Posted in Homeschool Talk
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My 5yo told me she wanted to paint fall pictures. She wanted to paint colorful leaves and trees and scenes from nature. After a bit it seemed best that I draw a few simple pencil sketches for her to paint because she was having a hard time getting the paint to do what she wanted and was getting quickly frustrated. So we started with some leaves.
Next I drew a tree for her and showed her how she could make the tree have many leaves by just using dots and dabs of paint. First I did up an example and while she painted I pulled out print cards I have of van Gogh's self portrait and a variety of impressionist paintings that use many small strokes like those of Monet and Sisley. We were able to talk a bit about the different types of painting and what started as an innocent child asking to paint turned into a brief introduction to impressionism and pointillism. I love it when lessons come out of nowhere! Here is her finished tree.
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Posted in Homeschool Talk
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My 7yo son loves to play with pattern blocks. So today we focused on geometry using the pattern blocks and a book called 20 Thinking Questions for Pattern Blocks (that I'm embarassed to say, was gifted to me when I started homeschooling a few years ago and I have only just begun to use it this year.) Each question or lesson gives a list of materials needed, a section on how to introduce the question, a box of possible problems that might come up and how to handle them, some examples of what you might see in your student's work, what to look for, discussion questions and then a journal reflection. This book is geared towards 6-8 graders and I could easily see myself doing this with my 8th grader once a week. For now, I have just pulled out the bits that I can do with my younger son. We can't get into the deep detail that the book does, especially in relation to decimals and percents and I don't bother with the journal entries because I don't want to slow him down with tedious writing.
Question #2 asks: How many different triangles can you make? We started by reviewing the names of the shapes and then I made a simple triangle and asked ds to make a few of his own. Once he saw that he could make triangles out of other shapes beside triangles I urged him to make larger, more complex triangles consisting more varied shapes.
Question #11 asks: What patterns do you see? This particular activity requires the child to only use one shape to recreate that shape in a larger size. Once the student can make it using only a few blocks he is challenged to make the next larger size. It took my son a few tries to get the blue parrallelograms right but he figured it out and found it even easier after that to manage the other shapes. After class he had some free time so I let him free play with the hexabits which as is customary with anything ds plays with, he made wheels out of so he could race them and later to play war with.
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Posted in Homeschool Talk
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A new Yahoo group is under way today! You are probably familiar with Kris's wonderful blog, At Home Science. But did you know she started up an At Home Science Yahoo group? I think this is going to be a great way to share your cool homeschooling sciencey ideas and get your questions answered by Kris and other moms who've been there. Go check it out and get in the loop! |
Posted in Homeschool Talk
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Today we made a battery powered motor. You can find the directions for this and many other cool videos at Wonder How To. I have learned that to make these projects go more smoothly I need to gather materials before gathering the children and even then, I still end up having problems. For best results use small paperclips and a thin copper wire. And be careful! The paperclips do get a bit hot. Ha ha, after my dd burnt herself I asked her if she knew why the paperclip got hot. (Don't give me grief, it was a prime homeschooling moment! And it didn't hurt that bad...besides she answered it right and the little kids even made some pretty well educated guesses.) So what do you use your paperclips for? |
We've been using paperclips a lot lately. You can use them in lots of electrical experiments and they really are so handy. With the help of various batteries, homemade and storebought, we've tried lighting lots of little lightbulbs with them. Sometimes successfully and sometimes not. I've also burnt my fingers on them a lot lately. Nothing too serious since we are only using small batteries but yikes, ouch that smarts! All in the name of science.Posted in Homeschool Talk
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The week's finished dioramas of Swiss Family Robinson:
One of our kiddos did her inventor report on Alexander Graham Bell. She had a wonderful collection of telephones through the ages:
This week's theme was all about energy and how one kind of energy can be converted to another. We started with a KONOS game of Polly Potential and Kevin Kinetic. It was fun for the little ones to "act out" kinetic energy. The girls collected things from around the house and placed in a state of potential energy.
And then they waited quietly while the boys took turns demonstrating kinetic energy with each of the itmes that were brought into the room.
I admit, some of us moms were a little nervous about how they would demonstrate the kinetic energy but we were pleasantly surprised by how creative the boys were and not as wild as we expected. Way to go Boys! Next we used a candle to turn a spiral paper hanging from the light fixture to show how heat does work. WHile the big kids worked together to make vinegar batteries, the little ones made lemon batteries and then read The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip.
The end of our day was by far the most entertaining. We again converted energy by having the kids build a fire for cooking.
We were a little impatient for the fire to die down enough for cooking...
For dessert the kids assembled banana pockets with chocolate chips and mini marshmallows wrapped in aluminum foil and baked in the hot coals. A delicious treat!
Dh played the guitar and we all sang songs and danced and played by the fire after co-op was over. As usual, we didn't want the day to end and it is especially hard to part when the weather cooperates and we can spend time outside.
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Posted in Homeschool Talk
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Each week at co-op one or more children present a report of some kind. During this resourcefulness unit we have had dioramas of scenes from Swiss Famly Robinson, reports on inventors and the children are also working on inventions of their own. Here are this week's pics: A diorama of the boa constrictor scene. Now every one of us at co-op knows what happens to the donkey in this scene but this dear little girl chose to portray the donkey full of life. Such a sweety. I gotta say if it had been a boy doing the same scene, like my son, the donkey would have already been at least partially down the boa's throat.
The inventor of Coca Cola is Dr. John Pemberton. This was a pretty fun and interesting report. This little girl's brother reported on the inventor of the chocolate chip cookie the same day and they each brought samples! Yummy!
After the reports were all given we went outside for a few experiments. The first was an introduction to pulleys. For some reason, the experiments that I am in charge of always have problems...you can tell by my expression in this picture that I am questioning whether we are doing this correctly or not. I'd love to hear from someone who has done this activity. We had two broom sticks with rope zig-zagging back and forth between them. The kids are supposed to try and pull the poles apart. Sometimes the poles fell out, sometimes the kids fell down... well they couldn't get the poles apart so I guess that was the idea, but I'm not sure of the lesson. So we moved on to water pumps and siphons.
The kids really got a kick out of working the water pump. The clear bottles helped. They could see everything that was happening and discovered how simple the whole set up really was.
We started with the hoses configured to work like a fire extinguisher. After the kids all had a chance to "put out a fire" the hoses were reversed to demonstrate why it's important to set it up correctly if you want water to come out! A few activities later and it was time for snack and a review. We baked jelly filled crescent rolls (screw) and served them with apples, (wedge) non-alcoholic wine (screw and lever) and sliced cheese.
I suppose I really should tell you about those activities between the water pumps and the snacks. Sadly we don't have any pictures because we were having so much fun, we forgot! We worked with pulleys, read the story of Saul being lowered down the wall in Damascus and then we let the kids each take a turn pretending to be Saul. They tried lowering each other with and without a pulley and even worked it from a few different angles to really see how he might have been lowered. It was such fun watching the children reenact how they thought the situation might have happened. |
Posted in Homeschool Talk
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A simple book that explains water pumps and siphons for all ages, Messing Around with Water Pumps and Siphons by Bernie Zubrowski is a super find for kids who like to play with water and learn more about many of our common everyday contraptions. From fire extinguishers to steam engines - you'll be amazed!
Last week the kids learned the very basics in siphoning and how we replace liquid with air (or other gas)to move water out of a fire extinguisher. I'm hoping to do more this coming week with this fabulous book. |
Posted in Homeschool Talk
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During the second week of the Resourcefulness unit we focused on simple machines.
The kids tried to roll the cars down the inclined plane but they kept falling off. They experimented with a few different ways to keep the cars on the board like lowering the board and releasing it further down the "track." Finally they determined the board needed railings!
Each child attached a piece of cardboard to the side of the board using screws or nails and we discussed the various types of screws and why they are made differently. The kids made some guesses but the proof was in the doing!
Now the cars can successfully roll down the track from start to finish. The youngers had a blast testing the inclined plane at numerous combinations of heights and car styles!
While the little ones played with the inclined plane, the olders practiced reading angles and calculating the mechanical advantage of the inclined plane. The operation is simple enough. If only I could keep all these formulas in my head!
Our biggest project for the day was creating a waterwheel. It started a bit slow with me running in and out to find supplies but by the time we were finished it turned out pretty cool and I think the kids enjoyed putting it to work.
The complete instructions for building this type of water wheel can be found in KONOS volume III in the Resourcefulness Unit / Simple Machines. |
