I don't have time to work on much of a post today. We are leaving to go to Kingsley Plantation this afternoon. It is DH's last real work day there and then tomorrow there is clean-up. Also, tomorrow we are putting Nika on an airplane. She is moving into her own apartment up in Wisconsin, but will be living close to her grandma, so grandma can check in on her from time to time.
So, this lack of time, gives me an opportunity to transfer another entry here from the blog I had last year. Last year, at this time, we were very focused on gardening:
We purchased a garden stepping stone kit that was on sale at Michael's and Blaze was able to make it with very little supervision. He chose the sun design out of several design options offered in the box.
There were still quite a few of the colored glass pieces left after this was made, so we will probably make another one when we have time.
I have a Summer Reading Recommendation for anyone over 4th grade, especially if you like Greek Mythology, the five book series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, by Rick Riordan.
The first book in the series, The lightning Thief has been very popular with the Middle School boys I work with. I've been recommending the book to children with ADHD, Dyslexia, or both, because according to this series, that is a sign you are a demigod (one mortal parent, one Greek God parent). The Dyslexia is because your brain is hardwired for ancient Greek and the ADHD will keep you alive in a battle situation.
One of the things that the middle school boys particularly like, is the fact that the story doesn't take place in ancient Greece. Percy is a modern American boy, who has been raised by a single mother in New York City. At the beginning of the story, Percy has no idea he is anything special, in fact, he has pretty low self esteem, because he struggles with reading and paying attention. He has also been kicked out of several schools.
J.R. coloring a picture of Zeus for the marque of The Lightning Thief he had to hold up during his oral book report at the end of the school year:
If you or your children really enjoy Greek Mythology and would like to color some pictures to go with your reading, here are two links to coloring pages.
I just finished reading the last book in this series, The Last Olympian, which was just released in hard cover last month, but I don't think this is the last we will hear of Percy Jackson.
This week's Corner View topic was "street fashions"
DH took us out to eat at The Cheese Cake Factory restaurant at St. Johns Town Center in Jacksonville, and I did a little people watching while we waited outside for a table to be ready for us.
Here are some examples of what people are wearing in my corner of the World:
The Fashion Show continues on the following blogs:
The students at Kingsley Plantation, uncovering more of the walls of the sugar mill's octagonal shaped cane crushing room:
The archaeology students were getting a lot of media attention this past week. First, a movie crew was at the plantation, filming them for a new PBS Ken Burns series on National Parks. Then, there was a write-up in The Georgia Times-Union newspaper on Friday about the dig at Kingsley Plantation, as well as the dig a little further North that NFU is doing.
The article gave a web address to go to for a video related to the article, so here is that link, as well:
We drove about an hour North on Saturday, to the quaint little town of St. Marys, Georgia, to see the ruins of another tabby sugar mill, built by one of the former owners of the Kingsley land.
Blaze has expressed an interest in what DH does for a living, so we read The Magic School Bus Shows and Tells and Archaeologists Dig for Clues.
We will also be reading Motel of the Mysteries, which is about future archaeologist misinterpreting what they find, when they dig up a 20th century motel.
There is only one more week of Summer Field School at Kingsley, so Blaze and I are driving out later today to spend the weekend, since it will be our last chance to spend a full weekend there.
I don't think I've shown any pictures of The Fort George Club. This is now the rangers offices and volunteer housing. It's also where they house the students during field school, but back in the 1920's this was part of a private resort.
Blaze on the porch, flirting with all the college girls. They thought he was so cute and he loved the attention.
The Fort George Club building is an interesting place. It's built using faux tabby, so it looks like it's built out of the same stuff as the slave cabins, and it has some unique architectural features. This is the most inexplicable thing in the house. This door is only about three feet tall and leads to a small attic, but the door is located on this platform about shoulder high off the ground in one of the bathrooms. The students keep the chair propped against the door, because they say the door scares them.
Finally, here is the funniest of the movies DH took at Kingsley on week 4 of field school, once again starting the professor:
The extremes a photographer will go through, to get that perfect shot.
This past week has been a good time to be learning about the weather, because we've been having quite a mixture. It's been sunny and rainy part of every day, and over the weekend we saw 3 rainbows in 3 days.
It's a little hard to see, but there is a little rainbow just at the top of the trees in this picture I took on the way home from Orlando.
Blaze and I have been making weather related projects out of 2 liter soda bottles this week.
It was a hardship, but somebody had to drink all this soda in the name of science (I had a little help from Nika). ; )
Our first project was connecting one empty bottle and one that was 2/3 full of water with a "Tornado Tube" ( a screw-on plastic connector) that we bought at the local teachers' supply store.
Blaze loved this thing! He played with it for hours, even taking it with him to the bath last night.
We tried it going clockwise and counter clockwise and both directions worked well.
Our next project was making a rain gauge out of another empty 2 liter bottle.
To make a rain gauge, start with an empty, clean 2 liter bottle and remove the label.
Using sharp scissors, cut off the top (curved) part of the bottle.
Next, use a permanent marker to draw a line all the way around bottle along the ridge near the bottom of the bottle. Use a ruler to mark a small line every inch up from the circle.
Number the lines starting at the lowest one, 1-5.
Fill the bottom of the bottle with pebbles and water up to the circling line. This will keep the bottle from tipping over.
Place the rain gauge outside, away from trees, and wait for the rain.
I don't think we'll have to wait long
If you have more empty soda bottles laying around that need re-purposing, we made this "ocean in a bottle" project a couple months ago.
