March 31, 2010
**Slimy Salamander - J can attest to the slimy part as it took him quite a while to degoo his hands after capture.
Sally made a daring escape last night from her new habitat. An urgent search revealed her hideout on the side of a stainless steel canister. Camouflage was a problem. With compassion the decision was made to let this beautiful creature go back into her world.
March 30, 2010
**D says, "I forgot how much fun this is."
I didn't get much resistance when I proposed the idea of searching a local creek for crayfish to observe before we dissect their poor relative tomorrow in biology lab. Within 2 minutes of arriving D had captured two wee ones and was on the hunt for more. A- learned the art of wading and finally gave up with trying to stay clean and dry. The creature tally was 3 crayfish, 3 salamanders of varying sizes, several fish and four wet and happy children.
March 30, 2010
It has been a very long month of experimenting, observing, researching, reporting and practicing - but he made it! And made it well. D gained enough points for his science fair project that he earned a first place ribbon and got special mention for his ability to express what he learned.
March 27, 2010
***J, D and L explore the Great Salt Lake coast - June 11, 2008. They were not even tempted to swim.
Researching the Great Salt Lake for Konos Kids brought back memories of our trip there in 2008. Our plan was to have the buoyancy experience but this was not to be, due to the colder than normal temperatures. So L's task today was to experiment with density and buoyancy. Using an experiment from Home Science Tools, she had fun making sea water and testing it.
***watching food coloring diffuse in the Great Salt Lake water.
Which is denser? Great Salt Lake water - blue, ocean water - green or tap water - yellow.
March 17, 2010
Finally the day arrived for the first dissection. Wavering between disgust and interest they tackled the job.
Avoiding the going ons in the other room, the younger set worked on making their pin hole cameras.
To celebrate their accomplishment of the dreaded High School Biology dissection lab we ate dinner together. The menu? Lots of wormy spaghetti, salad and for dessert - "Dirt" complete with gummy worms. We're having fun figuring out the menu for the upcoming labs - lobster? frog's legs?
March 17, 2010
My scientist is always eager to do any experiment that comes along so when I saw this experiment, Blobs in a Bottle, on the Home School Freebie of the Day page, we had to do it. Our "Lava Lamp" is quite the novelty and shown to whomever enters our home.
March 5, 2010
Inclined Planes, wheels, levers, pulleys, wedge, screw, inventions, Rube
It's funny how when one of us is studying something it can draw in everyone else. For several days all in our house were identifying and making simple machines. We made a simple version of a Rube
Who wouldn't have fun playing with all these simple concepts that give us such variety in our daily lives? The class went off well with enthusiastic participants in all the activities.
March 3, 2010
For the past few months the labs required in our biology text didn't require that we meet together. But now we are getting back into our every other week meeting beginning with a study sponges and cnidarians. For two biology loving moms, it is hard for us to comprehend how one can not get excited when face to face with the diversity of God's creation!
***A- was most enthusiastic studying the hydra in the microscope.
September 16, 2009
To keep us on track with science, several families have joined together to do the labs of our Apologia Biology text.
This lab was made more exciting as we had to collect water samples before the storm rolled in.
May 4-8, 2009
A week of school includes:
Science Experiments complements of TOPS. We've watched our cowpeas, pinto beans, popcorn and bush bean seeds go through their first phases of growth.
Take advantage of the moment lessons: M looked out the window and with a big grin stated, "There's a turtle!" After observing and examining it, we decided it is a box turtle.
After all the poking and prodding, the turtle may think next time before crossing through our yard.
Reading Good Books & Visiting the Library:
A is often found carrying around a pile of books begging someone to sit and "Read A--- books."
For our read aloud time right now we are reading The Yanks are Coming, a very well written historical book by Albert Marrin on the US involvement in WWI and C.T. Studd: No Retreat, a YWAM missionary biography that is taking us to China and the Belgium Congo through a challenging story of a man that gave up a lot to bring the gospel around the world.
A fun library find is the picture book Greater Estimations by Bruce Goldstone. I always wondered how my mathematically minded husband could always estimate numbers so close (often right on). Learn the tricks in this book and you may be able to too.
Art in Many Forms:
Hours have been spent creating:
Paintings by K, M and L,
Large dirt ramps used for bike jumping in the yard by D and J.
Multiple Meals by S, K, and E.
Bush sculpture (pruning) by C.
Music
The kids wrapped up their year of piano with a final concert Friday night. The fun part was D&L and E&K played duets and all four enjoyed their solos. The sobering part was the realization that this is K's last formal concert!
A week of Spring Schooling includes all this and so much more.
We all have our sights on those dog days of summer and are pressing on to get there victoriously!
