Pirates, Pan and Cowboys

I always love starting a new month and I have planned some fun things for us to study. Since Sophie is the oldest and the one who really is supposed to do school. Everything is usually planned around her to a certain extent. Well this month I have chosen things that I know the boys will really enjoy.

Today we started reading Peter Pan. We have read the Disney version many times and have recently added the Disney movie to our collection but I wanted to read the original book. So today the boys thrilled when I told them it was our next read aloud. I am sure this one will go quickly so I may go on to read Peter and the Starcatchers. To go along with our reading I have also been borrowing every pirate book I could find from the library. So our shelf is stocked with all sorts of swashbuckling tales (I haven't read through them all yet so we will see how they go).
I even found a CD at the library with Pirate music. I am sure this should be fun!

As our artist for the month. Sophie was disappointed that we didn't have one last month (since I just never got around to picking one). But I picked Fredric Remington who did paintings and sculpture of cowboys and the wild west. That sounds fun to look at. I know Ian especially will enjoy looking at cowboys. Sophie and I are reading Brighty of the Grand Canyon as our night time read aloud book and the cowboys will go along nicely with that.

Our composer for the month doesn't really follow the boy theme. Although I know the boys enjoy dancing around to Camille Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals already.

This line up for our studies is a big change from our American Girls units that we have done the last two months. But I hope to get the boys a lot more involved with the books and our subjects. I am sure Sophie will have a wonderful month too.

Sophie's Salmon Lapbook

The American Girl, Kaya's Nez Perce people ate so much Salmon and they talk about Salmon so much in the books I thought it we should do a more in depth study of Salmon. We of course have read many times the Magic School Bus goes Upstream but never really done a study or them. We also haven't made a lapbook in ages. We used to make a lapbook for each of the FIAR books we studied but I couldn't keep up with it and ended up not doing many more. But the other day I went to Homeschool Share and look through the free lapbooks they have there and Salmon was there and I thought that would be fun to do. We didn't do everything they had prepared for their lapbook but picked a few to go along with our study. And then added a bunch more pictures. We love pictures.
Here is Sophie's cover.After reading about salmon from the books we found at the library we went online to find out some information and pictures and found a page with most of the different types of Salmon listed with a picture of what they look like. So that is what she used for her cover. It is funny. In our reading they said there were 6 different Pacific Salmon and only one Atlantic Salmon. Somehow we ended up with Seven Pacific Salmon. They all look different too so I don't know which one doesn't belong or is a duplicate.
Sophie also got started gluing things into the folder before I could fold it so the flaps are in the center. She left the file folder as it was and went on with her gluing. Putting this lapbook together was another one of those moments when I really have to let her do it herself and not dictate too much exactly how I think it needs to be done. But she did need some direction otherwise she would have just pasted things in without taking the time to think about how they all worked together. It was a good lesson on organization and not rushing. She often just rushes to get the job done and then gets upset the the end result isn't up to her expectations. I had to help her pause and think a lot.

Here is the folder when you open it. This is all the information about the life cycle.Her pictures of the stages of development in the wheel are really good. But she also wanted to include the pictures we found online as well.

When the flap with the wheel on it is lifted there is some information about the number of Salmon that make it from egg to spawning adult. Salmon sure go through a lot just to end up with 2 surviving "children".
When the page is turned you see information, on the left, about where the salmon live and what they do in the fresh water and Salt Water. On the right there is a yellow added page that has pictures of what the salmon eat.

With the pink flap lifted you see the map which Sophie colored where the Salmon swimming grounds are. There is also a little picture of how far out the different salmon swim in the ocean before they return to find their stream.

With the yellow page lifted Sophie glued in pictures of some of the creatures that eat Salmon.
We actually have one last page to fill on the inside back cover. I suggested maybe we need to find a picture of the way we as a family eat salmon. My kids get all excited when I tell them we are having salmon for dinner. We often have canned salmon on salad. I make salmon patties once in awhile when I can't get salmon on a good price and only have canned. And when I do get frozen or fresh salmon I just bake it in lemon juice and pepper. And my personal favorite is salmon with tomatoes. Here is the recipe.

Pan Roasted Salmon and Tomatoes

1 ½ pounds Salmon steaks, about ¾ inch thick
2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
2 Tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
pepper
2 14 ½ -ounce cans diced tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
2 Tablespoons chooped fresh basil

Dredge the fish in flour. Meanwhile heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat until it shimmers. Add the fish and brown about 3 minutes on each side. Carefully lift the fish out of the skillet and set it aside on a platter; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add the tomatoes and garlic to the skillet and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook 3 minutes. Reduce heat to low and return fish to the pan. Cover and cook 5 minutes or until the fish flakes when tested with a fork or the tip of a knife. Remove the fish to a platter and cover loosely with foil to keep warm. Increase heat to high add basil, and reduce the sauce, stirring frequently, until thickened, about 3 minutes.

Variation 1
Pan-Roasted Salmon and White Beans

Prepare the Pan-Roasted salmon and tomatoes recipe but omit the basil. Use only one can of diced tomatoes and add it with one 16 ounce can of small white navy beans (drained). When returning the fish to the skillet, add 2 tablespoons fresh tarragon. There’s no need to reduce the sauce.

Variation 2
Pan-Roasted Salmon and Sweet Onions

Prepare Pan-Roasted Salmon and Tomatoes recipe but omit the Tomatoes and basil. Slice 2 large yellow onions and saute them with the garlic until limp. When returning the fish to the skillet, add 2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves, ½ cup black olives (pitted), and 2 tablespoons water. There’s no need to reduce the sauce.

Note:
All these recipes also work with Halibut, sea bass, or tuna steaks

I got these recipes from a Magazine and have made each one. They are very good! I don’t use fresh spices I use the dried spices and they turn out tasting great. It is a fast (30 min total) and easy. I often serve with noodles or couscous. I think we need to have this soon! Yum. Except like most things salmon is going to be very expensive since people/companies aren't allowed to fish salmon this year due to low salmon populations.

We are Dino crazy

Rather then do nothing again this week like we did last week. Sophie of course didn't want to jump back into school yet. She will avoid "school" as much as she can. So I decided we would do a mini unit and Dinosaurs seemed like something fun and it is something we really hadn't studied yet. So last week when at the library I picked up a few books on Dinosaurs. I am always surprised at how many books on dinos there are. But kids love dinos so people write books. Here is a few of the books we have been reading this week.Along with books we borrowed the reading rainbow episode about the book Digging up Dinosaurs and also the DK Eyewitness movie about DinosaursThe kids loved both but especially the DK movie. They even watched it again with their Dad when he got home from work.
























Hands on projects are always good so I brought out this one that I had found a few months ago and had stashed in the closet until just such a time. This is a little sand egg that they kids got to use paleontologist tools to dig out the little plastic dinosaur inside. I was actually really surprised at how well the kids shared the tools. They took turns getting to hammer or brush. This actually was very slow work. It took almost a half an hour a lot of Mom help before the dino was out. Sophie got a bit bored and moved on to other things. But Henry stayed and worked until the end. Now the kids have added the little dino to the "diarama" that they have built with all their plastic dinosaurs.
Here is another hands on project that the kids enjoyed. I did most of the assembly work but the kids had fun punching out all the pieces and watching the two dinosaurs take shape.

Sophie has been busy drawing all sorts of Dinosaurs. I will have to scan some of her drawings. She is getting quite good!

We have had a good time reading all sorts of books, learning about all the different dinosaurs. I even learned a few new things. I didn't know that there was debate between experts about wether dinosaurs were warm or cold blooded. They actually have a lot in common with birds and even mammals. But most importantly I have learned that what I learned was a Brontosaurus is actually called an Apatosaurus now.

We are going to get back to "doing school" next week but this has been a fun week full of "terrible lizards".