Dinosaur School

"Mom, watch out, you almost stepped on the dinosaurs!"

It is hard not to sometimes! The dinosaurs in our house are currently enrolled in a new school. It just started, so they are beginning with pre-school. Apparently, every 20 days they go up a grade level, and right now they are only on Day 11. Lined up in order by color, the tiny dinosaurs are off to school with their parent (could be mom or dad, Light told me). They study math, science, and spelling, and there are no tests or homework.

"Do they study reading?" I thought to ask.

"Not yet, maybe in Kindergarten," Light said.

I chuckled. I thought it was pretty cute that they were studying spelling, but hadn't begun to read yet!

"This one is the teacher, mom. Turquoise Jewel." That is Light's favorite dinosaur, because it is a great blue color. It happens to be the smallest dinosaur he has as well. Light whispers to me "He is the teacher because he is the smartest. You can't believe it, Mom. He is so smart he even knows the origin of the big bang!"

"Wow," I said. "Has he told the students yet?"

"Nope, he keeps it a secret. I'm okay with that. But he did tell this dinosaur here, the one with the orange spine."

"Why did he tell that one?" I was curious to know. Light responded, "Mom, he is the SUBSTITUTE TEACHER. He HAS to know!"

Ohh. Silly me! I should have known.

Take Note

Post it notes. I have them all over my house! Light loves to jot things down, and then post them everywhere! They are on my kitchen wall, hallway walls, cabinets, and even on the floor!

He makes signs and directions. There is a sign that has been up for months now that states: "$5 billion thousand dollar penalty....Employees only.....Stay out....we really mean it!" He makes maps, charts, general notations, just about anything! I have a hard time keeping any paper around for myself! He sees a pad of paper and he just has to write something down. I honestly don't know how many journals and notebooks and pads of paper we have purchased for him in his lifetime! Many a tree has given the ultimate sacrifice to be part of Light's journaling need! We were recently out with some other unschooling families at a local bookstore and Light came across a great little book of notes to pass to friends. He was passing notes to everyone!

It amazes me the things he thinks of and then feels compelled to write down, I just wish I could convince him that the post it notes really don't go with my decor!

Recipe for fun

"Mom, I just learned something new! Flour floats in water.... unless of course you add too much in one spot, and it sinks."

"What are you doing in there?" I ask.

"Nothing, just making some clay, or something. It looks like I made some slightly purplish fudge."

"Are you following a recipe?"

"Nope. I'm just making it up as I go along. It is just an experiment, Mom. Don't worry."



Ahh, doing things his way! My only rule has been "Don't blow up the house," so some harmless mixing in the kitchen is to be expected. It was great watching him measure ingredients with precision, and commenting on amounts. "I have twice as much flour as salt here. Maybe I should add more flour. Mom, did you know that 1 and 1/2 teaspoons is 1/2 of a Tablespoon?"

At one point he sniffed his creation and commented "It doesn't smell so good. We must need to bake it."



It was great listening to him observing what floats, sinks, mixes, etc. He had a blast, and even cleaned up after himself! He ended up baking his mixture, at "400 degrees Fahrenheit exactly for 15 minutes." It didn't quite turn out how he expected! It was great for him to see that baking soda and baking powder will cause things to rise, and that his "creation" did not come out hard, like pottery, but rather more like funny smelling little cakes. Needless to say, we didn't eat them, but the process was fun!

Welcoming Fall

This week had no major events, but it was fun as usual!

Violin lessons are going great, and Light’s music theory is growing by leaps and bounds! He is working thorough the Suzuki Violin book, and he is learning that his mind is way ahead of his body, but with practice and determination his body is learning to make the music that his mind so clearly hears. His math background really paved the way for a great foundation in understanding music, but he continues to amaze his instructor and me as his grasp of the math in music is displayed. Light’s ability to understand fifths and positions and scales and octaves and rhythm and time signatures and lots of musical stuff astounds me and although he can only “play” 3 songs right now (Twinkle, Twinkle, Lightly Row, and Song of the Wind), his musical knowledge and understanding well surpasses any aspirations I had when he began lessons 9 months ago. He has even begun to compose his own songs and it fascinates me to see him thinking about music. His instructor commented as we were leaving the lesson last Monday, “Keep this kid composing, he really has the mind for it.”

Swimming is also becoming another area of strength. Light has tried organized sports and none have really resonated with him, but he is active and loves to move! This summer he really became a “fish” and would spend HOURS in our pool, diving under and spending most of his time underwater and treading in the deep end. He really is a home in the water! With fall finally here and his need to be in the water we have continued with YMCA swim lessons and he is doing great. His strokes are becoming more and more refined, and he can swim the length of the pool with ease (we are still working on finesse) and often swims as far and deep as he can on his last entry into the pool at the end of the lesson, to prolong getting out of the pool! I think in the weeks to come we will be scheduling 2 or 3 lessons a week, as he really wants to be in the water as much as possible. Light has even stated he would love to be on a swim team, so I am exploring those options in our area.

Lego’s and K’nex got a lot of use this week. Light goes through building phases. I love to see what he will come up with. This was the most fascinating design this week, and I have honestly not seen anything like it in any of his Lego kits or books. He continues to amaze me with his creations.



The main levels are a building with floors and the “elevator” slides up and down the shaft. The elevator opens up inside the building and to the outside as well. I thought it was quite clever!

Light got to stay over at his grandparent’s house this weekend, and he went exploring with Grandma on her wonderful property. He came home with a box of great finds he gathered! He told me all about Blue Spruce trees, burning bush, Osage orange trees, pine cones, thyme, Sycamore trees and their giant leaves, and lots of other nature finds. They took light sensitive paper and made a print of some leaves they found. Light described the process to me, “For this activity pick a day when the sunlight is really strong, put the light sensitive paper in the sun for 5 minutes with leaves on the paper to make a design. After 5 minutes, put the paper in water for 2 minutes and watch the paper develop. You end up with a really cool design!”



All in all, we had a great week! We read (Light is currently reading Hoot by Carl Hiaasen, still reading about Chemistry, also reading about Earth Science, and reading a book about Pythagoras), hung out with other home schoolers, enjoyed the weather, and welcomed fall!

Muffins to Electricity to Chemistry

“Mom, is that a 601 watt light bulb?”

We were in the bathroom at Panera Bread the other day, and Light was looking at the light fixture on the wall. I look at the fixture to see what he is talking about, and I see a label on the fixture that says “W601.”

I respond, “ No kiddo, that is the part number. It is only a 100-watt light bulb. A 600 watt bulb would probably cause a fire.”

“How does that cause a fire?”

“Well, electricity generates heat, and too much in a fixture that is only able to handle 100 watts would cause it to overheat, I think, and then cause a fire.” (I hate it when I don’t have a real good answer to something….which is often!)

“Oh, I was not aware that electricity generated heat. Hmm…”

So we head out of the bathroom and go to finish our lunch. Light is eating his muffin and I can just see the wheels turning, and I wait for the next question, and know there will be many to follow.

We make it to the car, and are discussing electricity in the capacity I can. I don’t even recall exactly the discussion….too many questions! So we are discussing electrical fires, then grease fires, then fire burning oxygen, then heat rising, then fireplaces, then chimneys, then carbon monoxide, then carbon dioxide, then ozone.

“Well, if carbon monoxide is one carbon and one oxygen, and carbon dioxide is one carbon and two oxygen, why can’t our body use the oxygen from those? Why is carbon monoxide poisonous?”

“Well, (searching frantically through my brain), I think the way carbon bonds to the oxygen does not allow our body to use the oxygen. We need free oxygen, which is two oxygen atoms.”

“Why can’t we breath ozone then? It is three oxygens. That should be even better. It is just more oxygen.”

“Uh, I don’t really know. We are going to have to look that one up when we get home (remember I have been driving during this entire conversation!).”

“Well, mom. I NEED (when he says “need” he really means “need”) a piece of paper. I have to write something down.”

Well, I have to do my best to get paper to him (we ALWAYS have paper in the car!) and he starts writing down some CRAZY molecules.



He is carrying on and on in the back seat, “ Okay, I have 5Na, that’s 5 sodium, plus 3Cl, and 19O…………Is this even possible to make? Hmm, well, Hydrogen has one free electron to bond, and Chlorine has…..” And the minute we walked in the door when we got home….. “I HAVE to see the periodic table of elements.”

Well, muffins to electricity to chemistry. I NEVER know where we are going, how we will get there, and where on earth we are once we arrive! It is all about the journey! He has spent the last few days reading about chemistry in the Usborne Dictionary of Science. I have learned all about the radioactivity of different elements.

Links we found to explain Oxygen and Ozone:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone