Camping in the Backyard

Yes, we have been camping in the great outdoors, much further then our own backyard.  But some of the best adventures are close to home.  The boys asked if they could help put up the tent in the backyard and I said "Sure!"

So, the boys actually helped set up the tent.  Explaining to me how the poles go together & where we should put the tent.  Once the tent was up they were quick to move in.  They seemed to think of it as a bedroom/playroom combined.  Sleeping bags, crayola glowboard, bedside table, books & of course rechargeable flashlights.*

The tent became their "Hid Ot" for a few days, complete with sign and all.  By the end of it (4 days), it was quite a task to clean it out.  As it had all the above named stuff plus some additional board games, clothes & toys in it. .

*These flashlights are from Brookstone  and they are awesome.  They are actually called a "Twist Light" and they are a little expensive at $25 a pop.  But my boys love them (they were a gift) and I don't have to replace batteries.  They are just the right size, not to little to lose, not big and bulky & always ready to go ( or sometimes only a few twists away).

The National Building Museum

The National Building Museum is awesome! Talk about a cool place to explore, this museum was right up my boys alley.  They instantly made themselves at home & started building.  As they built we talked about how tall things could be, how wide the base would need to be, what type of material is easiest to build with or which one is the sturdiest.  The boys are already asking when we get to go back.

Learning So Much

I am currently in an Orton-Gillingham Tutoring Course.  It is so interesting, the instructor is great and I am learning so much.  It will definitely be an asset when I re-enter the teaching world.

So far we have covered, the letter sounds (noisy or quiet).  We have been learning about the neuropathways  of the brain & how they need to be connected to work efficiently.  I am definitely adding to my little bag of trips (and my montessori experience will definitely come in handy).  Tonight the instructor was talking about Sandpaper letters (because some in the class had never heard of them).

Waiting for Superman

I went to see "Waiting for Superman" today and I have to say that as an educator (and a mom) it was very scary and very inspiring.  Scary in that my kids are going to be a product of the American school system. Inspiring in that I am an educator and I can make it better (in my own little piece of the world).  I wish the movie had talked a bit more about the middle class (although I know that would not have been as much of an attention getter).  

They did talk a little about one child that wanted to get into a charter high school (and she did).  I have to admit that I love the idea of Charter schools.  We just recently moved and my oldest son currently goes to our local public school because it is a good one, but when we lived in the city I was on the founders committee to one of Baltimore's first charter schools.  I am very proud of that school and all of the work that has gone into making it what it is.  There are times that I still wish we lived in the neighborhood, so my boys could go to such a diverse and committed school.  

I love the idea that parent's have such an invested stake in what goes on in the school.  Not that my son's current local school doesn't, because it does.  It also has parent volunteers like crazy.  My son's class has a volunteer every day of the week for the next two months (and I am only in there once every other week).  If I had that many volunteers when I was teaching I would have been doing backflips!

Anyway, if you are invested in your child's future (and I know we all are) you should see this movie.  It is an eye opener, even if it is a bit of a downer at some points (you want it to all be okay for everyone & it's not). 

Dinosaur Footprints

My youngest is way into Dinosaurs.  This is something I have encouraged right from the beginning since it is one of the first things that he showed an interest in on his own, without following his older brother's lead.  So needless to say we have lots of dinosaur books, puzzles (flat and 3-D), stickers, eggs, cookie cutters, etc...  This summer he even went to a half day dinosaur day camp at our local science center.  He had a bast!

So the other day as he was reading one of his books, he came across a project and asked if we could do it.  I thought it was an awesome idea.  Well, the first part of the project was "all Mom".  Unfortunately the potatoes were to hard to cut on their own (my older son definitely wanted in on this fun).  So, I cut the potatoes in half, drew the print on them and started carving.  I was actually amazed that I got through 4 prints and did not cut myself.

(Then my older son asked if I could carve out the letters of his name (which I thought was an awesome idea), so of course I did both the boys names & still managed not to cut myself.  If you knew me you would realize what an accomplishment this really is!)

At first I was just going to get out some of our large paper out of our art drawer, but remembered the roll of paper that I had in the basement.  So, I rolled the paper our onto the driveway & let the boys go at it.  WHAT FUN!

They printed one at a time, mismatched them up, printed two at a time & even though about attaching them to their feet and hands (but decided that they would probably break them & we were out of potatoes, so they couldn't make anymore (never mind the fact that Mom was not carving anything else, after carving 12 potatoes).

We even compared "our" footprints to Dinosaur footprints.  This was  a blast as my guys are always quick to paint themselves.  They had a great conversation between themselves about toes & shapes of feet & how Dinosaurs "real" feet would be lots bigger & what could we carve the footprints out of next time that would be bigger.  Every once in a while they would throw a question out to me.  Most of the time I didn't know the answer and let them know we would have to look it up in one of "A's" books or head to the internet.

What a great afternoon of fun!