Fun punctuation books!

Have you read this book yet?

If not, I highly recommend it! I read it years ago and found it to be just fantastic. I'm nit-picky with punctuation and it drives me crazy to see so many signs and ads in our city with serious errors! Even on TV... What was it that I saw the other day? I can't remember. But they didn't put a hyphen where it was needed so it didn't actually make sense! lol

At the library on Saturday, seeing what I could find on Canadian history, I stumbled across a couple of Lynne Truss's books--for kids. I gave them to my son to read today and he got a good chuckle. But it was also a very easy way of giving the lesson that punctuation matters!!

The first one for kids, all about commas:

The second one for kids, looking at different punctuations. (WARNING: There is a drawing with a king with his head cut off and some blood. It didn't faze my 12yo, but a sensitive younger child might have an issue with it! That said, I laughed more with this one than the first one!)

And the third one, which we haven't gotten our hands on yet, but it's all about apostrophes, something a large percentage of the adult population doesn't seem to know how to use properly!

You can click on any of the books and they will take you to Amazon where you can read some of the reviews and see if they sound like a good fit for your family. :)




I now have a hankering to reread the first "Eat, Shoots and Leaves"! :)

Hooked On Phonics?

Anybody know anything about Hooked on Phonics? They asked me to promote them, but never having seen the product and really knowing nothing about it... I figured I'd do a little research first. Can't say I've really heard people in Montessori homeschooling use it, although my blog's not strictly Montessori... Hm...

The Underground Railroad

With Harriet Tubman's birthday this past Sunday, I shared a little bit about the Underground Railroad with my kids. Yesterday, my 12yo and I looked into it more and I found a number of links that I thought I would share with you. My main focus has been on information from the Canadian side of things, but there are links from both sides of the border:

From The Canadian Encyclopedia: http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/underground-railroad

North American Black Historical Museum (in Ontario): http://www.blackhistoricalmuseum.org/

Buxton National Historic Site and Museum: http://buxtonmuseum.com/


North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association: http://northcountryundergroundrailroad.com/

From National Geographic (interactive site; very good!): http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/multimedia/interactive/the-underground-railroad/?ar_a=1

I have also done up a post on some places to visit on vacation: http://www.vacationswiththekids.com/2013/03/12/make-history-come-alive-the-underground-railroad/

Reading things from the above got us wondering about slavery in Canada:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Canada

---

Funny thing was that we started looking at information about the Underground Railroad yesterday, which led somehow to talking about aboriginal peoples of North America, which then led us to finding a book online written in 1915 where the opening was almost like reading a Montessori Great Lesson on the formation of the Earth! We ended up looking up "Archaean rock" and discovered that it's the rock in the Canadian Shield, which led to looking at pictures of lakes I've camped at in the Northwest Territories and some images of Yellowknife, where I spent half my childhood. Funny how one topic can so quickly lead to something completely unrelated! lol

Another Sick Day

Okay, instead of letting myself moan and groan about how we're not getting anything done, let me find some positives about having yet another sick day (both kids are feeling worse than yesterday! :( ).

• I can do more things that I want to do (like do blog posts, post in Yahoo Groups, surf the web, BBM chat, sit and do nothing, make banana bread...)
  
• they can just relax and hopefully get better quicker
  
• I'll be able to take a nap and not feel guilty about not being fully present to work with them/guide them
  
• I can get some things done around the house before the weekend: vacuum, laundry, other cleaning
  
• I might go do the groceries this afternoon rather than try to do it tomorrow when it'll be crazy
   
• things are very calm and quiet

Well, I suppose I should try to make something of the day. Almost 11 am here and if I want to get some more of the above done, I'll have to get myself moving!