Science Sunday: Fruit Flies part 2

We have been observing fruit flies for a little over a week.  No I never did get rid of them completely so it was easy to catch enough to observe.  We actually caught them in two jars, but I focused on the one. It was actually weird.  The jar we observed more closely had 1/2 of a not very good peach (they had all been dry and tasteless thus I figured I would get more use out of them by feeding them to fruit flies).  The other jar had the other half of the same peach plus some strawberry tops and, I think, a blueberry.  The fruit flies in that jar seemed to be more numerous at first, but it didn't have near the same amount of maggots (if that is the correct term for the larva stage of fruit flies) as the other jar.  The peach in our observation jar ended up disintegrating to mush, but the other one still has shape to this day.  Though there was more juice in it at first and I wonder if the larvae drowned?  No clue.  Anyhow, the girls, Tabitha specifically, got as excited as I did when I would call them over to see something new I had observed.
Day 1: I set out the jars with the peaches over night and in the morning I very very quickly covered the jar with a cut up piece of pantyhose held on with a rubber band.  I wish I could have had an accurate count, but they are constantly in motion.  I was estimating 20.
Day 2: There was no visible change
Day 3: We observed several maggots slithering around on the fruit and the bottom of the jar.
Day 4: Many, many maggots were all over the inside of the jar, I made sure none were sneaking out from underneath the rubber band.  Won't make that mistake again.  I found it interesting watching them move.  I guess I would say they move like worms.  The front juts out and the rest of the body catches up with it.  What was really interesting was noting that the midsection of the maggot is slightly darker and I could watch it undulate as it moved.
Day 5: Some of the maggots are entering the pupa stage, they are a cream color.

Day 6: Most of the maggots are now in the pupa stage.
Day 7: The pupa are getting darker, close to brown.
Day 8: At 2:00 pm I saw 1 new fruit fly.  It was very light in color compared to the mature fruit flies caught last week.
Day 9: The jar is full of fruit flies.  They tend to gravitate to the opening and if you hold it up to your ear you can hear the buzzing.  No, I am not counting them!!

We made a Fruit Fly Life Cycle Book:

(Coloring the peaches)

(Gluing on the peaches and pantyhose)

(Tabitha working on Day 3)

(Gluing on some maggots, made out of yarn of course)

To see what others are doing with their toddlers and preschoolers head on over to 

I am also linking up to Science Sunday hosted by Ticia at Adventures in Mommydom

 

Getting Ready For Reading

Getting Ready For Reading !

I have had people ask me what I have been doing with the girls, I would think, in particular Tabitha, to help them get ready for reading.  An idea has been forming in my mind, to start another meme, one devoted to teaching our children to read.  Unless someone knows of one out there already, then could you please let me know and I will link up with them.  I know I haven't found one yet.
Tabitha really has shocked me in her ability to read 3 letter and some 4 letter words.  These are words that contain letters using their most common phonetic sound.  I will say straight off, I haven't been using any set curriculum.  I have actually tried a few different books with Tabitha.  When the response was frustration I backed off and decided to wait.  I have actually let things come naturally.  However, I will share some of the different things that seemed to help her learning along.
I am thinking each week I will share some different tips I have gleaned from books I have read and from working at the Montessori, plus what I have seen in my older kids. Additionally I plan to share what we have done the week just prior to the post to GET READY FOR READING.

Please, please join us by sharing what you have learned and what you are doing with your little ones to open up that wonderful world of books.

I would like to focus this week on one of the first important steps to preparing our little ones to read.  Phonemic Awareness.  As I have seen stated in several different places, knowing the alphabet, the names of the letters, really doesn't prepare a child to read.  I mean, it makes sense.  When we say the word, "cat" we don't say, "seeaytee."  We need to know the sounds represented by the letter. /k/ /a/ /t/ so we can say, "cat."  Children need to be aware that words are made up of sounds.  Before I knew all this "phonemic awareness" stuff, I was working at the Montessori learning to play a game with the children.  We would have the sound cards at the circle and would focus on one sound at a time.  When I say sound, most would probably say letter, but in the Montessori they teach the sound first, for the reasons above.  Let's say the sound was "f", This is what we would say: "I hear "fffff" when I say "fish" "ffflower" "fffff" "ffffox""  Then we wait to see if the children can come up with words that start with that sound.  This game is something Tabitha has enjoyed for a while.  And she can also hear the sound at the end of the word and sometimes in the middle.  We always do this for our letter of the week, and she is getting much better at coming up with words of her own.

Do you have any Phonemic Awareness games you play with your little ones?  Please share it in a post and link up.

There is a great book out there by Wiley Blevins called "Phonemic Awareness Activities For Early Reading Success."  This is probably one place were I was reading about the importance of Phonemic Awareness.  I haven't had it out since before the baby was born, so I think it is time to check it out again.  Be aware that it is focused on school teaching in a group, but I am sure there are ways to make it work for homeschooling.

I shared in a post a couple of weeks ago that Tabitha was starting to zing through the Short Vowel a Progressive Phonics book. She has read the stories focused on "at" words and now the "ad" words.  That is 12 pages.  We are so proud of her.  I now have "at" words and "ad" words on the wall next to our Letter of the Week poster.  She can get the words out whenever she wants to look at them, but only once a day will we work with them so she can receive a sticker on the back of each word card she knows.  I didn't want Amelia to feel left out so I made her some letter/sound cards, on which she will also be able to place stickers.

We also have a game to help with reading.  It is Dr Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham game.  I mentioned this in my Homeschool Blog Hop post.  Here are some pictures of daddy playing the game with the girls:

To see what others are doing with their preschoolers and toddlers head over to:

Also linked up to

Homeschool Hop: Favorite Family Board Games

Well.....it's been a while since I have linked up to the Homeschool Blog Hop.  Here is the new topic:

Favourite Family Board Games

Time to share some more family fun, with your favourite games. Cherised oldies that have been played over and over again or even some new finds, it really doesn't matter, as long as your family loves them.

Share some of these games with us and the reasons why they are favourites for your family.

Tabitha likes to play some board games and even Amelia joins in, though most of the time she will not last the entire game, totally normal, I realize this.  They really love it when daddy will play with them.  One game they really like to play with daddy is Green Eggs and Ham, a game where they are learning to recognize rhyming words and improving their memory as the pieces are to be turned over one per turn and, if not matched, flipped back over for a future turn.  Actually, to make it easier for Amelia, they have started to play with the card facing up to see if it will be easier, we will see.

Another game they enjoy is Candyland.  It was during the play of this game a couple of months ago, that I realized that Amelia was starting to recognize her colors.  I love that young children can play, because all they have to do is match the color on the card to the color on the board.  I do wish they would bring back the old board, because I feel the new board is way too busy making it distracting.

We have Chutes and Ladders, but they are still getting the concept of this one.

They seem to enjoy the Winnie the Pooh/Watermelon seed game I made when we were doing the letter W.   This was the first "board game" I made.  However, we also enjoy the Feed a Penguin game we made back in January.  

The older kids and the parents do tend to enjoy playing a couple of games after the little ones are safe in dream land.  My favorite 2 are Scattergories and Mille Bournes.  

Scattergories is fun because you really have to stretch your brain (wouldn't recommend playing it while tired) and you have to think out of the box. You have a list of 12 topics (and there are 12 different lists of topics). The many sided die is rolled and you need to write down, before the timer goes off, one answer for each topic that begins with the letter that was rolled.  Extra points if the answer has more than one word that starts with the same letter.  For instance, fictional character starting with T: Tiny Tim would get 2 points.

Mille Bournes is a card game where you need to reach 1000 miles before the other players or team.  You lay down mileage cards, but only if the opposition hasn't laid a hazard card on your pile.  Such as: Out of gas, Accident, Flat tire, stop or speed limit.  Then you need to play the remedy card or safety card (which will prevent future hazards of a certain type) before you can place mileage cards again.   It looks complicated, but is quite easy to follow once you get started.  We used to play this at my ex's grandmother's, amongst other card games.  So when I found it at the mall we grabbed it up.

Looking for some more great game ideas?  Check out the links in the hop hosted by Kylie over at Our Worldwide Classroom.

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

What strange, cute, insightful utterances have you heard your little ones say this week.  They always have something to say and I want to remember what my little ones have said years from now.  

Do you?   If you do, just write your post of what your child(ren) have said and link up below.  Don't forget to grab the button for Words of Wisdom Wednesday over on the left.

(I wish with all my heart I could go back and write down more of what my older children said and did, because I just can't remember things.  It is too late to change what I did or didn't do with them, but I can make sure I record what my little ones are saying and doing now.  Thus this blog, for most of the doing, and this meme, for the little sayings.)

Here is some of what I heard recently:

Tabitha was using her flip book (that I posted about here) and formed the word "men."  She read it to me and I asked her "What are men?"  She said:

"Mens go in men's bathrooms" (no typos, that is what she said)

7/18/10

T- I went boom and crashed my butt (after she fell on purpose)

Mom- Okay (imagine me being amused)

T- I crashed my butt again. (after falling yet again)

Daddy to A at breakfast when A wouldn't eat her Special K but wanted a sweet cereal:

D- You have to eat 5 bites

T- Wow! That will be hard work!

T- Amelia's swollen isn't here.  It went down, down, down.  (talking about her sister's bug bite that had swollen up)

Wasn't sure if I should share this one.  We were sitting down for dinner and I had mentioned we would pray first then I would go "potty" that way the girls could start eating.  Here is Tabitha's prayer

7/15/10 Dear Lord, thank you for this food, help mommy go potty, amen (mom ducks head in embarrassment as face turns red)

T- Daddy I'm too cold, I'm trying to cool myself down.

I also wanted to record Amelia's first 5 word sentence:

7/14/10 Let's go cut my icepop. 

Follow Me Back Tuesday

Follow Me Back Tuesday is another day of the week that you can gain more followers and find other great blogs to follow on a weekly basis. Follow Me Back Tuesday is hosted bySurvey Junkie, Little Yaya's, Review Retreat and Boobies, Babies & A Blog.

Each week we will choose a random number every week from the blogs linked and add the random blog to the #5 spot to link to the following week ...

How it Works

1. Follow the 5 hosts, #1 – 5,  ( leave us a comment & we will follow you back- only leave a comment if you follow please ).
2. Create a blog post about FMBT (you may copy this post if you wish).
3. Follow as many blogs as you would like ( Leave a comment so they can follow you back).
4. When you receive a comment from a new follower  return the favor & follow them back.

***Please link directly to your Follow Me Back Tuesday Post. Links that lead directly to your personal blog hop will not be accepted and will be deleted.***

Mamarazzi Monday: Outdoor fun, Hannah milestone and more

Ann Marie over at Household 6 Diva hosts Mamarazzi Monday.

Are you part of the Mamarazzi?

Are you a compulsive picture taker?

Do you stalk your family with a camera?

Well, you've come to the right place!

We are still spending lots of time outside:

In the yard

At the park:

(doing a really good job pedaling her tricycle)

We always leave through the gate that says, "Exit Only"

I showed the girls this last year and they love going over 

and reading the words. This is the first time she climbed up

(yes she needed help getting down)

At the park with daddy

At our Koinonia Family Picnic:

Same picnic, but in the pool:

And we played inside

Tabitha giving Amelia a "bath" in the block tub

And some of Hannah:

(such a strong little girl)

(she will put herself to sleep, such a joy and a blessing, 

and unexpected too, as Amelia always needed to nurse

to get to sleep.  Hannah will fall asleep on the floor 

or on the couch, or in the car seat, or the swing)

She has learned to roll from her back to her tummy

but she isn't too fond of this.

Time for Close Up/Whole Picture

Close Up

Whole Picture

Close Up

Whole Picture

Close Up

Whole Picture

I am also linking up, once again, to Momma's Favorites over at Monkey See Monkey Do

Here are my favorites this week