Children's Museum- mummy!
Originally uploaded by annamaren.Today we went to Ancient Egypt where we discovered a tomb with an Egyptian mummy inside! Who was this mummy? How old was it? How could we find out?
Actually we only went to the Children's Museum. With some detective work, K was able to find out that the mummy was a woman named Wenu-hotep and she was about 2,500 years old. We found out a lot about how Egyptologists have figured out Wenu-hotep's clues.
All very interesting!
L is hard at work
Originally uploaded by annamaren.What is it with the little guy, that he makes this face when he is concentrating very deeply? When he is in the zone, or working hard at something, he gets all Michael Jordan on us with the tongue just hanging out of his mouth!
Also the scrunching of the face..... furrowed brow and scrunching helps a lot in whatever boyhood work you are engaging in.
(He is actually working at a little archeology toy/game that we bought today.)
Today K's Spanish class went on a Scavenger hunt lesson. We went shopping for a spoken list of items, each team had an ipod with a playlist of spoken words from our teacher, Rachael.
I was the parent with one team, but I don't really speak Spanish. I was relying on the team to be able to listen to the words and I would help them find the things in the store.
Our team did fine for the fist half of the list, but then things got weirder and weirder. We went from simple items like "a blue towel, a yellow towel and a green towel" to "something blue with water for your head". My team guessed a blue showerhead! Then, "Somethingwith red water for your hands". We were a little stumped by this odd request, but then our team wanted me to direct them to the faucets, which had a hot and cold (red and blue) label. Then the next item was "something with water for your bottom" and I seriously doubted that our teacher wanted us to put a bidet in our shopping cart, so we stopped scavenging for items and went to find Rachael!
(We were all hearing the phrase incorrectly, adding the term "agua"- (water) to everything we listened to. We then went to find a blue hat and red mittens and were looking for underwear before deciding to call it quits. Since the other team beat us soundly!)
I am checking in with Rachael before we do this again. No more bidet shopping for our Spanish class!
K - Beekeeper in Training!
Originally uploaded by annamaren.K expressed an interest, so we got her a beekeeping outfit of her own this year. She'll be able to help Rob in simple ways around the hives, and be much more involved because she'll be able to be closer to the hives.
We are down to our very last honey from our bees. It's the best honey I have ever tasted, and I'm going to miss it until Rob robs the hives for the first time this year.
I think I'm going to involve K in record keeping for the bees this year too. We can record how much honey we got and processed at different times during the season, and how many pounds in total the whole year will yield for us. Rob keeps two hives, so we'll be able to compare the two against each other for data too.
In other news, we are done with the Chocolate Unit and have started reading up on Egypt- K's next choice. Ancient Egypt here we come!
Here's some snowy love...... at last!
We read
Snowflake Bentley again recently. It's a beautifully written and illustrated story about Wilson Bentley, and it won the Caldecott in 1999.
Let me share a little about Snowflake Bentley and why I love him and his family...
Wilson Bentley was a man who lived with a passion for snow. He was the first person to photograph a snowcrystal with a microscope in 1885, (he was 19), and went on to spend his winters in the small town of Jericho, Vermont where he lived, photographing snow. Although rebuffed for years by the scientific community of the time, he continued his work, and amassed a collection of over 5000 photographs . In 1898 he began publishing articles of his findings, with his illustrations. He lived to see a book of his work published, and his photographs of snowflakes housed in Museums and Universities all over the world.
Wilson Bentley's theory that no two snowflakes were alike, caught the imagination of people at the time and opened the study of snowflakes to popular culture as well.
Here's what I love: William Bentley was homeschooled by his mother who had been a school teacher. He had a passion for snow, his mother fed his passion by giving him a microscope. He tried to draw the snow he saw in his microscope, but it melted too quickly. In a day and age when things like microscopes and cameras were hugely expensive, his mother talked his father into giving him a camera and a new microscope when he was 17. William Bentley was self taught in all that he did with his snowflake photography, yet two years later, he had a method that worked, it produced beautifully clear microscopic photos of snow, and it shed new light on the way we look at snow today.
The man had a passion, he really knew what he loved- snow! From the time he showed an interest in the subject he was encouraged by his family, and supported in the ways that he needed to succeed. I have to admire the courage shown by his parents. They were farmers, and things like a camera and a new microscope were luxuries. The money might have been easily spent on new stock, painting the barn, a rainy day fund... but they believed in their son and encouraged him with time and equipment and their love.
Outside interest in his work really only began later in his career. He spent years simply following his bliss, photographing snow, calm in the knowledge that he was doing what he felt led to do. When interest in his snowflake photography started it seems that he never charged a lot for his photographs. They were sold to diverse audiences, from Tiffany's as inspiration to Univeristies for study. There was never any copyright put on his photographs so they remain in the public domain. In his hometown he often gave outdoor slide shows of his photographs, using a projector and a sheet! He loved to talk about his work, and he really knew how to share his passion for snow.
Snowflake Bentley's story serves as a reminder for me that following your bliss, supporting others in their bliss and knowing how to easily share your bliss with others are all beautiful things. May we all feel so free to do these things in our lives.
(I hope I can live up to Wilson Bentley's homeschooling mama! What a role-model! And thanks to my own blissful mama who loved this book from the moment it was published, and made me read it!)
Sledding while it's snowing
Originally uploaded by annamaren.While all the regular schooled kiddos were in school, (yeah, they were nice and warm and cozy) we were out at the park this afternoon!
Here we are with the B's at the bottom of the hill ready for K who is sliding down!
K was completely enthralled by the snow. As it fell, we spent some time outside and we marvelled at how beautiful each flake we saw was. They were gorgeous crystals, 6 sided and complete.
So we went out to the park to spend some time sledding and K took a walk by the frozen creek with her friend G as I took L home, he was freezing and sad about it.
Our town, our team, our time!! Indianapolis has gone
nuts, everyone was so ready for the Colts to have this
Superbowl victory. It was such a great game, we went over to a friend's house for the party, it was pretty huge excitement. Today the city welcomed the team back home with a huge parade and rally downtown. We decided not to head towntown. Actually my kids had to tell me that it was too cold for them- I was so ready to go! With windchill it was at -16 F degrees though, so likely they were right!
We had an issue with our furnace last night....... in that it, um stopped working! The repair guys had it flixed in a morning though- I was so impressed! So the kiddos were done with being cold, and we had a quiet evening cheering with the rally from the comfort of our own warm home, eating our own warm soup!
With all the Super Bowl and Furnace craziness it was a day off school for Kindleseed!
The storms in Florida were not kind to the
Migrating Class of 2006. 18 Endangered Whooping Cranes -essentially the whole flock- died in the recent storms. (
CNN link)
We had been following the Operation Migration Field Journals last fall as the Cranes made their way safely to Florida without losing a single bird.
Of course our thoughts and prayers are with all the people who are dealing with the destruction of the storms in Florida. This piece of news just struck my heart because we followed those birds on their migration last year.
