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.

few online resources we have been enjoying

We just discovered this today while learning our East China Geography for CC:

Geography puzzle (http://www.yourchildlearns.com/map-puzzles.htm)
(this is a geography puzzle. I like how if you don't know it, you can click on it and you can skip it. The time it takes you for you to finish a puzzle is timed so you can see your improvements. Of course, they also have interactive maps which are helpful.) J really like this.

Book adventure (http://www.bookadventure.com/)
This site has over 7,000 books from which to choose from to test reading comprehension (normally 10 questions). They also encourage kids to read books so they can get prizes but I just use it as an occasional comprehension quiz. You do need an account with them. Or you can just use if you are looking for some book titles. This reminds me of the accelerated reader program J used while in school. Now the reading level on these books seems off to me but that might just be me.

Anyway, hope it is useful to some of you.

Classical conversation

We have been involved in Classical Conversation for about 7 weeks and its been really a blessing! The kids are learning a whole lot every week and the best part is they really enjoying it. I'm so glad to have someone else make the necessary preparation and guide the children once a week in subjects like history, geography, science, and fine arts. I am learning a whole lot of stuff I never learned in school.

In science, they do an experiment each week as well as learn some memory pegs. In the pictures below, they are dissecting owl pellets. They have also dissected bean, crayfish, made quick sand and many other cool experiments. Of course, getting together and learning with friends makes it all the more fun. A big group hug with a few friends.


In fine arts, they have just started on learning the tin whistle and the kids have really been soaking it in.

climbing

soccer wrap up

This weekend the kids wraps up their soccer class. J got the ribbon of "most improved" since this is her first time taking soccer while Prime got the "most enthusiastic" ribbon. They have been playing lots of soccer in the back yard just for fun.

fall colors

We had a few mild days of fall and we tried to spend as much time outdoors as we can. One game we enjoyed playing was "meet a tree". The idea came from the book "Sharing nature with Children" by Joseph Cornell where you are taken (eyes closed) to meet your tree. Then you open your eyes and tried to find your tree among the trees. The hard part was trusting the kids to guide me but we found trees are really pretty unique...there was always something that distinguished a particular tree from the rest.

Exploring the trail; my rendition of fall.


What kinds of bug is that? There were so many on the oak tree and on the ground.

At our local cider mill.

Playing with leaves. We tried to catch the leaves too but that was harder than I thought. They fell to the ground super fast. We'll have to try it on a different day maybe.

monkeying around

The kids love monkey bars and quite good at it.

I love this picture of W. This kind of moving circles are tricky. We haven't figured out what the trick is.