How true...
/Nicholas remarked to me this morning, "You know, if you and Daddy didn't have any kids, you would have to buy an alarm clock. Without us, you'd never wake up."
Hurricane Reading
/Hurricane Reading
Galveston's Summer of the Storm
Magic School Bus inside a Hurricane
Websites Worth Exploring
Hurricanes: How they Work and What they Do
Alphabetical Order Each year, hurricane names are assigned in alphabetical order. The list of names is recycled every six years. The names of this year's hurricanes can be found at here. List the names out of sequence and let the children put the names in alphabetical order. Ask them to notice a pattern in the names once they are in order.
Make “lightning”. Static electricity is stored in rain clouds. When a cloud is so full of static electricity that there's no room for any more, a spark might leap from the cloud. That spark is called "lightning"! (Note: This experiment works best when the weather is dry.)
1. Tear up a sheet of tissue paper into tiny little pieces.
2. Hold a comb over the confetti. Nothing happens.
3. Use a comb to comb the children’s hair. Or rub the comb on a piece of wool or fur.
4. Then hold the comb over the tiny tissue paper pieces.
5. What happens? Why does it happen?
The Water Cycle in a Jar. Discuss the steps of the water cycle:
(1.) Energy from the sun changes water to water vapor.
(2.) Water vapor rises. It cools and condenses to form clouds.
(3.) Winds blow the clouds over land.
(4.) Clouds meet cool air, and rain or snow falls to the ground.
(5.) Most of the water returns to large lakes and oceans.
Draw the steps for nature journals.
Now, re-create the water cycle:
1. Fill a large, glass bottle or jar half full of water . 2. Cover the jar with plastic wrap and secure the plastic wrap in place with an elastic. 3. Place the jar in a sunny window. 4. Observe for a few hours. What happens? Why did it happen?
Create a cyclone in a bottle.
Graphing. Make a bar graph of the number of hurricanes by month.
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June |
12 hurricanes |
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July |
16 hurricanes |
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August |
40 hurricanes |
|
September |
61 hurricanes |
|
October |
23 hurricanes |
|
November |
6 hurricanes |
(Data shows totals for 1900-94.)
And/or
Hurricanes cause millions of dollars in damages each year. Create a bar or picture graph to show the costs of Atlantic hurricane damage over the decades.
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1920s |
$2 billion |
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1930s |
$6 billion |
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1940s |
$6 billion |
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1950s |
$13 billion |
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1960s |
$23 billion |
|
1970s |
$21 billion |
|
1980s |
$21 billion |
|
1990s |
$78 billion |
Make a weather station. Go to Making a Weather Station and follow the directions to create a weather station at home.
Geography -- track a hurricane. Print off a Tracking Map and track the path of a current storm.
Download the Hurricane Kit Checklist and create one for your own home. This is a good basic disaster kit even if you don’t live in a hurricane region.
Use watercolors to paint hurricane scenes.
Games Play and learn about probability with the Water Wind and Earth game .
Research
1. What's the difference between a hurricane, a cyclone, and a typhoon?
2. What is the origin of the word "hurricane"?
3. Pick a hurricane whose name has been retired. Research the storm and find out why the name was retired. Choose from the list a hurricane a US hurricane, research the hurricane, and then create a brochure or lapbook about it. Include such things as the hurricane's path, the costs according to the actual year in which the hurricane occurred, the loss of life, loss of property (particularly notable property and landmarks), rebuilding efforts.
4. Research relief efforts. Which organizations rush to offer relief? How do they operate?
Geography. Visit Tropical Storm Tracks and look at the geographic areas to find current tropical storms. Locate the seven areas where tropical storms occur on a world map identify countries that might be affected by storms in each of those areas. Are storms there called typhoons, cyclones, or hurricanes?
Critical Thinking and chart making Go to this Virtual Weather Station and play with the VantagePro product. Create a chart of the data provided for several different weather situations. Hypothesize about the correlation between wind-chill temperature and wind speed, humidity level and rainfall amounts.Record weather information for two weeks and then test hypotheses.
Be the mayor.This is an opportunity to "get it right" at the local level. Don't miss the Handle a Hurricane activity, where you will learn about hurricanes, explore social factors, and decide whether to evacuate.
How's that for ironic?
/The school year is not going to start as planned. I've gotten distracted. I am distracted by a series of books that I purchased to help me better understand Attention Deficit Disorder. I have been derailed and distracted by Delivered from Distraction!
It all began innocently enough. I was feeling sick late one afternoon and began to channel surf to distract myself from the nausea. I happened upon EWTN and Johnette Benkovich was talking to Ned Hallowell, author of several books on ADD and crazy-busyness in general. His descriptions of ADD adults so fit a person I dearly love that I stopped clicking the remote and listened. My newly diagnosed teenager wandered in. He listened. The show ended; I went to the computer; the books were on their way in minutes.
One thing I knew before the show was that I needed to spend some time thinking about how to structure Christian's day, week, year so that he has the necessary support. But I also know that there are other people in my household who need serious structure. And I had a sense these books could help me to help them. So, instead of starting the school year and then scrapping the program after reading the books, I decided to take another week, read the books, and start really well prepared. The neighborhood kids don't start until next week anyway.
For me, the most riveting point that Dr. Hallowell made was that we are not to strive for independence. Instead, we need healthy interdependence. The ADD adult needs support people. The wife of a man with ADD can foster healthy interdependence and really be an asset to her husband. There is difference between supporting and enabling though (and I'm still reading to learn more about that). As I pondered this whole dynamic of interdependence and I thought about countless struggles to "fix" or "change" those very prounounced ADD tendencies, it occurred to me that part of the vocation of a woman whose husband has ADD might just be to fill that support role in a deliberate, tangible way. Similarly, the mother of a child with ADD needs to look not so much towards making him tow the line like everybody else but to embrace how he is wired an dharness that uniqueness for something good. My role is to coach and to do what I can do to make home as structured for success as possible.
Dr. Hallowell also makes the point that just as there is true ADD (a neurological condition), there is envronmentally induced pseudo-ADD. The environment in which we live--to which we are wired--feeds frenetic activity, muti-tasking, and distractiblity. We are Crazy Busy: Overbooked, Overstretched and About to Snap. I'm just guessing here (haven't read that book yet), but an ADD individual living in a crazy-busy world might not be the best scenario for success.
The last nine months have been slow. Really, really slow. Every time I think I can add things in, up the busyness factor, God slows me down. This morning, my son Stephen told a friend of mine that he wasn't going to play travel soccer this fall because that would really make mom pass out. It's a little extreme but the truth is that every busy day we have had has been followed by two or three "pass out" days. I have spent nine months saying, "I can't." And every time I'm forced to dial back, I ask what God is trying to teach me. Now, close to the end (please Lord) of this extreme form of reminding to slow down, I am beginning to understand that crazy busy isn't ever going to do any of us any good and little and hidden needs to be my way of life well past this baby's birthday. I truly believe that the success and the happiness of this family depends on my ability to take seriously these principles of Dr. Hallowell's in my own life:
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10 Key Principles to Managing Modern Life |
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Do what matters most to you (the most common casualty of an excessively busy life): Create a positive emotional environment wherever you are: Find your rhythm: Invest your time wisely so as to get maximum return: Don't waste time screensucking (a modern addiction - the withdrawal of looking at a computer/BlackBerry/etc. screen): Identify and control the sources of gemmelsmerch in your environment: Delegate: Slow down: Don't multitask ineffectively (avoid frazzing): Play: |
The Plan for Stephen
/The plan for Stephen is to teach him to read. Some how, some way, he is going to learn to read. I have never had a child more compliant, more motivated. And yet, it's just not clicking. He's finished Little Stories for Little Folks and the speller/phonics to go with it;completed all of Get Ready, Get Set, Go for the Code and Explode the Code 1 (with lots of hand holding), most of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and a smattering of alphaphonics. We've pulled out tricks of whole language and sight words to balance the intensive phonics. And still, there is no fluency. Poor dear, he's really frustrated. And he sees Katie and Nicholas surpassing him in reading skills. I know that things will click, that he will read. But it might not be this year or even next year. My job right now is to keep his interest high and to help him learn without constantly reminding him how hard it can be to acquire the knowledge he wants.
This summer, the reality is setting in. I think we're looking at another child with special needs. I'm noticing things, though they are not nearly so obvious as the first time around. This child is obedient and eager and compliant and uncomplaining. But he is also distracted and he has very poor visual memory.
We'll do lots and lots of read alouds, because I am very certain that all those stories bear great, juicy fruit. We'll persevere with phonics practice, relying heavily on the moveable alphabet and pulling out Touchphonics to see if this intensive tactile approach will help him to see onsets and rimes instead of single letters. We'll create word walls and word banks and I'll re-acquaint myself with some of my favorite books, Phonics that Work and Teaching Reading and Writing with Word Walls. It will be okay.
For handwriting, we'll make the switch away from a traditional Cahtolic handwriting program and back to Handwriting Without Tears. I'm not sure what it is with my boys, but they need this very clean approach to forming letters. Later, we can return to beautiful script for copywork.
Much of Stephen's program will be similar to Nicholas' because (1) they are at about the same skill level and (2) they are inseparable anyway. He has already received his First Communion, so instead of a notebook for that, he'll work on a Catholic Mosaic liturgical year notebook and he'll continue to work on a Rosary book. I know all the stories of Catholic Mosaic will find their way into his heart. There, they will do two things. First, they will teach him to appreciate fine language and fine art and to write stories himself, even if he has to dictate them to me. The books will inspire him to write in some form or fashion. I'll watch and listen and facilitate. Secondly, they will touch his soul. They'll become a part of his spiritual journey, companions towards heaven. This is education for real, education that matters. He's very, very enthusiastic about Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, so Moira's second guide will be his "religion spine" this year.
He's a very physical kid--he loves to climb and to play soccer and would much rather be outdoors than indoors. He's guaranteed to spend lots and lots of time in our backyard, ball at his feet and song in heart.
He's a science guy in a very inquisitive way and absolutely loves Animal Planet. He's already an enthusiastic bird watcher and he'll love every living book on nature we read. I'll revisit our "Great Outdoors Booklist" (righthand sidebar) with him frequently this fall. Baby and I will be at home still and I know I won't be getting out into the woods with these busy boys, but the stories will take us there. Truth be told, Stephen's pining for a camping trip, but I don't see it happening until next spring. Hopefully, the baby will distract him a bit and soothe his disappointed soul. So many summer things I promised in the spring when I thought that certainly I'd get that second trimester "great feeling" reprieve... Nothing quite like the mommy-guilt of broken promises.
For math, it's going to be all tactile, almost all the time. We'll use the same materials as Katie does and just bump along at a pace for Stephen. I think I will also introduce him to the Touchmath way of doing things while I show Mary Beth and Christian.
Mostly though, the plan for Stephen is for me to take lots and lots of time to be totally available to him. He's quiet and obedient and never ruffles anyone's feathers. He's also in the middle of a big family. It's easy to lose him in the crowd. My goal is to not let him get lost.
The Bonny Glen in the Heart of my Home
/We had a little visit, a much-too-short-little visit with some of our favorite people. It's been far too long since these children were all together. We've even added a few since the last time (which is why it's been so long). I had such fun watching my Katie totally entranced with Rilla and Wonderboy.
After they left, she promptly renamed all of her dolls "Rilla."
Nicholas was shy at first. He has a tendency to want to rehearse everything he's going to say before he says it and so he is quiet in a crowd. After he emerged from behind a chair, he disappeared with Beanie and the two became fast friends. He told me as we went to bed that she's his new best friend. It's no wonder, she's a curly-haired doll baby, cutie pie. She told me as they were leaving, "I'm not very happy about this." Me neither, sweetheart. Me neither.
We made the most of the time we had and I kept reminding myself not to shadow the sunny days with the dark cloud of their imminent 3000 mile move.
So there was one last, great sleepover in the princess bed, followed by a great morning. (Beanie gives really good morning hugs!)
And then there was goodbye. Saddest of all was the hug Jane gave Mary Beth. I think that Lissa and I were both worried that they'd never let go. Or maybe that they would and we'd both give in to welling tears.
San Diego is such a long, long way away. It's a good thing we both love to write and an even better thing that our children seem to have inherited the passion.
