Classical Charlotte

Yesterday we went on our very first homeschool field trip.  Thanks to an idea I saw on the FIAR forums, I learned about a lighthouse in San Pedro and a nearby bridge.

Before we headed out the door, the Doo wanted to read The Little Red Lighthouse And The Great Gray Bridge in my chair.  She did really well retelling the events of the story and didn’t miss any key details.

San Pedro is about an hour’s drive from our home.  We had planned to hang out at a music festival for the day since it’s website said it was by the lighthouse.  Well, space cadet me did not also notice that it was a Born Again Christian music festival!  Let’s just say we were VERY out of place there and decided to move on.  I did have to giggle that our very first homeschool trip ended up at such an event (we are liberal, secular, evolution-minded homeschoolers).

San Pedro, CA

Looking for a view of the lighthouse with Daddy.

A lighthouse-looking house at the park.

Not a great view of the lighthouse at the "Light at the Lighthouse" music festival - can you spot it?

Lighthouse art.

So we headed to Cabrillo Beach to get a better look.  The lighthouse is still a way off into the ocean but the view from the beach was much better.  It was nice spending time near the water – a lot cooler than back at home.  The Doo and I even got our toes wet.

Above Cabrillo Beach.

Angel's Gate Lighthouse

Salty toes.

We took a walk along the beach and discovered some pelicans chillin’ on a dock.  We could also see the Thomas Vincent Bridge from the beach, although it’s pretty tough to see it in the photo below.

Pelicans.

The bridge is blue-green and behind the palm trees.

When lunch time arrived, we went to a diner we had driven by that posted it was shown on the Food Network.  The food was edible but nothing great.  The best part of the diner, at least for Geeky Mom, was the Vincent Thomas Bridge wall painting and the displayed photos of it inside.  Perfect lunch stop for the field trip.

Seen outside the diner.

Our friends then met up with us back down at Cabrillo Beach.  They are also homeschooling (a little bit of FIAR but my friend is also creating her own curriculum).  We checked out the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium which was a great find.  Inexpensive and lots to look at.

A grumpy looking eel.

Doo and Loco enjoying the Touch Tank.

Pelicans.

A visual of how much breast milk a baby whale drinks every day!

Learning about keeping water clean.

More salty toes.

My friends geocache.  I’d like to get into that some day (we need a portable GPS).  We helped try and locate an item with them but it’s most likely gone (someone else had posted the same).

Geocaching. The kids loved this little house.

Silly daddy time while the mamas chatted.

After saying goodbye to our friends, we finished up our field trip by going over the Vincent Thomas Bridge.  We had planned to just turn around and go home but realized we could just keep going and get on a different freeway.  This brought us to another bridge, the Gerald Desmond Bridge.  It was neat showing the Doo two totally different looking bridges.  Although we go on smaller bridges regularly, like ones going over highways, it’s been years since we’ve gone over a large bridge like these (probably the last one was the Bay Bridge a few years ago).

Vincent Thomas Bridge

Gerald Desmond Bridge (Port of Long Beach)

It was a LONG day.  A great one, though.  At home I gave Doo a little gift to remember our first FIAR book by – a lighthouse thermometer (and also an underwater dolphin ring – a girl has to have some bling).  She’s been begging me to hang up the thermometer this morning – I need to get on that.

Today was our last lesson for The Little Red Lighthouse And The Great Gray Bridge.  Tomorrow we will top off the two weeks with our very first field trip.

After our reading we discussed bridges and their purpose.  Doo needed some help here when asked the purposes of bridges since her first response was that they flashed lights for planes.  So we talked about how that was one use of a bridge but that its main purpose was to get people from one side of something (river, highway, canal, etc) to another.  She then requested to look at some bridges so I showed her the two I grew up with:

Bourne Bridge

Sagamore Bridge

We then looked at the different types of bridges and she said she liked the arch bridge best.

I also found two very cute games – Turtle Bridge and Crocks Bridge.  She had fun playing both but especially loved Turtle Bridge.  Something about the way the man falls in to the water made her hysterically laugh every time.

Last, but not least, the Doo colored a river and riverbanks (I drew the river and she did the rest).  She also included the rocks in the story and added the little red lighthouse as well.  Then I gave her colored popsicle sticks that Grandma left and two toilet paper rolls and she built a bridge over the river with a little bit of help.

Today we learned about lighthouses.  We read through the book without much discussion but then I brought up this lighthouse information site.  We discussed light keepers and how the man in the story was responsible for the little red lighthouse’s light and bell.

We then looked at pictures of lighthouses from Maine (where Daddy grew up) and Massachusetts (where I grew up).

Machias, Maine (where Daddy was born)

South Portland, ME (near Auntie and family)

Biddeford Pool (near other Maine family)

And these 4 are close to where I grew up: Cleveland Ledge Light, Edgartown Light, Hyannis Harbor Light and  Point Gammon Light.

Doo then requested to play a lighthouse game.  I had no plans for that so I went to trusty Google and actually found a lighthouse concentration game!  I love the internet.

Today we did a quick lesson on New York, the state that The Little Red Lighthouse And The Great Gray Bridge takes place in.  Doo was able to name the state’s capital when I gave her the hint “where Grandma used to live”.  We also learned about the state bird, state flower, state animal, state fruit, state nickname and state tree.  I also briefly mentioned Niagara Falls.

After locating New York on her U.S. map (thanks Target’s dollar spot!), we topped off the lesson with some coloring.  Doo colored New York on the U.S. map purple and the rest of the map red.  She also colored the state bird.

Tomorrow will be dance class.

We are in the last stretch with The Little Red Lighthouse And The Great Gray Bridge.  There will probably be 1-2 more lessons this week after today’s plus a field trip this weekend.

Today was Language Arts with a  focus on compound words.  Before reading the book we discussed what a compound word is (I simply said you have 2 words by themselves but when you put them together they make a new word and it clicked right away for her).  The Little Red Lighthouse has a few examples – such as lighthouse, catwalk, and workmen.  I would point out each one as we read the book (during which Doo exclaimed “I love this book!” mid-way through).

After our reading she played a compound word game online (found the link here) which was cute.  Most of the compound word games online required reading.  Doo can read at a certain level but mainly things like “The dog sat on the bag.”  Although she did pretty well dissecting a few compound words with Mama’s help.

She then colored these compound word cards with her crayons.  I broke out my new laminator and laminated them, cut them out, and we played a game of memory.  She beat me.  I may have let her.

Compound Word Memory

Before we got started with rereading the book and talking about the contrast in size between the lighthouse and the bridge, we looked over a website that The Doo’s “Scientist” Papa emailed us.  The site discussed estuaries, which is the place where the river and ocean meet and the river’s freshwater mixes with the ocean’s salt water.  While we discussed it we also reviewed a bit from yesterday’s lesson.

Today’s lesson involved the contrast in size between the lighthouse and the bridge.  We talked about their sizes plus how much room each took on the page.  Then The Doo made her own drawing showing size contrast.

A small and large zebra plus an example from the book.

Tomorrow will be another Language Arts day.

Today was Science day for Five in a Row.  We reread The Little Red Lighthouse And The Great Gray Bridge (which The Doo has yet to get sick of, so that’s a good thing).  Throughout the reading we would bring up topics we have discussed on different days.  The Doo actually remembered the word “personification” when I asked her – I was impressed!

After the read we discussed rivers – where they start and where they end up.  And some of their many uses.  The Doo was able to come up with a couple of uses on her own (transportation and fishing).  We also discussed dams and hydro-power for a few minutes.

I had trouble finding many photos online showing a river pouring into an ocean but did manage to locate this one for a visual.

Courtesy of www.icem.com.au

We also watched a couple of videos of the Hudson River and then she asked to see a video of the little red lighthouse.  I happened to have 2 links for that (was saving them for a different day but happy to show them now).

My little artist then requested to color a picture of a river.  I found one here and she got to work with her colored pencils.  She also made it a night scene, bringing back our very first FIAR lesson.

A river at night.

We row The Little Red Lighthouse… one more week and will end our first FIAR book with a field trip next weekend.

The Doo requested “more homeschooling” before dinner so I quickly went to Enchanted Learning and pulled up this London Bridge online coloring activity.  She’s fascinated.

Enchanted Learning is soooo worth the $20/year (plus I can use it at my job!)

Today’s lesson was on a Social Studies suggestion in our FIAR volume 2 book for The Little Red Lighthouse And The Great Gray Bridge.   We discussed the lighthouse’s feeling of pride (“he was VERY, VERY PROUD”) which also led into a discussion of what we call “big” (capital) letters.

The lighthouse at first gets a little boastful and claims to be the MASTER OF THE RIVER.  Doo and I discussed how feeling proud was OK but that the lighthouse was taking things a bit too far by claiming to be master of an entire river.  We then discussed one of her favorite movies, Beauty and the Beast, which has a character named Gaston.  Gaston is a boastful and vain man who has a hard time dealing with reality due to his big head.

I asked the Doo what she’s proud of doing around the house – her reply was cleaning.    So we talked about why that was an important job and how the lighthouse also did an important job as well by warning the boats about the dangerous rocks.  Once the bridge is built the lighthouse mistakenly thinks he is no longer needed.  But he then learns he still has a job to do and becomes proud, but not big-headed, of his needed purpose.

Certain phrases, like VERY, VERY PROUD, were written in all caps for emphasis.  We’ve usually called capital letters “big” or “mommy” letters so this allowed us to discuss what they are actually called.  The Doo then started a letter book from Enchanted Learning which further reviewed capital and lower case letters for her.

Tomorrow should be a day off from FIAR if she allows it.  She has her much beloved dance class in the evening so there won’t be much time for anything before that.

Today we focused on Language Arts and personification.  In The Little Red Lighthouse And The Great Gray Bridge, the majority of the inanimate objects were given human traits throughout the storytelling.  The lighthouse’s face displayed several expressions plus he was described as feeling proud, sad, and jolly.  The fog, bridge, and boats were all personified as well in both the writing and the drawings.

The Doo and I discussed personification throughout today’s reading.  We talked about it at almost every chance in the story plus reviewed various emotions vocabulary and tried to come up with other words besides just “sad, happy”, etc…

After reading the book again we looked over a few of her own books for examples of personification.  Little Cloud by Eric Carle told the story of an imaginative cloud with a friendly face.  The Little Engine That Could is full of trains and toys exhibiting human traits and feelings.  We also have a book for the song Frosty the Snowman which shows a snowman singing, dancing, running, and playing with children.  My favorite book out of the bunch is not even available through Amazon anymore (minus used).  The Acorn and the Oak Tree by Lori Froeb is a sweet story about how an acorn becomes an oak tree.  The acorn/tree is full of wonder and curiosity as it grows into a mighty oak.  We got this book for Doo when she was a baby and it is still a big favorite.

After our Language Arts lesson The Doo requested “more homeschooling” so she did some writing (she has just begun to show interest in writing letters this last month) and then also colored printouts of a bridge and a lighthouse.  I may have to prepare more than originally planned since she seems so hungry for it.

Which is a good thing.