Lego Man in Space

Just showed this to the K-man. I think his minifigures should probably beware.

Dinosaur (and paleontology) books!

If you have met my daughter, it is no secret that dinosaurs are a big hit around here.  Not too long ago I was asked for a few good places to start for a study of dinos and paleontology.  My picks below range from adult, for the parent that wants some background in these topics, down to the early elementary child in love with dinosaurs.  Most skew late elementary and higher since I don't like to 'dumb down' material for my kids, especially when they show a strong interest and thrive on depth...but that's a topic for another post.


Dinosaurs books for overview and what/where/how:

• Dinosaur Lives by John Horner is a great nonfiction book for adults that gives good insight into both the fieldwork of paleontology and how paleontologists recreate how dinosaurs lived and highly recommended.  It is written for the lay reader but doesn't shy away from some of the more technical ideas.  John Horner is one of the most respected paleontologists currently working and if you are ever in Bozeman, do not miss his Museum of the Rockies.
• Eyewitness Books Dinosaur by David Lambert.   I love all the Eyewitness titles and we have a million of them, but the dinosaur one is a standout.  It is marketed to late elementary/middle school but with the beautiful pictures younger kids like them and there is plenty of information for adults.
• Dinosaur by Stephanie Stansbie is another "kid's" book, but it disguises itself as a paleontologist's notebook and the science is pretty sophisticated.  Tons of little manipulatives and envalopes and flippy bits that could get lost, but my daughter likes it so much she keeps everything where it is supossed to go. 
• There's lots of early elementary-age books on dinosaurs.  Tons.  Too many to list. Many are fine, some are crap.  The books on fossils and paleontology by Aliki are good, and Magic School Bus in the Time of Dinosaurs is probably one of  the best IMO.

Paleontology, paleontologists, and the history of fossil hunting:

• Jack Horner's book Digging Up Dinosaurs is a fun and accurate book about how fossils are really found and studied today. Appropriate for elementary through middle school.
• A good book on paleontology for the middle schooler or the student ready for a step up to more meaty information is Bones Rock!  Everything You Need to Know To Be a Paleontologist.  Lots of examples of real science and great stories.
• Look up books on Mary Anning.  There are several biographies on her life on Amazon for different age groups.  A particularly good one for elementary is Rare Treasure: Mary Anning and her Remarkable Discoveries by Don Brown.  Mary Anning was an english girl in the 1800s who discovered several species of dinosaurs.  There are lots of books for kids about her,  but this is my favorite--I love all the Don Brown biographies.  Mary Anning was fascinating--for grown-up and high school reading of a novelization of her life, Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier is wonderful.
• Lena loves learning about the T-Rex named Sue, which is the largest, most complete t-rex ever found, now displayed in a museum in Chicago.  There are tons of books about the fossil and those who found her, because it was a very contentious and litigious fossil.  Our favorites are this music cd and Sue Hendrickson's autobiography for kids, My Life as an Explorer.  (bonus, Sue Hendrickson dropped out of highschool and homeschooled herself)  A very good (but long) story of the find for adults is Tyrannosaurus Sue: The Exraordinary Saga of the Largest, Most Fought Over T. Rex Ever Found by Steve Fiffer.
• A wonderful picture book about an early paleontologist and dinosaur reconstructor is The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins.  My daughter loves the pictures in this book and comparing how our ideas of how dinosaurs look has changed over the years.

Fun books that stretch the imagination:

• Dinotopia: A Land Apart in Time by James Gurney and its sequels like Journey to Chandara (but not the novelizations that came out later, those are not good)  we read these at story time for many evenings, they are long but my kids absolutely loved a chapter each night.  It is about some 19th-century explorers who stumble upon a lost continent inhabited by intelligent dinosaurs and humans.  Gorgeous paintings on every page. 
• Uneversaurus by Professor Potts is not fiction, but it works here because it is all about how we imagine the colors of dinosaurs skin.  Fantastic fun because it shows both wild&crazy coloring and more sober information about camoflage.  Good inspiration for art lessons, too. 
• If You Are A Lover of Fossils by Byrd Baylor.  Simply beautiful, a prose-poem about fossils and the connection with the earth and our short lives.

Random stuff:

• Usborne's Dinosaur Jigsaw Atlas  is pretty cool.  Shows where different dinosaurs have been found across the world.  Dinosaurs AND geography AND puzzles!  Score!
• Not a dinosaur, but look up information on the Coelacanth.  This is a fish that was thought to have gone extinct with the dinosaurs until a few of them were found off the coast of Madagascar in the 1930s.  A great book for adults is A Fish Caught in Time by Samantha Weinberg.
• The Walking with Dinosaurs and Chased by Dinosaurs/Prehistoric Park BBC series shows are great.  My kids have watched them over and Over and OVER.  Chased by Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Park are especially fun because a modern zoologist goes back in time to capture some of those CGI dinosaurs, which are pretty well done. 

A conversation about Rockfish

One of our traditions for New Years Day is a trip to a local zoo or museum--yesterday we went to the Seattle Aquarium.  It happened to be Rockfish Day!  So the kids learned all about Rockfish and they are happy to tell you all about them.   We had a nice conversation over fish & chips at the aquarium cafeteria.

Borax snowflake success!

This week-before-Christmas is very light as far as 'schoolwork'.  Instead we are doing a week of crafts and low-stress activities.  One thing I wanted us to try was making Borax snowflakes.  We've never had much luck with sugar crystals, but these worked like a charm!

Plus, they looked so pretty in the jars with a drop of food coloring:

And they turned out so sparkly!

The instructions said to leave them for at least 8 hours, but for us they grew so quickly that after only 6 hours they were starting to grow extra 'arms'.  Oh, well, still fun!

Our study of the Celts

A friend asked me the other day what we are using for our history study of the Celts.  This is what I told her, with some embellishment and helpful links:

As we were finishing up the last topic (Romans) I gave K a copy of Horrible Histories book, Cut-Throat  Celts, which he devoured, as is his way. Reading these high-interest books with a lot of humor seems to "prime" him for a topic--he is the child that needs a "hook" to get him interested in a topic.  L is usually up for anything.
 
Since then we've been reading Celtic-related stories and pages out of our history encyclopedias etc. Right now we're working on the Eyewitness Classics King Arthur, which includes a lot of background information and is a lot more Celtic than many versions. Last week we read "Across a Dark and Wild Sea" by Don Brown, which is argueably not Celtic--it is about the Irish monks that maintained literacy after the fall of Rome-- but I'm not too worried about it because it was good story. All Don Brown's books are good, but most of them are more modern history, so I was happy to find this one that tells an older story.

We also read pages here and there out of Usborne Encyclopedia of World History and do some of the Usborne recommended links.  I think this week or next we'll read a little about bog bodies or watch a Nova special (this link to the Nova website has a lot of interesting interactives--my kids really seem to respond to true stories about archeology, even if they can be a little gruesome) and maybe read Finn MacCoul out of "Favorite Medieval Tales" by Osborne. I would like to find something engaging on Boudica but I think that's not in the cards this time.

I also try to remember once a week or so to find some hands-on thing that ties in. I often get ideas from one of the Hermes House kid's encyclopedias:  Life in the Ancient World and Children's Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Ancient World are favorites, but they have a lot of duplicated content.  The former includes a project on making Celtic shields based on the well-known Battersea Shield which looks like fun and a good fit to tie in what is known about Celts from archeology, Arthurian legend, and the kid's current love of battling each other--we have plenty of swords but more shields are needed around here!  

Kids on Wheels

Every Thursday, the boy spends the day with a combination of Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa.  The last few weeks he and Grandpa have been hard at work on a semi-secret project.  Today, they finished it!

Time well spent, I think!

Happy Carl Sagan Day!

My friendly facebook subscriptions reminded me that today is Carl Sagan Day!  Today would have been Mr. Sagan's 77th birthday.  A very good day to remember to pause and look up at the sky. 

Sadly, Cosmos is not available on Netflix streaming, but we'll watch The Universe this afternoon and watch the new Symphony of Science video released today.  A fitting tribute.