How do children learn to read?

As parents, we've done all the things we're suppose to do. We read bed time stories, fiction stories, fact stories, and just about everything else. We play word games, letter games, and rhyming games. Our kids have always been exposed to print and see us enjoy reading.

But it takes more than that.

We’ve just returned from a couple of weeks at a cottage on Lake Huron. I've a few entries I'll be posting over the next couple of days. Access to technology was limited, which did make for a peaceful vacation, but not a lot of blogging.

While we were there, we visited Science North in Sudbury. I’ve been to other science centers, but I have to say that this one impressed me with the range of interesting exhibits.

My son is working on his science fair project for this year.  We've been talking about water quality, so he choose that topic as the theme for his project.

The results are in .....

I'm usually not a fan of gizmos and gadgets, particularly for kids toys, but here's an idea I love.

Our box of Mr. McGrooovy's rivets arrived in the mail today.  They're ingenious.  We couldn't believe how easy it was to start creating with them.

Pete's Pond is back!!!!!!!

We spent hours last fall watching African Wildlife.  My favorite were the elephants, but the ostrich came a close second.  I never realized just how tall they were until I saw them with other animals at the watering hole.

We're expecting arrivals of tadpoles this week.   Turns out, it's a bit of process to get ready for the big day when the tadpoles arrive.  

Our butterfly larvae arrived on Wed.  We were hoping it was the tadpoles, but they were delayed a week.  So time to quickly learn what to do with butterfly larvae.   Fortunately, they came with pretty clear directions.

I've been doing some more reading about raising painted lady butterflies.  It's fun having caterpillars in little containers, but we can't really see what they are up to.  So we decided to create a more natural habitat for some of the caterpillars.

It's wonderful to watch these energetic little creatures.  We've all been fascinated with their activities.

I can't believe how much these little creatures poop! 

Our tadpoles have finally arrived!

We have lots of chrysalis.

Finally, most of the caterpillars are in their chrysalis and we've had a chance to get some good photos.

We have butterflies!

Our tadpoles arrived about a week ago.  It was fun to get them and release the tadpoles into the aquarium.

Over the last week most of our butterflies have emerged and been released.

We've been enjoying watching the tadpoles grow, but there was real excitement this morning when we realized the tadpoles have legs!

Yesterday, we noticed that the littlest tadpole had arms.  They are very small, but cute.  It's actually starting to hop under water rather than swim.

We're raising caterpillars for the third year in a row. I was surprised by how much I was looking forward to their arrival.