Fun with the 'Light & the Glory'

Hannah and I have been enjoying her history this year! Currently we're reading through "The Light and the Glory...Discovering God's plan for America from Christopher Columbus to George Washington." by Peter Marshall & David Manuel.




The reader (on the left) is fantastic! I love that each chapter begins with a Bible verse that is applicable to what you'll be reading, and that there is an activity book (on the right) to go along with each days work. We are finishing up the sections on the Puritans and are just about to start on the Great Awakening, but to complete this section Hannah put together and is painting a log cabin. As you can see, she loves the hands-on activities that go along with each lesson.


The best part about these books? They are from a Christian point of view, and they have wonderful thought provoking questions in the back for each chapter. This helps you not only learn the material better, it shows how God's hand of providence is always with us!! The Pilgrims, Puritans, Indians and others mentioned in the book experienced so many blessings and miracles when going through tough times!! Those who followed God were truly blessed...a great lesson for an 8 year old, don't you think?!?

Scenic Sunday - #16

(Click on photo to enlarge for a much better view!)

Earthworms are icky!

Well we dissected our first specimen, the earthworm. It wasn't as bad as we thought, we actually had a great time identifying all the body parts. Fascinating stuff!! It's amazing how small these little critters are and how truly amazing God's creation is!!!

Here is Zachary opening up the package containing the earthworm...

Camera

NIKON D90

Focal Length

45mm

Aperture

f/4.8

Exposure

1/50s

ISO

1600

He was very brave and didn't complain once! He actually said he had a great time dissecting it and can't wait to do the other specimens.


Cutting open the worm...


Pulling the Setae apart in order to open him up...


Here he is...


Checking out the details with a magnifying glass...


Our 'mad scientist'...


Hannah decided that looking at the worm wasn't as much fun as drawing one, so she left the room and created this masterpiece...


You can see the black intestines running down the length of the worm....by this point he was pretty much mangled inside, but we did find many parts, some very very small!!!


All done...now it's time to dispose of this little guy and lay him to rest...
and in case you're wondering...we're getting rid of the worm, not Lionel!! =)

Camera

NIKON D90

Focal Length

26mm

Aperture

f/5

Exposure

1/60s

ISO

1600

Our next dissection will be the Crayfish. That should be fun as it's a bit bigger than the worm. Look here for more photos if you dare!!! Now...I've got to go see about how to get this smelly formaldehyde smell out of my nose. Eeww!!!!

Dissection Day!!

We're 'finally' getting around to dissecting our specimens for Zachary's Biology class. These critters have been sitting in their packaging on the floor of our dining room for a couple months now. Don't worry, they're sealed up very well...so our dining room isn't contaminated. ha ha

We've set up 'shop' on the kitchen island...covered it with garbage bags and laid everything out so it's all organized. Now we just wait until Daddy gets home and we start the process...slice and dice! Mmmmm...lunch anyone??

I'm not sure if you all have memories of dissecting specimens in high school or not, but the memories I have aren't all that great. I vaguely remember the actual dissection process, but what "jumps" out in my mind (pun intended) are the times the boys in class threw frog guts at all us girls. It was so disgusting!! The cow's eye was even worse. Then, when I was in college, we had to work on an actual cadaver, which totally creeped me out!!! The memories...they still haunt me. Fortunately my kids won't have to worry about those things. They will dissect their specimens and enjoy the learning experience without flying frog guts or cadavers.

Our 'lab'...or operating room...whichever you prefer:


Zachary isn't too sure he's ready for this!! Some of the specimens are pretty big!


Our dissecting tools:


"Wiggles"...our earth worm:


"Mr. Snippy"...our Crayfish:


"Slime"...our Perch:


"Prince"...our frog:


I will post photos in more detail once we're done with them all. It should be fun...minus the smell and slimy feel. I am excited to be doing this with my kids though, most parents only have memories like I do from dissecting animals; this gives me a chance to make new ones. Even Hannah is interested in getting in on the action. When it's her time to dissect, she'll be a pro at this! Time to get to work....

Hannah's Dream...

Hannah and I went to see Stars on Ice....we had a total blast!! We had tickets front and center, right on the ice! Since she has been taking figure skating lessons herself, it was fun to see her eyes light up as the skaters performed. Also, after the show we were able to meet some of the skaters which was a real treat.

I brought my camera (of course!) but was not able to get the best photos. They are very strict with their rule about not zooming in with your lens or using flash photography, and when you have a larger SLR camera like myself it's hard to hide it when you zoom, let alone flash...especially when sitting right in the front row! That being said, I did take a ton of photos, but they weren't nearly as good as I'd have liked them to be. Thanks to Scott for some of his tips on how to set my camera. It helped with the lighting, but I'm afraid most of my photos didn't come out as well as expected. With a bit of practice though, I'm sure I'll 'get it'...

Anyhow, here are some of the photos I managed to capture....enjoy, but please do not copy them or use them. Thank you!

Hannah with Sasha Cohen....awesome moment!


Hannah with Marai Nagasu


Posing with her very first figure skate (one she no longer wears)...which she had autographed by the stars. How cool is that?!?


Alissa Czisny


Todd Eldredge


Sasha Cohen


Michael Weiss in mid back-flip


Alissa Czisny & Sasha Cohen...so elegant!


Todd Eldredge saw I had my camera up ready to take a photo, so he came right over to me. As I shot his photo he got even closer for another, laughing the whole time. Gotta love it when they interact with the audience!


The whole cast...




Todd Eldredge with Michael Weiss in the background


Jeremy Abbott


Meryl Davis & Charlie White skating beside Tanith Belbin & Ben Agosto


Michael Weiss, Yuka Sato, Todd Eldredge & Jeremy Abbott


Sasha Cohen - my favorite outfit and song, hands down...she skated to Alleluia.


Michael Weiss






Yuka Sato...such an elegant skater


The whole cast...final performance


I wish the show wasn't over, but hopefully we'll be able to see it again in 2011. It'll be the show's 25th anniversary, so I'm hoping they'll bring back some 'old' skaters from the past!! Tomorrow is Hannah's skating lesson, and I'm sure her coach will get an ear full about how wonderful the show was!! Can't wait.....as much as I love seeing the professionals perform, there's nothing like watching your own child out on the ice!!!!

Photo Hunt #154 - Covered

Hmmm, this was a no-brainer for me. Covered bridges are so beautiful...I wish there were more of them. There's something so mysterious about them, and I love their nostalgic feel. These are two bridges we went to visit here in New England in the fall. One on a field trip and one as a family.