Summer Fun 2014 - Lego Challenge - Building a Model Without Buying the Set

From time to time I like to pull out a manual from one of our long dismantled, and well scattered Lego sets, and send the children on a scavenger hunt through their toy box for the pieces to put the set back together.  This weekend, I upped the difficulty of the challenge, by printing instructions from the Lego website, for a set we don't own, asking the children to try, and create the model (in this case model 6615 - the Lego Eagle Stunt Flyer pictured above in red, with photo credit to lego.wikia.com) from the Lego blocks we already have.

At first, the children declared the task impossible.  We don't own an airplane set.  We would never have the right pieces.  Surely, I wasn't suggesting taking apart any of their precious creations to build something new (get these kids some Kragle already)?

Undaunted, I started building myself, with the few scrap pieces they were willing to let me use.  It wasn't long before I was joined by a newly formed team of master builders searching for pieces, offering advice, and ready with criticisms for each new substitution we had to make.

"Our" plane didn't turn out exactly like the picture, but the children were pretty impressed with what came out of their scrap blocks.


The thinking involved in the process was very much the "this is what I have - that is what I need - so how do I get from what I have to what I need?" kind of thinking used in high school geometry.  But, don't tell the children that.  They're already scanning through the Lego website for the next impossible model to build.

Encouraging Summer Reading - Poetry for the Birds

With a sigh of relief we watched the first baby dove of the season...

...leave the nest outside of D's window.  The first nest of the summer last year ended in tragedy with one dud egg, and one hatchling being taken by crows.  After that, there was a successful brood of two, who with some help from our family of human scare crows, made it to adulthood.  Those two doves continued to roost in the tree for quite a while after they left the nest, being fed by their parents on the branches, and finally making their way to our backyard feeder.

We were happy, but nervous when we saw a new nesting pair of doves arrive at the nest this summer.  They laid two eggs.  One hatched, one did not.  After weeks of watching, shooing away crows, and magpies, worrying about hawks, and realizing there wasn't really much we could do for our dove family, other than adore, enjoy, and try not to become too attached, we were very happy to see the baby leaving the nest.

This year's fledgeling only stayed in the tree for a day after leaving the nest.  He returned to the branches, cooing softly, for the first few nights, and then he was gone.

The last day our friend was in the nest, D (age 11) sensing the departure time was nearing, spent the entire day by his window.  The day after the dove disappeared from sight (we continue to hear the family calling to each other from trees and rooftops around the neighborhood, even now), three fledgeling robins showed up to hunt for worms in our backyard.

D was so happy to see the robins, and so relieved, but sad to see the dove take flight.  He talked non-stop for days about the birds, waxing quite poetic about the life and death struggle they face.

That's when I realized I was missing a golden opportunity to introduce D, and the younger children (ages 7 and 9) to the beauty of poetry.  I imagined there had to be at least a few children's  poetry books for bird lovers.  I imagined wrong.  There aren't a few, there are hundreds, from the classical "greats" to modern unknowns.  In the end, I settled for three our library had on their shelves.

The Cuckoo's Haiku, and Other Birding Poems by Michael J. Rosen, is filled as the name suggests, with bird themed haiku's, divided by the four seasons.  Around Stan Fellows' water color illustrations are frilly cursive facts about each bird, and there are more "notes for birdwatchers and haiku lovers" at the back of the book.

Eileen Spinelli's Feathers, Poems About Birds contains short, simple, rhyming poems about birds from all over the world, and also has "some feathery facts" at the back.

Jane Yolen's Bird Watch, A Book of Poetry, my favorite of the three, not only has bird facts at the back, but slightly longer, non-rhyming, poems about many of the birds familiar to us, and even one about what makes the ugly baby birds so beautiful.

Excerpts from the "Nestling"

 

...Nestlings are

but ugly bits

of feathered clay...

...all beak and bite,

and squawk...

...But today

I found a nest with

three

baby

robins

and they were

beautiful

because they were mine.

 - JaneYolen.

Summer Fun 2014 - Trying It Ourselves - Tips, Games, and Crafts From Around The Web

The hours to kill before the fireworks yesterday, gave us plenty of time to try out projects picked from our pins and bookmarks,  like the star braid we found instructions for on YouTube...

...or the felt scrap pom-poms for tying to our hairbands from the Creative Jewish Mom...

...a healthy watermelon, and blueberry flag inspired by Lisa Storms (and someone more recently, who's post is buried somewhere in my pile of pins)...

...turning open chip bags into handy chip bowls following the King of Random's "10 Life Hacks You Need to Know for Summer" , which did actually impress our friends as promised...

...and a super fun, "Minute to Win It", marshmallow, and chopstick challenge.

Throw in a mad dash after the ice cream truck, and a backyard barbecue with friends, followed up finally by all the fireworks fun, and it was a nice afternoon.

Not quite Pinterest perfect, but pretty pleasant in a messy, real life kind of way.

Summer Fun 2014 - Sidewalk Chalk Grid Drawing Puzzle Race

On a whim I printed out several grid drawing worksheets to use with the children in various ways throughout the summer, ideas are still peculating as to how exactly we'll use them.  My children haven't had much experience with grid drawing, so I started with a simple one - a chicken from Make Learning Fun.  And, since it's summer, and we've been on a real sidewalk chalk kick lately, I decided to turn our first drawing exercise into a game, with sidewalk chalk.

First, I drew and labeled a grid on our patio, allowing one foot per square.

Then, I flipped the worksheet over, and labeled it to match the sidewalk grid (backwards so it would be forwards on the picture side).

I cut the picture up, along the grid lines, and shuffled the pieces...

...before taking them outside, and calling my youngest two to join me for a puzzle drawing game.  After a quick explanation of how grid drawing works, how to tell if the paper squares were turned the right way (with the letter and number right side up on the back), and a review of how to match the letters and numbers on the paper squares to the chalk squares on the grid, I gave them each a different color of chalk, and a square...

...and they started drawing, racing to be the one to fill the most squares with lines in their color.

After they completed the drawing in a square, they flipped the paper, and placed it in a discard pile, before drawing another square. 

In the end, E (age 9) was faster with the pink chalk, than her little sister with the purple.  In her haste, she drew several squares incorrectly, or in completely wrong spots on the grid, though.  So, we decided after penalties received for erasing, and making for a messy picture, we could call it a tie.

Even with mistakes, and erasing, we ended up with a pretty good chicken - much to the girls' surprise and delight. They wanted to do another one, as soon as they were finished.

Sidewalk Chalk with Paper Doll Clothes

Inspired by The Iowa Farmer's Wife, who had her children dressing up chalk silhouettes with old clothing, I printed out an assortment of paper doll outfits (eliminating the extra laundry real clothing would produce) from Google images (where you can find a plethora of printable patterns)...

...for dressing up...

...chalk drawn stick figures.

I cut off all the paper doll tabs, and "laminated" the outfits between sheets of clear contact paper, so we'll be able to use them again and again. 

In fact, if the weather report turns out to be correct, and the weekend heat drives us back into the air-conditioning, I'm imaging they will work equally well with crayons, and a nice long piece of butcher paper, rolled out across the kitchen floor.

Summer Fun 2014 - Maleficent Marshmallows, or Unschooling: A Play in One Act

Setting:  Our living room on average weekday morning.  A (age 13) is on the phone with a friend.  T (age 16) is rummaging through the kitchen cupboards in the adjoining room, looking for a snack.  I am sitting on the couch, with a laptop, just realizing I've mangled a sentence in my last blog post, and trying edit, and update the post before anyone else can read it.

A (hanging up the phone): Brianna wants to go see Magneficent.

T (from the kitchen): Maleficent (entering the living room) mal-eficent, mal-luh-luh-luh.

Me (hitting "update", and looking up from the computer): Mal meaning bad, because Maleficent is a bad fairy.

A:  What?

Me: You know like malo in Spanish - meaning bad.  Weren't you studying Spanish this year?

A: French.

Me:  Same dif.  Isn't bad "mal" in French?

A: I think it's mauvais.

Me (opening a new window on the computer, typing a quick search, and scanning the page): Okay, it's mauvais and mal, meaning bad and badly, as an adjective and an adverb.  Mal means evil in French when it's a noun.  Still like the fairy.

T (who's studying German): So mal is Greek.

Me: Latin, Spanish and French are Latin languages (typing another search, and reading again) and mal is from Latin, meaning bad or evil, as in malady, malaise, or maleficent. (clicking the word and reading) Something or someone that is maleficent deliberately tries to cause harm or evil.  There you go, mal, malo - bad.

A:  So is that where marsh-mallow comes from, because marshmallows are bad for you?

Me:  Yaaa no, I don't think so.  They're not good for you, but I think they get their name from a plant.

T:  Does it grow in a marsh?  That would be bad for you.

Me (typing):  I have no idea (realizing you can't search for "root marshmallow" to find word roots for the plant, because the search will bring up articles about marshmallow plant roots instead, changing the search to "marshmallow word origin" and reading) Old English mersc-mealwe "kind of mallow plant (Althea officinalis) which grows near salt marshes;" from marsh + mallow. The confection (so called from 1877) originally was made from paste from the roots of this plant. The Greek word for the plant, althaea, is from althein "to heal."

T: So it is Greek.

A: And it's good for you.

Me: Mal is Latin. Marshmallow is Old English, or from the Old English for the plant althaea - which is from the Greek.  The plant is good for you, or was thought to be.  The confection is not.

A: Do we have any?

Me: Any what?

A: Marshmallows.

Me (having now completely forgotten what I was doing):  I think we might.

The End.

Canada Day - Strawberry Maple Muffins

Strawberry Maple Muffins

2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg, slightly beaten

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons strawberry jam, or 1 cup fresh strawberries, chopped

6 or 7 small, sliced strawberries for the tops

Preheat oven to 350°F
Combine the dry ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl.
Make a small bowl in the top of the dry ingredients for the egg, milk, maple syrup, and oil.
Mix until the dry ingredients are moistened.
Stir in jam, or strawberries.
Fill greased muffin cups 3/4 full with the batter.
Top with sliced strawberries arranged to suggest a maple leaf.

Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes, or until the tops are just beginning to brown.
Allow to cool for a few minutes before removing from the pan.
Recipe modified from The Best Ever Muffins at Allrecipes.com makes one dozen muffins.

Enjoy while listening to the strains of O Canada,
watching episodes of Dudley Do-Right,
or review facts about Canada and Canada Day at Kidzworld.com,  Par-T-Perfect, or OurKids.net.

Happy Canada Day!