Reading in the Rain

When it is raining outside cuddle on the couch with your children and read aloud.  These books include rain in the story-line.  If you know rain is forcasted borrow in advance from the public library.  We find these worth owning and keep them on the shelf in our family library.

Rabbits and Raindrops by Jim Arnosky
http://www.amazon.com/Rabbits-Raindrops-Jim-Arnosky/dp/0698118154/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334520248&sr=8-1

The Little Sailboat by Lois Lenski
http://www.amazon.com/Little-Sailboat-Lois-Lenski-Books/dp/B00120VJ0C/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334520339&sr=1-1
(This can be a good time to recite poetry learned; we call this memory work. We photocopied the poem "My Ship and I" by Robert Louis Stevenson and glued it to the back cover to remind of this poem about a boy, his toy boat, and his daydreams. Here is a link to the poem http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/my-ship-and-i/)

The Maggie B by Irene Haas
http://www.amazon.com/The-Maggie-B-Irene-Haas/dp/0689500211/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334520426&sr=1-1
(This book includes Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "Lullaby" also called "Sweet and Low". We photocopied the poem and glued to the back cover to remind us of the whole poem. Here is a link to the poem http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sweet-and-low/)

Sea Story by Jill Barklem (Brambly Hedge series)
http://www.amazon.com/Story-Brambly-Hedge-Jill-Barklem/dp/0689831714/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334521477&sr=8-1

Enjoy your kids,
Kari

Observing and graphing Spring colors

While walking or driving to and fro with your children, point out the different colors of flowers that are blooming in spring.  In Texas this begins in late February and continues through early May.  We like to make a chart to practice beginning level graphing.  The same chart can be used by an older child to figure mean, median, and mode statistics.

Each child keeps the chart on a clipboard in the car during the season of observation (this can be done in fall too).

To make a chart we make a table and color a circle at the top of each column.  Then as we see those colors, tick marks are made in the column below. I like to have the children mark the columns in ROY G. BIV rainbow order out of habit and to reinforce that mnemonic aid.  So column headings with colored pencils are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo (optional), and purple.  We also add a column for black and brown.

After about a month of observing we add all the tick marks to notice which colors were most common. Spring colors in Central Texas tend to be yellow, peach (orange), green, blue, lavender (purple).

Enjoy your kids,
Kari