Semi-Wordless Wednesday

Thankful that homeschool allows for varied interests and Wii exercise before school starts!

Studying for Apologia Science test. Dd says drawing pictures helps her remember.

Love this homeschool life we have!

Science Experiments: Density

Does anyone else have a tendency to think small for their children? Not that I don't want my children to do bigger, better and harder things, it's just that my brain thinks they're not old enough for things, subjects, etc... They're still little kids in my mind! lol

We've been working our way through the first module in Apologia General Science. I don't know why I thought dd would hate this or not comprehend. I need to think BIGGER for my children. She is loving it, and thriving. I thought I'd share a bit of step by step of the experiment we did yesterday, in picture form...

Density

The experiment calls for corn syrup, water and vegetable oil. Also a grape, a small rock, an ice cube and a piece of cork. We'll be learning about density and connectivity of atoms.

Pour oil in a glass, 1/4 full. Do the same with the water and then the corn syrup. You'll notice the corn syrup has atoms that are more tightly connected so it all sinks to the bottom, thereby passing through the atoms of the other substances. The water settles in the middle (atoms more tightly bound than oil, but less so than syrup) and oil at the top.

When we dropped the following items they did different things:

Grape - drops through oil and water and sits on surface of syrup.

Rock - drops through it all and lands on the bottom of syrup.

Ice Cube - floats in oil and/or settles on top of water but not in it.

Cork - floats on top of oil.

Daughter also wanted to see what a lava rock and a strawberry would do (lava rock hung out with the grape in the water on top of the corn syrup while the strawberry was only as dense as the oil. Go figure. I thought it would be like the grape!)

We learned which items have more density (corn syrup and rock) and which have less (oil and cork.)

I'll be sharing more experiments as we do them.  (For more tutorials, click on the page link at the top.)

*This homeschool post is linked to the Homeschool Mother's Journal.*

Maybe 3rd Time's A Charm for This Gardener!

Once upon a time, a long long time ago. Almost 16 years to be exact. We bought this house we live in. We were so excited that it came with apple trees, pear trees and a 30x70 foot space for gardening that the former owner had used year after year until he and his wife had grown too old and feeble to attend to it. We were excited to pick up this tradition and make it our own. We forgot who we were talking about here. Us. The new house owners. The ones with a toddler, 2 full time jobs. 2 unmotivated people who like their relaxing time. What were we thinking?! We did the humongous garden for two years until we came to our senses.

Last year I was missing the gardening experience. Surely we were older, wiser, less lazy. But just to be on the safe side, we decided to build raised beds (here are the free plans we used.) No back breaking tilling, no terrible clay dirt. Just pretty wood beds filled with bags of lovely dirt. And we did do this. Raised beds. We had 9 tomato plants, beans, cucumbers, watermelon, hot peppers, sweet peppers and some herbs. The cucumbers and hot peppers grew like wild flowers. I think we got maybe 9 tomatoes total. So yeah. Not a hot year for tomatoes for us.  I also don't think we had completely conquered the laziness in ourselves either. Note the 2 beds way in the back and a stack of dirt bags in front of one. Yeah, we only got one filled and kept saying we were going to do the other and plant plants. The summer got away from us. So we still have room to grow.

Last week mom called and said she wanted to garden with us this year. I'm assuming this means she will be driving over weekly to help weed and water and pick? I might need to keep my house clean regularly then. This might be a good thing. (We've started a NEW way of doing chores I'll share in a later post.) Hubby and I talked about it. I'd like to add at least 2 more beds back there. Maybe one to the side of the concrete patio where our shed used to be, right next to the house... It gets dappled sun so I'm thinking maybe only herbs and lettuce grown there? On the south side of our house is a sweet sunny spot and the little one wants to revive the area we had there years ago to plan watermelons. It's shaping up to be a banner gardening year! Oh, and this year I'm getting smart. I'm ordering organic dirt and compost mix to be delivered and dropped on our driveway. We'll have no excuse but to wheelbarrow it to the gardens or be the embarrassment of the entire neighborhood.

Today I learned about a new FREE curriculum for planting a Victory Garden, based on those they planted during WWII. You can read all about it here on this site. You can also order a free poster here.

Do you garden? What do you plant? Here's our potential list:

Tomatoes

Cucumbers

Zucchini

Potatoes

Sweet & Hot Peppers

Bush Beans

Kale

Lettuce

Cauliflower

Herbs

Still planning my list with the help of these catalogs:

Burpee

Direct Gardening

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds 
Gardener's Supply Company 
Gurney's Seed & Garden Company

I'm thinking we'll make this gardening project into just that. A project. A homeschool project. The little one will help plan everything out. Maybe do square foot gardening? (Here are some worksheets  and some more worksheets I found for planning that.) We need to get seeds soon and get them growing indoors to get a head start. We can study the life cycle of a plant, what bugs are harmful and organic ways of helping our plants grow naturally without chemicals. It should be a fun spring. Now let's see if it all comes to fruition. Maybe third time's a charm!

Some more great links:

Almanac (great for planning planting dates)

Square Foot Gardening Unit Study (to purchase) 

Gardening with Kids

Common Garden Pests

Organic Gardening

Math In The Garden

Garden Journal (download, great for kids)
Build Your Own Hot Compost Box

P.S. I also found 'The Lazy Gardener's Seed Starting Chart' to use. You KNOW that has my name written all over it!

Chicken Farmers - What?? Who??

Our house is a never ending wealth of hair brained ideas. The latest being one of our biggest. We had a discussion the other day. Don't ask me how we got on the crazy-train idea of chicken raising. Maybe when I was visiting the RiddleLove blog (which happens to be my maiden name, no, not the 'Love' part.) All of the sudden, the idea of having chickens to raise, just a few mind you, seemed feasible. As if we don't have enough to worry about with 2 ornery dogs, 3 fat cats and 1 dwarf hamster (we won't mentioned the fish that made it 6 months and then went belly up.) 

But think of the wealth of information the little one could pick up (not to mention ME), consider the homeschool topics we could study (nature, science, animal husbandry) as well as the responsibility she could be building. Yes, I know she could to that by helping take care of the animals we already have. WORK with me here!

(Note: She does already help feed and walk the dogs. Just wanted to mention in case you thought I might be slacking in my parenting... *smile*)

The little one and I excitedly talked about raising chickens, and looking up pictures of chickens on Murray McMurray Hatchery and Meyer Hatchery. Then we were off and running with the idea of building a chicken coop and OH NO, it would need to be a chicken tractor instead. Hubby, over in the corner was saying 'We are not going to get chickens!' He knows that sometimes the work will fall on him. We ignored him. We discussed buying wood to build a chicken coop and the next thing you know hubby is saying 'You don't need to buy wood, I can find enough to use around here to build one.' Didn't he just say we aren't getting chickens? Talk about wishy-washy. 

To be fair, I don't think he is sold on the idea yet, and I'm still thinking through it; the logistics of ordering them, raising them, taking care of them, feeding, watering, cleaning, the local laws (we are zoned agricultural but are chickens even allowed?), the amount of daily time necessary and how much food (ie: eggs, since we're NOT eating these chickens) they will produce for us, which are the best summer or winter layers, if you need a rooster or not for just eggs (no babies.) So much to learn! I'm determined, if we decide to become chicken farmers, to be prepared and know the risks and commitment ahead of time.

I ordered several books from the library to learn as much as we can:
Barnyard in Your Backyard
Keep Chickens!
Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens 
Chicken Coops
Chick Days

Stay tuned as we figure this out. The Meyer Hatchery catalog just came and I'm like a kid in a candy store. Yellow chicks, black chicks, brown? White eggs, brown eggs, blue? One of each?? So many choices!

Update: The little one found the chicken catalog this morning.

Restarting the Party

So yeah. Homeschooling. We're a bit more relaxed this year. I'm not breathing down the little one's neck with a pile-o-textbooks clutched at my already tense side. But the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is always an 'epic fail' for me. Regular school was a misnomer.

When it was time to go back to schoolwork after our week off for Thanksgiving, I just... didn't. We spent the next two weeks doing who knows what. I look now at our daily activities chart and had to write stuff down. We read a lot, listened to books on tape (our favorites being written by Richard Peck; see list below) while playing legos. My little one built lego forts, pyramids, had faux battles between warring parties of playmobil people. We did a good amount of baking, cooking, a few field trips to local Christmasy areas. The little one's singing group sang at one shopping area.

We did do bible, occasionally review our scripture we're trying to memorize (1 Corinthians 13) and visited the Latin DVDs and workbook sporadically. Science did play a part in our time 'off'. We bought a soldering kit as well as a bug robot kit and with her dad she learned how to solder and all about wires, circuits, etc... They're getting ready to work on a robot soon.

So yeah, not the monumental amount of work I had scheduled. But it felt relaxed. Now begins the climb back out of the hole of relaxation. The last couple weeks here of January we've struggled. Plus having two cycles of sickness go through our house back to back has not helped with regular schooling. Much reading has been going on but that is it (we did discover the game of Phase 10 though and it has become a favorite!)

Today we restarted. We began our day at 8 am (yes, I know. I was as shocked as you are.) I'm redesigning our schedule. The Charlotte Mason little times of learning worked for us for a bit. Right now we'll try something different. Cutting out many CM things or actually combining them, while keeping some in (such as scripture memory and Latin.)

Here's our new schedule (beginning at 8 each morning):

History/Geography  1-1 1/2 hours
Latin 1/2 hour

Math 1/2-1 hour
Piano 1/2 hour

Scripture Memory/Bible Lesson 1/2 hour

Writing/Dictation/Spelling/Typing/Grammar  3/4-1 hour

Literature/Poetry 1/2 hour

Science 1/2 hour

Reading 1 hour

I'm thinking on average, history will be 1 hour, Math 1 hour. The writing portion will have creative writing, words dictated, proper grammar practiced and most of it will be typed so she can practice typing at the same time.  After science we'll be done for the day and she is responsible for 1 hour of reading sometime in the rest of her day. I don't care if it's at night. 

I'm also introducing homework. Yes, that hated word from public/private school. But she is getting to the age where next year she'll be in 'Junior high' and additional work will be needed outside of the times I'm instructing her. For now it will include:

Extra Latin practice

Extra history projects (chosen by her)
Extra scripture memory practice

Crossing fingers this works for her. I know in a month or so we'll probably have to change it up again. Just need to get some work done now.

Books by Richard Peck that we've enjoyed:

A Year Down Yonder

A Long way from Chicago

A Season of Gifts

Fair Weather

Here Lies the Librarian

We also have listened to:

100 Cupboards

Dandelion Fire

The Chestnut King

Egg-stra Special Science

Last week I picked up Janice VanCleave's Biology For Every Kid. We've been lacking in the Science department. A little studying here and there (beavers, fish/seas/Jacque Cousteau, magnetism, laws of motion, circuits) but no real structure to our learning. Anyway, I know how the little one loves doing experiments and I thought we could at least find a few in here.

We decided to try out the Naked Egg and the Shrinking Egg experiments.

NAKED EGG EXPERIMENT:

Ingredients:

2 jars (preferably with lids, because this house is full of spillers)

vinegar

corn syrup

1 egg

measuring tape

6 days time

1. Take one jar and fill it with about 2 inches of vinegar.

2. Measure the length (and circumference if you want) of the egg . Write them on an observation chart you make up on paper. We didn't do this part, we were lazy but it sure would have been nice to compare sizes at various times.

3. Carefully slide the egg into the vinegar jar. Check to make sure the vinegar is deep enough for the egg to be covered. Our egg sank to the bottom. Add more vinegar if necessary to cover egg.

4. We then labeled the jar with a day and time we should finish the experiment, 72 hours later.

* Check your experiment every day and note any changes on your chart. *

* You'll note that bubbles immediately begin forming on the egg. Over the next couple days those will multiple and the egg will be covered. *

72 hours (3 days) later:

SCIENCE INFO:  The bubbles seen throughout the 3 days are carbon dioxide gas. Vinegar is an acid, the shell of the egg is carbon carbonate. The carbonate and the acid react and you get carbon dioxide gas. You'll notice the egg has taken on a yellowish look, no more bubbles really and no real shell left. The vinegar reacted with and dissolved it away.  It has the feel of a water balloon. Some of the vinegar sneaked in through the cells' membranes and made the egg bigger. This is called Osmosis.

 1. Carefully take the egg out, sit it on the lid while you measure its length and CAREFULLY measure circumference, noting on your chart again. You'll determine the egg has grown exponentially in size.

2. Use same egg for the Shrinking Egg experiment.

SHRINKING EGG EXPERIMENT:

1. Pour 2" of corn syrup into the 2nd jar. 

2. Slip the bloated egg carefully into the corn syrup. Put on the lid. Add more corn syrup if necessary to cover egg.

* You'll note that unlike the shelled version of this egg, the bloated one floats. More buoyant. (Here you'll see we did the experiment a 2nd time, to show the difference in the eggs, side by side.)

72 hours (3 days) later:

*You'll note, as you probably have if you've been watching your experiment everyday (and i would recommend that you check it every day around the same time, noting changes) that the egg has lost a lot of its bloatedness. According to the experiment it was supposed to shrink up like a shriveled raisin, but it didn't really get that small.*

SCIENCE INFO: This is once again a case of Osmosis. The water (and some vinegar) moves where there is no water, in this case into the corn syrup. The corn syrup can not get into the egg so the egg takes on a shriveled appearance.

Great, easy learning experience for the whole family. DH enjoyed getting involved as well (note his finger putting the egg in the corn syrup. :) ) We picked out a few experiments to do in the coming days. The little one read many of the experiments and the science behind them and I heard her telling her dad all about different things. So even if you can't get to all the experiments in a book, make sure you let the little ones read through it as they 'pick' which ones they want to do. They'll learn a whole ton of information from this book. I know I did!

Art Turns Into Science

The girls are working on a dress for the little one as a combined art project this week. Teen has been weeping and rejoicing over ever aspect, especially putting in the zipper. They're doing the whole thing without a pattern. Just eyeballing it and lots of try ons. It's an experiment.

But the dress is not done yet so I'll share that later. I wanted to tell how our sewing art lesson turned into an impromptu science lesson. Look what dd found in the sewing tray (the thingie attached to the sewing machine that holds the different foots, small screwdriver, etc...)

Lovely isn't it! Needless to say, there was mass murder screaming, arguing, yelling for me (I happened to be in the bathroom), accusing me of taking my time, and wide-eyed disbelief that I wanted to catch it in a jar for observation. I'm a homeschool mom, what can I say? lol

Jumping Spider (Family Salticidae)
His legs are an inch long each, and his body is another 1/2" itself. He's a BIG sucker.

P.S. Now dds are arguing about the benefits of Shakespeare (I'm sure you have things like this going on in your house.)

Little one: Shakespeare is stupid.
Teen: You're stupid!
Me: No more saying stupid okay?
Teen: Well, she can't say that about Shakespeare, its just, its bad, its just not right. You can't say that about Shakespeare.
Little one: But they're poking eyes out in this book I'm reading!
Me: What the heck are you reading?
Little one: It's called 'Top Ten Shakespeare Stories'
(It's a Scholastic book by Terry Deary)
Teen: Well still, it's not allowed.
Little one: Why not?
Teen: He's, well he's just Shakespeare and you can't.

Ahhh, I love my children.

Birds & Dolls

We've been undecided on what homeschool curriculum to use with dd#2, the 4th grader for history and science. I thought we might do the unit study approach, we haven't done that in awhile and she always enjoys more free studying. After much deliberation she decided to learn about Birds (science) and the History of Dolls. Very eclectic but I think it will be fun. SO far I've ordered all our books from the library. I got ideas for both studies from the books:
How To Create Your Own Unit Study and The Unit Study Idea Book both by Valerie Bendt. Books I highly recommend. Here's a sample of what we have coming:



Birds:
(videos) John James Audubon, Robert Bateman, Birds, birds, birds!, Amazing Birds of America, All About Birds, Birds & things with wings
(books) Draw 50 Birds, John Audubon, young naturalist, Painting Your Favorite Birds, Bird Eggs, Bird Families, An Illustrated guide to attracting birds, How Do Birds Fly?, State Birds, Birds With Bracelets
(poetry) Wings from the wind, Sing a Song of Popcorn, Bird watch



History of Dolls:
(videos) Queen Mary's dolls' house, Hitty : an American travel doll, Raggedy Ann & Andy
(books) Dolls' house : inspirations, 500 handmade dolls, The honest-to-goodness story of Raggedy Andy, The history and art of googlies, The real-for-sure story of Raggedy Ann, The ultimate doll book, American folk dolls, The dollhouse mystery, The dollhouse magic, Dollhouse decor, The apple doll, Dollhouse Mouse, Make your own toys, The Pooh craft book

Now I just need to look for some supplements to these studies online and we're set for Monday! Hopefully the books come in on time.

** Squirrel Update: They stole the pear again. lol I told dd that the squirrels must be smart, as opposed to her earlier comment about them being 'dumb animals'. She said 'But I'm smarter. Gotta try again.' She certainly is tenacious. **