Friday, December 18, 2020

Devin's Graphic Novel

 Devin has completed the story and drawings for his graphic novel. He still plans to color the illustrations, but I'm not sure if we will devote more "school" time to the project. I wanted to get to a more-or-less "done" state before Christmas break. Which starts today!


So without further ado, here is the novel: 
























































Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Devin's School: Making a Terrarium

 This post was dictated by Devin.

This is how we made a terrarium:

First, you go to a place to you want to go with nature and then dig up some dirt. You also find plants and possibly sticks. We also found a four leaf clover and rocks.

 

I felt good about doing this. It was fun.


We filled an old and rusty container with water so that we could store the plants. This is because we did not want them to die and we needed time to do other stuff. We needed to bake the dirt to remove the germs or any nasty things we don't want. But you want sticks!


The first step is to put in your rocks.


After you put the rocks and sand, you use weed blocker or something like that to separate the rocks and the dirt.


After we added the dirt, we added nature stuff that we gathered: plants, nut shells and sticks. After that we misted the inside of the container we used with a spray bottle and water.


These are the final results. We put plastic stuff on top that was sticky so that the lid didn't come off. We need the lid to not come off so that the water cycle can do its thing. The water cycle goes from evaporation to water. It's important so that the plants can stay alive. 

When I checked it this morning the edges were covered with condensation. Condensation means evaporation on the sides of something.

Click HERE for a video about how terrariums work.

Click HERE for a the video we used to find out how to make our own terrarium.

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Birthday Weekend Trip to the Zoo

The day after Liam's birthday movie trip we went to the zoo, something we have traditionally done around his birthday.

 Throwing pennies and making wishes.

 I think Liam wished for good presents.

 Traditional polar bear shot.

 Only one polar bear was visible and it was napping.  No idea where the babies were.


 Stopped for an early lunch.

 The train.  Waiting in line was hard for Devin.  Then he couldn't see much, but refused to let me hold him.  He kept saying, "I want to sit the train!"

 He also was not really into the momarazzi.

 Random art shot.

 Liam likes to climb onto the statues.  It was pretty busy and Devin was waiting, so this was a little rushed.



 These birds, with amazingly long tail feathers, seemed to have trouble flying.



 Don't remember what he was saying.

 The new aquarium is still very popular.  Devin paid a lot of attention to the fish.


 Liam had been waiting all day for the opportunity to pet the rays.  He had to wait through a pretty long line.  Devin had no patience for it, so he and I went back to looking at the tanks while Allen and Liam did the petting thing.  Just as well as they don't recommend that toddlers partake.



 We're starting to be a little wilted by this point.





 The reptile house was a little cooler.  At least they had some fans.  I'm not sure if Devin's suspicious look has anything to do with the huge crocodile he was looking at.