Learning isn't always book work!

The official curriculum of the Gandara Bug Academy for the 2008 - 2009 school year is the Magic Tree House series of books by Mary Pope Osbourne. We are still exploring the Medieval Times of Knights and Castles...but sometimes the bugs have their own ideas and we just GO FOR IT!!! Last week Megan was working hard on some folded paper thingy- so I asked her what it was... It's an invitation to Quacker's Birthday she replied... Oh Quackers is having a birthday??? (news to me!) But we went with it- I mean why NOT... Megan made invitations with a picture of Quackers on the out side and the words: HAPYBURSDA on the inside... for those of you wondering it says: Happy Burst Day - think of haow a child would say it and think it is spelled. She planned the menu ( a Tea Party) and had games all planned... I made a quick run to the store for some przes and cupcake mix and the Party was ON!

Here Megan scoops cupcake mix into the mini muffin pan to make "crumpets". The party Guests - Lauren, Megan, Douglas and our cousin Ethan... Molugin (mulligan) Kode, (Kody), Smoke (Smokey), and Tigr (Tiger) were also invited... Momma and Ant Anna (not a typo - that's how Megan spelled it) came to the party as well.

The Birthday Girl, Quackers was turning 4.

Here she is munching her crumpets!

Now Megan has a good feel for Party Planning- a skill I'm sure she will use a lot in life. The event did create somewhat of a snowball effect because The next day I found more invitations.... Come to Buloney's Party.... I laughed and told Lauren we'd indeed celebrate Bull's birthday - just how about in February!

3 new Knights in the kingdom Gandara!

Here Ye! Hear ye! King Anthony of Gandara has appointed 3 new Knights into his service!

The ceremony was performed on December 2, 2008 in Castle Gandara.

Each Knight swore fealty to King Anthony and Queen Christy and swore to abide by the following code of chivalry: A Knight's sword shall be used to defend the Church, protect damsles, orphans, the poor and especially buddies and critters. A Knight will serve his lord in battle with honor and bravery.

Each Knight was garbed in the finest velvet robe......and dubbed with a light saber!

Presenting Sir Douglas

Presenting Sir Megan

Presenting Sir Lauren

After the Dubbing Ceremony the Castle feasted on chicken, grean beans and soup.. Medieval Style on Bread Trenchers! We drank mugs of "ale" and had a GREAT time!

After the Feast the Knights were called to duty and had to fight the fierce dragon - Kodiak .

Never fear, peace has been restored to the lands... at lease until I ask the bugs to clean the playroom!

Douglas Gets Glasses

Today was a wonderful day at the Gandara Bug Academy. Douglas got glasses! My children are not ordinary children - Douglas was actually SUPER EXCITED and Lauren and Megan are pouting because they don't have glasses!

Here is Douglas getting fitted:

Looking in the Mirror

Handsome Boy!

I have noticed for awhile that Douglas favors one eye over the other - I was hoping it might correct itself. (We mothers call that denial).

But I could ignore no longer when Douglas said to me: I poked my eye, and it was my good eye too! That meant the problem was noticable to Douglas. So I called the Wal Mart Vision center and off we went. The glasses were here in just 24 hours - record time according to all the clerks at the Vision Center. Now Mommy and Douglas have to add cleaning glasses to our chore chart!

Spur of the Moment Concert!

At our Family Halloween - Spook Tacular, Aunt Anabel (Who is definatey in the running for the Aunt of the year!) told me about how she was taking her girls to the Billy Ray Cyrus concert and how a "special Cyrus" was going to make an appearance... Turns out her friend had 2 extra tickets, and I got to use Ruben's ticket (thanks Coz!) !!! We went to the concert with the hope that the "special Cyrys" was Miley! Everyone, including Anabel and I were excited beyond belief. Esmeralda happens to be my God Daughter and she actually likes Billy Ray (As do I - I'm a country girl at heart!)

Here are the Girls before the concert, acting like Rock Stars!

Now, just seeing the concert is exciting in itself, and the prospect of the "special Cyrus" being none other than Hanna Montana was almost too much to take... but wether the girls realize it or not - the BEST part of this experience was that we were part of the "official" group that got to meet and take a picture with "Bobby Ray"... aka Billy Ray Cyrus!

For the moment you are going to have to trust me, because the photographs were taken by a professional and we have to wait for the marketing department to get them and give them to us - but can I just say... Billy Ray is tall and very handsome in person. I went right over for the picture leaving Anabel and the girls in the dust, lol! I think our little girls were a bit awestruck to see "Hannah's Daddy", but I was all over it!

Here are the 4 girls waiting for the Concert to begin...

We were in a small ballroom at a local casino and there were no bad seats! Another amazing thing that the girls are not quite old enough to appreciate - but I am!!!

Check out this happy lady:

The Concert was AWESOME. Everyone had a great time.

We took some great pictures of Billy Ray:

We waitied patiently for the "special Cyrus" to make an appearance and found out we had made an interesting mistake... Miley was no where to be found... but Braison Cyrus came on stage for the Final song with his Guitar Player Mikey from his band Burning Down Boston. . . They sang "Wild Thing" with Billy Ray - it was Great... but yet another moment the Girls are a bit too young to appreciate. We got a picture of them wth Braison so when he hits it big...

He was very sweet to kneel down to be more at level with the girls!

So there you have it... one day I'm sitting in a chair at a halloween party and the next I'm rocking out with Billy Ray Cyrus!

Halloween with the GBA!

I love Halloween these days... we have been focusing on creating costumes rather than buying them, and this year was another creative year!

Lauren, 7 years old... Miley Cyrus/Hanna Montana

This was a FUN costume to do with the "best of both worlds" options!

She was Miley during the day for our homeschool gathering and Hanna for the trick or treat festivities!

Lauren wore a new pair of jeans (and the only reason they are new is because the girl had the nerve to GROW!) and a "bling" decorated pink top... the jacket was a "dress up" item from Grandma Rosalia... all I bought was a blonde wig and the little microphone headset.

She looks great!

Douglas wanted to be his favorite cartoon network character - Ben 10. We saw a costume in the stores for over $30.00... and I knew I could make it. White t-shirt, black paint, some kakhi pants and wa-la = Ben 10! Douglas never was able to make the omnitrix transform him into an alien - but he keeps trying!

Megan had her heart set on being a witch. Score - A witch is such an easy costume to make - I even have black sheets I could have used... but my little girl wanted NOTHING to do with Mommy making the costume because she had seen one in the store and fell in love... sheet draping I can do - full on costume sewing, not so much --- so I did purchase this witch costume for about $10 at K-Mart..it came with the hat, so score on that one! Megan's daytime look was simple and "clean" - her night time look just added some green face paint for a more "witchy" appearance.

Here are my three cuties all together.

So my creativity does not end with the kids... since before Douglas was born, the buddies have dressed for halloween as well...




Left we have Quackers, the Snow Princess... Center we have Big Baboo the Cave Man (er, Cave Whale??), and on the Right we have Bulloney the Vampire - fangs and all!

I hope you all had a safe happy Halloween!

I really have been teaching all this time!

It has been awhile since I've shared any adventures in learning with you.... While some of my time got mis-approprated and school took on more "free thinking" than usual - we have been up to a lot at the Gandara Bug Academy.

The End of September was Field Trip time... Daddy was home and we took our annual trip to the LA County Fair. The bugs had to read 9 books and they got to turn those in for ride tickets, (From the Fair - what a $ saver!) so we spent a lot of time exploring the wonderful world of physics while riding carnival rides. Here are a few of my favorites:

Lauren and Douglas on the Dragon Ride. Oh yes, they are all by themselves... for those that know me, thank you I can hear you clapping for me. I prayed the whole time!

Megan rode the baloon ride no less than 5 times... it was about all we could get her to go on!

Ahhh the "new" colored slide was a FAST favorite... Here Daddy and Dougga happily skid to a halt at the bottom of the slide.

Lauren ( again take note - she is by herself) happily comes down!

This was the Crazy coaster and there was no way she was going by herself--- so Daddy got the job! Daddy and Doodles rode quite a few rides together!

After the Fair we went on a "Safari" to view animals in their natural habitat...

AKA the San Deigo Wild Animal Park.

This trip was amazing... to hear the kids talk and spout out information at random never ceases to amaze me... and the fact that their information is accurate and inteligent amazed Daddy!

Here are some Favorites from the Wild Animal Park:

My three Bugs, sitting on a hippo!

Here I am, Anthony is hiding in the bushes, do you se him? Ha ha!

Douglas riding the Gorilla on the Merry - go - round!

Daddy and the Goose, looking at bird eggs! This was a great hands-on display!

Daddy gives doodles a better view!

All our field trips got me off schedule, and I had to catch up on the laundry! So school resumed in October with more Dinosaur learning! I'll share some of those lessons another day!

How Big Were the Dinosaurs? A lesson YOU can use!

Today the Gandara Bug Academy found out!

We took a quick trip to our local park where there was PLENTY of room!

With just a few minutes of prep, and a LOT of ribbon or string, you too can explore how big the Dinosaurs were!

You need Ribbon or String that measures:

2 feet (Compsognathus)

30 feet (Triceratops)

35 feet (Allosaurus)

40 Feet (Tyrannosaurus Rex)

85 feet (Diplodocus)

150 feet (Seismosaurus)

I measured out each length, sometimes attaching two or three different colors together when needed. Then I wound it up and put it in a zip top bag labled with the name of the dinosaur and the number of feet of ribbon. The 180 feet for the seismosaurus ended up very, very tangled - so I recommend wrapping it around a spool or paper towel holder to avoid the tangles. 180 feet is a REALLY BIG DINOSAUR!

I also went to this Awesome Website and printed pictures of each of the dinosaurs so the bugs had something to visualize - kinda putting a face with a name!

Here's what we did... I started off with the Story, How Big Were the Dinosaurs by Bernard Most.

You can find it at your local library, or through Amazon (the link is the book title)... if you have another favorite book on dinosaur size - use that one! I just think tying lessons to literature make both the lesson and the book more meaningful - so you will see LOTS of lessons based on books this year!

Then we drove over to the local park and let the fun begin.

The kids pulled out the bags of string and we looked at the pictures of the dinosaur. Then One person stood and held one end of the string while the others ran off as far as the string would go!

Lauren runs off to see how big the Triceratops is, while Megan holds the other end!

Lauren arrives at the end of her rope ( ha ha!)

Douglas shows us the 2 foot Compsognathus!

And below you can see Megan and Douglas wayyyyy off in the distance showing us how big the Diplodocus was (85feet) -about 20 feet LONGER than Daddy's truck!

Now - as I mentioned above - We were unable to see just how big the Seismosaurus was due to severe tangling issues - but I'll re-wrap the ribbon and we'll head back to the park on our next day out! Trust me this Dino was HUGE!


When we got home We compared a Tyrannosaurus' footprint to our footprint. All you need for this activity is some sidewalk chalk and a ruler!

First I drew an outline of the Tyrant Lizzard King's footprint on the sidewalk. (hint: Tyrant Lizzard = the T rex, and his footprint was 28 inches. Do a Google Search and you'll see some samples on which to base your drawing. )

Next all three bugs stepped into the outline one at a time.

Then I used a different color chalk and traced around each bug's foot.

The bugs used rulers to measure their footprint - then we went inside to record the results on a worksheet. It was a very simple basic sheet:

The Footprint of A Tyrannosaurus is 28 inches long. My footprint is _______ inches long. The T- Rex's Foot is ____ inches longer than my foot.

I hope you have as much fun with this lesson as we did! Check back for more Adventures in Homeschooling with the GBA! (Gandara Bug Academy)