Skeleton

I had an appointment with my chiropractor today. I've been talking to him for a while now about borrowing his skeleton for a bit of show and tell. The skeleton model he has is child sized, which is just perfect for a lesson in bones. Well, both girls happened to be with me today so I had Kira ask the doctor if we would be able to look at his skeleton before leaving. Of course he said yes. Kira is very hard to resist, and the approval was already there from previous conversations.

While he was working on my back, his wife pulled out the skeleton for me. When I was all done she told me where it was so that I could give a bit of a lesson.

Marisa was a bit afraid at first. After all, skeletons can be bit scary if you've only ever seen them in the capacity of Halloween. She quickly warmed up, though, and came over to explore this new toy. We sat in the floor and discussed the different parts of the skeleton and what certain bones were responsible for. Both girls enjoyed touching the model and bending the different parts.

When we were done, I demonstrated how a skeleton could give a hug. Kira, though a little leery, allowed the skeleton to hug her. Marisa flat out refused.

Killer Jellyfish

We watched Killer Jellyfish from the Natural Killers series today.

The Jellyfish DVD is a documentary that talks about jellyfish from Australia that are known killers. The kids get to learn how jellyfish are born and how they hunt.

Here's the information from the back of the DVD cover.

- The sea wasp, a type of box jellyfish, is the most deadly creature on earth, with enough venom to kill 60 people within four minutes. It haunts the beautiful shores of north Queensland in Australia. But it is not alone.

- It has an almost invisible cousin, known as the Irukandji jellyfish. Packed in this fingernail-sized creature is a sting so agonizing that not even morphine relieves the pain.

- Discover how two researchers risk their lives to unlock the secrets of the Irukandji jellyfish, and how Queensland's swimmers are learning to protect themselves.

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Kira was prompted to ask me what the word "gravitate" means because the researchers were talking about how the jellyfish gravitate to certain areas to follow their prey.

Personally, I love watching this particular DVD. Each time I watch it I learn something new. This time I learned how jellyfish polyps clone themselves to create multiple jellies from one single fertilized egg. It's really cool to watch the computer generated animations of the process.

There is also a computer generated animation of the stingers process when the jellyfish sting. That is pretty neat to watch, as well.

Magic School Bus

I'm starting out Marisa's day with a Magic School Bus DVD. Kira is still sleeping, so she isn't enjoying the show just yet.

The Magic School Bus Catches a Wave

This DVD has 3 different episodes about water. The first episode covers the water cycle. All the kids go on a field trip where they turn into water and live the water cycle for a while. They change from water drops to water vapor and then to ice crystals and then to clouds. After they turn into clouds, they turn back into water drops and rain. The cycle continues for a while until they are able to make their way back to school via the water purification system.

Even though I've seen this DVD several times, I can't quite recall the other episodes. I believe one is about erosion and how water can break rocks and shape mountains. There's a third episode, but I really can't remember what that one is about.

UPDATE: The third one is about sinking and floating. They talk about water displacement and other such concepts.

I love The Magic School Bus. It's perfect for teaching Science concepts. The kids love watching the shows and don't even realize just how much they are learning.

The Magic School Bus also has a series of books that the kids enjoy reading.

Diego

Marisa wanted to watch Go, Diego, Go this morning. I really enjoy that cartoon. There is so much educational value to be found in watching shows of that nature. The disc we were watching today was all about ocean creatures. I love how both the girls interact with the show, answering the questions and being involved in all the action.

Glitterfy.com - Glitter Graphics

Letter Sounds

I spent a good bit of time with Marisa today chatting about nothing in particular. One of our conversations revolved around what the letters say. She started this by asking me what the number 4 says. After I told her that the number 4 doesn't say anything, we continued the discussion moving on to the letters.

Marisa is learning her letter sounds the same way that Kira did. The only difference is that Marisa doesn't insist that the letters say "nothing" all the time. Still, it's a fun game for her. It's a bit tedious for me, but hey - that's what I'm here for.

Coffe Shop School

Today Kira and I wandered off to my favorite Starbucks to sit and work on school. Kira loves to do worksheets, so I brought along her current workbook. She completed 16 different pages out of her workbook - front and back. Just WOW!

She also made her very first purchase today. She decided that she wanted a brownie, so I sent her to the counter with $3.00 to make her purchase. (I was sitting right by the counter.) She told the lady what she wanted, and patiently waited for her change and her brownie. After she returned the change to me, I had her choose 2 quarters to place in the tip box. She asked the lady at the counter where to put the tip money. She even said 'thank you' and 'have a nice day' after her purchase was completed. Her reward for such a wonderful accomplishment was a brownie that was apparently very yummy. The brownie really didn't last long.

After she finished her workbook pages, she spent a few minutes finding different shapes in the coffee shop and outside the coffee shop. Then she pointed out what the different customers were doing.

This was a wonderful learning experience for both of us. I think this may become a favorite spot for studying. That has absolutely NOTHING to do with the hot chocolate here. HONEST!!!