Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park

This week, in celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we visited the Memorial Park in downtown Beaumont. The memorial park was dedicated in January of 2008 and features a bronze statue by Ron Petitt. For a look at the casting process, you can visit Mr. Petitt’s website here.

Some of the resources that our group’s members have used this week include a unit studies on Dr. King from The Homeschool Mom, Easy Fun School.com, a video of Dr. King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, among others. There are also several resources from Well Trained Homeschool and arts and crafts activities from Artists Helping Children.

The concrete plaques that line the park walls include information about Dr. King’s early life and education, his ministry and his work during the American Civil Rights Movement. Several of the plaques hold quotes from letters and speeches that Dr. King gave during his imprisonment and during the March on Washington DC in  1963.

It was very interesting talking to the children about how things were compared to how they are now.  Most of our children haven’t ever experienced injustice in the same way that people did during Dr. King’s time. How sad that he didn’t get to live to see the fruits of his labors. If you have time, we highly recommend taking time to visit the Memorial Park commemorating Dr. King’s life and work. It’s a somber experience, but one that we are glad to have had today.

TH

Birding & Geology on Pleasure Island

photo by JustinHamlin via Flickr

Today was our first field trip of the new year. to all our families, we extend a warm, ‘Welcome Back!’.  To kick this year’s event calendar off with a focus on the great outdoors, we took the kids out to Pleasure Island for a little bird-watching this morning. It was a cold, windy day, still pretty wet from yesterday’s storming, but not so bad that we couldn’t be out in it.

We let the kids play at Riverfront Park for a bit, then went down Lakefront Drive to walk around and see what we could find. There were a few birds out; ibises, herons, a few ducks and some other birds that we couldn’t identify, but mostly the kids ended up climbing on the rocks that line Lakefront Drive and scavenging for geodes and crystals among the boulders.

We found quite a few hollow-sounding rocks, but most were too big to crack open. The kids did manage to break a few chunks off and got several fragments of (what we think is) citrine clusters. If you’re into rocks and would care to help us identify what we found, please comment!

One thing we’d talked about doing was a lesson plan from Flying WILD. We didn’t get a chance to do the lesson plan (since our focus shifted away from birds once we were out there), but we did pull out our bird behavior scavenger hunt sheet. Since there weren’t many birds out, it wasn’t much use, but we’ll probably keep it for the rest of the week and see if we can check them all off.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out the bird conservation division of Project WILD, the Houston Audubon Society’s Flying WILD Resource page has tons of resources for amateur bird enthusiasts and for teachers, including a 50-page field guide of common birds in the Houston area, a bird-habit observation checklist and a bird identification worksheet to help students keep track of and later identify birds they see in the wild. Don’t forget to read up on basic Bird Watching Etiquette before you go out!

Additional Resources:

http://www.kidswhobird.org/

See you next week!
TH

 

Symphony of Southeast Texas Side By Side Concert

The Symphony of Southeast Texas

Red Ribbon Week & Beaumont Police Museum

This week, Oct 22-30th, is Red Ribbon Week. What is RRW, you ask?

Simply put, Red Ribbon Week is the oldest and largest drug prevention campaign in the country.
Red Ribbon Week serves as a vehicle for communication between parents and children, families and communities in an effort provide education about the dangers of drugs to children. The goal of Reed Ribbon Week is to connect families and communities by encouraging a stand drug abuse, and to encourage a personal commitment to live drug free lives.

Perhaps more importantly, Red Ribbon Week commemorates the ultimate sacrifice made by DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, who died at the hands of drug traffickers in Mexico while fighting the battle against illegal drugs to keep our country and children safe. Read more about SA Camarera’s story here.

How can homeschoolers participate? In many schools, Red Ribbon Week is a flurry of awareness activities. Each day of the week is often themed, from silly things like wearing your father’s neck-tie to school, or wearing mis-matched socks, to raising awareness through outreach activities like handing our red ribbons in your community. As a homeschooling family, you can plan something like that for your children to participate in.

The main idea is to get your children talking. Talk about drugs, talk about how they affect a person’s health and relationships. Talk about what to do or say if they’re ever approached or see a friend using drugs. Don’t be afraid of this topic! If you’re not sure what to say, check out these links: Kids Health.org – Talking to your kids_about_drugs and  Time to Talk.org/.

If you’re interested in planning some RRW activities for/with your children, try:

• Prevention Partners.com - Planning Red Ribbon Week
• Activities
• Classroom Exercises (by grade)
• RRW ideas at ProTeacher.com

Additional links; videos and other resources for drug prevention education:

• One woman’s story – 10 years of drugs abuse
• Faces of Meth at Ebaum’s World (slideshow)
• Drug Free World.org
• American Council for Drug Education – Educators Section

	Tips for talking about drugs in the classroom
	Age-appropriate lesson plans
	Signs and symptoms of drug use
	Learn more about ACDE products
	Basic facts about drugs

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What kinds of plans are you making to celebrate Red Ribbon Week?

Field Trip Update:

This week, we also visited the Beaumont Police Department’s Police History Museum in downtown Beaumont.

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Officer Doug Kibodeaux met us in the lobby of the Police Station and talked about what police officers do, and how they work. He reminded the kids that though they do ‘catch bad guys’, they also find missing people and sometimes even risk their lives. We began our tour with a reminder that some officers have done exactly that by reading and remembering the five most recent officers who have died in the line of duty. Our hearts go out to the families of these fine men and women.

Officer Kibodeaux took us downstairs where his office is and where the museum is, in what used to the the jail. The elevator opens up with small locking boxes, like post office boxes, for officers to lock their guns up before entering the jail since no guns were allowed inside. There are heavy glass and steel doors that

 led into the museum, and pictures and display cases all along the walls.

The pictures tell the story of the Beaumont Police Force from the early 1900′s on down to today. The pictures showed the captains and various pictures of the buildings that the police department were housed in over the years, as well as the progression and growth of the city as time went by. It was really neat to see how much things have changed since the beginning.

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From there, we moved on to the different uniform displays over the years, varying with the taste of the Chief at the time. Then we saw some of the equipment – polygraph machines, audio machines to record phone calls and conversations and radios from days gone by.

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As always, the weapons case was a huge attention-getter. There was one display for firearms and one for knives and clubs (including not one but TWO spiked maces!). The kids got to put on a Kevlar vest and SWAT team helmet; they were surprised at how heavy it was.  They also got Officer Kibodeaux to weigh one of the kids’ shoe wheels on the drug scale. He was a very good sport!

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One of the most interesting parts of the tour was the old jail. This was the women’s ward; the men’s ward was in another area and much bigger, we were told. The kids all mentioned how small and dark and cramped the cells were. They also were alarmed at the total lack of privacy. All the more reason to stay out of jail, right?!

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The last stop on the tour was the line-up room. The kids all got to take a number and line up on the wall for a group shot:

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Many thanks to Officer Doug Kibodeaux for his patience and enthusiasm with the kids this morning!

If you missed us this week, we have field trips each Tuesday. Contact Heather for more info or to join Triangle Homeschoolers.

Have a great week!

TH

Paleontology Presentation by James Burns

Last week, our group met up for a paleontology presentation by James Burns. Mr. Burns is a graduate, student and teacher of History at Lamar University.

During the presentation the children learned that paleontologists like to “dig in the dirt” for fossils. They discovered that some fossils are formed by little pieces of the bone being replaced with sandstone and until the bone turns to rock, and that some fossils are as small as grains of rice. They also learned about the way that paleontologists collect fossils (by sifting them through nets or bags in the water) and that it takes many bags of dirt to collect two small piles of what may be fossils.

The diverse age range of children in attendance prompted a variety of questions; some simple and many that were quite in depth. The children sat surprisingly still and were mesmerized by the dinosaur bone pictures and discussion. The mothers held their collective breath so as not to break the kids’ intense concentration!

Mr. Burns wrapped up his presentation by handing around several fossils and casts. The children (and moms) were delighted to actually be allowed to hold and examine a mammoth bone, a Megalodon tooth, and vertebrae from an ancient dinosaur.

Afterwards, we all gathered around for an amazing taco buffet while the children played and polished their billiard skills.

Many thanks to Mr. Burns for coming out to talk with the kids!

~Crystal

Many thanks also to the Free’s, for opening their home and hosting this event!

TH

Getting the Most Out of Acrostic Poetry

I love acrostic poems. You take a keyword, write it vertically and then use each letter in the word to write a word or line of poetry about the keyword. Many of us have written acrostic poetry using our names with adjectives to describe ourselves. But its uses go beyond a simple name and personality writing exercise. Have you ever considered using acrostic poetry to help your children review key concepts in science, history, social studies or geography? Maybe you have tried this and the assignment felt forced or fell beneath your expectations. I’d like to encourage you to take another look at acrostic poetry.

As an educator, I often had my children write acrostic poetry while finishing lapbooks.  More often than not, the exercises were difficult and I always felt that the lines lacked depth.   I liked acrostic poems and felt they were useful in helping my students write down terms and ideas we had discussed in different history or science units but something was lacking.   What was lacking?  Proper exposure and practice with writing acrostic poetry, or for a more technical term, scaffolding.  Scaffolding is a method of teaching that begins with intensive teacher or parent involvement and as learning progresses less help is given until the student can do the work on their own.

The use of scaffolding and acrostic poetry is discussed in the article “Extending Acrostic Poetry Into Content Learning: A Scaffolding Framework”, by Elizabeth Frye, Woodrow Trathen and Bob Schlagal in the journal The Reading Teacher (2010). I’d like to share with you some of the key ideas from the article in hopes that you too can use acrostic poetry to its fullest with your children.

Begin your lesson by visiting the internet or your local library and find poems and children’s books made from acrostic poems to read to your children.  Pick a variety of types and styles and pay careful attention to find poems that use literary devices in them, the richer the lines, the better. Ask questions that get your children thinking about the tone and devices used in each poem.  Here are a few websites with book and poem examples.  This is the most fortified that your scaffolding can be!  You are immersing your children in the beauty of poetry.

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson807/booklist.pdf

http://www.dampier.wa.edu.au/format7.htm

http://www.funny-poems-for-free.com/acrostic-poems.html

Next, demonstrate to your children by writing your own acrostic poem.  Be creative as possible, with the use of alliteration, assonance, metaphor and simile, etc.  Show your children the process of writing.  Have them help you with ideas and modify those ideas and demonstrate your willingness to be creative.

Finally, it is time to peel away some of your support and allow your children the opportunity to write their own poems.  The scaffolding is shrinking.  Take the time to look over the poetry because the job is not done!  Now it’s time to add the details.  Reintroduce some of the poems that were read, think about what literary devices could be utilized to make this poem sparkle and shine.  If you have more than one child, allow them to help one another with ideas and thoughts.

Once you have completed this assignment, utilize it again and again in your homeschool.   Creative writing is an excellent tool for students to use in conjunction with reviewing subject material.  Your children will now have the practice and skills to make the most out of their acrostic poems and you have integrated their learning to include multiple subjects at one time.

Submitted by: Jessica Smith

Houston Children’s Museum & Fire Museum

The Children’s Museum of Houston has Homeschool Day every year. They’re normally closed on Mondays, but open up once a year just for homeschooling families to come see and learn and play. Our group planned an extra field trip day this week to take advantage of the special pricing and, as an added bonus, cover virtually every possible subject in four hours!

Though many of the members who’d planned on going were unable to attend due to last minute surprises, we had three families representing Triangle Homeschoolers. There were four parents and six students, ranging in age from 4-9. The kids got to put their hands on building blocks, use rulers and whisper tubes, microscopes, play chase on a light-up dance pad, climb the three-story tall cat tower, build dams and help boats travel upriver using canal locks, and re-create life in a Mexican village and play at being grown-ups (complete with jobs and salaries and banking) in Kidtropolis.

The CMoH has really put a lot of effort and planning into their museum, and it shows. Every child seemed engaged in whatever activity he or she was looking at, and with every subject covered, there was something for everyone. I haven’t heard any complaints yet, so I think it’s safe to say that this will be a regular trip for our group!

If you’re planning a trip in the near future, be sure to check out their pre and post-visit lesson plans!

This week is also Fire Prevention Week. We met behind the giant dalmatian fire hydrant downtown at the Texas Fire Museum. Interesting fact: the giant fire hydrant was the largest fire hydrant in the world, but it’s third now.

Whatever the status of the fire hydrant outside, the kids had a great time inside the station learning about the history of fire fighting, fire prevention, practicing calling 911 and fire drills in the miniature house upstairs. The firemen’s poles are always a big hit, and they’re redecorated a bit in the activity center so that it’s more interactive.

Some safety tips to go over with your kids this week:

• your family’s fire escape plan (daytime and nighttime)
• ‘get low and go’
• your family’s safe meeting place
• calling 911 from a neighbor’s house
• drill your address and phone number with your kids
• ‘stop, drop and roll’

If you’d like to coordinate your lesson plans with Fire Safety Week, you can visit the National Fire Prevention Association website. There are lesson plans in the left side menu for all grades. http://www.nfpa.org/categoryList.asp?categoryID=2020&URL=Safety+Information%2FFire+Prevention+Week%2FFor+teachers&cookie_test=1

There are some resources at Homeschool Share: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/fire_safety.php and here also:
http://www.smokeybear.com/
http://firesafety.buffnet.net/

Don’t forget to check your fire alarm(s) batteries!

TH

REAL Science Odyssey Lab

One of the neat things about homeschooling is the infinite variety of styles, methods and materials that different families use. In our group, we have some families who are new to homeschooling, and some who are veterans. We have unschoolers and self-described ‘eclectic classical’ style homeschoolers, and some who are still de-schooling. We have some who follow a boxed curriculum and some who make up their own. All of that adds up to a broad pool of information and experience to bounce ideas off of.

This week, we did just that. Inevitably with homeschool get-togethers, the parents’ conversation will drift into ‘What are you using for…?’ territory. Different kids need different things, and as a parent, being able to lay hands on and breathe in the goodness of what different books have to offer is both fun and informative! One of our lovely homeschooling mothers is using REAL Science Odyssey for her kids, and so she offered to set up a lab using one of the lessons from that guide. The kids thought it was great fun – using magnifying glasses and their senses to explore a cell; in this case, a chicken egg.

Afterwards, they took the egg shells out to feed the worms in the worm bin.

Many thanks to all of our families who made it out this week! To continue the spirit of sharing, feel free to comment with your favorite curriculum and guides.

If you missed out this week, we host an outing every Tuesday. If you’re interested in joining us, contact Heather at wearyourbaby@yahoo.com.

TH

Houston Zoo

With the lovely cool front making its way through Southeast Texas over the weekend, we couldn’t have planned this week’s field trip for a better date. The Houston Zoo offers free admission on the first Tuesday of the month after 2PM, so we try to go at least once each year as a group. The Museum of Natural Science (right across the street from the zoo) also has free admission to the main gallery on Tuesdays after 2PM and usually we try to go over there as well, but we just had such an awesome day at the zoo that we stayed later than usual.

With everyone’s differing plans for the morning, we all met up at 2PM just inside the main gates. We had 7 moms, 1 dad and 16 kids on the premises, with everyone scattering to see their favorite features and re-grouping at various points throughout the day. Most of us met back up in the Children’s Zoo to let the kids run off some energy while we parents took a breather. Even with the nicer weather, it was still pretty warm at times and the rest was much appreciated!

We didn’t get a group picture this time, but several of our moms got great individual shots of the kids. The picture shown in at the entrance to the primate enclosure. This is the first time in the last four visits to the zoo that we’ve managed to make it inside the primate section!

If you missed out on this trip, keep your eyes on our upcoming events. We’ll probably go again in the spring. Be sure to contact us if you’re interested in going with the group! And, of course, you can always plan a family day anytime.

TH
 

Cardinal Neches River Tour

Yesterday’s adventure along the Neches River on Cardinal Boat was so much fun!

Neches River Adventures.org is a division of the Environmental Learning and Research Center in Beaumont. For educational purposes, they offer adventure-based, discovery programs developed to engage students in hands-on learning act ivies on what is essentially a floating laboratory classroom. Comprehensive programs include outdoor lab experiences and links to State standards-based curriculum (Project WILD and Project WILD Aquatic).

Our kids had an amazing time discussing Neches River fish and wildlife, erosion, how the hurricanes and drought have affected the animals that depend on the river (including humans! Beaumont depends on the Neches for our local our water supply), logging and clear-cutting, oil-drilling, animal habitats and Neches River history. Then we went back into one of the river off-shoots and the kids helped with experiments in water clarity, salinity and another water test that included “a green pill that said if the water was clean or not”, according to one student.

“I liked the blue heron and the twisty tree that we saw. It was twisty because the tree twisted to get the sun on its one branch We also learned about water clarity with a big tube.” – Tav, age 7

“I enjoyed seeing my friends yesterday. I learned that the water in the Neches is surprisingly clean, and that we get most of our drinking water from the Neches River.” – PeaGreen, age 8

“I really enjoyed the Neches River Adventure even though it was hot. I loved seeing the unusual trees and the beautiful flowers and the birds. I had so much fun with Captian Spud teaching us all about navigating the river and how to drive the boat. We learned a lot about the river and wildlife. We also got to do a water test and learn about how important the river is to the wildlife and people.” – Lyla, age 8

“I really enjoyed seeing the mullet and bass jumping out of the water when we were going in the boat. I learned that the drought has made the Gulf of Mexico flow into the river and changing salinity of the Neches.” – LBB, age 9

“I loved the beautiful flowers, birds and trees. We saw the most beautiful bird, the blue heron. The trip was fun and I enjoyed the company of the people I now call friends and I considered it a fun trip, except for the heat.” - LilMiss, age 10

and SFK, one of our resident bloggy-moms commented:

“I really enjoyed being on the water and seeing a side of our part of Texas that I don’t normally get to see. I learned so much about the Neches River and our beautiful bayou. We have such a diverse ecosystem and it is a shame that whole virgin cypress were wiped out in the late 1800′s and that it is still at risk in other ways today. It is a truly beautiful and breathtaking look at a much earlier time in the Earth’s history. I very much enjoy watching my children enjoy nature and learning even when they think they are not. Today they are talking about water clarity and salinity, different birds and animals that they saw, or had hoped to see, and connecting that to our earlier bat hike this week wondering how the heat and water salinity are affecting both the wildlife and the trees.”

We’re hoping to plan another trip in November, so if you missed this trip, be sure to let us know that you’re interested in going next time! Until then, you can visit Neches River Adventures  on Facebook and schedule a chartered trip anytime.

TH