All about birds

Heron at Goose Island
State Park in February 2010

The boys had a ton of fun yesterday afternoon checking out the live streaming bird-nesting cameras posted by the researchers at Cornell University. There is a Red Hawk nest.  They have probably finished laying their clutch. The Blue Heron has laid one egg at least and will probably lay more in the next few days.  They are really beautiful to watch so closely.  You can access the cameras by going to www.allaboutbirds.org. Look for the links at the top left of the page (but under the large banner).

Peru

My maps assignment required me to  do some research and then write about what country I would like to go to most in South America. I picked .......................... PERU!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I picked Peru because if you lived in the southern part  of Peru you could go to the rain forest or the beach in a day's trip.

First let's talk about the people that live there. There are three main groups of people that live there. decedents of the Incas (the first people that lived there), European, and people that are decedents of both. The languages of Peru are Spanish and Quechua.


Now, what do they eat? potatoes, potatoes, hot peppers, potatoes, and some more hot peppers. Some people that live near water also eat fish. Peru is big in commercial fishing.


Popular sports in Peru are soccer, basketball, volleyball , and bullfighting. People also like to watch cockfights (a sport where trained chickens with sharp spurs on there legs fight each other)


The flag: the lama on the shield stands for Peru's animal life, the tree stands for Peru's plant life, and the horn filled with gold coins represents Peru's mineral wealth
 
three types of land cover Peru. A narrow ,dry plain along the coast, the Andes mountains in the middle,
and on the inland border the lowlands.


In the southwestern part of Peru lies Macchu Picchu, an Inca farm in the mountains. The Incas cut stair like terraces to farm on.



Click here to build a jigsaw puzzle of Macchu Picchu before May 29th, 2012.


Mom reminded me that Thor Heyerdahl and Erik Hesselberg launched the raft, Kon-Tiki, from Lima. They were trying to determine whether ancient people could have reached Pacific islands from South America. I read about their successful trip in the book Kon-Tiki and I by Erik Hesselberg.

This is a picture I drew last year of the kon-tiki.

                                                                                                               

Batter Up!

The Little League season is upon us!  I don't have any schedules yet, but the parade and exhibition games were today.  This year I can say "He's #5 on the roster, but #1 in my heart!"  because Cole and Evan are both wearing #5 this year.  I guess Xavier might take exception to my statement though.

Cole played first today.  He's moved up a level and is playing on the Kids Pitch Cubs team.  They can steal all bases.  He was the third batter today  and brought in the first RBI of the season for his team.  He stole third, and home, for a score.  It was a well matched game and ended up a 10-10 tie.  He played some shortstop and catcher before the 90 minutes was up.

Catcher Cole

Evan has also moved up a level and is playing Coach Pitch for the Astros team this year.  Interestingly, their opponent today was the Tigers - Cole's coaches from last year and most of the same boys too!

Evan at bat for the Astros

Evan was first batter up for his team.  He looked very good, but struck out.  He also played catcher and shortstop.   Coaches love those Schuelke boys.  Oh yes, Brad is helping with both teams.  I thought he had tried to stay out of it this year, but he came home from the last practice with a coach's shirt for each team.  Evan said they were already walking to the car when someone chased them down with a shirt for Brad.  He told me proudly,  "They had an extra shirt and they were trying to figure out who it belonged to , so they figured it MUST belong to MY dad!"

There is one more Schuelke boy as you know.  He's got another year of watching.  But tagging along has its perks.  He gets treats without having to play out in the sun!

DQ soda AND a blizzard!

And here's a bonus financial tip for you.  Run out and buy some stock in OxiClean.  It took  the grass stains, pink lemonade, and dirt out of those cute WHITE baseball pants.

We have a winner!

Xavier wanted a checkered flag for his racing and playtime.  So yesterday I managed to set him up with a paper weaving project. He got the hang of it and did most of it himself.

That's my cross vine in the background and I am pleasantly surprised that the overnight rain did not knock all the blooms off as I expected.

It's less than a month to the little guys birthday, can you believe it?  The party planning race is on!

Camping In Blanco

As soon as we got there X played in the puddles and started
yelling: this is the best campsite ever!!

Sunday the weather cleared and Kennedy and Ryan came and we
played a little sand volleyball.

The second weekend of march we went camping at Blanco State Park, in the rain, and in a tent Augie and Erin came with us. We were the only people in the whole park in a tent. 

Then we did a little kayaking. 

We roasted a few marshmallows. 

The next day after about 3 hours of fishing  dad finally caught a fish.

       

And this is our campsite from across the river. 

Sunny Flowers

Last week I found a a book I had purchased at the summer curriculum conference called  1,2,3, I Can Paint by Irene Luxbacher.  (It was in my school cabinet - that's why it was MIA....) Like usual, my angel put it in my hands at a good time, as we began studying flowers, photosynthesis, and pollinators again.  I think we all really enjoyed this project.

 It began with mixing colors - Xavier loves this part- to make a deep orange background.  Then, WAIT for it to dry, before painting a blue strip at the top.  Then add many brown dots using small sponges.  We also made some using dandelion heads for a stamp.  WAIT for the brown to dry.

Next, it was time to transform the cheetah-looking paintings into flowers.

 And finally, after WAITing for the yellow paint to dry a littte, a few ladybugs, bees, and stems were added. Voila!  The finished masterpieces:

Art by Evan

Art by Cole

Art by Xavier

Xavier seems to have chosen to depict the flowers in the fall after most of the petals have dropped.
By the way, could you guess that the overall theme of our current unit is Patience.  We are practicing WAITing cheerfully and constructively.

Pictures of Pollywogs

This is Cole's writing assignment for the past week.  I scanned it as a pdf, but unfortunately I think it may not be rotated the correct way and I haven't figure that out yet.  I will have to post this "as is" and see if it works in other browsers maybe.
I had him read some frog books to Xavier as a review.  Then he was given the booklet with pictures, but no words and it was up to him to do the writing.  The pencil didn't scan well, so I added the computer text to the bottom.
Click below to see his booklet:
Growing Up In a Pond