Jul. 18, 2006 - Adventures in Unschooling
Let it be said upfront, that we are not unschoolers. I have nothing against unschoolers, in fact I admire them greatly. But my dh prefers a somewhat more traditional approach, and I do better with more of a schedule/routine as well. We typically follow a traditional approach to math, language arts, Latin and the like. Yet use a living books/literature/classical approach to history using Tapestry of Grace (which is really so much more than just history).
But, we received our new microscope yesterday, and it's been like Christmas! DS13 will be using Apologia Biology this year, so we invested in a GOOD quality microscope. We've had for years a cheaper 'toy' version that is so-so, and therefore rarely got used.
Well, after setting it up and looking at a few of the prepared slides with the Biology kit, the dc decided to collect their own "specimens". One neat thing that came with the cheap scope was some great side pieces for collection purposes. So, out they went to scout the farm for things they wanted to see close up.
Some things they learned:
-Pond water has critters in it
-Pool water doesn't (thank goodness!)
-Crickets have hairy legs
-whole insects don't work very well, but parts of them do
-dryer lint looks grayish blue when it's in a bunch, but you can see the individual fibers and colors up close.
-Mom's gray hairs are coarser than dd8's brown ones
-salt and sugar are crystals, but pepper isn't
They repeated the activity this morning. So, all told, they've probably spent 4-5 hours on science in the past 2 days, without any prompting from me at all.
Comments
Jul. 18, 2006 - What fun!
Posted by MuckFootMom
It sounds like they're having a great time!!!
:)
