We went to the Houston Zoo yesterday with our church family and had a ball. We've been to Houston previously on numerous occasions but only to catch flight so we never really had a chance see the city properly, so this was a great way of "breaking into the cityscape" from some angle other than the tarmac.
Many people from our small town frequent Houston for their regular shopping (retail and grocery) as they have more of a variety of products to meet the needs of all ethnicities, but we simply make due by venturing down to the nearby suburb of Lake Charles, Louisiana. Boy, is there a difference between the two - well first there's the time as Lake Charles is merely 45 minutes away and Houston is more like 2.5 hours and then there's the aspect of really being in a big city as Houston is 4th largest city in the U.S (after New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago) and the largest city in TX; I automatically felt at home.
Population of DeRidder, Louisiana = 10,711 within 8.5 square miles (HA HA HA - I told you we were small town livin')
Population of Houston, TX = 2,145,146 within 656.3 square miles
I can't wait to spend an entire day or possibly a weekend visiting some other local Houston attractions really soon - shopping bags and all. But as for this trip...it was dedicated to the wildlife contained within the four walls of the zoo.
Now although we have visited a zoo in Alexandria, Louisiana (a northern suburb) many times this zoo is more like home because we we able to see more animals i.e. giraffes, lions, rhino's as well those indigenous to the area. They also had a wonderful petting zoo and a splash park for the kiddies but I neglected to bring Rah any secondary clothing so we simply stayed clear of that and rode the wildlife carousel as a compromise.
All in all we had a great time and the kids enjoyed their Sunday School Field Trip and Darryl even stuck it out although he had a dental procedure earlier in the morning, gotta love dedication and family.
Until next time, Enjoy!
Garrett & Robert in their Sunday School shirts - don't they look adorable?
Big Cats
She was very feisty
He simply got up, turned his back to us and laid down! HA
Just about all of the big cats were laying about...it WAS pretty hot!
Bear
Rah took a break in the cooling station! It shot out mist!
Then he played a rhythm section
Chimps
The chimps rocked!
One even got in the shower and pantomimed washing himself!
White Rhino
The white rhinos were too busy eating
Well this one decided to simply cool off in some mud!
Giraffe & Zebra
A lone zebra among the giraffes
Giraffes taking cover from the sun
We decided to take refuge from the sun as well! Wildlife Carousel
Petting Zoo
Rah thought the "pellets" were food! LOL
This is Jack, Garrett couldn't resist his big tummy!
Garrett's other friend "The Professor" followed him around!
Bird
I noticed this eagle was missing a wing,maybe he was rescued.
Elephants
Darryl was like "The Elephant Whisperer" because this Asian Elephant lifted his trunk to mimic his arms movements - it was pretty cool!
The mom & baby grabbed tuffs of hay from the container.
We made our way inside (such relief) Aquarium
The boys found a cool tunnel feature.
They were clearly amazed by all the different views they now saw!
These otters were engaged in some "interesting" activity :) Wildlife @ its best. Rah told me to come see them "wrestling" LOL
A bunch of people have asked what Rah & I do to maintain his academic stand over the summer. Well I've decided to record the math & reading lesson that we completed today.*
The math lesson was his first attempt at addition, a skill that is going to be examined more so in early 1st grade - at the level you are going to see. Although he can identify/count numbers through 100, he has a weakness in writing numbers (those darn tricky 3's and 5's) so this lesson will support that skill. He has also mastered adding two groups of numbers with the use of pictures but has not been exposed to the use of other strategies such as using fingers and adding in his head (a higher level skill). The use of the the number "0" and writing addition sentences in of itself will also be introduced. So the math lesson although fun, serve to expose him to a variety of skills while allowing me to informally assess where we need to focus.
Our record sheet!
Swann Lane - c the gutters?
OK, the competition is on!
Rah was excited when he knocked down 8 pins!
Now he has to record it - Swann Lanes is not tech savvy, lol
OK, Daddy's up!
Rah helps daddy with his scorecard!
Robert got a STRIKE!!!
Daddy refused to let Rah win - but his addition skills, sentences, and handwriting showed great progress
In reading, the Dolch Kindergarten sight words are read. The Dolch sight words/high frequency words are a list of words for each grade level through the primary grades that if known increases fluency in reading by decreasing the students need to decode thus increasing comprehension. Before bedtime Rah & dad will generally read a story comprised of many of the words. Afterwards Rah will retell the story using a certain skill i.e. sequencing (what happened first, next, then, and last) and he will also story map the story (retell the title, author/illustrator, characters, setting, and summarize). Some of these areas need support, but we've been doing this for sometime now so he basically does it automatically. The ability to retell a story is a measurable standard and skill that is often taken for granted. We also may address character traits if we had a particularly mean or funny character and compare and contrast them to one of Rah's friends or even one of you! HA HA HA
From 50-75% of all words used in school books, library books, newspapers, and magazines are in the Dolch Basic Sight Vocabulary of 220 words (preschool thru Grade 3). The Dolch word list is made up of "service words" (pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and verbs) which cannot be learned through the use of pictures. http://www.kidzone.ws/dolch/kindergarten.htm
Both skills are going to be built upon throughout his academic career and serve as building blocks or a foundation for future learning. The more that these basic functions are made to feel common place the more easily he will be able to transfer them into higher thinking skills in his future academics - when that darn standardized testing comes into play, but don't get me started on my views of that!
Nonetheless, it is my belief that the stronger foundation Robbie has, the better able he will be to apply skills critically. My views were reinforced after I was informed that it was not necessary for me to prepare him for college just yet and I then replied that I understand that some children must be average but my child has the aptitude to be more and that conversation ended accordingly...
However I must admit, exposing him early and subsequently having him master skills that are not yet being taught in the classroom can had an adverse effect, such as creating a climate of inattentiveness (as he already knows the materials presented). Yet, in my professional opinion a competent educator will differentiate instruction to meet the needs of all students. i.e. if a student is below grade level an educator will alter (differentiate) lessons to meet that students' needs, thus if a student is above grade level an educator SHOULD do the same.
Now, that does not always happen unfortunately and if as a parent you are not diligent you will encounter a phenomenon I refer to as "dumbing down". This is when your child loses all growth beyond what is expected of the school's curriculum or classroom teacher. As a parent and educator I believe the fault then lies with the parent, because if you feel your child is not being offered the education desired, YOU need to step in and make it happen. That can of course take many forms but you get my drift.
Above all things, you are your childs' #1 advocate and the welfare of your child ultimately lies with YOU. So I am fully prepared (and I did the same thing with my first child, prior to entering the education field formally) to supplement him as I see fit. And that's just what I do.
And off of the soap box I now step...
Math Lesson
Reading - Dolch Sight Words **
*Lessons are no more than 20-minutes because Robbie's attention span is limited, other children or older children may be able to handle more. Lessons are also generally more structured. We are in the same spot each day, free from distractions - he is rewarded by comparing his growth and mistakes are not seen as failures but as normal occurrences of the learning process.
**AND....I figured out what was wrong with my camera! I had mistakenly changed the video mode to Web format which only allows short segments of recordings based on some internal function versus the HD format which allows me to record indefinitely, my bad!
We went to the Houston Zoo yesterday with our church family and had a ball. We've been to Houston previously on numerous occasions but only to catch flight so we never really had a chance see the city properly, so this was a great way of "breaking into the cityscape" from some angle other than the tarmac.
