Cabbage & Wienerschnitzel: Student becomes Teacher

Cabbage & Wienerschnitzel: Student becomes Teacher: "This is Brian. Brian loves to read. He reads just about everything. Anywhere. Everywhere. His interest sparks from dinosaurs to modern d..."

Student becomes Teacher

This is Brian. 

Brian loves to read. He reads just about everything. Anywhere. Everywhere. His interest sparks from dinosaurs to modern day tanks. Over the years of our homeschooling experience his mind has become so rich with information that at times it completely baffles me. I just can't imagine where he gets his thirst for knowledge. Nah, couldn't be from my nephew - I'm told he, my nephew, gets his thirst from his father.

Brian has been reading fluently for quite sometime now. This is a picture of him when he was about 4 or 5 wearing my husbands glasses.

 This morning he was up early and as usual decided to share information from his latest library find. A book called Reign of the Sea Dragons by Sneed B. Collard III

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Whether or not you actually believe that these creatures existed, this book talks about while dinosaurs ruled the earth, sea monsters ruled the seas, during the Mesozoic period, around parts of Europe and North America. This book brings an adventure full of scientific discoveries made by various paleontologist around the world to life.

Personally, I was fascinated to learn that a young sea shell seller named Mary Anning  whom the tongue twister "She sells seashells by the seashore" is actually about,  was a 19th century paleontologist.  Her career began as a child around 1810 when she, along with her brother, discovered the first Plesiosaur fossil, which so happens to be a part of the Ichthyosaurs (fish-lizard) family. 

As Brian showed me this morning, if you look at the inside cover, it shows the relationship in size between ancient sea animals and modern mammals of today. Each chapter introduces a new marine reptile giving "just the facts" as to when the specific creature first and last appeared as well as it's specific diet. "Always good to think about just in case one of these creatures could possibly still be in existence when you go for your next swim in the ocean. But, I seriously doubt it; since scientist feel it was oh! millions of years ago since they first appeared. In other words a really long time ago."

He also made a point to credit the fine illustrations by Andrew Plant, a trained zoologist.  Suggesting that with Andrew's amazing detailed sketch, he might just make it big someday.

 All in all, Brian gives this book a thumbs up, or a wink, as the case may be.