Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Cartoon Book and Paper and Magazine Recycle!Create!

T-Rex loves to read cartoons. Every Sunday, he eagerly retrieves the Sunday paper, eager to read the new comics.   Sometimes, he can even read them all by himself.  While I have nothing against cartoons as a medium, some of the humor is not appropriate for my five-year-old.

I decided to use the comics from the Sunday paper to make him a custom comic book.   All I needed was the Sunday paper and a cheap composition book.



I cut the cartoons apart and glued them into the book.


T-Rex enjoys being able to read the cartoons over and over.  I feel better about the content he is reading, and as a bonus, the book is much easier to keep in order than all those big floppy papers.

This month's challenge from Recycle!Create!  is to make something for or with your children using paper, newspaper, or magazines.  Learn more about the Recycle!Create! project .



Check out the projects from the other co-hosts.

And, if you have a project of your own, be sure to link it up!

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Goals: August 2014



Every month a group of great bloggers share their goals at Mama Smiles.  Being part of the blogging community is one of the best parts of blogging.   So this month, I am joining in.  

January-July


We moved (just a few miles) in January, welcomed a new baby in February, and finished our home school year in May, ready to enroll T-Rex in public school. As you can imagine,  life has been a blurr.  But, I think we covered the needed academics and kept everyone relatively well fed and clean.

During all that craziness, I blogged as a way to relax and refocus.  This summer as things slowed down, I realized that I have probably maxed out what I can do with my free blog. I also realized that I really like blogging.  So, I am going to jump in and try to move my blogging up to a paid hobby.  Here I am --setting some goals.

August goals


Blog:  I want to transition to  a .com and finish organizing my posts by topic so they can easily be found through pages. I have set a goal  of doing a Science Along the Way Post every week, and plan to do at least three other posts this month, including one on another blog.

Curriculum:  I want to write one long math unit to sell on Teacher Pay Teacher, update the science unit I have already done, and do one short science lesson to offer for free.  

Family:  Establish some good routines to support my older children's success during the school year.

Home:  Finish putting up the decor we have on hand and sort through the last of the boxes.

Friday, August 1, 2014

Shadows: How a baby can learn science along the way



Little Diddle (5 months) went with me to take some excess garden produce to the neighbor.  On the way home, she noticed something interesting.  She leaned forward and made little cooing sounds to alert me to her discovery.

Can you believe it?!  The sun's rays were bouncing off the road.  However, none of the rays could travel straight through our bodies.  Only the rays that refracted (bent) around our bodies could make it to the piece of road we blocked from the sun. The result was a dark spot shaped like us that traveled just in front of us.  


I love that idea.  One way to do facilitate that learning is by simple time outdoors. By celebrating these simple discoveries with our kids, we encourage their science learning.  

What has a little one next to you seen recently?





The purpose of this  Science Along the Way series is to remind me, my children, and my readers to celebrate the wonder of the natural world around us.  Scientific statements on this blog are made with the intention accuracy.  If you see an error, kindly leave a correction in the comments.

The post, Shadows: How a Baby Can Learn Science first appeared on WisdomKnowledgeJoy@blogspot.com.