Gecko's

At our last fun friday with our homeschooler group,

I learned or shall I say remember the following:

Their skin is surprisingly soft: reminds me of suede, esp. the crested gecko.

They cost: $50- $300 and up depending on the varieity.

They live a long time, and are easy to take care of. Even easier than a hamster.

We saw 3 kinds of gecko's- crested, gargolyle and Leachy (or giant) geckos.


This is gargoyle gecko and this one is the crested gecko.

J did not like it when the gecko clung to her shirt. But they are really gentle animals; I was a little startled when they jumped (not frequent, but still). ;)

We also saw salamanders. They feel like how one imagines.

Trip to the farm

Today, the kids and I joined other homeschoolers for a tour around the farm. We saw many typical farm animals. J says she remembers cows, pigs, and horses the most and that she got to pet small animals. Prime remember going inside the pen to see little goats eating hays and the lamas.

I remember the pig was really smelly and the turkey was showing off his feathers, even though that was not the turkey served at your normal Thanksgiving dinner. I learned that the roosters have an extra horn on its legs and that is how you know it is a rooster and not a hen. Different kinds of chicken produce different kind of eggs; the color of the eggs are different. The chicken sleeps standing on ladders. The eggs will not be able to incubate below 89F.


If the ducks stays in the pond, they will likely be snatch by predators, like coyote, etc.
A cute bunny. J touched all the small animals while Prime just watched.
That is a rooster. He got an extra horn on his leg.


That is a typical turkey, but it is the white one that is on the side that is served on Thanksgiving dinner tables.
The pig is coming! All the kids back off when he came trotting in the mud. His eyes is an orange color.


The horses was not shy and eager to eat.
Petting the goats while they eat hay. J was really brave today while Prime just watched.
At last, Prime was willing to TRY to feed the lama, but was scared.

It was fun learning about the farm animals.

recyling trip

We visited a recycling center today. I asked J to write 3 things she learned today. And this is what she wrote,

"1. I learned you need to wear a helmet, a vest and a pair of glasses. (She means safety goggles; this is for our protection as we toured a little bit of the facility.) 2. We also learned how they recycle. They just drop it. ( The truck dumps the materials, then a machine put them (i.e card board) up on the conveyor belt to where people sort it by hand.) 3. Then we learned how to make paper. First, we get scraps, then we grind, last we blend. (She is talking about how to make pulp. First get scraps of paper, add water and put into a blender to get pulp. With the pulp, you can drain and press to make paper.) "

Prime says he learned "you can recycle containers, and paper, cans, and water bottle."

Prime could not go on the tour but he got to wear a hard hat, safety vest and goggle. :)


Prime is pressing on the pulp with a sponge to make paper... there it is... waiting to be dried.

Share a few things I learned...
1. Paper can be recycled only 10-13 times due to the wearing down of the fiber in the paper each time it is recycled.
2. 1 ton (2000lb) of soda can are sold for $1,200 vs. 1 ton of glass is sold for only $1.
3. Different cities have different policies. My city recycles #1 -5 inside the recycle sign. Other city recycle only #1-2 and yet others will recycle #1-7. The #s denotes different chemical components and are usually on the bottom of the container.

On a totally separate note, anyone know what kind of plant is this? Apple? Cherry? We planted apple and cherry pit in separate containers last summer but nothing came up and I thought it died but now this. Of course, this could be something entirely different. If you have an idea what this might be, I would love to know.

May fun day @ the pond

Today was a fun day. I do love field trips. :) I'm learning every day at home with the kids and are doing some fun stuff I enjoy and learning and exploring new stuff I never got a chance to do at school.

We went to explore, and learn all about pond life with other local homeschoolers for the last " fun day" of the school year.

First, we saw turtles lying on logs. Look at those baby turtles! Aren't they cute?



Then the kids was catching the tadpoles with their nets.. After that, it was off to find pond life for themselves. I learned that as tadpoles, they breathe with gills. And later, as frogs, they breathe with lungs.



J got lucky and found a diving beetle and later we were able to see it under the microscope on the TV. It had what looked like oars on a boat. Other pond creatures that other children found were seed shrimp which does a vibrating shake, water flea, and may fly which has 3 tails. We also saw a dragonfly nymph and learned the difference between complete (4 stages) and incomplete metamorphosis (3 stages).



Free time fun! This boy came up to me and wanted to give me the dandelions he picked. I say, oh that is so sweet. Your mom would love that. So he ran to give it to his mommy and then he came back and picked one more dandelion just for me. :)


Hi Lisa! J tried your curly and it worked like a charm. Thank you for the fun idea. There is Prime dipping his in the water to see if his will curl.


Then we went back for some cool learning and saw more cool creatures. Check them out on J's blog. She wanted to share the pictures and tell you what she saw and learned. I was quite surprised J actually raised her hand to answer a question (and got it right). She is usually shy and it's rare she will raise her hand to answer a question voluntarily unless she is feeling especially brave. I guess today was one of those days. Way to go, J!!

I learned depending what pond creatures you find, you will know about how good the water quality is.

Look what else we saw, a mommy robin. The woman there told me she is sitting on the eggs. Prime couldn't resist climbing a tree as we are leaving.

Public TV and day 1 of a science experiment

Today we went with our homeschooling group to visit the Public TV studio. Unfortunately, they are in the process of relocating and a lot of their studio stuff hasn't really moved. It was a very informative trip, but for the kids, listening to an adult talk for 1 hour was not their idea of learning. Luckily, I brought juice boxes and snacks and at least they were quiet though I can tell they were very bored. And when it came time for pictures, neither the kids wanted to take any pictures other than in front of the TVs where cartoons were on. I did notice, however, kids as young as 8 did much better. They handed out coloring stuff and separated the kids by age so that is how I can tell. Kids younger than 8, especially kids around 5 or 6 like mine are, were very restless. Luckily, all the kids were quiet.

We don't really watch TV, not much anyways. So when our tour guide was mentioning TV shows and even cartoons, most people in the group was like, what is that or who is that??? :) That might be a homeschooling thing, I thought. We usually just watch videos. Our favorite is the Eye Witness Series.



Moving on to our first simple science experiment. We saw this on a video we watched. I thought the effect was going to be immediate. Silly me. When nothing was happening, I look this up on the net and found out the result won't be visible for many hours or better if let it sit overnight. It also helps if you use celery with leaves. So tomorrow, I will share the result for those who are wondering. I'm excited to see if our little experiment will work.


Prime adding red food coloring to water. J is doing the mixing. Is it doing anything yet?
Here is what it looks like today at about 5pm. We will see if we notice anything different later in the night and tomorrow morning. Stay tuned....

Bakery trip

Today, I took J and Prime to join our local homeschool group on a bakery trip. We were late as the original bakery closed and there was a change in plans. I didn't read the email closely so I really had to scramble today after driving to the original location only to find them out of business. But luckily, we made it in time to the new location and every one was glad we came. During the decorating, Prime already couldn't wait and licked at the icing on his finger and the owner said, " The first rule in the bakery business is no licking fingers.". :-P

J and Prime enjoyed the trip and decorated their first big cup cake. They also took home a decorated cookie and other goodies like coupons, pencil, etc.


Just getting started; making progress, putting final touches; all done. See the hat/apron?

Here is the master piece: J's is with pink frosting and Prime's is with purple frosting. They did it all by themselves.