Leaf Collection

One summer a long long time ago my dad, the science teacher, assigned me to make a leaf collection. Because both of my parents were school teachers we spent very little time at home over the summer. We traveled all over the US in a camper which meant I was able to collect leaves from all over. I still remember many of the tree names and have favorites like the beautiful ginkgo that grew down the hill at the end of my grandparents street in Philadelphia.

I thought it was about time Trouble start his own leaf collection this summer. I talked up how fun it was for me to collect leaves as a little girl and he was game. My dad, Papa, was nice enough to give Trouble a mini-lesson on the parts of a leaf, arrangement and types.

I found a field guide to tree identification at a second hand book store and got an inexpensive 'cling' album to house the leaves.

When Trouble collects a leaf we look it up in the guide. He writes the tree's common name, scientific name, collection date and location on an index card. The index card and leaf go in the album.

 Trouble already has a favorite tree, the Sassafras. He loves the fragrant leaves and the story of his great great grandfather making root beer out of the root.

The Lorax

Children across the country will be celebrating Read Across America Day. It also just so happens to be the birthday of Dr.Seuss and... the new film The Lorax will hit theaters. Coincidence? I think not! I plan on spending the day reading The Lorax in the reading lab at Trouble's school. I'll be reading it about 10 times which means I will most certainly be a rhyming fool by the end of the day. Besides reading, we will be handing out some goodies to help the kiddos connect to the book.

We have brightly colored Truffula Trees.

The Lorax himself will be in attendance if you please.

Swomee-Swans might find a space...

and the Brown Bar-ba-loots will be in their place.

Humming-Fish might just splash around.

And a pile of rocks with UNLESS can be found.

I just couldn't resist rhyming. Sorry! The Swomee-Swans are really chicks cheese crackers found at Target, Brown Bar-ba-loots are chocolate Teddy Grahams and of course the Humming-Fish are goldfish crackers.

The Lorax mustashes are simply taped to pencils.

Happy Birthday Dr.Seuss!!

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothings going to get better. It's not.

Sandwich Baggie Bang

In an effort to entertain Trouble, who is out of school for Winter vacation, I decided to do a little science experiment with him. Trouble, like most 8 year old boys, loves it when things explode. So we decided to experiment with a little variation of the volcano we made last spring.

What you need:

• ziplock sandwich baggie (with no holes)
• paper towel
• 2 tablespoons baking soda
• 1/2 cup vinegar
• 1/4 cup warm water

What you do:
WARNING This should be done outside. (unless you want a baggie full of vinegar and baking soda to explode in the house)

Place baking soda in the middle of the paper towel and fold it up.

Pour the vinegar and water into the sandwich baggie.

Quickly place the paper towel in the baggie and zip that baby up. Give the baggie a little shake.

Put the baggie on the ground and stand back.

before bang

after bang

The baking soda & vinegar reaction produces carbon dioxide which fills and pops the baggie. Most importantly... it makes your kid happy!

Sight Word Candy Land

Because I've been substitute teaching in the Reading Lab at Trouble's school I've been looking for fun reading games on Pinterest and happened across this 'sweet' idea from First Grader... at last.

I pulled out Trouble's old Candy Land board game and wrote sight words on the game cards. To play the kids must read the sight word correctly to move their game piece. If they draw a card that moves them backward they must read the card correctly to avoid having to move backwards.

The kids loved this version of Candy Land!

End of Summer Traditions

On Tuesday Trouble starts back to school. Yep our fun filled summer is almost over. Soon we'll be studying multiplication facts and spelling words every night. But until then we've been living it up, squeezing as much fun out of this summer as possible. Monday will be our last day of summer vacation and we plan on going out with a bang! Here are some fun ways for your child to spend their last moments of freedom.

Ice Cream For Dinner- So what, who cares! Ice cream is milk and milk is healthy! Right?

Children's Museum- Go where it's impossible for a kid to not have good time.

Park It- Take you're kid to their favorite playground. Bring your favorite book, a cold drink and relax while they play their little hearts out.

Splash Park It- Splash parks are popping up all around Central Texas. I just love the idea of kids being able to cool off and play.

Game Time- Spend some time playing all of your child's favorite games... even if you absolutely hate Twister and Chutes and Ladders makes you want to poke your eyes out.

Jump In- You're local pool or lake might have been your favorite spot to cool off this summer so make it your last hoorah as well.

Remember The Fun- Frame your favorite photo from the summer. Trouble loves to look at all of the pictures I took over the summer and talk about his favorite memories.

Spending lazy days on the beach in Puerto Rico was one of Trouble's favorite memories this summer... Mr.Perfect and I loved it too!

We've Got Worms

Back in April, Trouble received this for his birthday from his Grandparents. In case you're wondering, it's a worm house.








A few days later Trouble got a package in the mail. You guessed it... a box filled with 1,000 worms (minus a few who thought it would be a good idea to vacate their packaging and, since we were having a hot April, quickly became crispy critters). Yes, there is such a thing as mail order worms. You didn't know that? Me either!

Lucky for Trouble, Mr.Perfect was super excited to start a worm farm. Apparently the little guys are great at composting. Trouble ripped some newspaper to put in the bottom of the bin.

They watered down the newspaper and then added the mail order worms along with a little dirt.

What do these guys eat you ask? Food scraps! I'm finding that they are crazy for watermelon rind but they eat through most any organic material. Yes, I can tell that our worms like watermelon the most... they all cheer when I throw it in.

The best part is that the worms or wormies, as Trouble calls them, turn the organic material into vermicompost or worm manure. Vermicompost is like gold for your garden. Mr. Perfect has been pouring the liquid, which by the way Trouble calls worm pee, that comes out of the bottom of the worm farm, into my herb garden and I've never seen my herbs happier!

worm pee =

great herbs

Trouble has grown so attached to his little wormies that the mention of using them for fishing bait is met with violent protest. Yeah... happy worms...happy Trouble...happy garden!

Thanks Grammy & Grandpa for the very fun birthday gift. Everyone here loves it!