Get Moving With Playstation Move

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of PlayStation MOVE. All opinions are 100% mine.

Do you own a Playstation 3? You know Christmas is coming, right? You know we all play too many video games, and not get enough exercise, right? Well now there is Move for the PS3 video game systems.

For just $99 dollars you can add the Playstation Move to your current PS3 system. As you can see in the picture above it is a easy to use hand held remote, that has various attachments for various games. If you have ever played Playstation games with the traditional shock controllers then you know it can be a challenge if you have small hands, or are just not that coordinated to use and remember all those buttons. The Playstation Move solves that problem for you. It is slim and easy to hold, does not have all the buttons to remember, and gives you full range of mobility while playing. You can have family rivalry nights, parties with friends and other family members, plus get all that exercise we are all lacking in our lives. The only thing missing is the fresh air, and if you are real creative you could probably hook it up outside somewhere.

There are PS3 games that are specifically made for the Playstation Move system. For our family I would pick the Sports Champions first, because there is something for young and old alike on this game. There is tennis, golf, and bowling just to name a few. Caitlin would love Little Big Planet, and DJ would love the Sorcery game. They are adding new games all the time, and having events all over the country that you can actually attend to test one of these for yourself.

If you have a daycare, after school program, or youth group then this would be great for cold or rainy days, when kids can not be outside. For the elderly in daycare, nursing homes, or adult homes, the Playstation Move can keep them engaged, active, and supply ROM exercises all at the same time. For one low price, the Playstation Move has endless possibilities.

The Digestive System and Kids

Tomorrow we are again studying the Digestive System. If you go in the archives for last Thursday, there is a cool video you can watch. Click this link, to go to kidshealth.org, and listen or read all about the digestive system. They even have a quiz you can take at the end. This is one of my favorite sights for kids health learning.

If you have not checked out DJ's writing blog lately be sure to hop on over there. I have posted his first photo shoot for him. Can you believe it is the end of September already? I can't, but I sure am happy about not having to use the air conditioner these last two days.

Lesson Plans For 09/30/10:

DJ:
Health: The Digestive System
Math: Multiplication, and mixed math
Reading Comprehension with worksheet
Language Arts: Pronoun agreement
Writing: Writing a paragraph
Sign Language: Finger spelling
Spooky Eyes Fall Craft
Spelling: Chapter 3

Caitlin:
Health: Digestive System
Language Arts: Blends, long E
Math: Addition
Same/Different: Worksheet
Printing Practice
Fall pumpkin crafts
Clock work, calendar work, skip counting, sight words, spelling words list 3

Johnny Appleseed and Canada

Tomorrow is Social Studies and a jam packed day again. We will be starting with Johnny Appleseed. DJ already knows this so it is more review fun for him. The video below is cute, but if you would rather watch the Disney version you can get it from my archives here. Johnny Appleseed is one of the most searched items on this blog. For fun activity sheets on Johnny Appleseed you can go here, and here. These are free printables for anyone to use.

We are also studying Canada tomorrow. The other two videos below cover the basic history of Canada, and a virtual plane tour over their beautiful country. Other things to learn about Canada are: location, capital, languages, currency, population, agriculture, flag, industries, phrasing and spelling. I believe we have Canada next week too.

Then DJ gets to do chapter 3 of the Story of the World Ancient Times, reading with review questions. As part of the assignment he will write his name in hieroglyph forms. This should be interesting.

Lesson Plans For 09/29/10:

DJ:
Social Studies: As above
Math: Mixed math, multiplication
Spelling: Chapter 3 put words in alphabetical order

Caitlin:
Social Studies: Johnny Appleseed, and Canada
Math: Addition
Circle Activity Sheet
Same/Different: Worksheet
Language Arts: Spelling list 3, long E, blends gl, middle sounds
Clock work, calendar work, skip counting, sight words
Fall Crafts: Apples

Parts Of A Camera, Weathering, and Weather Fronts

Tomorrow is Science class, and DJ actually has four different Science areas to study. Because this is our first week of 4H lessons, he has lesson one which basically is getting to know your camera. He also has his first photo shoot, which will have the theme of apples. Apples because it is Fall, and we are studying Johnny Appleseed on Wednesday. His photos will be posted each week on his writing blog. There are three videos below. One for parts of the camera, the weather process, and weather fronts. DJ and Caitlin are also finishing their final week of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. DJ will do a blog post on Friday about what he learned. I found, with much difficulty, printable diagrams showing parts of cameras for a 35mm camera, and a digital camera, for comparison between the two. Caitlin will be doing some Fall crafts I found in an Allyou magazine. You can go to their website and download the templates for your kids for free.

Lesson Plans For 09/28/10:

DJ:
Science: See above
Math: Multiplication, mixed math, if time permits math fraction games
Spelling: Chapter 3 write each word three times each

Caitlin:
Science: Week 4 of Reduce, reuse, and recycle
Math: Addition
Language Arts: Blends gl, ending sounds, spelling list three
Printing Practice
Same/Different: Worksheet
Color Black: Worksheet
Fall Decorating and Crafts

Make A Rope With Recycled Bags

If you are like me, you probably have a million of those plastic grocery bags. Ever wonder what you could do with all of them? I reuse them at Save A Lot, and as garbage liners in our bathroom cans. You could try the clever trick below and make rope with them. It appears to be very strong, and is a great way to keep our landfills empty of these dreadful bags. I have not yet tried this, and yes we are studying reusing and recycling of products.

One of the great things about homeschooling is the flexibility to change what does not work, or enhance something that does. With that said we are switching up our lessons a bit. With DJ having more intense science, and history work this year, in order for him to do a good job he needs more time in his day. So Tuesdays, and Wednesdays DJ will have one of those subjects plus Math, and Spelling. The others will not be done on those days for him.


Lesson Plans For 09/27/10:

DJ:
Language Arts: Pronouns
Writing: Blog post Two Tone Tang
Math: Multiplication, mixed math, fraction games
Sign Language
Reading: Reading comprehension with worksheet
Writing: Write a paragraph
Spelling: Chapter 3 write each word three times each

Caitlin:
Math: Addition
Language Arts: Blends gl, ending sounds, long O
Reading: Hot Dog, Fat Cat
Printing Practice
Same/Different: Worksheet
Color Purple: Worksheet
Clock work, calendar work, sight words, spelling list 3, skip counting

Teach Your Kids To Cook

It is Saturday, and that means shopping. Each Saturday I try to feature something I own, love, or is on my wish list to buy. If you want to teach your kids to cook, check out the book below.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Tomorrow is art day, and this week we are studying Leonard Da Vinci. DJ is somewhat fascinated by Leonardo Da Vinci, so for the next five weeks I will be posting two videos, in a series of ten, for him, you, and anyone else to watch. They are from the History Channel, and are very good. In his art book there are actually three activities associated with Leonard Da Vinci, so each week he will do one. Tomorrow is also make up day for any work not completed during the week.

Lesson Plans For 10/24/10:

DJ:
Spelling Test: Chapter 2
Reading: The Story of Jamestown with book report
Art: Leonardi Da Vinci, reading, post test, videos and project
Cursive Writing
Proof Reading: WS
Blog Post: The 3 R's: Reduce, reuse, and recycle

Caitlin:
Reading: Hot Dog, Fat Cat, and one more of choice
Art: Draw Write Now Native Americans: Longhouses
Clock work, calendar work, skip counting, spelling

The Digestive System and Digestive Process Animations

Tomorrow is Health class, and we are studying the Digestive System. Like most of my posts one video is for the younger learner, and the other for a little more advanced learners. They are both very good. Play them over a few weeks, until you are sure they have learned at least the basics of the digestive system. You can make up your own review questions based on the videos, or use Lesson Snips for free reading and question assignments. We also have a cool digestive system experiment we will be doing from the Your Incredible Icky Insides experiment books, by Scholastic Books.

Lesson Plans For 09/23/10:

DJ:
Health: The Digestive System, with experiment
Writing: Your audience
Sign Language
Math: Mixed math, addition, subtraction, fractions
Language Arts: Pronouns, spelling chapter 2
Reading: Reading comprehension with worksheet

Caitlin:
Health: Same as above
Math: Addition
Same/Different: Worksheet
Reading: Reading Rebus pictures
Language Arts: Vowels, blends fl, ending sounds
Printing Practice
Clock work, calendar work, skip counting, spelling list two

Panda Bears and Bamboo

Besides being incredibly cute, there is an actual reason that I am talking about Panda Bears today. I am hoping someone who has some knowledge on the subject will enlighten me. This has nothing to do with school, but is more of something that has peaked my thought process. So I am going to say what I know about Pandas and Bamboo and you can either tell me I am right, wrong, or add more details to the statements as needed.

This is what I know about Panda Bears and Bamboo. Panda Bears are extremely endangered species. Their only source of food that they eat is the Bamboo plant. The Bamboo plant in and of itself is an endangered plant. Panda Bears are not very good at mating, making it harder to re-establish the Panda population.

Those are the things I know. I would really like to know if Bamboo comes in other varieties other than the kind the Panda Bear eats, or is it a one source, one type only plant?


Tomorrow is the first playdate with our homeschool friends, of the new school year. We will be doing History in the morning which is Chapter 2 of Ancient Times, with activities. Caitlin is on week two of Community Helpers. Plus map skills for DJ. Then after lunch it is all playtime. I have learned something about 4H. There is not a whole lot for the younger learner. I purchased the Butterfly curriculum for Caitlin thinking it was age appropriate. It was not. It was for fourth graders threw 8th grade. So I had to go back to the site to find something for her. I was able to find All About Animals, and All About Soil. These were free to download, so I was happy about that. We will beginning the curriculum's next week. They will be incorporated into Science lessons for the school year.

The Father Of Genetics: Mendel

Tomorrow for Science class we are up to our third week, out of four, of the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle curriculum. DJ will also be doing a piece on Gregor Mendel the Father of Genetics. This will be his first time going into detail about genetics. The first video below is suited towards younger learners, while the second video is more advanced. I messed up our weather tracking, so I will be restarting it with just the temp and pressure in the AM, then the temp and pressure in the PM. The jist of the experiment is supposed to show that as the pressure rises the temp goes down.

Lesson Plans For 09/21/10:

DJ:
Sign Language
Reading: Reading comprehension with worksheet
Science: As above
Math: Mixed math, addition, subtraction, fractions
Writing: The writing process, there is a video in the archives on this
Language Arts: Pronouns, spelling list chapter two write three times each

Caitlin:
Math: Addition
Science: Week three of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Printing Practice
Language Arts: Vowels, blends fl, ending sounds, spelling list two,
Counting: WS
Matching: WS
Clock work, calendar work, skip counting, sight words

A New Wave Of Social Networking

If you are like millions of other people all over the world, then you love social networks sights. The most popular being Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and Youtube. Well now there is a new social network site called Beach Out.

Beach Out is currently in pre-launch, and looking for new people to sign up. I signed up. It was easy, just your name and email, then a confirmation email. I was hoping to go ahead and make a profile page to share with all of you, so you could see what it looked like, but they don't seem to be to that point just yet.

Anyways here are the good things I like about Beach Out. It is free! You know I love free! They have an automatic translator for anyone you may chat with in another language. To me that is huge, because I don't know of other sites that do that. You can have live video chat, as well as upload videos and pictures. You can chat with family or friends, via live video anywhere in the world, or regular text chat. You have total control over your profile page. You can move and adjust posts left by friends and family.

Beach Out looks very promising to me, and they offer cool apparel and gifts in the Beach Out store, with a portion of all proceeds going to charity. So you can have fun while you give back. If you click the link above you will go to their website, pre-register, and view the short video telling you all about Beach Out.

A History Of US by Joy Hakim

The third book in this series, there are ten, was given to me a couple of days ago by someone who homeschooled her son. I have read through almost the whole thing already, and I really love it. These books are sold individually, or you can buy the whole set. Because I actually won't be using these until DJ gets in 9th grade, I will buy them piece by piece. I am hoping the woman who gave me the one I am currently reading will have the others, and she will let me purchase them from her. If your kids are learning about American History, and you want a set that has a touch of humor to it, and easy to read, you might want to look into this set. There are other books with similar titles so be sure to use the links below, or look for Joy Hakim as the author.

Margaret Bourke-White

Tomorrow for art class we are studying Margaret Bourke-White. If you do not know her story, you might want to watch the short video below, and there is tons of information available on her in the search engines. She was a famous female photographer. If time permits at the end of the day, both children get to play educational computer games. This is ongoing but I don't always say it.

Lesson Plans For 09/17/10:

DJ:
Reading: The Story of the White House with book report
Art: Margaret Bourke-White, Draw Write Now Native Americans, canoes, and cave writings. The cave writings is from our history assignment this week, and they have to make a cave painting using animals or symbols to leave a message on the walls.
Music: Childrens sing along songs, music appreciation
Sign Language: This week we learned to sign two full sentences. I am happy to meet you. Where were you born. Next week we will go on to the next chapter.
Writing: My summer vacation on DJ's blog
Spelling Test
Handwriting

Caitlin:
Reading: Fat Cat and one other book of choice
Sight words, calendar work, clock work, spelling words
Math: Skip count by twos
Art: Same as above minus Margaret Bourke-White
Music: Childrens sing along songs, music appreciation
Sign Language

Chew It Up!

Tomorrow is health class, and we are studying teeth. The cute cat video below is for younger learners learning to brush properly. The other two are for older learners that need to learn more info about teeth. I thought this simple experiment, which I will share with you, makes a good point to kids about taking care of all their teeth.

You will need: Your child, and a piece of fruit or raw vegetable. Have your child place the food in their mouth and chew it using only their front teeth, no back teeth. Then discuss why the back teeth are so important to chewing and digesting your food. Digestion starts in the mouth. If you don't chew your food well enough then you most likely won't digest it very well either. Discuss that your front teeth are more for biting, and tearing of food, while your back teeth are for grinding, and chewing the food down into smaller particles. Have your child think about if they had no back teeth. How easy would it be to eat certain foods?

Lesson Plans For 09/16/10:

DJ:
Health: Human teeth with experiment
Math: Multiplication, fractions, addition and subtraction
Language Arts: Irregular plural nouns, spelling list one oral recital
Writing: Staying on topic
Reading: Reading comprehension with worksheet

Caitlin:
Health: Oral hygiene basics
Sequencing: Worksheet
Language Arts: Short vowels review, blends dr, beginning sounds
Spelling: Sight words 1
Printing Practice
Math: Addition
Calendar work, clock work, sight words, skip counting.

Community Helpers Grade 1

I signed DJ and Caitlin up for 4H today. Let me tell you it is not your mother's 4H. They offer more than 120 programs for you to choose from, and you can order right online. DJ picked photography, and Caitlin picked butterflies. It was kind of hard for a six year old to pick. I am very much looking forward to the 4H experience. Tomorrow is Social Studies, and DJ will be doing Ancient Times, and Caitlin is doing Community Helpers, and whatever part of Ancient Times she might be interested in listening to. There are two videos below that you can use as supplement to your Community Helpers lesson.

Lesson Plans For 09/15/10:

DJ:
Social Studies: History of the World Ancient Times, and map work, there are two crafts with this lesson, cave painting, and how to build a hut. These will be done on Friday if not completed tomorrow.
Math: Problem solving, fractions, addition, subtraction
Language Arts: Regular plural nouns, spelling list number one
Writing: Staying on topic
Reading: Reading comprehension with worksheet

Caitlin:
Math: Addition
Social Studies: Community helpers
Color Recognition: Worksheet
Language Arts: Blends dr, beginning sounds
Spelling: Sight words list one
Printing Practice
Calendar work, clock work, sight words, and skip counting

Do You Have Tons Of Old And Broken Crayons?

If you have children, then the answer is probably yes! Now you can recycle reuse those crayons. We are on week two of our Science lesson about reduce, recycle, and reuse. Below the video will show how in ten minutes you can use all those unwanted crayons, making new and exciting colors of crayons.

Lesson Plans For 09/14/10:

DJ:
Science: Week 2 of Reduce, recycle and reuse. Plus taking heat, how to use a thermometer wk 2
Math: Fractions, addition, subtraction
Writing: Main idea and details
Language Arts: Spelling list 1 write each word two times each, and regular plural nouns
Reading: Reading Comprehension with worksheet

Caitlin:
Science: Week 2 of Reduce, reuse, and recycle
Math: Addition
Reasoning: Worksheet
Sight Words, clock and calendar work, skip counting, printing practice, spelling list 1
Language Arts: Short U, blends br, beginning sounds
Same/Different: Worksheet

School On Monday

Lesson Plans For 09/12/10:

DJ:
Sign Language
Math: Fractions, addition, subtraction
Writing: Main idea and details
Language Arts: Spelling list one three times each, proper nouns
Reading: Reading comprehension with worksheet
Writing: Blog post, My Summer Vacation

Caitlin:
Sight Words
Clock Work with skip counting by fives, o clock, and half hour
Calendar Work
Rhyming: Worksheet
Skip Counting by twos
Spelling: Sight words 1-10
Printing Practice
Math: Addition
Language Arts: Short U, blends br, beginning sounds
Same/Different: Worksheet

A Day We Will Never Forget!

Rosa Bonheur Animal Artist

Today for art class we are learning about Rosa Bonheur. Rosa Bonheur was an expert animal artist. She spent countless hours learning her trade, and her works are remarkable. She died in 1899. The short video below shows some of her works, and some of her history.

Friday Is Art And Music Day

Last year Fridays were test days. This year it will be a little different. Fridays will be mainly for reading, writing, music, and art. I don't follow a particular music curriculum, after all I can't play an instrument myself. We do have a I Can Play Piano, that the kids use. We also listen to various music pieces, and learn about musicians. I would like to thank all of you who stopped by to wish us well wishes after our very tough day yesterday. Today was a smooth day, with just some I am missing Krypto tears. We were able to catch up on all the lessons, except the archaeology dig, which will be done eventually. I have to say about The Story of the World curriculum, DJ loves it so far. He is so interested in the ancient maps, and what happened thousands of years ago. Caitlin however could give a rats behind, and I don't think barely listened to anything we discussed. I know a lot of homeschoolers teach the same curriculum to all their children for ease, but I won't be doing this one with Caitlin this year. I will switch to something more appropriate, and she will learn first grade related material based on Native Americans, being a good citizen, community helpers, phone numbers etc. I can copy the worksheets, so when she is old enough I can still use it for her without buying another student workbook. We are supposed to be doing sign language as well, but somehow I can not find the book I bought. So until I do, we will use the videos posted in the archives.

Lesson Plans For 09/10/10:

DJ:
Art: Rosa Bonheur animals with texture skills, and Birch bark canoe from Draw Write Now
Music: I can play piano
Reading: The Story of Mount Vernon book with book report
Writing: My summer vacation, blog post
Cursive Writing
Proofreading: Worksheet

Caitlin:
Art: Rosa Bonheur animals with texture skills, Birch bark canoe from Draw Write Now
Music: I can play piano
Reading: Book one of Animal Antics series: Fat Cat
Printing Practice
Calendar Work
Clock Work


A quick note for all of you who get the History Channel. On Saturday at 9 PM, they will be having a special on 911. I will be recording this for the kids to watch at a later date. We have discussed this in the past, and I think at least DJ is old enough to watch it. Also on 09/17 on the History Channel website, is a live webcast for children to learn about the importance of the Constitution, from 12-12:45 PM. I hope to remember to have them watch this.

No Lessons Today

Well not the book kind anyways. All lessons assigned for today will be made up over the next two days. We have had a very emotional past twenty four hours, and no one was up to school. My kids first dog ever had to be put to sleep today, and it has been very hard indeed. We are going to be burying him in the yard soon, that is what the kids wanted. It has been a rough day.

Make Your Own Archaeology Dig

Tomorrow is history class and we will beginning the History of the World Ancient Times series. This is my first time using a curriculum with a direct biblical reference. I have already read through the series and worksheets, and have decided to use all four of the series. Each series is a one year curriculum. Tomorrow we begin with the introduction, which covers how we know what happened and archaeology. If you want a fun hands on way to teach your kids about archaeology, then you need to have a dig in your own back yard. It is really quite easy to do. Take some stuff from your home, dishes, toys, maybe an old cell phone, things that are a staple of our period of time. Take them out to your yard and bury them. Then have your kids look for, and dig them up. Pretend you are from the future, and what these items tell about the people of their time. If you have any cool artifacts from the past those would be cool to bury, and discuss as well. I wish I had a black and white console TV LOL! That would be kind of hard to bury. I have not told Caitlin and DJ we were doing this yet because I don't want them to watch me bury them, and it case it rains it will be postponed. Use an old toothbrush for them to brush the dirt off the items, like in a real dig. Have fun, and let me know if you try it. Plus the book calls for a family tree to be made, but I have decided to have them make a History of Me lapbook instead.

Lesson Plans For 09/08/2010:

DJ:
History: Story of the World Ancient Times: Introduction
Language Arts: Common nouns
Math: Solid figures, fractions, word problems
Reading: Australia's Giant Toads, reading comprehension
Map Skills: Comparing map projections
Writing: The Main Idea

Caitlin:
Sight Words
Calendar Work
History: As above
Math: Addition
Pnonics/Language Arts: Blends-bl, beginning sounds, Pooh's beginning consonants, short O words
Printing Practice
Same/Different worksheet
If time permits learning games on Gamequarium link is provided at the bottom of this blog in the links section. There are tons of educational games on this site, for all ages.

School Starts Tomorrow: Weather Tracking

Tomorrow is our first day back to school. We do lessons maybe a little bit different than some others do. Mondays and Fridays are for reading, art, music, sign language, exam day, catch up, review, and DJ does his blog writing. Tuesdays are Science plus Math, Language Arts, Handwriting, and Spelling. Wednesday is History plus the others, and Thursday is Health plus the others. I do it this way so that we are not doing Science, History and Health every single day. It is just too much, and I don't think they retain as much information. We have a chock full year planned, and I hope I didn't plan for too much.

Since tomorrow is Tuesday that means it is Science day, and we will be jumping right in with weather tracking. We have a reading exercise with questions, and then a simple experiment. If you would like to do the weather tracking experiment it is simple enough. First talk about the season you are currently in, and predict what you think the weather will be like for the next 21 days. Write down your thoughts for future reference. For the next 21 days record in a notebook the following data: temperature, barometric pressure, wind speed, amount of precipitation, and amount of clouds visible. This is the collection part of your experiment. After 21 days analyze your data, and compare it to what you thought the weather would be like. Then make a conclusion as to whether your predicted correctly, and what the actual facts of the weather tracking shows. This is not a difficult experiment and takes only a few minutes out of each day. Try it, and tell me if you liked it.

Below are two short videos, one that explains how a thermometer works and the other explains barometric pressure, and its relation to temperature. The Weather Channel also has a great website geared directly towards children learning weather. There is also Weather Wiz Kids. We are also starting week one of our Reuse and Recycle lesson. It is a four week class. Tomorrow we will be reusing milk jugs to make bird feeders and a bird house. If we don't get to it tomorrow it will be done on Friday.

Lesson Plans For Tuesday September 7, 2010:

DJ:
Reading Comprehension
Science: Week 1 Reuse and Recycle, weather tracking, read pages 4-9 of Weather book.
Math: Addition, subtraction, plane figures, fractions
Language Arts: Common nouns
Writing: Main ideas and details in pictures
Handwriting


Caitlin:
Science: Week one of Recycle and Reuse, weather tracking
Printing Practice
Site Words: List one
Math: Addition
Language Arts: Beginning sounds, short O, blends-bl
Matching by size and shape: Worksheet
Calendar and clock work: This is a repeating daily activity for Caitlin.

The History of Labor Day

Labor Day to most of us means the end of summer, and going back to school. But like everything in this country Labor Day has a history. Watch the video below to learn all about Labor Day, and labor in this country,

Fun Friday Insects: The Hummingbird Moth

Welcome back to Fun Friday at Blogging for Fun. This is our first topic of the new year, and we are doing insects. Any insect of your choosing.

Watch the video below and tell me if that looks like a moth? A moth is an insect but that looks like a hummingbird. It is a hummingbird moth! Did you know there was any such thing? I didn't, matter of fact I might have seen these and didn't even know it wasn't a hummingbird. I do have to say they have fatter bodies than a regular hummingbird.

Facts about the Hummingbird Moth:

- Most moths only come out at night. The Hummingbird Moth is seen on clear, sunny days.
- Hummingbird Moths grow up to two inches long with brown bodies and red stripes. Though there are some that look like bumblebees in their coloring, and I saw one with polka dot wings like a ladybug.
- Mating habits: After mating the female moth lays her eggs on host plants. When the caterpillars hatch they are yellowish green with darker green lines, reddish spots on their sides, and a long yellow tail.
- When the caterpillar is fully grown it crawls down into the soil and creates a cocoon. If it is early in the season, when the cocoon is formed, the caterpillar will hatch in a few weeks. If it is closer to Fall the cocoon will stay in pupa form until the Spring.
- As their name would imply, Hummingbird moths feed on the nectar of plants, just like a hummingbird. They especially like Honeysuckle, Red Clover, blueberry, blackberries, roses, and thistles.
- The proboscis is the technical term for the long mouth like part that they eat the nectar with. They actually keep it rolled up in a ball like structure until they are ready to use it.
- Hummingbird moths do have a few known predators such as birds, spiders, bats, and anything else that might find a moth or hummingbird tasty.

If you would like to join in on our Fun Friday topics, go to the left hand column of this blog, and use the sign up box to join Blogging For Fun.

How To Dry Roast Peanuts

Actually this is much easier than I expected. The hardest or most time consuming part is shelling the raw peanut. We don't eat boiled peanuts here at my house, so we will roast them. We were given a whole bucket of raw peanuts from a friend at our playdate yesterday. You can actually salt them, or add whatever exotic flavors you like, after roasting them. You can do it on the stove top, or in the oven. You can read the link http://www.ehow.com/how_5480887_dry-roast-raw-peanuts.html or vies the video below. Have you ever dry roasted your own peanuts?

Become A Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellow

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Woodrow Wilson. All opinions are 100% mine.

Our public schools are in a crisis. We don't have enough qualified Math and Science teachers to meet our future needs. Maybe you can help. The Woodrow Wilson www.wwteachingfellowship.org offers a stipend to students wanting to get their Masters in Science or Math. In return you must agree to teach at one of the harder to staff schools all over the US.

Since the end of WW2 the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship has had the goal of aiding teachers to get their Masters in Science and Math, and to retain teachers in high need schools. Rural and inner city schools are in desperate need of caring, qualified Math and Science teachers. Have you ever heard the saying " A mind is a terrible thing to waste?" The Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship aims to be sure not one child's mind will go to waste in this country. Through mentoring and preparation, the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship program will help you achieve your goal of getting a Masters degree, and help our schools become the best in the world. The video below will explain more about the foundation and their objectives.

All candidates for the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship program will have the following:

-Have completed an undergraduate degree in a STEM field by June 2011.
- Have graduated with a 3.0 GPA or higher.
- Demonstrate a commitment to the program and its goals.

As a Woodrow Wilson Fellow you will:

- Complete a field based masters degree in teacher education.
- Commit to teach for at least three years, in a high needs school.
- Receive intensive support and mentoring in the classroom.

Help our public schools become the best they can be. Become a Woodrow Wilson Teacher Fellow, earn your masters in teaching, and brighten the future of kids all over this great country.