Pumpkin Patch 2012

We finally have pumpkins! That's right, a we days ago we got a chance to go the pumpkin patch with some friends. It is the same one we have gone to the past few years, so the girls knew exactly where we were going. The first thing they did when we got there was visit all the animals. Nadia and Bria liked the little horse and the donkey, but Eli's favorite was the cat.

The cat wasn't actually in a cage; he just wandered in there at the time.

After that they headed to the pumpkins. Well they actually headed for the wagons. They just love pulling the wagons around! Nadia somehow convinced Stephen to pull her around in the wagon; at one point I heard him ask, "Can I have a break yet?"

The hunted gourds for a little bit, but they really weren't too interested in it this year.  Besides my camera battery died right when they started, so I didn't get any pictures of it! While the bigger kids hunted gourds, Eli occupied himself by sprinkling sawdust on all the pumpkins.

Once they had grown bored hunting gourds they found the straw tunnel.  They ran through it again and again and again. Eli even joined in the fun!

We finally got the convinced that it was time to choose pumpkins.  The girls only wanted to pick out gourds, and Eli wanted a big, green pumpkin.  The girls did eventually choose a couple big pumpkins, a few little ones, and a whole bunch of gourds.

Last year we dripped crayons on our pumpkins to make our Melted Crayon Pumpkins.  I have seen so many cute ideas this year we may have a hard time deciding what to do! I think Bria has already put a vote in for some glitter (surprise, surprise).  I'll be sure to post whatever we come up with! Even if we don't get around to decorating them, I know they had fun at the pumpkin patch!

25 Presses Kick Off University Press Week with a Blog Tour

The Association of American University Presses will celebrate University Press Week November 11-17. This week long celebration started in the summer of 1978 when President Jimmy Carter proclaimed a University Press Week “in recognition of the impact, both here and abroad, of American university presses on culture and scholarship.”

In the spirit of collaboration that pervades the university press community, Texas A&M University Press and 24 other presses will come together for a blog tour during University Press Week. This tour will highlight the value of university presses and the contributions they make to scholarship and our society. Bloggers include authors, book review editors, university press staff members, interns, booksellers, and university press advocates.

Harvard University Press kicks off the tour on Monday, November 12, and it continues coast-to-coast with stops in Canada and Hawaii before ending on Friday, November 16, at Oregon State University Press. The tour comes to Texas A&M University Press’s blog on Thursday, November 15, with a post by Loren Steffy, Houston Chronicle business columnist and author of The Man Who Thought Like a Ship. Download a complete University Press Week blog tour schedule at: http://ht.ly/eSUum.

In addition to the blog tour, the AAUP and other member presses are planning several features and events for University Press Week. To celebrate University Press Week, Texas A&M Press will also open its doors for a book sale Wednesday and Thursday, November 14 and 15. For more information, visit www.tamupress.com.

A is for Astronaut

  Recently the girls have been interested in the different kinds of jobs people do, so I decided to go through a few of them along with the alphabet. The obvious career for A is Astronaut, and that is exactly the one we started with. In fact we started studying the solar system along with it. We found a solar system place mat at Wal-Mart for a dollar!  Seeing all the planets and other bodies in the solar system was amazing for the girls. They were particularly fascinated with the asteroid belt and Jupiter's eye.

Bria showing me earth.

We discussed gravity a bit, and I picked them up and flipped them upside down a couple times (too bad we didn't have a trampoline handy). Then we had some astronaut ice cream (I found it at Old Navy of all places); it really didn't taste too bad. Wile they were eating it I flipped then again to see if they could eat while "floating." Nadia said she could, but Bria said she was too scared. Meanwhile, Eli was just trying to steal all the freeze dried ice cream.

We put together a little glowing outer space sensory bin.  

We did some math with stars.

We played comet catch.

But we did not get anywhere near all the things done that I was hoping to, so I think we will continue working on space stuff for another week at least!

After talking about astronauts, Nadia wanted to sing a song about them.

As we continued our space learning, we learned about the earth's rotation.

We also hunted for Constellations with watercolors.

We found this Solar System Song on youtube that the girls love. They say Venus looks like a pizza!

Making a Splash

We would like to say a big thank you to Reading Blue Coat School and the use of their pool to make our first foray to the big blue a success.  We are particularly grateful as the water was tropical, out of the wind and a toasty temperature out of the water all in all a great session.

Rear Admiral Suzie and her budding second in command Kae put the group through their paces, with Pirates of the Caribbean games, confidence building, simple skills training and a lot of fun and splashing around.

Floating practice

Bubbles? what bubbles? my boat has sprung a leak

Team GB Synchronised kayak display team

Let the games commence!

Comet Catch

    

As we looked through pictures of the solar system, I noticed the girls seemed intrigued by comets.  So we looked up more about comets.  We learned that they actually have 2 tails, a dust tail and an gas tail which get brighter the closer it gets to the sun. 

Image from Nasa

 We also learned that a comets orbit is more elliptical then a planet.  To demonstrate this a little better I made some balls into comets by taping a blue streamer and a yellow streamer to them.  Then I had the girls toss the balls over a larger ball (the sun) placed on top of the water table. The result was a much longer orbit then the circular ones of a planet. I tried to get them to throw it underhand to complete the orbit, but they wouldn't for some reason.

Then they decided it was just as much fun to run in a big oval around the water table while holding their comets.

Eventually the tails got a bit tattered, especially if Eli got a hold of them, but they had fun with their comets until then.  They were even making them talk to each other once they were done flying them around (everything talks in their world).

Space Sensory Bin

 My original plan for the space sensory bin was to make moon sand, but my moon sand didn't turn out right. It was still fun for play as Sandy Oobleck, but definitely not moon sand!  We did find a little package of glowing sand at the store a while back; I decided this would  be a good time to try it!.

 

I was a bit disappointed when I read the instructions, and it said it would only glow for 4 hours!  I was hoping it would recharge like glow in the dark stars do.  We already had it, so we needed to use it.  It came with 3 tiny pouches of sand (3 different colors).  The girls had to mix it to activate the glow.  

Then we added it to the bin, followed by the glowing planets.  I had the girls tell me the planets in order from the sun (center of the bin) as we put them in. Then I let them add all the stars.

Bin in the light.

Glowing bin.

Bria was most interested in sorting the stars by size.  Nadia was intrigued by the fact that every time the camera flashed the stars glowed brighter.  Obviously the pictures were either glowing box or kids.  I couldn't get a good picture where you could appreciate both.  If you are wondering about the clothes and shoe, they are in their closet.

She wanted me to flash the sun again.

After they were finished they removed all the stars and planets and mixed all the sand together.  I helped them make the Milky Way (sort of).

After Eli got up we carefully let him see the glowing sand.  He squealed a few times and then reached to grab it.  I knew he would try to eat it, so his hands were not allowed! They were all fascinated by the glow effect, and the girls were really excited when I told them we could hang some of the stars in their room after they were washed!