crazy, crazy, crazy

That's about the only way to describe this holiday season. Although it was alot of fun, I am SOOOOO looking forward to things settling down and getting back to semi-normal around here.
We did get most of our Christmas unit done and it was enjoyable. Superboy did a bunch of neat activities, and we still need to get it all together into notebook form. Once that happens I will post some pics.
We are spending the next few days doing some evaluating of last semester's activities (what worked, what didn't), and planning for this semester.
One thing we know for sure is that Superboy wants and needs more challenge in math. He really enjoys math now, and I don't want him to get bored, so we have begun Harold Jacob's Mathematics, A Human Endeavor. We will take it slowly and work through it at whatever pace Superboy sets. So far he really likes it. We will also continue with our other math activities like the Marcy Cook math, The Man Who Counted (will we ever finish this? Oh, well, we both love it!), G is for Googol, etc.
Bravewriter is working beautifully for language arts, so we will be sticking with that, for sure. Superboy is still happily plugging away at his novel. He got a book on authentic Medieval combat methods to research, so he can add some authenticity to his writing.
Our next science will be cooking science. We will make bread, wine, cheese, root beer, marshmallows, gummy bears, and bubble gum, to name a few, and learn the science behind all the processes. Superboy got an apron and chef's hat for Christmas so watch out for pictures including those!
I'll post more on other subjects as we work them out in the next few days.

Our Christmas Unit-study

Before we take our Christmas vacation, we are having alot of fun doing our Christmas unit. I've taken some of the ideas from the Jan Brett unit posted on the 4reallearning board and added and subtracted to tailor it to our more science/nature bent. We are creating a scrapbook/notebook of everything we do and I will post pictures of the pages soon.
Here is the general outline by Topic:

1. Christmas Math Fun: using the website as a guide and doing a little each day.
2. The Miraculous Staircase of Loretto Chapel. Then read more about St. Joseph in our saint books.
3. Gingerbread: Read Jan Brett's Gingerbread Baby and discuss a circle story. Make Story Wheel. Make Gingerbread house and take digital photos to illustrate each step. Make into booklet. Visit National Gingerbread House Competition at Grove Park Inn.
4. Arctic vs. Antarctic: Use Eyewitness video to take notes on similarities and differences between Arctic and Antarctic regions. Make graphic organizer.
5. Reindeer: Read Jan Brett's Wild Christmas Reindeer, research reindeer facts. Graphic organizers.
6. Polar Bears: Read Jan Brett's Whos That Knocking on Cristmas Eve. Research Polar bears. Grahic Organizers.
7. St. Nicholas. Read all about him and add to timeline and notebook. Focus on his symbols, and St. Nick around the World. Use materials from this great site.
8. Snowflake geometry and science. Use this site, plus others. Learn about radial symmetry and practice measuring angles with a protractor. Make lotsa snowflakes!
9. A Christmas Carol. Read the book and discuss story elements (protagonist, rising action, crisis, climax, denoument, etc). Graphic organizer. Creative writing: "What will your Christmas future be like?"
10. The Christmas Story: Of course. The birth of Christ, etc.

There are alot of other books and activities we will be doing in addition to the basic outline above, but this gives you the general idea of our plans. As usual, we leave open the option of going off on a rabbit trail if the spirit moves us to do so!

We will be having so much fun and learning alot, too. The first couple of days have gone very well. We've done the math, gingerbread and reindeer days so far and have several pages of the scrapbook done. I will post pictures soon.

Hope your holidays are just as joyous!

Fun Grammar

Madlibs. Gotta love 'em! What a simple, cheap, fun way to reinforce basic grammar. We begin our Christmas Unit today, so last night I pulled out the Christmas Madlibs I picked up last week. What fun! We loved the Christmas carols we ended up with, especially "Frosty the Dingo Man," "Jingle Chickens," and "Rudolph, the Monkey-nosed Reindeer!"
Sometimes I forget how very simple and fun learning can be.
Highly recommended.

Nifty electronics set

Here is something that works whenever I need Superboy to work completely independently (if I have bills to pay or chores to do, for example). I just open the box at let him go.

It is called Snap Circuits and it is wonderful! Remember those 300-in-1 electronics kits we had when we were kids? With the wires and the springs on the circuit boards? They always looked like so much fun, but never worked half as well as they looked.
Well, snap circuits is sort of the same idea, but it actually works! It comes with easy-to-understand directions for over 300 projects that are really cool (with noises, lights and buzzers)and teach about electronics. And the ingenious snap-together design makes them very easy to work with.
We got our set from Timberdoodle Company and it is a bit pricey (around 75 bucks, I believe) but it is SO worth it. Superboy can spend hours snapping these projects together completely by himself. All I have to do is come running when he calls "Mom, you've GOT to see this, it is SOOOOO COOOL!!!"

Chronological history is...well...history!

So I began this school year with a great master plan for history.
We would go chronologically, obviously, because it just makes sense to do so, starting with the Ancients this year. We would do a brief study of the early Mesopotamian civilizations, with an in-depth study of Ancient Egypt. Then we would progress through Ancient Greece, Rome, etc, etc.
Well... it hasn't exactly worked out that way. We started off as planned. We got through all the Mesopotamia stuff (a bit dry, I have to say), got sidetracked by dragons, started in on Egypt, then ground to a screeching halt.
Superboy was really beginning to dislike history. (that wasn't in the plan!)
Then came a Lewis and Clark video and the spark is back. But the books I ordered have yet to arrive and that has put us on hold.
We are starting our Advent and Christmas notebook next week and decided to put Lewis and Clark off until New Years anyway, so that's OK.
But get this...
Superboy said in the car the other day that he wants to learn about... "Abraham Lincoln. Right after Greece. Which is after Lewis and Clark." (so much for chronological order!)
"OK", I said. "How about from now on we switch back and forth between World and American history? Would you like that?" (preserving some semblance of a plan, here)
"No, what I'd really like is to just study whatever I want, whenever. Can I do that?"(said with youthful exuberance)
"Sure. That actually sounds like more fun, anyway." (plan? what plan?)
So lately Superboy has been happily filling his timeline with entries for Lewis and Clark, St. Francis of Assisi, the First Thanksgiving, William Shakespeare, and a lot of other really cool stuff. Tomorrow will be Albrect Durer and the next day Benjamin Franklin (they both relate to magic squares, his current math interest).
And history is fun now, by the way.

more fun with math

Today, thanks to The Man Who Counted, we discovered the fun of Magic Squares.
Any way you add them up, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, you get the same sum. Of course we had to get on the internet to find out more. We found alot!
This one also has some other interesting properties:

Try adding up corners or the 4 center squares. Pretty neat, huh? This one came from a website here: http://mathforum.org/alejandre/magic.square/adler/adler.whatsquare.html

Here is a nice explanation of them, along with some interesting historical magic squares and variations, including one by Ben Franklin!: http://mathforum.org/alejandre/magic.square.html
This site also has lots of links to other magic square sites.

Here is an interactive magic square puzzle: http://www.dubster.com/math/

Here you can print up some magic square worksheets to fill in missing numbers: http://www.blackdog.net/games/math/worksheets/magic/

I think this is enough to keep us busy for awhile!

Finally, my true identity revealed!

"The Fairy Princess
You are youthful, cheery, and exuberant with a
sunny disposition and a mischievous sense of
humor. You are very lively and are
always up for a good bit of fun. You have a deep love of
nature and animals.
Role Model: Titania
You are most likely to: Convert a pumpkin
into a useful mode of transportation. "

What Kind of Princess are You? - Beautiful Artwork (Original Music is BACK!!!)
brought to you by

I took this fun "Quizzila" quiz and I think they really nailed me. ;) Take the quiz yourself and find out what kind of princess you are! Then let me know!

Adam's task

I find myself on a regular basis up very late at night searching endlessly through various homeschooling boards and websites. What am I looking for? Support and encouragement, to be sure, but it is often something else. Why am I constantly reading and re-reading other families homeschooling philosophies? Other people's methods. Definitions of Charlotte Mason homeschooling, Living Books, Real Learning, Unschooling, School-at-home, Relaxed homeschooling, unit studies, lapbooking, notebooking, Classical, Montessori, eclectic homeschooling...yadda yadda yadda.
I think I am on a quest to name what it is we do here in our little corner of the homeschooling jungle. Why? I'm not sure. But I am not the only one. I see it over and over again in the threads I visit. Mothers batting back and forth descriptions of what they do, asking each other "Is this unschooling? Is this what is meant by a unit study?" I think it must be inherent in human nature to want to put a name on things-to define everything in terms of a single label. Adam's task.
Also, I sometimes think if I could just settle on a pre-determined label then it would take away some of the worry and work. If I could just say"Oh, we use the Classical method," then I wouldn't have to do the constant re-evaluation, checking, tweaking, seeking that I do to match my child's interests and talents to our lifestyle of learning. I could just go with what has already been laid down for me. Simple.
Problem is...none of the labels seem to fit. And I am the last one to settle for a poor fit. We are too relaxed to be Charlotte Mason, too structured to be unschoolers. We read living books, but also do some workbooks. We like some classics, but are no where near classical. I try to link things together thematically, but not in an organized unit-study. We do hands on...most of the time. We are often delight-directed, but Mom doesn't give over the reins completely. I guess the label "eclectic" fits us best, but that feels like just a cop-out, defining us as having no real definition. That doesn't feel good to me. After all, I really LIKE what we do. There MUST be a name for it because it is just too good to remain nameless. But it is so very much a part of who my son and I are, I can't imagine it fitting into some generic category. It is who we are, how we learn, the way we live. It is US defined.
I guess I have a label after all... "Us-schooling"

Pre-Thanksgiving fun

Thanks to a recipe found on the 4reallearning board we made Pumpkin pie scented playdoh and it was a big hit. Jbug, Superboy, Modgirl and I all played happily with it for quite some time.
Here is the recipe:

5 1/2 cups flour
2 cups salt
8 tsp. cream of tartar
3/4 cup oil
1 1/2 oz. pumpkin pie spice
orange food coloring (2 parts yellow, 1 part red)
4 cups water

Mix all ingredients together. Cook and stir over medium heat until all lumps disappear. Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth. Store in airtight container.
This made enough for all 4 of us to play with together. Looks like real pumpkin pie filling and makes the house smell so good, too.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

computers and schools

I recently read an interesting article on computers in schools and their affects on children.
http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/05-5om/Monke.html

Although I am not certain I agree with everything the author writes, he does make some very good points. The one that I agree most with is that it is detrimental to a child's development to substitute computer experiences for real life.

"Structured learning certainly has its place. But if it crowds out direct,
unmediated engagement with the world, it undercuts a child's education. Children
learn the fragility of flowers by touching their petals. They learn to cooperate
by organizing their own games. The computer cannot simulate the physical and
emotional nuances of resolving a dispute during kickball, or the creativity of
inventing new rhymes to the rhythm of jumping rope. These full-bodied, often
deeply heartfelt experiences educate not just the intellect but also the soul of
the child"

When a child misses out on a real outdoor experience in favor of a "virtual field trip," the child is denied the opportunity to experience the world with all his senses, to soak it in though his pores, so to speak. It isn't real and does not promote the kind of emotional attachment or, as Rachel Carson calls it, the "sense of wonder" about the natural world.

"these projects—the steady diet of virtual trips to the Antarctic, virtual
climbs to the summit of Mount Everest, and trips into cyber-orbit that represent
one technological high after another—generate only vicarious thrills. The
student doesn't actually soar above the Earth, doesn't trek across icy terrain,
doesn't climb a mountain. Increasingly, she isn't even allowed to climb to the
top of the jungle gym."

This is also an arguement for what homeschoolers call "Real learning." Using the world as our classroom and experiencing directly as much as we can. Life itself is a learning process and sitting in front a screen (or in a classroom, for that matter) is just a poor, poor substitute.
The same goes for human interaction. Email and IM are great, but no substitute for direct human contact. I'd rather see my 16 yo daughter on the phone all evening than IMing. At least there is the human voice, where emotions can be expressed. Anyone who has ever been "flamed" when a messageboard post has been misinterpreted knows how hard it is to convey feelings via the electronically written word.
I'm not saying that the computer doesn't have it's place in education. I use it a bit in our homeschool. It is great for those of us who have limited library access-for quickly finding info and pictures. It allows us to follow our children's leads instantly, rather than waiting for a trip to the library, or an Amazon shipment. But we all know how much richer an experience is a good living book, a walk in the woods, or a conversation with a human being. Those are the sources we go to when we REALLY want to know something WELL. In comparison, despite the wealth of information available on the internet, computers are so superficial. They promote a "cut-and paste" understanding of a topic, denying the need to seek out additional sources for greater depth of understanding. In short, they are no substitute for real life, and real learning.
In fact, I really need to turn of my computer and get on with life now.

Attitudes

It has really hit home to me lately how much this homeschool experience depends on me and my attitudes. If I am enthusiastic and energetic we have a good school day. If I am cranky or distracted, or otherwise out of sorts, you can count on very little getting done, school-wise. It is like Superboy is a mirror of my own attitudes from day to day. I recently hurt my back right in the middle of the most rockin' school week we've ever had. My attitude plummeted and so did Superboy's right along with it. Now, maybe it shouldn't be this way, and maybe my kiddos should be more self-motivated, but in our reality, this is how it works.
Sometimes this is frustrating, but I guess I need to just accept that this is where we are, at least for now.
It reminds me of the writing stage that we are in. In Julie Bogart's book "The Writer's Jungle" she describes a stage of writing called the "partnership" writing stage. In this stage the child needs alot of support, not being quite ready to branch out on his own, yet. The goal is to build confidence in order to reach the stage called "Faltering Ownership" in which the child takes more responsibility for the writing product. Once I realized that Superboy still needed to be in the partnership writing phase, our entire writing experience became much more positive. Superboy truly enjoys writing now and his confidence grows in leaps and bounds. It is about time to move into faltering ownership and we are naturally making that transition as he is ready.
I think we are also in the "Partnership" stage of motivation in general as well. Hopefully, soon we can move into "faltering ownership" so that Superboy can have more of his very own good and bad days, regardless of what Mom is feeling.
Lets hope they are mostly good.

just too cute

We had a little bit of a cold snap creep in today. As I went out the door to feed the horses, JBug grabbed my fleece jacket for me, but couldn't resist putting the soft lining against her face. "Oooooh!" she said. "It's all warm and tickle and softy!"
Yep. That's why it's my favorite jacket.

And we're off!

This has been an excellent week so far! Lotsa language arts day went very well. Superboy worked on his story for a long time, using my editorial suggestions as a springboard to making major improvements. He also wrote a letter to his penpal (Josh: the answer is dragon).
I won't bore you with the details of everything we did, but suffice it to say that the day was filled to the brim with very positive learning vibes.
Today started off with a plan of being more low key. After two highly intense days I figured we could use some lighter fare. After morning barn chores we did science, some math, then as a treat we did a Sudoku puzzle I printed from an excellent website. We have just recently discovered these excellent logic puzzles and are really enjoying them.
Anyway, I try to do a DVD on wednesdays (What in the World History day) that relates to our World History studies, but we've gotten a bit burnt out on the Ancients, so I decided to go ahead and put on a National Geographic about Lewis and Clark I had been saving back for a rainy day... it was a HUGE hit! JBug loved the scenery, and Superboy has decided that we are ready to leave Egypt behind and hit the Lewis and Clark trail right now! Woo hoo! I was hoping that's what would happen! He is so excited about it! He went right away to the internet to find out more. He wants to make a L and C notebook and already has a list of many things he wants to add to it. His enthusiasm is great to see.
So I guess it's off to the library tomorrow to hunt for books on Lewis and Clark! (Barb, I will look for the book you mentioned on your blog!)
Gosh, I love homeschooling!

A final push before the holidays

Superboy and I sat down and had a conversation about the remainder of the year. We both realize that we have been a bit slack lately, and, although some quality learning has been happening, we are not happy with the quantity of our recent accomplishments. Much of this has been due to the arrival of our horses, and all the work that has entailed, but now that things with them have settled into a little routine, we can re-focus our energies toward school.
So, with 5 weeks until the Christmas holidays, we are going full steam ahead.
We got an incredible amount of work done today!
Monday is "mostly math" day, so Superboy did a workbook page of addition problems with regrouping, we read a chapter of The Man Who Counted, we figured out 5 or 6 more numbers in our ongoing Four-fours problem (see below), read the "D" entry in G is for Googol, did an activity set of the TOPS math kit "Get a Grip," did some Egyptian math problems from previously mentioned website, cut and assembled a 3D scarab beetle, colored some Egyptian jewelry, read a chapter of Tales from Ancient Egypt, listened to a chapter of "Story of the World" on CD, and started a new science unit- a TOPS kit called "Green Thumbs: Radishes".
That's on top of our barn chores and shopping for last minute science supplies (try finding radish seeds this time of year!)
WOW!
Superboy had a great attitude and really enjoyed his work. He got so excited when we found the new numbers for the Four fours- heck, we BOTH were jumping around and cheering!
I said to him "Wow! We really got alot of math done today!"
His reply: "Yea, that's 'cause it was fun math!"
Let's see if tuesday "lotsa language arts" can hold the same level of enthusiasm tomorrow!


A little explanation of the Four fours: We read in The Man Who Counted that you can make ANY number by using exactly four fours. (ex: 44-44=0, 44/44=1, etc) so we decided to test it out ourselves. We made a chart of numbers 1-100 and are trying to make them all, whenever we feel like doing it. Each time either of us makes one, Superboy writes how it was made on the chart. He is learning some pretty advanced functions this way, for example, factorials, roots, and powers, etc. and having a blast doing it. We've been working on and off for about a month and only have 9 numbers left! Today he was so excited to figure out 85 all by himself. Here is how he did it:
(4! + .4)/.4 +4!=85
Pretty cool, huh?

A Truly Useful Resource

I am the last one to want to clutter up my inbox with alot of mail, but I wanted to share a resource which I have found really useful. It is a yahoo group called ClickSchooling.
What happens is you sign up for it-free and easy- and every day you get an email with an educational website recommendation-often several related sites. There are themes for each day, like monday will always be a math site, then there is a day for lang. arts, science, history, art, etc. Friday is always a virtual field trip. They are usually for multiple age groups and so far have always been useful and interesting. I've gotten so many neat ideas and activities through this group, more than I would have run across just surfing on my own. I don't use it as much as I used to now that we have dial-up (the agony!!!) so computer time is less efficient, but I have used it ALOT. For example, the Egyptian math site I wrote about came from this group.
Check it out if you get a chance.

I am always on the lookout for ways to make math fun and meaningful. Though we do some boring workbook stuff on occasion, Superboy and I take great joy in finding an excuse to pitch the workbook for a day or more.
Well, we have been delving into Ancient Egypt for history, so imagine my pleasure at coming across (thanks to my "clickschooling" yahoo group) this website: Egyptian mathematics
What a wonderful distraction! Superboy has totally enjoyed doing the math problems on the site. I printed them up for him, along with the Egyptian numbers table, and he is joyfully doing division, multiplication, etc. He is determined to work his way through all the problems, and is quite proud that they are listed "for 12-16 year olds" when he is only 10. What an ego boost! Imagine a 10 year-old boy actually thanking his mom for "letting him" do math!
There is other stuff on the website that we have not got to yet. In fact, Superboy hasn't even seen the site-he is doing all this off the pages I printed up!
So if you need a diversion from the norm, give Egyptian math a try.

Family classics...well, at least for us.

The previous post about Phantom of the Opera got me thinking. What are the movies that our entire family enjoys-youngest to oldest and everyone in between? Those movies that we watch over and over-that have become part of our family culture-that we spontaneously quote from without having to identify for each other the context. There are a few.
THE TOP FIVE
1. Phantom of the Opera-our latest fave. The music is continuously echoing through our brains.
2. Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?- "Care for some gopher?" So much quotable material here, a veritable treasure trove.
3. The Princess Bride. Hands down winner for most watched movie in our home for the past 10 years or so. Classic for witty banter.
4. Muppet Treasure Island. Can't help it-we LOVE it.
5. Wild America. The ultimate road trip. We all wish we could go along.

There are some more that come close, but these five are a step above for us.

CLOSE CONTENDERS
Shrek (I and II), Spiderman(I and II), Seabiscuit, Mulan ( just beautiful), A Knights Tale (the one with Heath Ledger-totally cheesy, but we love the character of Geoffry Chaucer enough to rank it in the top ten), The Incredibles (non-stop action), classic I Love Lucy TV shows, and anything by Abbot and Costello (for pure goofiness they are still the kings).

So now you have a glimpse into our little home entertainment library. Does it look anything like yours?

twists and turns

One thing about being flexible-you sure do take some unusual and unexpected twists and turns.

We have lately been distracted from a normal routine by trying to get our barn and property ready for our horses. So, school has been allowed to happen naturally. Now this is not a huge stretch for us-we tend towards an unschoolish attitude anyway. But never to this extent.
Well...surprise! it works!
Example:
I did not have time to think of a prompt for our regular friday morning freewrite. On the way out to the barn I told Superboy to "write."
"About what?"
"Anything you want. Just write until I get back-about 15 minutes. Don't worry about spelling or grammar. Use the computer to type it if you want."
I slipped out the door, figuring I'd get the usual "I can't think of anything..." results when I came back.
Boy was I surprised! It took me more like 30 minutes, and Superboy had typed an entire page! He found a picture of an anime-style knight and it inspired him to begin a story. And he has been working on it voluntarily every day since! He says he wants to make it into a book. It has chapters and dialog and it is funny!
And it is entirely his! Hooray!
What else?
I rented "Phantom of the Opera," the new movie version, from Netflix (Netflix is the best idea since sliced bread, by the way). Not my usual fare, but I'm trying to branch out...I loved it. Loved it!
Thinking it might be a little halloweenish in spirit, I put it on for the kids. They are mad about it!!!!! Who would've thought? They go around humming tunes from the movie. They quote it! They watch it over and over! They begged me to order the soundtrack (I did, of course!). Superboy wants to take piano lessons! (wish I had a piano...).
We have not had an entire family hit like this since "Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?"
I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Also... binary! Inspired by the book "G is for Googol," we figured it out last night and made a chart and now superboy can write any number (Ok, theoretically) in binary. It was fun, even at 8pm!
JBug is doing a wonderful job of learning her letters and their sounds. Wish I could take more credit, but it is largely due to a video by leapfrog-letter factory, or something like that.

Good stuff going on here!
I don't think I'd want to unschool all the time, but the experience of this week has made me less nervous about those times when I know there will be interruptions.
Gotta go... time for another round of "Phantom..."

back home in NC

We finally settled into a routine in Florida when we decided that we were not happy there. Nothing against the Sunshine state, but for some reason it was not a good fit for us. That, along with some complicated personal stuff with family in North Carolina, prompted us to rethink our situation. So we have spent the past 2-3 weeks moving back to North Carolina. I have to say, it feels much more like home to all of us. The mountains are such a part of my heart, and the children's as well. Dad, in order to keep us in the "luxurious" style to which we have become accustomed (ie: Mom gets to stay home with the kids and homeschool), has taken a 10 week traveling nurse assignment in Alaska. He has done this before, and although we miss him, the pay is so much better than locally available and he gets to spend 4 weeks off between assignments-good quality time.
Modgirl has decided to go back to the public school that she attended before we moved to FL. She really likes the school, has awesome friends, and is doing quite well in honors classes. But I have to admit that I miss having my girl home with me all day.
School with Superboy and JBug goes on. It has been incredibly disruptive moving. The house we moved into is one we lived in a few years back, but the owner really let it get run down by the tennants after us. LOTS of work getting it into shape. But some good learning is happening in between. So I guess we will do some school into the summer a bit to make up for it. Or not. I'm not worried, as they are still learning so much more than they would in a classroom anyway- and having fun all the while.
Superboy is absolutely THRILLED with his new penpal, by the way. He eagerly checks the mail each day, hoping for a letter from Josh in Nevada! Has Josh gotten his letter yet?

pictures of dragon notebook

Here a some pictures of Superboy's dragon notebook. He is really enjoying putting this together and learning so much, all with the pretense of studying dragons.
This is the cover, obviously. This page compares the develoment of a chicken egg to that of a dragon. He wrote a nice little comparison-contrast paragraph, then made little flap books for each type of egg, showing the stages up to hatching.
Here the flaps are open to show some of the inner pages. There are actually 5 pages in the chicken egg book and 3 in the dragon egg book.
This was just a fun art project where he painted his interpretation of what the different "species" of dragon eggs would look like. He also painted the one on the previos pages. Lots of glitter and glue. The last one on the right is actually covered in sand.

This page shows a comparison of the real-life Komodo dragon to the imaginary European dragon. Under the lower left flap is a wonderful report he wrote on the Komodo dragon. On the right are pictures of Komodo Island, a venn diagram, and an excel spreadsheet comparing the komodo with the European dragon and the Gargoyle.This is proving to be a really fun way for Superboy to learn some pretty important skills: Researching, comparison-contrast, graphic organizers, descriptive writing, report writing, Excel, art, life science, and astronomy (see previous pages on Draco). All with a spirit of fun and enjoyment. I consider this a real homeschool success. We plan to do alot more so look for more pictures to come...