Money and Spreadsheets

All year, Maia has been keeping track of her spending money alternately on paper and with an excel spreadsheet. Each week on monday, she asks for her spending money. She pays for library fines, thrift store purchases, field trip memorabilia (mostly postcards for her collection), presents for others, and various other things. Record keeping is hard for many adults, so it is great to give kids time to actually learn to do it easily and stress free. Every time she records her income or spending, she counts the money by herself. If there is a discrepancy, we figure it out together. She recently decided that she didn't need to use the computer much so she returned to paper money records and calendars. Go figure.

Reading Harry Potter and Other Books

Maia loves loves loves Harry Potter stories. Until recently, she had only seen the movies. When her brother read the books, he and I would often talk about how the books and movies were different. It annoyed her no end to not know the "special stuff" which is only in the books. I told her that I really wanted her to be able to read the herself since part of what makes Harry Potter books so interesting to me is the way the writing draws you in and you do not want to put the books down. So she picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and started reading. It was very slow going since there were so many words she chose to ask about. But she was reading it. She would read a paragraph at a time and go over it several times until she could read it aloud without pausing or mistakes. The day after she got to the 4th page (remember she is 6), we had houseguests and activities changed. She had not gone back to reading Harry Potter yet, but she still expressed a desire to know what was in the book version of the stories.

Then I got her first audiobook from the library. Of course it was the first Harry Potter book. Once she learned how to use the cassette tape player, oh how times have changed, she was off and reading. She draws and plays while she listens. I can sit with her and do a wide variety of activities or be in the kitchen playing while the story is blaring out. She stops frequently to ask questions. She rewinds to hear details or dialogue that she missed the first time. It is fun to watch her explore this new media. Yesterday she started on the second HP book and got to chapter 5 before she switched activities. Next up, following along with the printed book so even more of those words can become familiar.

Of course, she does read a variety of things quite often. Yesterday's trip to the library yielded 11 "early reader" books. Five are level 3's which were brought home "for when I want it to not be so hard to read". The rest are level 4 books. I am starting to think about the next level of books and what titles I will suggest to her when the time is ripe.

Cleopatra and Brothers

Two nights ago we were reading Story of the World. We finished the chapter about Julius Caesar and Cleopatra. The next morning, Maia is having breakfast and says to me:

I am a bit like Cleopatra. We both have a brother who wants to do what we are doing. Our brothers like to fight a lot and tell other people what to do. I mean they were both Pharoahs and had to rule together and they fought a lot. But I don't want the same thing to happen to Evan as what happened to Cleopatra's brother. That was mean.

So that is her analysis of Cleopatra's brother, the Pharoah.

programming robot

-1. this is snapee
0. I built snapee
1. snapee gos in to the kings library
2. snapee stops to tac A picture
3. light sensor finds black ring
4. snapee raps A piece of twine or A piece of string around the black ring
5. snapee coms back to me

What we are reading

We have been reading aloud a variety of books. Two nights ago we finished The Arabian Nights retold by Neil Philip and Illustrated by Sheila Moxley. This was not a complete set of the tales, but included the favorites Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Aladdin. Maia's favorite tales were The City of Brass, Princess Nur Al-Nihar, the Three Princes, and Peri-Banu, The Speaking Bird, the Singing Tree, and the Golden Water, and The Ebony Horse.

We have also started reading stories from Greek and Roman Mythology. We read about Hades taking Persephone down to the underworld to be his wife, the minotaur and the labyrinth, the Trojan horse, and various others. Stories explaining the start of the world seem to be fascinating to Maia right now.

Last night we resumed our reading of The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer. We backtracked a little so the various stories and time periods would be equally well remembered.

art from art class

I liked art class becus I did new things

I played with tonal value

Here are my beutiful pictures

My favorite is the sculpture

my 2nd favorite is the colourful painting on the top right

my 3rd favorite is the painting on the top left

my 4th favorite is the prited out picture on the
bottom left

Today's Questions (and Answers)

Q: When was the sleeping bag invented?
A: Freydis Eiriksdottir, daughter of the famous viking Erik the Red, invented the sleeping bag by using an extra sail on of her expeditions to Greenland.
http://www.ehow.com/about_4603769_compressing-sleeping-bags.html

Q: When was the scuba tank invented?
A: Experimentation happened for over 100 years, then Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnan developed same tank and regulator used today in 1943 (the Aqua-Lung).
http://www.reefscuba.com/inventors.htm

Q: How deep can divers go using scuba gear?
A: World record dive with scuba gear is 1,083 ft/330 m. Recreational divers are highly encouraged to stay shallower than 100 feet/30 meters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_diving