Louis Braille

We have a book called, I Heard Good News Today, and the stories are usually about Christian historical figures. Well, the book is amazing. I think my favorite story is the one about Boniface. And Emma always asks me in disbelief, "Is this really a true story?" and I always get to smile and say, "yes!"

So yesterday, we read about Louis Braille, and how after he went blind he prayed for God to help him find a way to read. His pastor ended up finding a school for blind children, and he learned to read by running his fingers across raised letters.

He then developed a more efficient system of reading for the blind, using raised dots. Of course this is what we know as Braille.

I really wanted to show Emma how a blind person reads with Braille so we found this video of a five year old child reading out loud. Both of my girls were so interested in the videos and it opened up their eyes to the challenges of others who are blind or visually impaired.

5 Year Old Jalen Reading Braille

This next video showed children reading in braille at Jenkins Elementary School as well as WRITING in braille with a type of typewriter called a "Perkins Brailler."

Learning Braille at Jenkins Elementary

It was so neat to be able to find these videos. I just love homeschooling.

The Dolphin Adventure

Okay, so we did read this a few weeks back, but I didn't get a chance to post it.
The book "The Dolphin Adventure" by Wayne Grover is an amazing true story. "Three dolphins, two adults and a baby, attract a scuba diver's attention with their clicking and then swim near him until he notices that the baby is bleeding from fishing line tangled around its tail and a hook embedded in its flesh. Grover performs underwater surgery with his diving knife, carefully cutting away the line and removing the hook, thus saving the dolphin from certain death. The baby dolphin's blood in the water attracts two hungry sharks that the large male dolphin dispatches by head-on attacks into the sharks' gills, thus saving the author's life." The book has a beautiful ending that made me cry.

I was so surprised at the inteligence of the animals. I could hardly believe that the mother and father dolphins would trust him so much, to even allow the diver to perform surgery.

Emma loved this book and I did too.
It is pretty short (67 pages or so) and it only took us about an hour to read it.
I recommend it to anyone; your kids will love it.

As you can see from the picture above, Emma did a little craft to go along with the story too.

Mary on Horseback

Below is the picture of the Mary Breckinridge Hospital. It looks like any other ordinary hospital, but Emma and I learned that this hospital is very special and so was the woman it was named after. The book, Mary on Horseback, is about a nurse who traveled through the backwoods of Kentucky's Appalacian Mountains on horseback to provide medical care to residents who were otherwise helpless.

Mary Breckenridge was a hero; she was brave and determined to help other people no matter how hard the work could be. She ended up building the Frontier Medical Center and founding the Frontier Nursing Service (shown below).
"These three compelling, poignant stories, each with a different narrator — a boy whose father almost loses his leg; a nurse in training; a mute young girl who realizes she might have a career in medicine — show Mary's effect on the people and world around her, brought to vivid life by master storyteller Rosemary Wells."

It is a great book!

A Geography Vacation--The Desert

We just got back from a great mini-vacation, field trip, spa-retreat! LOL.

We went to La Quinta for 3 days and stayed in the resort we used to go to for the couples retreats at church. We had a great time.

On our way out there on Thursday we stopped in Cabazon to do a little shopping. Then we drove around downtown Palm Springs and showed the girls where we used to live, and grocery shop, and go to church.

We even had dinner with Brittany : )

We met her when she was in jr. high (12 years ago) and even though we only lived there a year, we still keep in touch and love each other very much.

By the time we got to the resort, it was dark. I decided to go to a nearby Trader Joe's to get some food for breakfast and snacks. When I got back, I saw that the manager had sent a plate of huge warm chocolate chip cookies, milk, a fruit basket, and glass bottles of Evian water to welcome us. What a blessing!

Below are some pictures of our stay. I feel weird posting vacation pictures on our homeschool blog, but we did so much learning. In fact, one of the reasons we chose to vacation in the desert was to continue our geographic learning we did when we went to the mountains.

This place is seriously this beautiful (most of you have been there, so you know).

So Friday morning we woke up early and went to the Living Desert.

I loved how we had to hike around in the dirt for half the day.

Dustin made fun of me because at one point I said, "Wow, it really feels like we are in the desert!"

We were lucky to have shade and mild weatherand snacks : )

The girls exploring

Interesting toilet . . . hmm . . .

This gentleman was so friendly and helpful.

He was able to answer all of our questions about the animals.

Miley LOVED this goat, even though it just wanted to stare at the wall. She said it looked like Gizmo, our cat.

The girls were able to brush the animals. Trying on African jewelry and playing African musical instruments

"Marty"Oh, and we fed a giraffe but Dustin has those pictures on his phone.

Here is the Cheatah. We got to pull her tail and hold her paws.

See : )

Isn't this cool!?

Aren't they scary

This is a real horn from a big horn sheep.

They didn't have any with a pink bow, but it is still cute. We got to watch them run up this steep rocky hill and then eat lunch.

I loved this.

Then we went on a hike through the desert during the middle of the day.

San Andreas Fault Exhibit

I loved this.

It was great because we have also recently studied faultlines and earthquakes.

We got to see this in real life.

We were there.

I told Emma that if I jumped I could start an earthquake.

Dustin said, if I jump that would be an earthquake.

LOL.

As I was reviewing the different types of faults there are, I mentioned the movement of the transverse fault (like the San Andreas). Miley said that it is like rubbing her taggie (on her shirt, which she does when she is tired). She rubbed her taggie to show me and she was right, it was the same movement. Dustin and I couldn't believe how she could analyze and compare the information with her taggie rubbing. Genius.

We hiked up the side of a rocky cliff and we were able to look out at all the different geological areas identified on the map.

On the way back we were able to look at the different plants and I collected some granite rocks.

It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.

The Mexican Wolf

beautiful

Dustin the Homeschool Dad:

Lesson on the Yucca

Dustin says, in a teacher voice, "Emma that is a Yucca tree."

"Really dad?"

"Yes, say, 'yucca yucca, you sucka.'"

Everyone laughs.

Lesson on the Cactus

Dustin says, "Emma look at the cactus"

Mom talks about how they hold water and people eat them.

Dustin says, "Yes, people eat them. You can buy them at the store."

Emma trips, "really. Don't you poke your mouth."

Dustin says, "No you cut off the needles . . . and you can drink Cactus Cooler."

He was cracking us up. He can be so funny.

It wasn't too hot, but eventually we were ready to cool off . . .

So we went back to the hotel, had a snack, and went to the "watering hole"

Peek a boo

Beautiful

Family fun

Miley watching her sissy swim

Emma and Daddy

They had so much fun

Beautiful

adorable
We got cleaned up and went to get something to eat

Someone was tuckered out

Who is this kid? LOL

After dinner we went back into the pool.

We were planning on going to the Family Ministry's Apple Farm trip today, but we were tired!

So we walked around downtown Palm Springs, got something to eat, and then just came home.

Elvis Presley's star below

My handsome hubby : )

We went to Ruby's for lunch/breakfast

(it seems like we always end up at a Ruby's when we are on vacation)

We ate and then we were ready to come home and rest.