24Apr
4

Family reading roundup: All about animals

Since our last reading roundup, Ashar has focused most of her reading time on animals. All sorts of animals.

These have, by far, been her three favorites. We read parts of the National Geographic Book of Mammals almost every night – having worked through the topics of whales, elephants, porpoises, hamsters … and we intersperse that with things like the True or False books, just to mix it up.

The reading level in the true or false books is probably slightly young for Ashar, while the writing in the National Geographic book is probably just slightly more advanced than she’s used to. I figure that balances out? All of these are definitely some of our favorite animal-learning resources!

She’s also been reading about Ripley’s Believe It or Not! after we visited their “Odditorium” in Atlantic City, N.J. (more on that to come tomorrow).

The rest of our family has very little to offer in terms of reading this week. Chris said he’s been “in browsing mode,” but not invested in any particular book, and I finished a regency romance called “Beloved Avenger.” I know, you’re amazed by our literary prowess, are you not?

So what’s your family reading this week?

22Apr
10

A homemade skateboard from an old bookcase and used roller blades

While we were working to clean up our basement family room a bit earlier this month, Ashar found a no-longer-needed removable shelf from a cheap bookcase, and she had a brainstorm.

“I want to make my own skateboard!”

She has been playing with the board ever since, sliding it across the family room carpet, using it as a miniature see-saw, all sorts of things. We kept telling her that we’d have to figure out some “real” wheels if she wanted it to actually bear up to her weight, and I’d thought we’d scope out some yard sales a little later in the spring.

Well, remember our trip to the Salvation Army half-price sale earlier this week, where we found our pyramid-building kit for a dollar? Well, on the same trip, we found an old pair of roller blades with blue wheels – Ashar’s favorite color – also for the winning price of a buck. I looked them over, decided it would be doable to get the wheels out of the blade assembly, and we brought them home. (Homeschooling on the Cheap friends – may I recommend the Salvation Army store for MANY of your homeschooling projects? We <3 it!!) Today, Ashar comes upstairs with her hands FULL of tons of building materials. “What’s this?” I asked. “We’re going to make my skateboard!” she announced. Materials to make a homemade skateboard

So we set to work. Ashar fetched our biggest screwdriver, and I helped remove the wheels from the roller blades. The other main part I helped with involved the saw – I’m not THAT brave of a mom.

See the board at right? That’s our shelf. The smaller pieces sitting on it were cut from a thin piece the same length as the shelf; it was supposed to be a piece of the frame, to hide the “feet” of the bookcase or something. So Ashar marked the right size, I sawed the thin piece of wood, and she nailed the smaller pieces in place to serve as axles for our wheels.

Making a homemade skateboard out of recycled materials

See me at left, above? I’m explaining to Ashar how we can use either nails or screws, and having her test how the wheels spin with each method. We ended up using nails all around, in part because the particleboard wasn’t really “receptive” to a lot of our screwdriver efforts, but also because Ashar liked how the wheels spun on them. She also figured out the nail length – how long would they need to be in order to attach things the way she wanted without coming out the other side

The other two photos prove that we were at least marginally successful – Ashar’s skateboard DID hold her weight. Nails, though, don’t stay real well in crummy particleboard, so the wheels have a tendency to come out pretty easily. We just told her to be careful, and she was.

Our finished homemade skateboard

Ashar was pretty proud of her finished product! I was so proud of her for having an idea and working out how to see it through. (And her hammering skills are REALLY improving, and she even knows which kind of screwdriver is which. A few weeks ago, she didn’t know the difference between a nail and a screw!)

Stuffed animals get a ride on our homemade skateboard

Because of its lack of ability to keep all four wheels together consistently, Ashar decided her skateboard would make a better animal wagon for Winter, Atlantic and Lucy, her stuffed animals acquired this weekend. (THEIR story will make another post, maybe tomorrow; here’s a hint, they accompany Ashar’s new hoodie, seen in today’s photos!)