Our Family Learning Blog
This podcast by dad, brother, sister, little sister and mom includes reflections on the highlights of our family vacation to Jemez Springs, New Mexico. We also discuss geocaching. It was recorded on Friday, June 6, 2008.
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Show Notes:
This podcast was recorded on Thursday, June 5th, 2008, in Los Alamos, New Mexico at the Bradbury Science Museum. In this podcast, Wesley Fryer reflects on the role Los Alamos played in the ending of World War II in the Pacific theater of combat and inauguration/start of the atomic/nuclear age.
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Show Notes:
Younger sister drew the following picture for our retired neighbor across the street, Mr. Wayne, last week. This is the first time she has ever spelled out someone else’s name by herself, phonetically, in a drawing or other piece of written work she has created. Good job little sis!
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Brother and Sister: Please check out these classroom videos about the XO laptop, and then leave a comment on the site for these students. I’ll embed one of the videos here, but you’ll need to visit the above link to see the rest and leave a comment. The XO is so cool! I wonder when we’ll be able to get one or two for our family to learn and play with?
You also may want to view other videos posted to YouTube by the teacher of these students, Mrs. Cassidy.
My friend Ali had a party at Inspirations tea room. I got to go. It is so fun. I had princess April to eat I had chocolate raspberry truffle tea.
I have read all the Harry Potter, The Lord of The Rings, Narnia and now I am reading Eldest and Eragon for the second time! I do not know what it is about books! Thay just keep you hooked maby it just that you can get out and see anuther world or see somthing through the eyes of some one else. What books keep you hooked? I am suprised how fast I can read! I am going to reread some of the Harry Potter books.
On Thursday, April 10, 2008, we are going to participate in a live videoconference with one of the sea captains Sue Waters works with at a maritime academy in Perth, Australia. Perth is on the other side of the world from where we live in Edmond, Oklahoma. They are 11 hours ahead of us. This means that when we start the videoconference at 8:30 pm US Central Time on Thursday, it will be 9:30 am the next day (Friday) in Perth. It will be 1:30 AM on Friday April 11th GMT time. This webpage from the WorldTimeServer website shows the relative times in our locations. We will be participating in this videoconference just before going to bed on Thursday night, Sue and the others in Western Australia will be just starting their morning of work on Friday! You can use this WorldTimeServer converter page to determine what time it will be where you live when this live videoconference takes place.
Sue is going to try and broadcast this conference over Ustream.tv using her Ustream channel. If she runs into trouble she is going to use Skype and call us directly, and we will record the call to share later. Hopefully Ustream will work, however, so more people can join in. We successfully tested a Skype connection between Oklahoma and Western Australia last night.
Recently Sue created a short (<2 min) video showing some of the fish farming and aquaculture that she works with and around in her job. My connection to Sue is thanks to some helpful comments she made on a blog post I wrote a couple of weeks ago about compasses and magnets. Out of that post and my own learning experience (correcting some misconceptions I’d had about compasses) has emerged this live, synchronous learning opportunity between people literally on other sides of the planet. Amazing.
Sue asked us to brainstorm some questions we’d like to ask to an experienced sea captain prior to our videoconference. The following is the list we came up with tonight after dinner! If you have more questions to add, feel free to add them as comments to this post or just send them directly to Sue via her Twitter account. (@dswaters)
As the crow flies (or perhaps an SR-71) Perth is 10,545 miles away from Edmond. (We used Google Earth to calculate this distance.) The following map shows our relative locations on our planet:
ABOUT SAILING AND SHIPS
Alexander: What types of ships have you been on?
Sarah: How big is the engine on your ship?
Alexander: How big is your crew?
Alexander: Is your ship coal-fired like the Titanic was?
Sarah: Do you have any kids that are interested in sailing?
EXPERIENCES
Alexander: How many years have you been a sailor?
Alexander: What do you think of when you leave for an ocean trip? (What are you thinking just when you leave the harbor)
Shelly: What kinds of sounds do you hear at night on the ship?
Alexander: What do you check on your ship when you first set out?
Sarah: How long are your trips?
Shelly: What kind of food do you eat when you are on the ship?
Alexander: What supplies do you carry?
Sarah: What do you know about compasses? Have you ever used a compass?
Shelly: What is the longest voyage you have ever been on, without touching (setting foot) on land?
DANGERS
Wesley: My kids don’t believe that pirates are still real and a danger in some parts of the world. Have you ever encountered any real pirates, or known other sailors who have?
Sarah: How deep is the water in the ocean where you have sailed?
Alexander: Have you met any sharks or other sea creatures?
Sarah: Have you hit an iceberg before?
Wesley: Have you ever been lost on a voyage or had to get on a life boat for real because your boat was damaged in some way?
OPINIONS
Sarah: What is your favorite thing to do on the ship?
Wesley: What are the most challenging and most rewarding things about being a sailor and a ship captain?
Alexander: How much training do you have to have to be a sailor and a sea captain?
These are some of my favorite websites. You can learn about Wilyumsbirg in them. my grandaddy sent me the sites.
Smithsonian Education Main:
http://smithsonianeducation.org/
Smithsonian for Kids
http://smithsonianeducation.org/students/
Smithsonian for Educators
http://smithsonianeducation.org/educators/
Smithsonian for Families
http://smithsonianeducation.org/families/
Smithsonian for Students
http://smithsonianeducation.org/students/
Jamestown Adventure
http://www.jamestown2007.org/kids-jamestown-adventure.cfm
Jamestown: First English Colony in America
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/ushistory/jamestown.htm
Colonial Williamsburg Information
http://www.williamsburgkids.com/places/
Colonial Williamsburg for Kids
http://www.history.org/kids
I have gone almost every were in the United States. I am so excited about going to D. C. next month.I am also going to Williamsburg. I am not going with my family. I am going with my Grandmother and Grandaddy. My American Girl doll Elizabeth is from Williamsburg. Elizabeth is my middle name. If you would like to find more info. about Elizabeth you can come to this link.
In this movie, someone thought he gave 250 dollars to a poor person. But he really gave money to a company. Someone found out so he gave a water buffalo to that family.
Did you know all are natural resources from the world are being used up? or Did you know that we put toxen gas in are pillows. This is what I lernd from this video. See what you can lean. I named this Trash because…well you see in this video.
We have had power for about 2 weeks now but some people just got it. Some one in my neighborhood just got power. The destruction is amazing!
More photos are available of the oklahoma ice storm at flickr.