Booking Across the USA - Kentucky (Derby Activities)

Jodie from the blog Growing Book by Book has brought together bloggers from across the nation to bring you a list of books and activities for every state in the USA.  That's kind of fun, huh?  I am lucky enough to share some things about Kentucky!

I love Kentucky.  Most of you have probably never been to Kentucky.  It's a great place to live.  The people are friendly, the country is beautiful, and the seasons are mostly wonderful.  I grew up in California, but my husband is from Kentucky and I am so glad to be out here with him.  You really should visit sometime, especially in the spring and fall.  (I admit I still have issues with the summer humidity. We are not friends.)  

There were lots of Kentucky books I loved, and which I'll share a list of at the end of the post, but the one I chose to do my activity with is "B is for Bluegrass" by Mary-Ann McCabe Rhiehle.  It presents a multitude of facts about the state using the alphabet, from natural landmarks to famous citizens. If you're a baseball fan you will know that the Louisville Slugger baseball bat is the official bat of Major League Baseball.  If you're a fan of the outdoors, you might have heard of Mammoth Cave, the longest cave in the world.  If you like gold then maybe you've heard of a place called Fort Knox.  (Actually, this is totally unrelated, but once my husband was talking in his sleep and yelled out "Fort Knox! Are you crazy?" haha.  Sorry.  It just makes me laugh every time.)

And then there are the horses!  I love the horses and the fences of the horse park and horse farms.  You might have heard of something called the Kentucky Derby.  It's kind of a big deal here.  I decided to share some Derby related activities with y'all.  You will find references to horses and the Derby with the letters E, H, J, and R in the book.  

First some facts: The Derby happens on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs.  Some things traditional to the Derby include wearing fancy hats, and drinking Mint Juleps.  Tickets to sit in the stands are expensive, but many people buy tickets to watch from the infield.  The song "My Old Kentucky Home" is played as the horses are led on to the track.  The track is 1 and 1/4 miles long and horses usually run it in about 2 minutes, often called the most exciting 2 minutes in sports.  Only one horse has ever run it in under 2 minutes, and that was Secretariat back in 1973. A garland of roses is placed over the back of the winning horse, which is why the Derby is sometimes called "The Run for the Roses".  

Here are some Derby related learning activity ideas:

Music: learn the song "My Old Kentucky Home" and the trumpets "call to the post".  Or just listen to them or watch on YouTube

Science:  ya know, learn about horses and stuff

Math:  With little kids, you could talk about ordinal numbers. With older kids you could do a bunch with odds and probability, but I understand if you want to stay away from the gambling aspect of horse races with the kids.  I always just tell the kids "Some people gamble, but we don't." You can also do word problems with comparing number of people in attendance in the stands vs. the infield, or with the cost of tickets or cost of horses, etc. You can also talk about pace and the length of the race.  Just some ideas. 

Language Arts:  Naming horses - the horses always have ridiculous names, like "Bodemeister" and "I'll Have Another".  You can have the kids either name a horse and write why they chose that name, or you can have a list of actual names from the Derby and ask them to choose one and say why they like it or why they think the owners named their horse the way they did.  

History: Um, talk about the history of the Derby.  Sorry.  Just boring.

Drama:  Act out a horse race. Or, first listen to a radio announcer calling an actual race and then take turns pretending to call a horse race on the radio, using really excited voices towards the end.  That might be fun. 

Cooking (which is also science):  Make Derby Pie! (which is pretty much a chocolate pecan pie and very popular here, meaning with my husband)  Also, in lieu of Mint Juleps (which is an alcoholic drink), maybe try making mint milkshakes (a little mint ice cream, a little milk, and voila!) 

Art:  Make Derby hats!  You can either add decorations to a ball cap or other hat the kids already have, or you can use paper bowls or plates as a base and tie them on with string or elastic.  Then add all sorts of crazy things on top, like fake flowers, miniature plastic horses, dinosaurs - anything goes.  Then have a parade or a contest of sorts.  

- You can also make stick horses to have a Derby of your own!  That's what I did with the kids the other day.  They were really easy to make and the kids love them!  You can see more pictures and instructions if you click here.  

I think that's about all for the Derby ideas.  Other things you can do to celebrate Kentucky would include listening to bluegrass music, cheering for the UK basketball team (go Cats!) and eating at KFC.

(Giveaway is now closed. Winner announced here.)

For this book event I am hosting a giveaway! (for those in the continental US)  I will give one lucky friend a copy of "B is for Bluegrass".   To enter this giveaway, do the following:

1. follow my blog in some manner (you are going to want to anyway, because I always post such interesting things)

2. do 10 jumping jacks (because I'm helping you be fit and healthy)

3. leave a comment on this post saying hi and telling me what you would name your Derby horse (it doesn't have to be creative. i.e., my son named his horse Nathan, which also happens to be his name, but you will get brownie points if it has some reference to chickens)

The giveaway will close on 3/3/13 at 9:00p.m. (EST).  One entrant will be randomly drawn and announced on Chicken Babies the week of 3/3/13.  I'll send them an email. If I haven't heard from them in 48 hours, I'll choose someone else. 

The other books I had looked at deal with less fun facts about Kentucky. The eastern side of the state is in Appalachian country, and some of the people there have a different kind of life.  These books introduce children to that perspective.

  "Mama is a Miner" by George Ella Lyon (a book about life in the coal mines)

  "A is for Appalachia!" by Linda Hager Pack (a great collection of Appalachian stories and facts)

  "The Rag Coat" by Lauren Mills (it might make you cry)

  "That Book Woman" by Heather Henson (a great book about the Pack Horse Librarians of Kentucky)

  "Silver Packages" by Cynthia Rylant (this is a Christmas book and one you should add to your collection)

Hope you all have enjoyed this post and found something useful. Thanks for reading!  And also, head on over to Growing Book by Book to check out the other states, some of which are also hosting giveaways.  

Making Stick Horses with the kiddos

To go along with the “Booking Across the USA” project, I made some stick horses with the kids.  That post was already long enough, so I thought I’d do a separate post here with how we made the horses.  

I took the idea from the blog “Ever Never Again”.  She made these really cute horses for a cowboy play day.  When I saw them I thought “My kids would love those and I bet we could make them together.”  We could, and we did, but it took a while.  

To make these horses you will need:

1. large socks (I bought some cheap ones at Walmart. I liked that they had a different colored toe, because it made the horses look like they had a nose and mouth.)
2. A dowel (I bought inch diameter ones at Michael’s)
3. Buttons for eyes
4. Felt for ears
5. Yarn for the mane
6. Stuffing
7. Glue Gun
8. Yarn needle

The kids started by stuffing their horses.  I happened to have some extra plastic doll beads on hand from an old project, so we put some of those in the toe of the sock to add some weight to the head, but I don’t think it’s a necessary step.  Fill the head to the heel of the sock, then stick in the dowel and stuff around the dowel to the bottom of the sock.  

I handled all the hot glue.  Hot glue the bottom of the sock to the dowel.  Also hot glue some felt triangles to the head to be ears.  This was a bit tricky, but they turned out okay.  

You can either sew on the button eyes or glue them on.  We sewed.  

The kids were able to cut the yarn and sew it to the head for the mane.  Using a yarn needle, they would pull a piece of yarn through the back of the head and then tie a knot.  Did that make sense?  

Later, I found that we didn’t have to cut individual strands, but could just weave a long piece in and out, leaving loops that could be cut and tied later.  Sorry, it’s late and I’m not sure if I’m making sense. 

Maren also sewed some ribbon in her horse’s mane, which I thought turned out pretty. 

This was a very rewarding activity.  Maren especially was really proud of her horse.  The kids have had a ton of fun with playing together with them.  They've been playing horse riding school, making racetracks and having races and jumping over things. So far there has been no fighting with them, so that's good. 

Also, just FYI, Nathan has named his horse "Nathan".  Clever kid, eh? Ah, but he sure is cute. 

Some Thoughts About Keeping Children Home for Kindergarten

It's that time of year, when parents begin to enroll their children in Kindergarten programs.  I feel like I need to shout "YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO IT!"

Sorry for yelling at y'all, but I really feel that Kindergarten is not always necessary or what's best for most children.  

Why?  Many reasons.  I shall list 4 of them for you.

1. Kindergarten is probably not the same as you remember.  

When I went to kindergarten, it was a half day program.  We had recess, snack time, and even a nap time where we rested on mats for 15 minutes while listening to soft music.  We did lots of art projects and listening to books, as well as pretending and exploring in different play centers.  

Kindergarten here these days is much different.  Here it is a full day program, with 20 min. for lunch and one 15 min. recess, outside if the kids are lucky.  A lot of time is wasted.  The kids are expected to sit in chairs or on the floor much of the day.  It's a much more academically focused program, which I would argue is not developmentally appropriate.  

If you are lucky enough to live in an area where Kindergarten is still half day and involves lots of play, then yes, that sounds like a fun place to be. 

2. You are your child's best teacher. 

If you are an educated stay-at-home mother, you will be able to teach your child better than a teacher who has 25 five year olds to try and keep in line, some of whom may not yet know their colors.  Kindergarten and even first grade classrooms rely heavily on parent helpers because the kids are all at such different levels and need lots of one on one help when learning beginning reading, writing, and math skills.  A lot of time is spent going around to each desk and helping each child complete worksheets.  At this stage, kids need individual attention.  Why not just do that at home?   You know your child best, you can give hugs and encouragement when needed, and you can teach to your child's skill level in the way your child learns best. 

3.  You will have much more time together to bond and make happy memories if you keep them home. 

Full day Kindergarten is a big commitment.  Your little one will be away from you for most of the day.  You will see them early morning and late afternoon, when they are tired and you are trying to get dinner ready.  Those are the worst times of day to try and do some bonding. Yes, the separation has to happen sometime, but there's no rush.

Also, the work achieved over a year in Kindergarten can be done much more quickly at home with one-on-one attention.  Especially during the first half of the year, the teachers focus a lot on classroom procedures and correcting behavior, skills which are easily picked up by older children if you choose to put your child in school at a later time.  

4.  Schools are not designed for little boys.

In my experience it's been true that in general little boys have a harder time sitting still than girls.  Why? I don't know. Somebody probably does.  My boys all have had a much harder time sitting in chairs than my little girl did.  At most public schools where Kindergarten is full day, the little boys have a really hard time controlling their bodies.  They just don't have any way to let the energy out.  They get in trouble for wiggling and moving and begin to think that they aren't good at school or that they're bad kids.  

When you keep your kids home, you can let your kids go run around for a while when you see that they are having a hard time concentrating. Then, when the wiggles are sufficiently let loose, you can resume some learning activities together.  

There are lots of things I love about homeschooling (some of which I've listed here).  There are drawbacks as well, but it's worth considering. 

In conclusion (a very long conclusion):

I'm not saying keeping your kids home is what everyone should do.  I'm not.  And if you send your children to Kindergarten I'll still be your friend.  All family situations are different and you know what's best for you and your child.  I'm just saying, don't feel like you HAVE to send them away.  

Did you know that in most states, Kindergarten is not even mandatory?  In general, kids who are that young don't need serious academic training away from home yet. It's optional for a reason.  Kids who come from families where the parents don't care about their kids' education and haven't taught them basic things will definitely benefit from the early education Kindergarten provides, but chances are, if you're reading my blog, you already take an interest in your child's education and have taught your child many things. 

When it was time to sign my oldest child up for kindergarten, I found myself thinking "Why am I sending her away?  I've already taught her to read, I enjoy having her home, she likes having time to read and play with her toys in her room, and having time to play with her brother.  Why does she need to go now?" If a half day kindergarten full of age appropriate play was offered, I probably would have sent her. But it wasn't available, so I decided to homeschool her for Kindergarten thinking I would send her to school the next year. Kindergarten went so well that we kept her home for first grade as well.  I home schooled her through 3rd grade.  We decided to try a public school for 4th grade.  She transitioned very well and is doing great.  She enjoys it and her teachers say she is a very conscientious student.  She has many friends and has not suffered in her social skills due to being kept home for the first several grades.  

To be completely honest, I must admit also that part of me didn't want to send her off to Kindergarten because I know how teachers become surrogate parents to those little ones.  It was one of my favorite parts of teaching, feeling like all of my students were "my kids".  There's a strong attachment, and I was a bit jealous thinking that someone else was going to be a mother to my little daughter, and perhaps more important to her than I was.  Not the best reason for homeschooling, but there it is.  I'm possessive.  :)  

You don't have to homeschool forever once you start! You can do it for just one year if you like.  I am so happy I kept my daughter (and sons) home.  Our relationship was strengthened and we have great memories of activities together.  I wouldn't trade those years for anything!  

Those are some of my thoughts on the Kindergarten thing.  Again, I'm not saying you need to keep your child home, I'm just saying that it's something to consider, ponder, and if you're religious, pray about.  You have options.  There are so many resources out there these days to show you what to teach and how to teach it if you want to keep your child home!  I'm going to do some posts here pretty soon about what I've been doing with Christopher in Kindergarten this year.  It's easy peasy stuff and I know you can do it too!  If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.  And if you disagree with me, that's fine too.  I bet we can still be friends.  

Thanks for reading!

Erin

Ninjago Birthday Party

My sweet Christopher turned 6 last weekend!  He wanted some kind of party that involved swords (*sigh* boys), and since his brother Joshua has a few ninjago sets and has been checking Ninjago books out from the library, he decided he wanted a Ninjago birthday party.  Did he have any Ninjago legos?  No.  Had he ever seen the Ninjago cartoon?  Nope.  But they have swords, they’re legos, and they’re ninjas; so it follows they must be cool and would make a cool party theme.  

This momma had to do some Ninjago research.  Apparently there are 4 main different colored ninjas - black, red, blue, and white - each with different Ninja skills - earth, fire, lightning, and ice.  There's also a special green Ninja who has the power of all of those elements.  And they do something called spinjitzu where they spin around really fast and make a tornado of sorts and then fight bad guys.  And they have a Sensei who leads them, named Sensei Wu.  Armed with this knowledge, and with plenty of help from my friend the internet, I came up with a party plan.  

Christopher also helped me get ready for the party.  He was very specific in how he wanted things (my kids are getting picky), and I had to steer him away from some of his more unusual game ideas, but he enjoyed being a part of the planning.  Here he is helping put Ninjago eyes on some party bags.  (click if you need some eyes to print out for bags or tootsie pops. My advice would be to print them out low quality so you don't waste a bunch of ink on something that will be quickly thrown away.)

The morning of his party it snowed.  It snowed a lot.  My 8 year old’s basketball game was cancelled that morning and I was afraid that parents wouldn’t bring their kiddos to the party.  I was really glad when everyone braved the snow to come, and glad no one crashed. 

He's looking at me as if to say, "seriously, you have
to take a picture of this too?"

When the guests arrived, we gave them Ninja headbands cut from green felt (so I didn’t have to do a stitch of sewing). They colored origami Ninja Stars I had made while we waited for the other party guests. They were then introduced to Sensei Wu for some Ninja training.  My patient, supportive, wonderful husband wore the Sensei Wu beard and led the kids through the games.  He’s a good sport.  

We played all the party games down in our unfinished basement, which is great for space and not worrying about things getting broken, but makes for ugly pictures.  Sorry. 

Look! The star actually went through the hoop!

The first training exercise was to throw the Ninja stars through the hoop.  They started up close and we moved them farther away from the hoop for each new round. 

spinjitzu!

Next up was some Spinjitzu training.  You know that game where you put your forehead on a bat on the ground, quickly run around said bat thus getting really dizzy and then have to run across the room?  Yeah.  We made them do that.  Spinjitzu!  We gave them balloon swords. (which by the way are really easy to make when you follow the instructions from the Klutz balloon book. It’s my favorite.) We split them up into 2 teams, gave them a bat and instructions.  After they had spun around the bat 3 times they were to run across the room, whack something with their swords, and then run back to their team so the next player could go. Fun times. 

Sensei Joshua

Next they worked on being quiet, sneaky ninjas.  We pretty much played “red light, green light” but we didn’t call it that.  One child was the Sensei.  The other kids lined up against the opposite wall.  They bowed to each other to signal beginning of play.  

Frozen Ninja Poses

The trainer would turn his back to them and they would silently creep towards him.  I told them they weren’t allowed to run and had to be as quiet as they could.  When the leader turned back around to face them they had to freeze in Ninja poses like they were statues.  If the Sensei saw them moving he/she could send them back to the wall.  The goal was to touch the trainer.  There was no winner.  Everyone got to have a turn being the sensei. The kids all had fun. 

Next we played dodgeball to work on our Ninja reflexes.  We pretended we were fire ninjas and the dodge balls were fireballs.  

We then headed upstairs to open presents and eat cake.  Christopher was very particular about what he wanted his cake to look like.  I showed him all sorts of pictures from my friend the internet of some really cute ninjago cakes, but he didn’t want any of them.  He wanted a cake with a lego tower on top that a ninja was trapped in with a bad guy ninja guarding it and a good guy ninja trying to rescue him.  He wanted chocolate frosting on the sides and green frosting on top.  I was able to convince him that white frosting on the sides would be good too, because I didn’t want to make two kinds of frosting.  As you can see, he got what he wanted.  It’s not a very cute Ninjago cake, but I had a very happy birthday boy.  

the party crew

We then played some “Sensei Says” (aka Simon Says) while we waited for kids to finish up their cake and then most kids went back down to the basement to throw dodge balls at each other while we waited for parents.  

scary ninja pops

When the guests left, they took home a party bag filled with chocolate lego minifigures (made from this mold), brick candy, ninjago lollipops (which are tootsie pops wrapped in streamers with eyes taped on and which idea I found on the internet), origami throwing stars (which they had colored earlier), green ninja headband, balloon sword, and a ninjago pencil.  

My little ninja was thrilled with his party.

Also, unrelated to the party and just some random bits of ninja news, Nathan says “inja” instead of “ninja” and it makes me laugh. And yesterday the kids all had their bathrobes on and were pretending to be ninjas; Maren was the pink ninja of love, happiness and peace (seriously, I couldn’t make this stuff up), Christopher was the red ninja of truth, Nathan was the green ninja of justice, and Joshua was the blue ninja of trust. Fear the ninjas! And later in the day Nathan and Christopher were pretending to be ninja dogs.  I love my funny kids.  

What We're Reading

Well, it's been a couple weeks, so I thought I'd share what we've been reading lately. :)

Maren (10) - Maren has started on the "39 clues" series.  The first night she asked me, "Mom, have you read these?" and I started to get worried that I hadn't and maybe she was reading something she shouldn't, but then she said "because they're totally awesome and I love them." She also said they the main characters have almost died several times, so they sound a bit violent.

Joshua (8) - Joshua is so picky and it's hard to find him books.  He read 4 Encyclopedia Brown books and then decided he was done with them, so we had to find a new series.  After several tries and rejections, he finally fell in love with "The Magic Thief" by Sarah Prineas.  I know he's really into a book when I find him reading without prompting, and that was the case with this book.  He declared it the best book he ever read, then paused and modified the statement to "one" of the best books he's ever read.  He's now reading through the second book in the trilogy.

Christopher (5) - This boy gravitates to the licensed books whenever we go to the library, so I have to read him awful stories with batman and smurfs and spiderman and it's SO PAINFUL.  After I read him a book of his choosing though I get to read him some good stuff.  Lately we've been reading "The Seven Silly Eaters" a lot, as well as "Officer Buckle and Gloria", which are both great reads.  As far as Early Readers he's been reading to himself, he's done a lot of "Let's Jump In!" which is a great book for beginning readers and "We Play on a Rainy Day" which is a bit harder for him but still doable.

Me - I finished "Pathfinder" that I had mentioned last time and it was not better than Ender's Game.  My friend was definitely mistaken.  It was mostly enjoyable though.  I liked the second book in the series, "Ruins", better than the first.   I also read "Edenbrooke" which was our book club's pick for the month.  Let's just say it's not my type of book.  Actually, any book that uses the word "trembled" repeatedly to describe how someone feels when another person looks at them just isn't my type of book.   This book had too much trembling.