9 and up can explore Washington’s years as a young Virginia gentleman, his military battles, and his political contributions to a fledgling nation. Using common household items and minimal supervision, kids have 25 hands-on activities to help them learn about this legendary figure in American history.
Young readers will: create a surveyor’s map, cook Washington’s favorite hoecakes, write with a quill pen, make a replica of Washington’s battle sword, and much more. Along with detailed, step-by-step instructions for each project, George Washington: 25 Great Projects You Can Build Yourself includes biographical sidebars, illustrations, historical facts that allow kids to explore George Washington in a fun, hands-on way."

We have not yet started to read it, but here are the chapters:

• Introduction : George Washington
• Chapter 1 : A Young Gentleman
• Chapter 2 : Surveyor and Landowner
• Chapter 3 : A Young Colonel
• Chapter 4 : At Home in Virginia
• Chapter 5 : Commander in Chief
• Chapter 6 : Birth of a Nation
• Chapter 7 : Washington's Presidency
• Chapter 8 : Washington's Farewell
  

Some of the other projects (aside from those listed abobe by Nomad Press) are making:

• a hornbook
• a silver plate
• a book of manners
• a surveyor's map
• a weather vane
• pomander
• revolutionary soldiers

We'll see if we can start on this today, and we'll keep you informed about how we're enjoying the book!

If you'd like to be entered for the drawing, here are the (same as usual) particulars--

• You don't need to enter more than once - just say in your original entry if you're a follower (new or old - doesn't matter!), and if you have announced it elsewhere.

• one entry for leaving a comment
• another entry if you are or become a follower
• an extra entry if you blog or tweet or post on facebook.
  

Should a family outside the U.S. be really, really interested in George Washington, I'll ship elsewhere.

I think that's it!
Leave your comment if you're interested.

Review : Explore Rocks and Minerals - 25 Great Projects, Activites and Experiments

To enter your name in the drawing for the book,
leave a comment here.

This book has an age recommendation of 1st-4th grade. I say "If you say so."
But it is completely possible (and likely, even) that it's just that the way the book is written is at odds with the way I process and think.
Most of the time we can take on books like this at a pretty early age. This one leaves me feeling like I'm trying to keep it all straight and trying to sort it out.

Here's what I think: the language is much like "textbook" language. It feels to me like it's trying to get a lot of information inside your head at one time. The language is somewhat natural, but often the children and I were left with feelings of "huh?".

I don't think the book is terrible - not at all. I just think the age range should be something like 3rd grade (if one is interested in geology) to... um.... adult. :) Provided one doesn't have much knowledge and has a very basic (light) understanding of minerals and of rock formations, that is.
But it is prompting us to get out the Magic School Bus volcano (MSB Blows Its Top) and erosion (MSB Rocks and Rolls) episodes, and we're getting out the Volcano software, too, so that's something.

There are a few really cool information bits - such as that the Tambora volcano in 1815 in India "...released so much ash and gas that it blocked out some sunlight and caused the entire earth to become cooler. The next year was called 'The Year without a Summer', because it snowed year-round in Europe and North America."
I had no idea about that.

I think maybe the reason it's recommended for a young age is because the activities are pretty basic. One of them that we tried (epsom salt and water poured over black construction paper) had pretty disappointing results. I expected it to do something when it dried, not just leave salt on the paper. ???

I'm glad we have this book, and I'm sure we'll be using it over the years. I just think that it's a little dry for young children that don't have a good concept (or interest) of things like extrusive and intrusive igneous rocks.

We did get out a few things - a granite stone, pumice, and obsidian to aid in the understanding of what they were talking about, and my children liked that.
I think it would greatly aid this book if you had one of those little collections with a lot of different kinds of stone and minerals in it.

So - all in all, a lot of the more interesting things we already knew, just by being out in the world and investigating nature and our mountains and asking questions, and what we didn't know still seems a little out of our scope of understanding.
I suspect that this could just be a problem for us, in this family, as we explore and discover more naturally than is presented here. (Or really can be presented in a book, maybe.)

But we'll hang on to the book, us non-geologist people, and I'm sure eventually we'll have a pretty keen understanding of rocks and minerals.

Update: Maybe this information just takes a while to sink in, because on a couple of occasions, my children exclaimed, "Hey! We learned about that!..." with quite a bit of enthusiasm. :)

We'll have the drawing for the winner tonight! You can enter for the book here.

And let's hope after reading y'all don't come to the conclusion that I'm a blockhead.

Coming up : George Washington: 25 Great Projects You Can Buid Yourself and The Silk Road : Explore the World's Most Famous Trade Route.

And we'll begin the 2011 Science Fair tomorrow - make sure to link in your science projects, investigations, and experiments through the month of February!

This Drawing is Closed!

Sunday

Quilling.

Clay creations... Maddie and I are making little dishes for valentine chocolates. mmmm.


Play dough.


Computer play.

Outside! with Dad...
trampoline ruckus,


chase and points tag,
drawing,


ball play,


swing!,

and more trampoline hoopla was in order.

"Mom, have you heard of Moby Dick?"
"Yes, I've heard of it, but I've never read it. What do you know about it?"
He then tells me all about the story's plot - with much more familiarity than I have.
Well.
Research, my friends. It's what he does.

Hmmm.... Percy Jackson came up. As well as Jason & the Argonauts.
Netflix for Percy Jackson, yo. It's in the mail.


Qwirkle.
And sculpting. At the same time.


And jokes.
The same ones...
over...
and over...
and over. :)
Because "But it's just too funny!...."

More sculpting.
Complete with explosions.


More computer play

beading

and coloring wood pieces.


Playdough play. Again.

Ice Age on the 'puter.

Making bouncy balls out of playdough.... "Hey." Says Mama. "Maybe tomorrow we should make real bouncy balls. With the borax. Silly putty style. Want to?"
"Yeah!"
Note that, Mama.

Music.
Made-up songs, actually.
About ghosts. And how your Mama will slay them if you're afraid. If you call her downstairs. But really they're just made of cloth. Or maybe it's just your Dad.
Or maybe the song is really about How To Irritate Your Brother.
You know-- the usual.

Journey To the Stars!

Love that.

Kid K'nex for one
and Godzilla play for the other.

Mama's thinkin' it's time for a good book.
So let's say "Good Enough", shall we?

Tomorrow, then.

Quilling with Children

Our bird is on a wet-on-wet watercolor painting.

Quite a while ago we made a beautiful paper art project.

This time we're doing details.

For this project you'll need paints if you like, any kind of paper (for quilling, we used actual quilling paper, patterned scrapbooking, construction, and regular printer varieties of paper), glue, scissors, and a quilling tool- you can use an actual quill, if you like, or even a pencil or wooden skewer, but I had the idea today of using an extra large embroidery needle as a tool -- it worked beautifully for little hands.


For making the paper strips, first you need to find out which way the paper fibers lie... tear a strip off the paper (around an inch thick will be a good indication). If the tearing line curves, then try tearing it the other way. Following the way of the fibers will give you a straighter line.


Regardless if you choose to tear or cut the strips, it is helpful to go with the fibers, as the paper will coil better if you stay with its natural form (bend).

Tuck (or have the child tuck) the end of the paper into the needle, if you're using one.

Then simply twist the paper onto the end of the needle. It's a really quick way to coil the paper.
When you get to the end, have the child let go of the coil (to loosen it), then with small movements, sort of twist the needle back and forth, rocking the end of the paper strip out of the eye of the needle.

If this doesn't work well for your child, and if you are interested enough in quilling, then just snip off the end of the plastic embroidery needle with wire cutters,


and you have a permanent quilling tool. If it seems sharp to you, then just sand it down a bit.
This also allows for a broader strip of paper.


After twirling the paper, the strip is all ready for your designs and bends.


The possibilities are endless!
Birdhouses, trees and leaves, snowflake designs, flowers, landscape scenes.... and I'm thinking they'll make absolutely beautiful Valentine cards. :)

Flamingo

Penguin

Since we are just beginning our love affair with quilling, we found the book Twirled Paper by Jacueline Lee to be an outstanding resource of ideas and creativity. The penguin and flamingo that we made were our version of some of the animals in her book.

Happy Twirling, everyone.

~

This goes to Friday's Nature Table at The Magic Onions for February 19.

the soul of sunday

a space for moments

or snapshots

or entire days of shine.

what's the soul of your sunday?

Friday

Friday this week was our family day-- which means we get to spend the whole day all together.
In keeping with the week's evident theme of Out, we ventured forth again.
Hmm, let's see we've visited the flyers this week... and the walkers, climbers, slitherers, and pouncers.... so let's go see the swimmers, shall we?

But first...

we have the daily Do of create! and Research.

Then...

The Natives






The Sea






Our favorites here:
watching the huge octopus, and then learning about it and seeing it being fed
playing with the rays!
seeing the clownfish hide in the sea anemones
and the giant lobster.


South America

Our favorites:
the penguins, of course!! So, so fun. And agile. And spectacular.
And the anaconda.
the caimens were fantastic
the red pirhana were supercool
and the electric eel was... well... electrifying!

And then since it is family day,
and since winter will eventually be over....


back to one of our favorite spots.





Came home at bedtime with super-full heads and hearts.
It's a good life.

what? a funny

Mama finishes gluing together the toy. For the second time in the last few minutes.
"I'm getting in the shower. Don't touch the toys. Don't touch them, don't move them, (half teasing) don't even look at them... check?"
I hear Trevelyn talking in the other room, but I'm not really listening. "Force" I hear, and "contact"... "Right, Mom?"
"I don't know know, I wasn't listening. I just know that if you look at them you will be tempted to touch them."
"That's what I said. I said 'Not to make eye contact because that will force the participant by the emotions to make physical contact.' Only I was more scientific about it."
Right.

thursday i'm in love

patching up the Beloveds

Maddie learns about embossing

goodnight.