June 6-8

There is something about the Canadian Flag that the girls just LOVE colouring. Over and over and OVER again!

But we also did our Summertime School Goals. The twins are programming based and the two littles are reading based. I am hoping if we cannot accomplish them in the summer span of time we can AT LEAST make inroads on them.

And then for the BIG excitement… Uncle Sean is here for a short visit after doing a training session down in Minneapolis. The kids were over the moon and even Echo remembered Uncle Sean on sight!

He brought gifts…

And had a nap… it was just like being back up north. It did rather throw school out the window… willingly! Nothing like a Canadian guest to perk everyone up!

Saturday afternoon was a pre planned (before Sean’s trip) visit over to Chris and Renee’s house to play with the boys. They have a terrific backyard with a playset not unlike ours.

We had baby time…

Drinks for the adults…

And lovely retro toys brought out of the crawl space for the girls to share with Renee.

While the guys were bbqing we also had sparklers and some small fireworks to set off. Dinner was delicious and the kids were all sad to have to say good bye.

Sunday morning was an equally important engagement… we were expected to make it in time to watch Anthony play in part of his tournament. They played hard and won their match.

The kids had a blast playing with Aidan…

And we got some amazing action shots of one of our favourite soccer players! Anthony is playing even better this year. Training has paid off and it is amazing watching him run his hardest and play his best game after game!

Then home to spend the evening with Sean. The best of both worlds – outside fun and a friend to sit around at home and catch up with!!

In my research about Texas I came across a great book that had a story about the life of dinosaurs in Texas. So of course we had to research some of the listed ones. We did this a little differently than Emanuel and I usually do it when we solo learn. Instead I read them the information and one of the twins wrote the main points. The other and Emanuel then coloured our picture. These are all going to go into our Texas binder when we finish our unit in the end of May. Our original source of our list was from the book Dinosaur Hunt by Karen Carr. You can get to our resource page HERE.

Our first dinosaur was the slower moving carnivore from the Cretaceous period the Acrocanthosaurus also known as Acro. This therapod was found in Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona. Potentially one of the smarter predators it went after slower moving dinosaurs mainly. Its front legs/arms were longer than a T-Rex’s and much more useful. Definitely a dinosaur to watch out for. For our links we used some old favourites and some new ones as well…

• Jurassic Park Wikia HERE
• EnchantedLearning HERE
• Dinosaurs.About.com HERE
• KidsDinos.com HERE
• Age of Dinosaurs HERE
• NaturalSciences.org has a great resource that we did not get to using for an activity guide. A little more in depth  than we wanted to go with a light overview with multiple dinosaurs. HERE
• National Geographic Kids book page HERE
• Wikipedia HERE
• Our colouring page is from Education.com HERE

Dinosaur #2 was the Pleurocelus… a 4 legged herbivore also from the Cretaceous period. Found in Texas, Maryland and Utah it had longer front legs than back and so mimics the appearance of a giraffe. In fact, it is believed it may have walked on its front toes! It was a fitting meal for our Acrocanthosaurus. Of course we have links to share.

• Dinosaurs.about.com HERE
• DinoDictionary HERE
• EnchantedLearning (mid page) HERE
• Texas Parks and Wildlife HERE. They also had our colouring page HERE.
• Wikipedia has a discussion about the actual name determination and defining  that we did NOT cover but you can read more about that under the article titled Astrodon HERE

Our third dinosaur was one that Emanuel and I had already covered – the Hypsilophodon. So we did a brief overview and jumped list on our backlogged dino posts to put up the one we covered you can read about that HERE. This plant eater was included in our dinosaurs of Texas book but I do admit to finding it placed mostly in Europe.

Our fourth and final dinosaur was the Coloborhynchus. This dinosaur was a flyer and amazingly enough has given us a NEW term for what it eats – a PISCIVORE… fish eater! Emanuel is PUMPED! A new term to hunt under. There is some rather contradictory information about it as apparently there is some dispute as to whether it is its own dinosaur or falls under another name. We did enjoy our rather limited information and of course seeing it in our dinosaur book. Our links…

• Dinosaurs.about.com HERE
• Prehistoric Wildlife.com HERE
• Science Direct HERE
• Wiki HERE and HERE
• Many and varied images on my Google search HERE
• Our colouring page thanks to deviantArt titled Coloborhynchus Attack by HondariNundu HERE.

Texas has become near and dear to our hearts with Gammie and Aunty Holly and Cousin Jimmie. So of course we had to jump in all the way and get going with a full on month long unit. Here are most (I hope) of the resources we used for our binder! Enjoy! Also check out our DINOSAUR related resource page HERE.

BOOKS!

• Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch by Anne Isaacs
• Texas by Jim Ollhoff
• Texas by AV2
• Texas by Ann Heinrichs
• Dinosaur Hunt by Karen Carr
• Life at the Alamo by Sally Senzell Isaacs
• Texas Facts and Symbols by Emily McAuliffe
• America the Beautiful: Texas by Ann Heinrichs
• Texas Rangers’ Legendary Lawmen by Michael P. Spradlin
• How to Get Rich on a Texas Cattle Drive by Tod Olson

VIDEOS!

• Smithsonian Aerial America Texas HERE.
• A special thanks to sisters Holly (my sister in law) and Heather (her sister) who are Texans to the core for these!

Davy Crockett thanks to Hanna Barbera… I did have to tell the kids that some of the terms and such was …. old fashioned? But you really got a feeling of how a person becomes a legend.

Ballad of the Alamo WITH LYRICS.

Confederate Song – The Yellow Rose of Texas

Fess Parker – Ballad of Davy Crockett (1955)

WORKSHEETS!

• I have my Texas worksheets on Education.com collected under my Minnesota folder HERE (I know confusing but I never did get around to trying to rename it US States)
• We covered a little bit of weather  too… mainly comparing our week to a week in Texas and talking about seasons but I have a few jr. print outs… From Worksheetplace.com HERE and Kinderhelper.com HERE
• Colouring pages by TexasBob.com HERE
• Texas – a Mini Unit Study by Learning Treasures HERE
• State flag with EnchantedLearning HERE
• Symbols of Texas with Kids’ House HERE
• Homeschooling.About.com Texas unit study HERE
• John Tyler worksheet thanks to Activity Village. In fact you can find other state heroes on this site just search under Texas (link to site on right)
• Learning Treasures Mini Unit Study HERE

HELPFUL SITES!

• We found an excellent definition for BIOMES when covering the different landscapes in Texas thanks to Geography4Kids.com HERE.
• Lists of endangered and threatened animals in Texas. The boys loved some of the wild names on these! Texas Parks and Wildlife HERE.
• We had a wonderful fact or fiction worksheet on Education.com (link above to folder) on Pecos Bill but were sent along to the Legends of America site HERE for another version of the legend which totally tickled the boys after our discussions about exaggeration and how “things are always bigger in Texas!”
• A little summary on Davy Crockett… We wanted to find him in our books but really beyond him dying at the Alamo (or at least within some portion of the conflict) we had to go to the internet to learn more HERE thanks to The History Channel.
• An overview with the climate in Texas (we supplemented with searching for pictures of each season) thanks to Wiki HERE.
• The Alamo.org HERE… about… The Alamo!
• The Legend of the Bluebonnets thanks to the site Multicultural Education Through Miniatures HERE.
• What Are Myths, Legends and Folktales? Definitions thanks to Myths and Legends HERE.
• Texas State Song: Texas, Our Texas thanks to Lone Star Junction HERE.
• Texas state information page with EnchantedLearning HERE

Downloadables!

• Texas The Lone Star State mini lapbook thanks to Fortunately For You Books (also for purchase on Currclick) HERE
•