Posted in Talking About the Family
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We had company this weekend. A wild dog came tearing through the house like an out of control whirlwind.
Oh right, dh's aunt came too.
She was a little tamer so we let her play with the kids.
;)
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Posted in General Talking
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We had a special treat today when our church welcomed Brothers Forever to take over our Sunday morning service. These guys have awesome vocals and moving testimonies. I was so impressed with their level of professionalism and thankful for their unashamed love and service to our Lord. Now I can't wait to go listen to them again on cd!
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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 General Talking
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Red had some foresight... |
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 Hands On Carnival
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Edition #13 of the Hands On Homeschool Carnival has been posted at Jimmie's Collage. There are loads of entries this month. I think everyone is enjoying the start of the new year and it shows in all their wonderful submissions. |