Another delayed post… but interesting all the same. I hope they are helpful to someone and of nothing else, a wonderful record of times when the kids and I had fun learning about something new and just a bit unique.

While 2014 has not had us digging deep into the dinosaur world like we have, we did find the time to learn all about this Australian herbivore. The Minmi is named after a water body in Australia and is one of the most complete sets of fossils. Things like stomach content, skin texture and all sorts of fine details are saved in the fossils. It is believed that this dinosaur was often washed to sea and preserved as it was definitely a 4 legged land mammal.

Emanuel found this dinosaur most interesting due to its many armored plates and its obvious herbivore nature. We had a great discussion about where Australia is and how this was NOT a large armored dinosaur. Now we did have a rather interesting video by La Trobe University. Australian Dinosaur – Minmi.

And the links were actually plentiful on this dinosaur:

• EnchantedLearning HERE
• Australian Museum HERE
• Age of Dinosaurs HERE
• Find the Best has a great picture HERE
• Dinosaur of the Week HERE
• KidsDinos.com HERE
• The National Dinosaur Museum has a lengthy article HERE
• Wiki has their article HERE
• We got our picture off of deviantArt by hyphenatedsuperhero HERE
• We FOUND this dinosaur in a library book – The Big Book of Dinosaurs by DK.

Ok another WAAAAAAY delayed post, no images just resources. (I fib, one image of a sari skirt I splurged on for this year’s wardrobe. The colours of India are AMAZING!) I am determined to get my bum in gear and get these posts up in a more timely manner. But for today, humble pie. I should have had this up half a year ago!!! Check back tomorrow as I continue to prove to my kids that even MOM finishes EVERYTHING (within reason…) she starts! 

So we had these grand plans to do a family project on India in a timely manner, oops. But we did spend a summer and then some learning about a very distinct and colourful country and I will try and share the links, books, etc that we used. And then I took a lifetime and a half to post this post

First off. Google is your friend. We spent a lot of time searching for pictures for topics to colour. Mandalas, saris, the Taj Mahal. There are all sorts of colouring pages out there.

Since my resource list is a bit weak this time around, here is the list of topics the kids chose from. I gave them the option to pick and chose and varied the expectations of report content and length according to each child. So Trinity would do a list of facts vs. Zander having paragraphs or Echo colouring a picture.

• Globe location
• Government – levels, type, capital, voting rights
• Country – independence, languages, time zones, founding, state/provinces
• Landscape – mountains, water bodies, landmarks, position on map
• Climate – seasons, one week of comparative weather, snow, natural disasters
• Animals – unique to country – we chose one to do a report on
• Plants – unique to country
• Agriculture – most prevalent and where
• Food – famous for
• Symbols/emblems – flag, official symbols
• Religions – main religions
• Currency – what is used, exchange rate to USD, when it came into use
• Main groups of people – who are they, caste system, poverty vs. rich numbers
• School – minimum grade required, types
• Inventions
• Imports/exports/economy – what are the main ones
• Sports – most popular
• Holidays – major holidays
• Music and crafts – most common, popular, make some
• Tourism/Famous people
• Choose a topic

Books were an important resource. Here is my short list. Libraries really are life saving

• India by Manina Chatterjee
• Focus on India by Bojang Brownlie
• Taj Mahal by Linda Tagliaferro
• India ABC’s by Marcie Aboff
• Welcome to India by Patric Ryan
• India by Don Nardo
• India by Joanne Mattern
• The Mauryan Empire and India by Ellis Roxburgh
• India by Julie Murray
• India by A. Kamala Dalal
• Living in India by Chloe Perkins

For a fun activity we tried out making Henna decorations on paper hands as explained by Activity Village HERE. Education.com is always a help HERE.  Beyond the Henna activity Activity Village has a whole selection of resources HERE.

A taste of my own… if you start it finish it philosophy. Waaaaay delayed!!! Well, it keeps you humble. Enjoy!

Edit: For a video that is current check out this video to hear how this dinosaur got its name. Thanks to the Royal Tyrrell Museum.

I must admit our 2013-2014 school year has been light on the dinosaurs. It just seems like learning to read and external forces have held us at bay… but no longer! We are planning to go up to AT LEAST 2 a week if not back to our original 5. This means LOTS of hunting for mommy for those more obscure dinosaurs. But first… the Pachyrhinosaurus.

This Cretaceous period herbivore was found in what is now Alberta and Alaska. Believed to have moved in herds, it was a rather unintelligent dinosaur with less hearing and scent capabilities. Being a plant eater its teeth were constantly worn down and replaced and included cheek teeth. Without brow or nasal bones this 4 legged dinosaur had a rather unique look. Definitely a traditional plant eater though!

Our video today was from the documentary March of the Dinosaurs. (part 5) All thanks to Clubpenguindino.

And now for our links. Sadly we are finding less links now that we are going more obscure but they ARE helpful nonetheless.

• Walking With Dinosaurs site (BBC) HERE
• Dinosaurs.about.com HERE
• Walking With Wikis HERE
• Animal Planet HERE
• Wiki HERE
• And our colouring page found on Caw. HERE