Mantises or Mantisi?

The plural of mantis is actually mantes, but mantises is ok too. In case you're wondering why I need to know the plural of mantis, it's because we had well over 100 of these lil buggers erupt from the egg sack in our kitchen this morning.

And now I bet you're wondering why we had a mantis egg sack in our kitchen, huh? Well that answer is simple: Mommy had an awesome find which resulted in Declan getting a Praying Mantis Pagoda for his birthday. So we sent off for the egg sack and well, the rest you know.

So of the 100+ mantes (or mantises) we're going to keep about 12 of them (6 in 2 separate containers). the rest were released this morning and are more than likely bird food by now. So of that 12, I think we'll be able to keep just 1 through adulthood (as they will eat each other if left in the same enclosure).

Take a look and enjoy these pictures of the hatching. I'll have more to come so stay tuned.

'I Spy: I Love You'...An Easy Cheater Book

Please allow me to begin by stating that I absolutely love the I Spy and Can You See What I See? book series. If you have yet to do them with your kids, you're missing out. Declan spends countless hours scanning the pages looking for skulls, sandals, dinosaurs and just about anything else you could imagine. Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick have done an amazing job on the I Spy series (and a solo Walter Wick on the Can You See What I See? series). That's why, when we found the Easy Reader I Spy series, we were thrilled.

Declan grabbed the first one he saw, I Spy: I love You, Easy Reader Level 1. We opened it up, equally excited. Him for obvious reasons and me for the reason any parent would and should be excited for their child: they found a reason to learn to read! Now, please let me fill you in on something: Declan can read if he wants to. The problem is, well, he doesn't really want to, so he doesn't get practice. It's not laziness, it just is the way it is. He'd rather we read There's a Monster Eating My House (by Art Cummings) than him read Dick and Jane all by himself. Can you blame him? He's a little boy. He requires more thrills and chills than, "See Jane. See Spot. See Spot run. See Jane run after Spot."

Unfortunately the excitement that came over me, realizing that one of my son's favorite books had been paired with my parental want of educating my child, fizzled and popped from existence when I opened to the first page. I was heartily let down by what I saw: pictures of the word next to the word itself. Any intelligent kid (of which Declan is one), will realize that the book is a visual scavenger hunt. The page on the left lists the things to find in the scatter of the things on the right. So why would he read the word when he can just look for the picture of what he sees?

I understand the concept, but that does not promote reading. None of the other I Spy books are set up this way, so that tells me it is specific to the Easy Readers. That's not easy reading, it's a way out for those kids who are smart enough to find it. I guess we have to see Spot run after all.

Volcanoes are cool.

The old vinegar/baking powder trick is an easy trick for an elevation to cool dad status.

take a little vinegar (and some food coloring)...


add a little baking powder (pay no mind to the use of a shot glass)...


and voila!

Face Value

During learning time Declan and I decided to get in touch with our emotions (no, we didn't sit around holding each other and crying over our cups of Mocha Chai Latte).

We talked about the different kinds of emotions that people experience and with the help of these super duper flash cards we were able to do a bunch of different exercises.

Obviously, the first would be to discuss the emotions individually, but rather than listing and explaining, I'd show him the emotion card and tell him a situation: Billy took your toy and threw it on the floor, breaking it...you'd feel...mad? more than mad...angry. That way he'd become familiar with scenarios for each and the differences between the emotions.

Then it came time for the game. I laid out all of the emotion cards and then gave him a scenario.
I wake up in the morning and I'm just not happy. everyone had better stay out of my way today: grumpy
All of my friends went home for the day and I wish I had someone to play with: lonely
I've decided to be an actor in a play and tonight is opening night where everyone comes to watch me: nervous

But it didn't stop there. Once he guessed my scenario and was able to put the card on his pile, I had him tell me a situation where he'd feel or where he'd felt that emotion.

And as an added bonus, we came up with a list of things to do when you're feeling an emotion other than normal:

1. ask yourself, "What am I feeling inside?"
2. "Why am I feeling this way?"
3. "What is something i can do to change the way I'm feeling?"
4. Do what you decided in number 3

All in all it was a very good exercise. The flash cards helped him identify his emotions, talking about them helped him understand that everyone feels that way at some point and using the list above can help him control himself and explain his emotions (rather than hitting or screaming).

Here's a list of the emotions/feelings I came up with:
Happy
Angry
Silly
Nervous
Normal
Sad
Scared
Mad
Frustrated
Lonely
Grumpy
Tired

Plant Parts

Following our nature walk last week, we decided to learn a little more about plants and their parts. I prepped most of this project, but the cool thing is that it involved reading, identification and art time for little man. A very well rounded project if I must say.

I took a few pieces of construction paper and cut them appropriately to make the stem, roots, leaves, sun and a rain cloud. The I labeled the papr with the corresponding parts and glued the main pieces together.

Then it was time for little man to read the parts, match them up, talk about them, and decorate the pieces before gluing them. It was some good learning time and fun to boot!

Don't look now, Mommy...Slugzilla is on the loose

Today for learning time, Declan and I decided to take a nature hike and talk about all of the things we see. It was a great walk and for a kid with a treasure bucket to fill up, life doesn't get much better. We set off into the forest and, like all boys do, we kicked, cracked, pulled and prodded everything we could to dig up creepy crawlies, roley-poleys and slithery-slimeys.

The first pull provided an opportunity to talk about plants and how they work. Looking at a small plant, we talked about how the plants roots are like straws that drink water from the ground. That water goes up the stalk and out to the leaves. And, with Autumn approaching, we found some specimens to show what happens when trees don't send moisture to the leaves.

The next find was a creepy crawly one. We found some downed trees and under the bark we found a whole colony of ants, which at the sudden loss of their home were scrambling in a terrified frenzy trying to save what they could before doomsday. Cool, huh? Declan also spotted a macaroni log hiding in the woods. Good eye, bud.

We found spiders and worms, daddy long-leggers and worms, but I must say that Declan had the find of finds. We found a few cut logs which were decaying nicely and, with the walking stick, we poked some apart. We found two freaks of nature: Slugzilla and Mr. Roley-poley Giant (guess who named that one).

Swimming Pools and Flys

Today during learning time we perused the computer to answer Declan's most recent question: "How do you make a swimming pool?"

We found a few sites that had step by step pictures showing how they make pools, from marking and breaking ground, to filling it up and doing the landscaping. It was pretty cool (and makes me want a pool).

And regarding reading, we started reading 'A Fly Went By' together. Lil Mister's biggest problem is that he tries guessing the word without sounding out the letters or completing the sentence with what he sees in the picture. To offset that, I'm going to have to extract one word or sentence at a time from the book onto the dry erase board. Less distraction= more focus.

Arts and crafts time went with the whole pool theme and someone got to design their own bathing suit. I drew the outline and finished it off with a pipe cleaner string, but the rest, from coloring to cutting, was done by the master craftsman himself...

The Lego Factory

Today I asked Declan what he wanted to know. I told him that each day he has to ask me something and I have to give him an answer. Anything from 'why is the sky blue' to 'where did the dinosaurs go.'

Today he asked how they make Legos.

My answer was this:

Whistle while we work

Today during learning time we learned about chores. What are some chores and more importantly, why we do chores.

Before my time home with Declan began, I made some minor preparations, one of which was getting a chore chart (which I highly recommend doing some kind of organized chart for daily routine). The chore chart has different sections like 'take care of myself', 'take care of my room', 'around the house', etc. It's really a good thing.

Aside from chores for Declan, we learned about some of Mommy and Daddy's chores. Washing dishes, doing laundry, etc. And seeing as how today is trash gathering day, we learned about why we take the trash out. And what's a better learning tool than Shel Silverstein? We read of the perilous journey of good old Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout.

Then we took a trip around the house to make sure we did our chores. And he helped me with some of mine.

Reading success!!

Every day, we have learning time and, being the age he is, the priority is reading...so we work on our letters. At first it was letter recognition, especially of the lower case ones. We also started working on word recognition for the more common words, 'the', 'in', 'at', etc. and also the common sounds '-un', '-at', '-ing' and so on. I do this all with the help of my handy dandy flash cards.

All in all, it's been a success. He's read sentences like 'the cat is fat' and 'the bat is a cat'. He's been really doing well. Lately, I've been pushing him to sound out the letters he sees instead of just saying the letter names and the results have been good.

This morning, he read the following with very minimal assistance from me. I think his biggest problem is that he tries to guess the word once he gets one of the word sounds.


Next week, I'll back off the whole word thing and start with sounds again...ease him back into it.