Beautiful Day

Nothing like enjoying the spring weather at the park with friends.

Surprises

My husband surprised Ignacio with a 130 in one Electronic Project Lab today. So exciting! We also picked up Ignacio's new glasses today. I was afraid he wouldn't want to wear them, but he was actually counting down the days until they came in.

Sorry for the blurry picture.

Currently Reading

I think I'll continue to share our love of books.  Keep in mind, these are just a few of the books we read.  :)

Ignacio is reading: "Stage Fright on a Summer Night" by Mary Pope Osborne
Together we are reading: "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator" by Roald Dahl
I'm reading: "Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks" by Ken Jennings

I'll update with reviews as we finish them.

Fun at home

This is my first time posting with the Blogger app, hopefully it will work as well. Sorry for any typos or auto-corrects.
Francisco has a nasty cold, so we are enjoying a Friday at home. Ignacio worked on a little math and spelling this morning. Then we spent a good two hours painting and listening to Pandora.

We had lunch, then played with Play-Doh. We put together some puzzles and just now Ignacio won at Cooties. Good way to spend a Friday.

ETA: Well, that was easy.  I just wished it gave you more options when posting pictures.  It posted them one after another at the end of the post and in the opposite order of how I uploaded them.  No biggie, easy enough to edit once I get on the laptop.  Should help me be a lot more consistent about blogging.  I'm excited!  :)

Currently Reading

I thought I'd share what Ignacio and I are reading from time to time.  This is simply what we are reading for fun.  I will probably also be editing posts to include mini reviews.

Reading together: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Ignacio is reading: Stink and the Freaky Frog Freakout by Megan McDonald

I'm reading: A Very Long Engagement by Sébastien Japrisot

We chose to read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at bedtime, three chapters a night.  Ignacio loved it.  He is a huge Roald Dahl fan, this was the third of his books he read.  We also read his biography.  I love that Roald Dahl never shied away from using complex vocabulary in his children's books.

ETA: 

A Very Long Engagement was great.  Beautifully and creatively written.  I would definitely recommend this, especially if you are a fan of historical fiction.  If you are a fan of the movie, as is always the case, there are many things they changed and a lot was left out.  Reading the book would definitely be worth your time.

It was no surprise that Ignacio loved Stink #8.  He is looking forward to reading the Stink-O-Pedias now.

Milwaukee Art Museum | ArtPacks

We are very lucky to live so close to a wonderful art museum with an exceptional children's program.  We visit quite often, Ignacio loves it.  This will be the first in a series of posts dedicated to the MAM.  The museum offers ArtPacks that you can borrow free of charge while during your visit.  Each pack includes a self-guided (hands-on) project to be completed in the galleries.  Each pack is unique and inspired by a specific art work found in the museum.  These are just a few that we've completed.

On this day we were joined by Mia and another friend of theirs.  The first pack they tried corresponded with Red, Yellow, Blue II by Ellsworth Kelly.  It consisted of three large stretchy tubes of fabric to make their own performance art.

They then worked on the pack available for The King's Jester by Joán Miró.  They were able to make a collage version of the jester as well as draw a smaller version to keep for themselves.

The girls went home after lunch, but we decided to stay a little longer.  Ignacio was able to try their King for the Day costume by borrowing the General Monk Receiving King Charles II on the Beaches of Dover by Benjamin West pack.  He had a blast and said it was his favorite part of the day.  How awesome is this?

I thought I'd try something different with the pictures, I like it.  I really want to get in the habit of blogging regularly again and thought I'd have a little fun.  I'll be back soon.

Geography: Learning the 50 States

Ignacio has always been fascinated by maps and atlases.  He took an early interest in learning the 50 states.  He knows them all.  He recognizes them by shape or name and knows where they are located on a map.  I’ve had multiple inquiries on how best to help kids learn their states.  I hope you find the following advice helpful.

When it comes to US geography, Ignacio’s absolute favorite series is “The Scrambled States of America” by Laurie Keller.  He has both the original book as well as the sequel, “The Scrambled States of America TalentShow”.  He also has the puzzle, as seen in the above picture, and the DVD.  This series is great in aiding with their recognition of the states because the states become characters.  I can ask him about any state in the series and he’ll know if they are a boy or a girl, what their personality is like, who their neighbors are, and what they did in the stories. 

We have quite a few globes and maps available to him.  He is always free to explore them.  He even chose a US map wall decal to decorate the wall next to his bed.  I don’t think they sell the exact one I bought him but this one is cute, too.

We have a variety of map puzzles.  The best ones are the ones where the pieces are cut into the actual shapes of the states.

As for apps and games there are a few that we use.  We really enjoy Stack The States.  This app was originally only available for iPods and iPads.  While it is still not available for android or the nook, you can purchase it for Windows.  Ignacio plays on our desktop.  We also use the Quizard Flashcards app for the nook.  There are so many subjects you can use, among them are a few sets for the states.  While you can choose to go through them as traditional flashcards, we tend to use the Quiz option.  It will flash a state map and give you four state names to choose from.  If you get it wrong you can try again.  At the end it will tell you how long it took to complete and how many times he answered incorrectly.  There is even an option to play as a word search puzzle.  He also loves playing map puzzle games online.  Owl & Mouse is a great free site and offers a large variety of map puzzle games.  This link is for their US states puzzle, you can choose to play with or without outlines and can also choose to match capitols.  The puzzles are timed, his record for the states puzzle is right around three minutes.

While he knows all of his states, he is still in the process of learning the capitols.  I’d say he knows about half of them right now.  I tend to follow his lead when it comes to learning geography, I know we are ahead of the game.  I also let him choose books about individual states when we go to the library.  Sometimes he likes to check out travel DVDs about the states, too.  He likes to see what they are like.

We have a variety of books, but here are the ones we are especially fond of:

Smart About the Fifty States by Susan Saunders, Joan Holub, True Kelley, Jon Buller, Maryann Cocca-Leffler, Dana Regan, and Susan Schade

Our 50 States: A Family Adventure Across America by Lynne Cheney

The United States of America: A State by State Guide by Millie Miller and Cyndi Nelson 

From Pie Town to Yum Yum: Weird and Wacky Place Names Acrossthe United States by Debbie Herman

United States Coloring Book by Winky Adam 

I didn't bother listing The Scrambled States of America, because I linked them at the top of this post.  I really can't stress how great they are.  I should mention that we also found some workbooks in the dollar bin at Target that he really enjoyed.

I'll update this post if I come across other good sources or new favorites.  You might want to bookmark it.  I hope to follow up with another post focusing on world geography.  I thought it would be easier to split the two.

I'll be back soon, take care.