The Evolved Reading Dinosaur

My dinosaur loves to read, so I thought I would share the books that he enjoys.

The Trouble with Magic, by Ruth Chew; The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail, by Richard Peck;  Roscoe Riley Rules Series, by Katherine Applegate;  Kung Pow Chicken Series, by Cyndi Marko.  These books have been generously given to him by his super loving Mimi.  I have to say, she has a special insight to the imagination and feelings that live within the mind of our T.  He has read the entire Roscoe Riley series, as well, as the  2 Kung Pow Chicken books we have, so far.  Kung Pow Chicken is the first book that Trenton picked up, read completely on his own, from beginning to end, in one sitting, to himself.  We are currently reading The Trouble with Magic as our bedtime book, and The Mouse with the Question Mark Tail, is next on the reading list.

This encyclopedia is the book that Trentonsaurus chose to bring with him to school to help with the boredom he was encountering in the classroom.

This book, he just received from our good friends, Trae and Monika Keister/Keister-King for his 6th birthday, and has been reading it every day.

As I have stated previously, I try to tie the things that he is passionate about into opportunities to expose him to new avenues of interest.  This summer, I plan to tie reading with philosophy.  I found an amazing resource online that I plan to utilize, in conjunction with, library visits.  The resource is called Teaching Children Philosophy  and pairs popular children's books with questions to explore with them.  It categorizes the different branches of philosophy and also has 3 sample courses, already set up into 8 week learning exercises.  I did notice that some books are TWEEN books and are better suited for older children, so keep that in mind should you decide to use this resource for your own children.

My Physical T-Rex

My husband and I have always been big fans of giving our son the ability to choose from a variety of activities within our budget.  We try to find interesting and creative ways to tie these activities with his passions.  Thanks to his Mimi, Trenton is enrolled in Ti Kwan Do, all year round.  Thanks to his Nana, he participates in athletic activities (soccer, basketball), through their church. We are members of both the Science Museum of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma City Zoo.  We are enrolled in art classes, this summer, at the The Oklahoma City Museum of Art. We support his interest in the Chinese language using youtube.com, and other free resources available online, while continuing to encourage him to dabble in Spanish, free with Duolingo.  We also have opened the world of programming with free resources from CODE, and Hopscotch, and not so free resources like Tynker.

This August, I was hoping to have him start learning to play the piano with our neighbor across the street, and up until last night, piano lessons had the green light from Trenton.  Then, my husband showed him a video of...Parkour.  Afterwards, my husband mentions to my son that it looks like they use a lot of moves from gymnastics.  Now, the Rex wants back into gymnastics.  The thing is, we can't realistically afford both, and when given the choice of gymnastics or piano lessons, Trenton, without waver, chooses gymnastics.

He is still very interested in learning how to play the electric guitar.  Knowing this, I looked at my husband and said, "Well, if you are going to encourage his pursuit of parkour, will you promise to buy an electric guitar and work with Trenton 30 min to an hour a week."  He agreed.  They will be using Rocksmith 2014.

So, I guess, I am now the mother of a future black belt, gymnast, parkour training, electric guitar strumming, robot programming (check out Play i, can we say this Christmas!) dinosaur, who wants to be a chemical/biological/civic/mechanical engineer when he grows up.  Oh, and on the weekends, he wants to explore the world.  I am in for a wild ride.  (Sits and tries to clear her mind.)

Trentonsaurus Rex Turns 6! (mighty rawr)

Well, another year has come and gone, and it was filled with mega fun and excitement.  Had a ton of fun and can't wait to see what this next year has in store for us!

Mwhahahahaha!

DS XL, disguised as a silver bar!

Lightsaber + Creeper Backpack = Epic (dog played by Thunder Bam the Super Dog)

Take this Dad!

Mimi's cakes are the best!  That white card hidden on the table was the first clue that his papa left for him of six.  The clues took him all over his Nana's house and eventually led to this legendary helmet and bike!

Better watch out on the roads now!

Cardboard Minecraft sets = hours of fun!

I think the Rex loves it!

Trentonsaurus Rex Must Have Cakepops! Rawr!

First off, I should explain that I am not a cook, and over the past year, I have been trying to become one.  It is neither natural or easy for me to do.  Like every new cook, I imagine everything is going to be easy, breezy.  I mean how hard can a cake pop be right?  Whats more, I decide I'm going to tackle fondant cake pops!

Lessons I learned:  Do not use extra moist cake batter.  Make sure your butter cream frosting is thickened to the correct consistency using powdered sugar, so it doesn't melt... (averts eyes).  Chocolate is a mysterious thing, and if it gets too hot, it begins to re harden (you can add a touch of vegetable oil to help it stay fluid but it will take longer to set).  Never refrigerate cake pops to get them to harden faster...cake pops can take up to a week to harden...so plan accordingly.

With that said, I started making mine on Sunday for a school party on that following Tuesday...yep 2 days.  Needless to say, it was a nightmare, and this is how it went down.  I wanted to make what my dinosaur wanted to bring to his class, but I needed a way to make it the healthiest version of what he was requesting as possible...so I took three separate cake mixes (white, chocolate, and strawberry), halved the mix of all three, and substituted flax gel and applesauce for eggs and oil.

White cake turned out like the picture above.  Since I used extra moist cake mix, I didn't need to add icing to the crumbled cake, everything just stuck together, and three cake mixes and a lot of baking later I had this:

It's true, I cant make perfect servings to save my life, but figured 5 and 6 year old kids are not going to be that critical.  Why did I make them cubed?  Well I was attempting to stick with my dinosaurs birthday party that is coming up this Saturday.  Now I'm going to fast forward through some fondant coloring, thickening, breaking, cracking, playing with a Play Dough Fun Factory and show you this:

Before you ask, who doesn't use a Lite Brix box with holes punched through it to keep their cake pops up?  Hmm?!  Anyway, the sheep are covered in white chocolate and turned out amazing.  The other two I had iced with butter cream frosting that was not thick enough and were beginning to melt.  Thick syrup was dripping out the bottoms.  I was freaking out.  I didn't know what to do.  I panicked and forgot to consult the google gods before making my decision, and into the fridge they went.  Confident that I saved the day, I went back to my computer and found that I was completely wrong!!!!  I read where letting them come to room temp while in a cardboard box might save them so....

The white powder at the bottom is a combination of powdered sugar and corn starch, which will hopefully keep them from melting when they thaw.  I get to his school this morning, going over everything in my head that led me up to this moment.  The worrying, the laboring, the laughter all cycling in my thoughts just as the box slides off the box of juices, and lands upside down on the ground.  Thankfully, the box had a lid, and the only casualty was a sheep eye.  I just hope the kids love them.

Big Dino is about to turn 6 and my head is spinning.  Well, I have 1 week and 1 day left until the party and this is what I have so far.  Can you guess the theme?

Beginning stages of photo keepsake frames.  Just need to make the backs with the magnets attached.

Break away grass blocks that will hold candy, free passes to my dinosaur's karate class, and zipper pulls!  I'm going to finish it off with green tissue paper tops that party goers can mine easily through!

I am a bit afraid that parents might not like this part of the party, but it was a special request and design of the birthday dino.  These are TNT blocks made from hot tamale candies, cling wrap, construction paper, and left over string from the zipper pulls.

Made with perler beads, this is a diamond sword zipper pull.

I love duct tape sheets!  This will be the goody box the kids can take their loot home in.

I have made the fondant, but the cake pops are not being made until Sunday/Monday for T'Rex's kindergarten class.  Steve cookies will be made some time next week.  This should be fun since I get to use a Play Dough Fun Factory to make them! Friday will be cupcake day!  Don't mind me while I sit down to breathe.

Apps and Games for that Special Dinosaur in Your Life *Updated*

Highly Played Games of Trentonsaurus Rex:

Minecraft/

He prefers creative mode, and builds anything and everything he can imagine.  One of his favorite activities is getting me to suggest something for him to craft and then rising to the challenge.  My favorite challenge was when I told him to make a beehive.  He made a beehive looking object, stuffed it full of cows, and then when he removed a block, the cows spilled out and looked very much like busy bees.

Terraria 

This game is a side scrolling, crafting adventure game, similar to Minecraft and is currently the obsession of my dino.


Apps for the iPad that Keep My T-Rex content:

ChemCrafter

Poptropica

Mathmateer Free

SpeakaZoo 

Hopscotch

Dragon Shapes

Leo's Pad

BrainPop

Now with all of that listed, I have decided to list the apps that I download for Trentonsaurus Rex and then will later comment on how my dinosaur reacted to them.

Today's List  (all happen to be free):

Unseen World   keeping
Marble Math (free app Friday)  keeping
Zee (free app Friday)  keeping
Vesper Hunt  keeping
Disneynature  not interested
ChoreMonster  keeping
Animal Builder  keeping
Mr. Cat Why Do Teeth Go Bad?  keeping
Pizza 1  not interested
Learn English with el Chavo  keeping
SmartKid Maths  not interested
Tune Train  keeping
SEE  keeping
and finally....Koala Band.  keeping

Most of my lists are not quite so long, but I guess a bunch of new apps came out this week!