Vacation Education

We are spending this week in South Carolina on Hilton Head Island. This is the first time I have been here. I've been very pleased with the area. The beaches, the pace, and the general atmosphere is great for taking time away from regular life.

While here, we've had the opportunity to do many things that have been good for fun and education.

On Sunday we visited Coastal Discovery Museum. There were many things to be done at the museum. The best part, of course, was that the admission to the museum was 100% FREE. I love FREE stuff that provides entertainment AND education.

We played dress up and pretended we were colonial kids.

We looked at a really large skeleton of a sea turtle. Seriously, we could have used that turtles shell to build ourselves a really awesome cave.

We walked through the butterfly pavilion and saw "flying flowers" and the caterpillars that make them. (Translation: We saw monarch caterpillars and swallowtail caterpillars, along with a handful of butterflies.)

We walked out on two different boardwalks that stretched out over the salt marsh. This, by far, was my favorite part of our visit. I thoroughly enjoyed walking out over the marsh. It was low tide when we made our visit, so the water was way down. We were blessed by visions of thousands of fiddler crabs as they went about the business of life. It was absolutely amazing. I really could have sat and watched those crabs for hours. Marisa was with me on this one. She would have gladly sat and watched the little crabs going about their business for quite a long time. Unfortunately, Kira and Daddy were way too impatient for that. They figured that twenty minutes of fiddler crab life was plenty enough for them.

When we were making our way back to the car, I came across an interesting creature. It appeared to be a caterpillar, but it was shaped like a scorpion. I couldn't see any type of stinger and whenever I touched it with a stick it would curl up like a grub worm.I did find some photos and learned that this was, in fact, a caterpillar. It's the caterpillar for a tussock moth. The one we saw was red/black fur and a red head with black antennae and tail.

Phonics

I've been spending the last few days teaching Marisa her letter sounds. We make a fun game of the whole process.

I ask her what the letter "A" says.

She tells me that the letter makes some off the wall sound that is completely not what that letter says.

I tell her in a voice that is incredulous that that is NOT what the letter says.

Then I tell here exactly what the letter says.

She repeats what I say about the letter, then we carry on to the next one in line.

We do this for the entire alphabet.

This is the same method I used for Kira two years ago. Kira, however, preferred to tell me that her letters said "nothing" instead of providing me with nonsense sounds. At any rate, Marisa is learning the letter sounds and having fun being obstinate about it. Who knew that "MY" Marisa would enjoy being obstinate and difficult??? (Never saw THAT one coming...)

Feel that hard spot? It's a bone.

Marisa watched Sid the Science Kid yesterday while we were at Grandma Janet's house. I only have a couple of the DVDs for Sid, so we rarely get to see anything new. Yesterday's episode was about using you brain and how muscles work. Apparently this made an impression on Marisa.

Last night while I was in the shower, Marisa and Daddy has a discussion about muscles. Marisa was telling Daddy about where her muscles are and what they do. Daddy took this opportunity to tell Marisa about bones.

Marisa was fascinated by this new discovery. She was thoroughly excited to discover that she has bones. She spent the next four hours - YES... FOUR HOURS - telling us where her bones were.

Touching her forehead, she would say, "Do you feel that hard spot, Mommy? It's a bone."

Then she would touch her knee and say, "Do you feel that hard spot? It's a bone."

Then she would touch her arm and say, "Do you feel that hard spot? It's a bone."

Then she would touch my arm and say, "Do you feel that hard spot? It's a bone. You have bones inside you, Mommy. I have bones inside me, Mommy."

She chattered about this new discovery for hours on end. Long after Daddy was asleep, Marisa was still going on about bones and how she had all these bones.

I did take the opportunity to point out to her that she had joints to go along with those bones. She was far less fascinated by that revelation that the fact that she had bones.

No More Pre-School

Kira decided she was all done with pre-school so I withdrew her from the program. Fun was had, but I do believe she missed being at home. I also think there is a limit to how much can be gained from continual unstructured play when the playing centers around the same toys day after day after day with little variation.

What I learned from her time in pre-school is that she has a fondness for the Science Center. Their Science Center was equipped with magnifying glasses, telescopes, and scales plus a few fake bugs and such. I will be acquiring my very own Science Center fairly soon to accommodate her interest.

I also learned that setting up our "school space" in Centers might make everybody's life just a little bit easier. That will have to wait for a while because we are limited on space right now. However, in the next year or so I will be able to organize things in a way that will allow us to create specific locations for specific areas of study. I'm a planner so I will spend the next few months making notes and considering all the various possibilities for setting up this type of system.

Coloring Books

I stopped at the Dollar Tree this afternoon and picked up a couple of new coloring books. I needed something new to help entertain the girls for at least a little while so I could continue working on painting the bedroom walls. This painting project has turned into a never ending test of my endurance.

I set Kira and Marisa on my bed with their new coloring books and new crayons. Kira happily searched through her book and found all the mazes and anything that remotely resembled dot-to-dots. She thoroughly enjoyed tracing tonight. Usually she gets so frustrated with tracing because she has such poor control with a pencil. Tonight she spent a long time tracing whatever she could find. She was genuinely disappointed when all the tracing stuff was finished. Perhaps this is the key to helping her improve her writing skills. Find more coloring books with tracing.

I can't really tell you what Marisa was doing. She wasn't nearly as vocal about the whole process as Kira. There's something about Mommy trying to get anything done that brings out Kira's chatter bugs.

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!!!

Lessons for Today

We've had a very busy day today.

Kira spent an hour playing Jumpstart World Pet Playground. This computer game is geared to children ages 4 to 8. The game has a couple of different functions on it. One game that can be played teaches and reinforces the beginning letter sounds of words. The other game is about ordinal numbers and choosing numbers that are lower than the given number. Kira was only playing on the beginning levels, so I'm not sure if the higher levels allow you to play more complicated games or not.

The object of Pet Playground is to earn enough gems to buy a pet. Then you have to buy the things your pet needs and take care of your pet. It is really quite interesting. She gets to learn about working for what she wants.

In addition to the computer game, Kira was introduced to the concept of actually working to earn money. She earned her very first dime today by helping her Daddy load the clothes into the washing machine.

Kira and I walked to the Dollar Tree to get a piggy bank for her money because she did not already have one. After I made my purchase, I allowed her to earn the change by telling me the names of the different coins and the monetary values of each coin. She earned $0.83 today. She's saving her money for Horseland Ponies because she doesn't want to wait until her birthday to get them. Her birthday is in September - a long time from now.

I notified the Grandma's that Kira would now be "for hire" should they have any jobs they want her to do. I also gave them a general monetary suggestion for how much they should offer if they plan to give her any jobs. The biggest key here is that she is not getting paid for doing her normal chores.