Free Financial Comics and Cool Butterfly Migration Project

Two links for you, this weekend:

First, the Federal Reserve System has a catalog full of comics you can get for free, detailing money issues. There's even one called, "The Story of the Federal Reserve System" and one called... wait for it... keep your wig on... "The Story of Checks and Electronic Payments"!!!! Get over there and order 35 copies immediately! For free!

Second, here's a link to the Symbolic Butterfly Migration in Mexico. I can't explain it adequately, probably, but the basic idea is that you and your kids color butterflies, pack them into an envelope to go to Mexico along with the other real Monarch butterflies that make their trip down there in the fall. The symbolic butterflies are tended by school children in Mexico right next to the place where the real ones spend the winter, and then (since you include a return envelope) they send them back to you in the spring. Cool! The point is to build connections between children in North America, and also to include a small donation to help preserve the Monarch's territory in Mexico. We're probably going to do this, this week at Phi Bensa Zoe Academy.

Help Wanted: Coffee Creamer Job Opportunity!

Position: Coffee Creamer

Duties: You will be providing about 15 mm of liquid to the bottom to a coffee cup each day. After the coffee is poured in, you will wait on the counter all morning, and later be poured down the drain. Other duties may include joining yesterday's coffee in the microwave, waiting patiently in the microwave for several hours, and then being poured down the drain.

Requirements: All you have to do is make the coffee white. Really. You can taste like pig vomit -- doesn't matter. No one will ever drink you.

Benefits: There will be a lot of joy when you are brought home from the grocery store. Your employer may exclaim, "Look, honey. I remembered coffee creamer!" Also, you will enjoy several weeks of extended tenure in the fridge, even after you are empty, until your replacement is found.

Bookcrossing with Children: A Literary Adventure

Bookcrossing is a social and literary phenomenon, one of a new breed of hobbies, like geocaching, where new online technologies facilitate old-fashioned connections between people in real space. Have you ever found a book on a park bench, or in a used bookstore, and wondered who had left it there, who had read it before you did, what they thought of the book, what it meant to them? Now, with bookcrossing.com, you can find the answers to those question, and also register and release your own books so you can track their journeys.

The web site is free to join. Members register each book to receive a unique tracking number, which gets written inside the front cover with a note explaining about Bookcrossing, asking the finder to log on and journal his/her find. Then the Bookcrosser "releases" the book, either to a friend, or in an official Bookcrossing zone (in a coffee shop or bookstore typically) or in a wild release -- out in the world somewhere random. Each subsequent finder/reader can log on using the tracking number, to journal where he found the book, what he thought of it, and what he plans to do with it next. So, that's Bookcrossing.

So why do Bookcrossing with children?

1. It's fun.

Bookcrossing is an adventure. Let me give you an example. Yesterday we went out for a walk with the kids on their scooters and me with my bag of Bookcrossing books on my shoulder. We left books in trees, on people's yard ornaments, on newspaper boxes. The kids love to speculate on what places are best to leave books, who will find them, and when. It's like playing Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, without all the accompanying holiday commercialism. ;)



2. Books = Treasure

By treating a book as an exciting treat, like a pot of gold or a hidden jewel, you're drawing a connection between books and treasure, communicating to your child the value of literature, the joy of reading, without articulating it in words. Bookcrossing with your child telegraphs the belief that books are important and the idea that others out there in the world share that belief.



3. Rescuing Books

We get a lot of our Bookcrossing books by visiting local thrift stores, where paperbacks can be had for 25 or 50 cents, and children's books are often even cheaper. When they find a copy of a book that they love, we buy it and Bookcrossing it, and I also usually find copies of classics -- The Mayor of Casterbridge, Angela's Ashes, The Golden Bowl, Mrs. Dalloway -- I've found these all at thrift stores in very good shape. I love the vocabulary the Bookcrossing founder uses: "releasing" a book into the world implies that the story wants to live, stretch out, expand, find new readers. This is a concept the children can understand.

4. Copies are Copies

By registering and releasing copies of a book that you have in your permanent collection, you're showing your child that there are different editions, different versions, different copies of every story, and illuminating the fact that the story itself, the characters, plot, language, and idea, does not reside in any particular physical object. This is something that I found myself really grasping only when I had been Bookcrossing for a while. All my boxes, all my shelves of books do not really contain those beloved novels. They're just copies. They're all just copies. You can have your favorite copy, but there is a fluidity to any great text which has been reproduced many times, which lives simultaneously in all these versions. There's also a better appreciation for the rarity of limited editions, because you can put that limitation on the context of the larger world of books. Only 1500 copies of a small press run makes more sense when you realize how many "Age of Innocence"s there are floating around out there.



4. Connect with Community

Our local "Bookcrossing Zone" is located in a free book exchange shelf in an independent coffee shop down the street. Bookcrossing gives us a reason to go. We eat their ice cream, drink their Nutellla Lattes, switch out Bookcrossing books, and chat with other locals. Beyond this, Bookcrossing solidifies that strange, anonymous, but very visceral connection that you feel, reading someone's margin notes in a book you're enjoying. It's a way of reaching out, touching minds with the person who's going to pull that book out of the fork in the tree. Of course, when you're out Bookcrossing, there are also lots of chances to talk to other people about what you're doing, and meet their dogs.



5. It's Educational!

When you register a book on Bookcrossing, there's a space to include a review, which your child can write for the books he/she chooses to release. It's a book review with a purpose, because you're actually giving your opinion about the book to someone who may read it in the future. You can talk about not giving away the ending, you can talk about plot summary, you can talk about how to be critical without being harsh.

Another aspect of Bookcrossing, besides leaving books around, is finding books that others have left. If you want to go "hunting," you can check the web site (or receive email alerts) for books that have been released near you, and then you can go and look for them -- in parks, in malls, in hair salons, bookstores, coffee shops, and of course our favorite: trees.

Bookcrossing, like Geocaching, makes you look at the world in a different way, like you are able to see a secret map laid over the familiar landscape of your neighborhood. Kids who love adventure, who love books, who love treasure hunts, will love Bookcrossing. And if you sign up on the web site, send me a message! I'm "lostcheerio" and I'd love to connect.

Busy Body Books and Barbies

Last week, I won a prize over at Bloggy Giveaways. The lovely and entrepreneurial Joan from Busy Body Books sent me an awesome organizer pad which goes on the fridge:



The fridge pad has a magnet on the back to hold it on, and the pages tear off a gummy spine, like notebook pages. The pages are the right size to file when you're done with them, if you're so inclined, and the magic innovative quality of this particular organizer is that each day is divided into columns, not times. So if you want to keep track of members of your family separately, or keep track of separate projects, or workouts, or whatever, in their own columns, you can. Very interesting. So, I'm using mine! Thank you Busy Body Books and Bloggy Giveaways! Lovely!

In other news, here's our girlygirl school moment of the day:



Sadie is teaching her Barbies how to make letters. Too much. The Barbies are very recalcitrant students and need lots of demonstrations and persistently mistake D for B and also are rowdy in class. Isn't that just what you'd expect?

We Made Oobleck: The Simplest Science Lesson Ever

Oobleck is cornstarch and water. Under pressure, it's a solid. Without pressure, it's a liquid. You can pour it and break it. You can yank on a spoon in a bowl full of Oobleck and pick up the whole bowl. Or you can pull gently on the spoon and let the Oobleck dribble off it like pudding. It's amazing. Everybody makes Oobleck at some point in their lives. Friday was our day for Oobleck, and we did not shy away from our destiny. We made Oobleck, and we made it pink. And orange. You know, we did not skimp on the orange.







Apparently, Oobleck makes you have strange facial expressions too. As well as being awesome.

The way you make Oobleck is simple. Cornstarch plus water, in about equal parts, maybe a little more cornstarch than water. Mix, get messy, be amazed. Whack it, dribble it, I guarantee you will be calling in your family from the other room. "Look at this stuff!" you will say. "You have to try this!" I was an Oobleck skeptic, I have to admit, but I am skeptical no more. Neither are the children. This was technically my preschool science lesson for the day, but when the second graders were done with their Latin, they had to come out and have a play with it:

For a proper explanation of Oobleck, including a thoughtful discussion of non-Newtonian fluids, try this web site: The Instructables. Their Oobleck page will also deliver the priceless gift of a YouTube movie showing people running across Oobleck. Then you could check out BARTHOLEMEW AND THE OOBLECK for the full Oobleck experience.

For related posts, click the science tag! Welcome to Little Blue School -- I hope you stick around and leave a comment so I can follow your back to your blog. :)

Bookmark this on Delicious

Homeschool Bowling

I am not a bowler. I do not, how you say in America, bowl. Part of it is that I don't do sports that are also games. Part of it is that I was scarred by a gruesome experience with a bowling shoe when I was small. Let's not talk about it. It'll only get me clawing at my throat and calling for someone to open a window, a door, break down a wall, anything. *pant pant*

There was one incident, when I was young and foolish. A few friends and I went to something called "Cozmic Bowl" at The Waveland in Chicago. The Waveland achieved a cosmic effect by turning on black lights and making the wall murals glow. Very intriguing. We all took on fake names and threw our balls wildly around. I think I told people my name was Bernice. Pronounced BER-niss. My memory of this night is sketchy, but I do recall getting an onion ring with a perfectly cold center, and making everyone feel it. There may have been disco balls. There may have been fog machines. Who knows?

Benny decided he wanted to go bowling last year. I don't know where he got the idea; perhaps from the Simpsons. The idea persisted but I resisted, mostly because I hadn't been bowling for over 20 years, hadn't ever been bowling in this town, and was afraid we'd run into a bowling alley full of people like me at 21, pretending to be Bernice and striking a pose after every throw.

Fortunately, some kind soul arranged a Homeschool Bowling League and on Thursday we went to it.

Sadie and Benny both got shoes. Here's Sadie checking to make sure her shoes still let her twirl her dress:

Benny instantly made a friend, and before I knew it the kids were both set up in a lane, and the balls were flying.

They had bumpers in the lanes to stop the balls from going into the gutters, and they also had this lovely ramp that allowed Sadie to lift her ball up to waist level and then shove it down the ramp, rather than just pushing it out into the lane and waiting 45 minutes for it to get to the other end.

Benny and Sadie absolutely adored bowling. I'm so grateful to the kind souls who organized this event, so that we can go hang out every week and Benny can get his bowl on in a safe, homeschooly environment. Hooray!

Here's Benny's blog about the subject.

Math Practice at Home: Book Review

I have been looking, for a while, for a really cool math workbook that's colorful and fun. So many of the ones I look at get very grayscale after kindergarten. As if 7 year olds do not enjoy multiplying funny dogs or figuring out how many red flags are flying on castle turrets.



This book I found in the free box at our local homeschooling store because the first third of it had been written in. I took it home and ripped out the first third of it, and we've been living it up with colorful illustrations, interesting story problems, and fun little games.



I think the reason it's so fun, and so devoid of those awful death-marches of practice problems, you know rows and rows of black and white text stretching on into the abyss, is because it's meant as a supplement, not a main lessons. It appears to be for school kids to get more practice, during the summer or on the weekends. So, in their brief moments of escape from the avalanche of dreary homework applied by the school, they're also supposed to do more work assigned by their parents? At least this "supplement" is really fun.

Here's an example of one of the pages. You have to measure the length of one side and then figure out the perimeter.



Highly recommended. It comes in different grade levels. We are doing the Grade 3.

Johnny Appleseed: My Special Tell-It-Aloud Version

Here's my version of "Johnny Appleseed," especially silly for telling out loud. After a few times through, your kids will be able to fill in lots of the lines. Remember to be super dramatic when you tell the story. After all, what's more dramatic than propagating apples?


An Apple Blossom

Once upon a time, before there was California, before there were movies or televisions or long distance phone calls for seven cents a minute, there was Pittsburgh. Nowadays Pittsburgh is a great big town but back then Pittsburgh was a little town and a little man lived in that town and his name was Johnny. He was a LITTLE man! He was NOT very big! But he loved to grow apple trees and pick the apples and eat them and sell them and make them into cider and spread them all around town. Did you know that apples grow on trees? Well they do!

Now the people of Pittsburgh and New York and Virginia and Boston and other places in the East end of America were itching and scritching and witching to go West. Why go west? Because they wanted to know what was there! And they wanted to live there, all out in the big open spaces, where they could plant their plants, milk their cows, and raise their children in a brand new place. Nobody knew what was out there yet, but the settlers wanted to find out. And Johnny knew that the settlers were going to need... APPLES! Where would they get those apples if they didn't have apple trees? Where would they get apple trees away way way out in the west where nobody ever heard of apples anyway!? Somebody had to get apples out west!

An Apple Tree Painting

So Johnny decided to become a pioneer. A pioneer was someone who went first, ahead of the settlers, who came later. A pioneer showed the way! A pioneer blazed the trail! A pioneer must be a big and strong and powerful man with giant muscles and huge feet! Wait a minute -- Johnny was a LITTLE man! He was NOT very big! But he loved to grow apple trees and pick the apples and eat them and sell them and spread them all around town. So he picked up a biiiiiig bag of apple seeds, and away he went out west.

Apples Ready to Pick!

Now a pioneer needs a lot of stuff. He needs a gun and a knife and a fishing pole, and a big warm coat, and he needs big tough boots, and a belt full of tools. He needs a hat and mittens and he needs pots to cook in, a sleeping bag to sleep on, and all KINDS of other things. But it's no problem for the great big pioneers, because they can carry all that stuff in their wagons! Or on their backs! Because they're soooo big and strong! But wait a minute -- Johnny was a LITTLE man! He was NOT very big! But he loved to grow apple trees and pick the apples and eat them and sell them and spread them all around town. So he chose veeeery carefully. He took a Bible and a bag of apple seeds, and that's it! He set off for the frontier with no shoes, no pot, and no sleeping bag. Just think!

Wherever he went, Johnny cut through the brush and the bracken and the bushes and planted apple trees in long straight rows. Then he built a fence around the trees and that was an apple orchard! Just about the time the sprouts were coming up from the seeds, along would come the settlers! And Johnny sold apple trees to the settlers, little tiny trees that the settlers could take to their brand new place and plant. Fruit trees make everything nice! All the settlers wanted to buy apple trees from Johnny. But being a settler is hard work, and the settlers didn't have very much money. How would they pay for the trees?

Rows of Apple Trees in an Orchard

One settler family came along and said, "Johnny Appleseed! We'd love to have some trees, but I can't pay you any money! What are we going to DO!?!" Johnny said, "Well, let me think. What DO you have?" The family had an extra cooking pot, so they gave it to Johnny, and they took their seedlings, and Johnny put it on his head. It was a hat AND a place to cook his soup! Perfect!

Another settler family came along and said, "Johnny Appleseed! We'd love to have some trees, but I can't pay you any money! What are we going to DO!?!" Johnny said, "Well, let me think. What DO you have?" The family had an extra pair of shoes, so they gave the shoes to Johnny, and they took their seedlings, and Johnny put the shoes on his feet. Now he could walk through the woods without getting cut by thorns! Perfect!

Another settler family came along and said, "Johnny Appleseed! We'd love to have some trees, but I can't pay you any money! What are we going to DO!?!" Johnny said, "Well, let me think. What DO you have?" The family was just about to build their house, and they said that Johnny could come and stay for a while. So they built their house right next to one of Johnny's orchards, and in return Johnny could stay with their family whenever he was close by.

Johnny Appleseed pioneered his way through the brand new territory with a pot on his head, shoes on his feet, and a bag of seeds at his side, planting trees, making friends, and bringing beautiful apple blossoms to the frontier. There are lots of stories about Johnny Appleseed -- why don't you make up one yourself?

Words to Learn: apple, sprout, seedling, seed, bloom, blossom, tree, frontier, pioneer, orchard, settlers.

Junior First Lego League

Can you feel the excitement crackling in the air? As I write this, it's 11:59AM, on the day that the 2007 challenge is released on the First Lego League web site. All over the world, nerdy little children who understand how to program legobots to perform tasks are huddled over their computers, refreshing the page every five seconds, so they can be the first to know. Okay, maybe not, but in a few minutes, this nerdy 35-year-old is going to scamper over and see what it is.

Benny and some of his little friends have organized into a Junior First Lego League team, this is a 6-9 year old version of the league for older kids. The older kids have to build a robot, and take it to a tournament where it is judged and competes against other robots. The junior version have, reportedly, a less difficult challenge, and a more open-ended kit to work with.

We had our first meeting yesterday. When I arrived at Shez's house, I had brought with me a few building kits, Mega-Bloks Dragons kits that Ahno had given Benny for Christmas, years ago, that we had never opened because first they were too old for him and then he had the Imaginext castle stuff... anyway I had the BRILLIANT idea that the kids could practice teamwork and get their Lego on (yes, I know, Mega-Bloks are anathema to Lego, like matter and anti-matter, they cause tears in the universe, but whatever) by doing these kits.

We ran into a couple of issues:

1. The kits were hard to put together. Not just hard to figure out the directions (although that was part of it) but hard to physically get the pieces to fit together. I don't know if this was years in the laundry room or if the pieces never did go easily together or what. But, it was an issue.

2. We had a personality conflagration, between two of the little boys. I won't name names but one of the names rhymes with Penny. Both of these two wanted to be in charge of the kit they were working on together, neither wanted to give up the instruction sheet, and they got into a big semantic argument about who had told whom that they "didn't know everything" and who was a "smartypants" and what it meant to be uninformed but wise, etc. So. We decided that these two are going to have a Lego challenge beyond the robot building -- they're going to have to figure out how to get along with each other and be a team. Which is a good lesson.

3. We adults had a beast of a time thinking up a name for the kids. The children came up with Legodiles, having rejected my more austere suggestion, Legotorians. So they're the Legodiles, and now I'm working on making them a logo, a web page, a CafePress store, and everything else that a group of silly children needs to be happy.

We never did get those lousy castle sets put together during the meeting, but Benny finished one of them this morning and here's the result:



Pretty cool! He and Sadie have been happily playing with it for about two hours. Time to break up the party and get back to the multiplication by 9s. Enough fun! There is no fun in homeschool! No fun! ;) Now speaking of total seriousness and devotion to rigorous study of relevant topics, I'm going to go peek at the challenge about making colorful robots that save the world.

More Homeschool for Girls: A Useful Flower Printable

I was doing letter practice with Sadie the other day, and as we were playing around with our crayons and paper, I made this:



Here's how it worked. I put a letter in a box, then she copied it into the neighboring box. When she accomplished this, she got to draw a petal onto the flower. When there were ten petals on the flower, she was done. She loved it.



I liked it too and thought I might like to use it again, so I made a digital version of it for reprinting.



If you click here you can go to a bigger version of the image, that you can print. Make sure you go to Page Layout or Print Options or whatever and choose "Landscape" before you print it out. If you use it, and like it, send me a picture of it! :D

Possible uses:

Letter practice. Copy what Mommy writes, or write the letters yourself in upper and lower case in the two boxes.
Number practice. Copy what Mommy writes, or write the numbers in yourself, twice to 10 or once to 20.
Violin/piano practice. Put the song names in the boxes and color the petals for every song you do. Choose ten boxes to practice.
Task list. Put 20 possible jobs in the boxes and let the child choose 10 to accomplish for the week, for each job accomplished fill in a petal.
Schedule for the day. Make a list of everything, everything, everything you're going to do today in the left boxes. Have child fill in the right boxes with everything she wants to do. Each put five top priorities in the petals.

Happy Labor Day