The First Snow

Don’t you just LOVE the first snow? It’s always so exciting especially with little ones in the house! This is Eli’s first year comprehending what snow is and Ivy (3) is extra excited this year about this white sparkly stuff.

“Mom, mom, mom…..come quick! There’s white puffy sparkles coming down from the sky!”

Can’t beat that!

Even better, since we homeschool this sort of thing weaves perfectly into our day. I quickly grabbed a few well-chosen books and my camera as they gazed out the window and had an impromptu science lesson for the littles while the older two worked on math and history.

 

 

We read “Why Does It Snow?”  (a Just Ask series) and talked about snow crystals all having six points but each being unique unto itself. We discussed and narrated how snow forms in the clouds and comes to fall here. Next we read “In the Snow: Who’s Been Here?” by Lindsay Barrett George which is a fun little book that takes kids through an exploratory adventure through the snowy woods. Each page has a clue of an animal visiting and then asks the reader to guess which animal it was. I let each child take turns guessing then turning the page to see if they were right.

After that we suited up and headed outside with some dark felt to catch snow crystals. I’m pretty sure more snow was eaten than captured but the thought was there. The snowflakes were too small this time to really see the distinction of crystal patterns and my kids lost all our good magnifying glasses. Still, they had a fun 15 minutes running all their energy off.

Now, lest you think this day was shrouded in warm fuzziness because of these beautiful pictures, (And aren’t they beautiful? Just look at that magnolia bud frosted in snow!) just know that we still had our share of school battles today. I spent over an hour arguing and standing my ground on making a six year old little boy finish a phonics lesson that he could’ve finished in five minutes. It was as if his memory was suddenly erased on everything he’d learned phonics-wise so far this year. And his poor five year old sister was every-so patiently sitting next to us waiting her turn while helping me clean flash cards and did finish her’s in less than five minutes when we finally got to her. So never let the pretty pics fool you into thinking our day was something other than what it was…just a day. Beautiful moments captured between ordinary, trying times! In other words, life!

Other books we’re planning on reading today ~

  

Free Human Anatomy Videos for Kids

I know, I know…not blogging right? Technically, I’m not. I had this post written over 6 months ago but forgot to post it. I am in the process of putting all my bookmarks on Pinterest and any posts of my own that I need to reference later again for homeschooling. So here I am listing all my human anatomy free online videos here for all of you to partake of and, mainly, for me to find again in an orderly fashion. (Don’t you love that you can pinterest your own things?) Enjoy and spread the love!

Cell Videos

• Introduction to Cells ~ an AMAZING short video set to music showcasing real cells
• Through the Virtual Cell ~ go through all the parts of a cell through a computer simulation. Great for older students.
• The Magic School Bus Goes Cellular
• The Cell Song ~ by Glenn Wolkenfeld
• The Cells Rap Song

Skeletal System Videos

• Stanley the Skeleton ~ by Kid Science
• Dem Bones ~ Schoolhouse Rock song
• Macarena Bones Song ~ by Dr. Jean
• The Skeleton Dance ~ for the younger kids
• Joints Song ~ short but sweet
• The Skeletal System Rap ~ by Songs for Higher Learning
• The Bone Song Final Rap ~ amateurish yet thorough…kids will still like, especially older elementary!

Brain Videos

• Nina and the Neurons ~ a 14 minute show on how the brain works. Great for younger kids and visual learners.
• The Brain Song ~ a redo parody…super cool and danceable!!!
• Parts of the Brain with Brainiac ~ for all you oldschoolers out their!

Heart ~ Circulatory System Videos

• Do the Circulation ~ Schoolhouse Rock song
• Circulatory Rap ~
• The Heart Animation – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3~ by Once Upon a Time (for older elementary kids)

Muscular System Videos

• The Muscular System
• The Magic School Bus Flexes It’s Muscles
• The Magic School Bus Works Out
• The Magic School Bus Gains Weight 
• The Muscular System Animation Part 1, Part 2, Part 3~ Once Upon a Time video

Digestive System Videos

• Molly the Marshmallow ~ very entertaining as well as informational!
• Magic School Bus Goes to Lunch Part 1, Part 2~ a digestive trip through Arnold
• Break it Down Song ~ Sid the Science Kid
• Digestive System Animation Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 ~ Once Upon a Time video
• Virtual Digestion Animation Tour

The Respiratory System

• The Respiratory System Animation Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 – Once Upon a Time video

Human Body Videos – General

• Magic School Bus: Inside Ralphie (germs)
• Human Body Videos and Interactive Online Games (all systems)
• Brain Pop – short animated videos teaching kids proper real food nutrition

Click for additional Free Human Anatomy Resources and Free Germ Resources and Videos.

Playing Doctor: Germs and Our Immune System

The kids have had great fun this week studying about germs. I figured, mainly since everyone had a cold, that this was a good place to start. We did a mini overall introduction to the human body last week with a few fun worksheets and watching Osmosis Jones. Of course, as you can see above, we dug out the doctor kit and the littles have been playing all week. They were even fighting over the outfit so their solution was that Lilah got the shirt and Luc the scrub pants. He made up for it by donning a mint green oxford button up. He actually did look like a doctor then! It made me smile.

Although we’ve read several good books and watched several good videos, I think the kids favorite activity was learning how to wash hands properly. Ivy has been in the bathroom every chance she gets now to put soap on her hands (and whatever else she can). Our house mess level has been high but overall the kids have been enjoying themselves. It has been harder sticking to the other schedule of maintaining math and language arts. The first week back is always hardest. My weekend plans, other than Eli’s birthday, is to tweak this part to make sure we stay on schedule. I think what will help the most will be me being even more prepared. I thought I was this time with everything all printed out but I’ve found it’s the little things that will make the biggest difference to us…already-sharpened pencils, papers already on clipboards the night before for each child, as much chores as possible already done the night before to make a smooth morning transition.

We studied how our body works to keep germs out, combat germs once they invade, and how our body naturally heals itself. We also read about the doctor and immunizations. Most of our technical stuff (for the older two) had to do with the job of white and red blood cells. Here is a sampling of what we used.

Free Resources:

• Magic School Bus: The Giant Germ Lapbook at yeeshallknow for the older students
• copywork pages from The Human Body Copywork (only $1.50 for 3 Volumes!!!)
• lapbook pieces from the pre-K Human Body Lapbook for the littles
• mini lapbook piece on the body healing (great for everyone to use) at 1+1+1+1

Living Books:

(There are many other great books to go along with this one.)

Other books we used:

• About Me (Childcraft) – great overall resource for a human body study with children. Worded as a living book and keeps the kids interest the entire time. Great for older or smaller children. Use the parts that go with what you are studying. We will use this book each week and just read bits and pieces as we go.
• The Giant Germ – a Magic School Bus chapter book that Gabe read independently this week.
• Judy Moody: The Doctor Is In – a chapter book that Lily read indepdendtly this week.
• Daisy The Doctor (Usborne) – a great read-aloud for the littles
• Bernstein Bears Go to the Doctor – another great picture book for the littles

Free Videos:

• Magic School Bus: Inside Ralphie – you can’t go wrong with Ms. Frizzle! Lots of great scientific information.
• Hand Washing for Kids – an adorable little cartoon kitty shows you the right way to wash hands
• Protect, Don’t Infect: Germ Wars – a great little cartoon similar to those old Saturday morning PSA’s on television…my kids loved this one!

Free Lessons ~ Health, Nutrition, and the Human Body for Healthy Kids

Discovered a great new site for homeschooling moms…

Nutrition for Healthy Kids is a blog dedicated to teaching our children about proper nutrition. This homeschooling momma steps out of the box and teaches young children to think critically about their food. Her lessons go way beyond the public school’s general 4 Food Groups philosophy. What’s the difference between organic and non-organic? Can you taste the difference? See the difference? She explores using the scientific theory to go through lessons on everything from basic food nutrition to grocery store plu codes and knowing what a GMO is. Each lesson comes with a downloadable worksheet for the kids to use in their science investigations. And there is lots of hands-on (with little prep work) and opportunities for field trips.

I was planning on doing a Nutrition, Health and Hygiene, and Anatomy and Physiology unit this upcoming winter anyway. A good can’t-go-outside science unit to work on.  This site will tuck in neatly to what we will already be doing. Besides, flu season is the perfect opportunity for a field trip to our doctor for a seasonal shot! And our kids have all been under-the-weather this week so it will be the perfect time to start studying about germs and how nutrition can heal your body. My goal is for the kids to take an active role in their own health and understand why mommy and daddy make some of the decisions we do. I want them to decide what foods will build their immune systems and I want them to begin the process of learning the basics of cooking. We will also be spending the winter planning our spring garden so that will also tie in nicely. We will also be focusing on two very important key biblical elements…the fruit of self-control paired with the freedom we have under Christ. I will be curious to see how their knowledge plays out over the season of over-indulgence!

Here are some other resources we will be using:

• The Human Anatomy Tour
• Anatomy Arcade
• Magic School Bus – Giant Germ Lapbook pdf
• Magic School Bus – Missing Bones Lapbook pdf
• Human Body Squidoo Lapbook (and other notebook links)
• Label-Me Human Anatomy pdf Worksheets
• Pre-K Nutrition Booklet
• My Body Lapbook (Homeschool Share)
• The Human Body Copywork (only  $1.50 for 3 Volumes!!!!!)
• American Dental Association’s pdf Color and Activity Sheets
• Drop of Blood 3D Model (Creekside Learning)
• Circulatory System Rap
• The Circulation Game
• Body Bingo
• The Immune System Game
• 3D Food Pyramid Craft (features 3 controversial theories)
• Traditional Food Pyramid Cut and Paste
• Brain Hemisphere Hat
• “Ectomy” Brain Game
• Junior High Study Guide Worksheets (to The Children’s Atlas of the Human Body)

If you’ve done any clicking, you can see we are going to have loads of fun with this study! We will use the books we have on our shelf first and then, if needed, supplement with the library. What do we have on our shelf? Take a peek!

I hope to add each week what we’ve done specifically for the week and what resources we used. This will allow for a more detailed list then I can provide here as well as lots of fun, free video links to specific units.

Our schedule:

• Week 1 – Germs, How the body heals, Doctors, Teeth and Dentists
• Week 2 – Nutrition, Vitamins and Minerals, Supermarket
• Week 3 – Anatomy: 5 Senses
• Week 4 – Anatomy: Cells, Bones, Muscles
• Week 5 – Anatomy: Heart, Lungs, Stomach

Rocks and Minerals Lapbook and Unit Study – Part I

*This series will be a 2 post series. Check back next week for part two!

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was to start this unit. I remember my rock collection as a girl. Our neighbor had a bed of river rock in their garden and I would spend hours digging through it always looking for just the right specimens. I imagined finding a glorious Indian arrowhead or a real dinosaur fossil. I would pour over the limestone that made up part of our wall in the front yard and carefully pick out chunks of rock that did have fossils in them. My imagination of what part of the dinosaur it might be from was far superior then the actual fossil sea shells they actually were. I remember combing the shores of a nearby river on family fishing trips searching for pieces of fool’s gold. I remember visiting a real cave and being mesmerized by the stalagmites and stalactites. I couldn’t wait to share this love with my children. As I was pouring over books and settling on activities, my husband would sigh and say, “Are you ever going to be done working?” But all I could think was this is not work!

Our school mission: head to the park and collect rocks. Use recycled egg cartons to hold specimens. Collect only 12 of the most interesting ones you can find. Head back home to identify and classify.

~ Experiments and Activities ~

The first thing we did was sit down and try to identify all the cool rocks we found. We have two wonderful field guides for this that the kids used: Smithsonian’s Rock and Gem and Eyewitness Rock and Minerals. I believe the kids classifie about 75% of their rocks and are still trying to figure out what the others are. This part was by far their favorite part of the week! Part of our identification came in the form of vinegar tests. Apparently any rock that has a bit of carbonate in it (think calcium, baking soda, chalk) will fizz when drops of vinegar are applied. Lily had great fun with this experiment.

Next we discovered how sedimentary rock is formed. We watched the Magic School Bus video on erosion (see below) and then did our own experiment in a mason jar. Fill jar with dirt (sand, soil, rocks) and water. Shake and let sit for an hour or two. Discuss the layering that happens.

We also talked about the layers of the earth. We listened to the kids favorite song (haven’t forgot the layers yet!) and watched this video:

Then we did a hands-on experiment to show how this works. We filled a tub with water (our liquid, moving magma mantle layer) then set pieces of wood to float on top (our continents, or earth crust). I showed how even not touching them they were always moving just slightly on the magma because of a solid floating on a liquid. This transitioned beautifully into a discussion on plate tectonics and how they work. We practiced butting the wood pieces up against each other in different directions to see how direction of force changed the outcome.

This led beautifully into a discussion on how mountains were formed. We used clay to showcase this phenomenon. We layered colors (our rock) into two long strips and then pushed them against each other until they buckled and folded causing both a mountain and the layers we so often see in rocks.

We also discussed climate change and how that affects the earth’s crust. The ice weighs down the crust sinking it deeper into the magma and then, during time of warming, suddenly (or violently) lifts back up to the surface again. Pretty cool stuff that I’ve never thought about before.

All this talk of plate tectonics led to a natural discussion of Pangaea. I had the kids trace the continents with tracing paper and then cut out their own Pangaea puzzle. They first had to fit it together how they thought it might go then I showed them what scientists theory was.

We went to this really cool site: Continental Drift Puzzle and they were able to interactively try their hand at the Pangaea puzzle. The really cool thing about this site is the ability to rotate the continents. And you can do it how you think, you can try with a Pangaea outline, or just see how you measure up.

The main book I used as inspiration for these experiments was an older book I found at our library called Rocks and Soil by Robert Snedden.

~ Geology Living books  ~

Let’s Go Rock Collecting

Magic School Bus: Inside the Earth

Magic School Bus: Rocky Road Trip – this one is a chapter book that we used as a read-aloud at lunch time. It corresponds to the free lapbook below.

 Cool Rocks – Tracy Kompelien

 Geology Rocks!
50 Hands-on Activities to Explore the Earth

***************

~ Free Rock and Mineral Lapbooks, Printables, and Unit Studies ~

Magic School Bus: Rock Road Trip Lapbook – Yee Shall Know

Rocks and Mineral Lapbook – Homeschool Treasure Trove

Geology ideas and printables –  Eclectic Education

Geology printables – Enchanted Learning

Geology Squidoo Lens

***************

~ Rock Videos ~

Eyewitness Rock and Mineral Video

Magic School Bus Rocks and Rolls ~ Parts 1

Magic School Bus Rocks and Rolls ~ Parts 2

Magic School Bus Rocks and Rolls ~ Parts 3

*Note for you creationist science moms ~ I know many people, Christian and secular, debate the young/old earth theories. You will have to deal with a lot of editing of pretty much all the books if you do believe in the young earth theory. That said, here is a wonderful source via Answers in Creation to draw from if you need.

DON’T FORGET TO PIN THIS!!!

Roommates

Meet our new roommates….

Squirmy and Fred, our monarch caterpillars…

and Dooky (don’t ask!), our salt marsh caterpillar.

I was so excited to finally find some Monarch caterpillars. So looking forward to the exquisite jade green and gold chrysalis they make. By far my favorite caterpillar to keep and feed! Thank you, God, for the abundant amount of milkweed in our backyard fields! Monarch’s food of choice.

Gabe informed me that he thinks the cute furry gray guy is a salt marsh caterpillar (cousin to the woolly bear but non-banded). Good to know.  Can’t wait to find out!

This is our third year keeping caterpillars and it has turned into a tradition that I quite look forward to in August ~ September!

Think we shall be reading this during the school week ~

Monarch Butterfly of Aster Way

 

 

A Nature Walk with Aunt Bessie

A Nature Walk with Aunt Bessie…

No, we don’t have an Aunt Bessie. That is the title of a new book we are using…or rather an old book reprinted and revamped by Queen’s Homeschool Supply. One of those true living books about nature that I longed to read to my children but had no clue how to expand that over into an actual study of nature.

Sandi Queen must have had that same thought and she did something wonderful with it by putting together a Discovering Nature Series just for busy moms like me who are mulit-level teaching and just can’t squeeze one more thing into our already-busy planning sessions!  I just love grass roots efforts of other talented homeschool moms that really fill a need that is not there. That is just what this book does. It is a great mix of living book and Charlotte Mason teaching style!

Sandi cleverly breaks the lessons into chapters from the original book. You read a chapter to wet your appetite and then use the corresponding activities to further your study. It’s perfect. Some activities are coloring, some are researching, some are drawing, some are hands-on. There is enough activities after each lesson to pick one or two of your favorites or match according to level of grade but not so many so that you may just decide to do them all.

This book has been a favorite of the kids. We’ve been doing it for three weeks now and have learned all about spiders and swallows and sparrows. I will definately be ordering the next two books after we are through with this one. Here are some pics of the kids enjoying their new nature study.

Other spider books we read (from our own home library collection) ~

Field Guides as Living Books

A field guide ~ that handy little book (or big book, as the case may be) that tells you factually exactly what you need to know about what you wanted to know about.

Not exactly what we think of when we think living books. Living books for me usually encompass thoughts about a really great story that captures my heart and emotions…ties me to a piece of knowledge, whether that be history or science or art or music or even math. Isn’t that the Charlotte Mason way?

It is, but oh can it be so much more!

Around this house it is the field guides that are the beloved books that steal my children’s hearts. It is the field guides that are in tatters with missing covers and a few torn pages, well-worn from the turning and turning that happens to them. It is the field guides that my children will turn to over and over that lead to the most interesting discussions and interest-led learning opportunities. It is the pictures that capture their imagination at the pre-reading level and then grow with them as they enter into the reading fold. It is the realist that touches them as their natural curiosity is insatiable.

And it was the same for me when I was a child. Yes, I remember falling in love with Laura Ingalls and Nancy Drew and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. But, really, it was the Golden Guide’s pocket book on butterflies that captured me and stirred up my heart for later adult hobbies. So why shouldn’t it be the same for my children?

After all, Charlotte did say ~

…knowledge, that is, roughly, ideas clothed upon with facts, is the proper pabulum for mind. This food a child requires in large quantities and in great variety. The wide syllabus I have in view is intended in every point to meet some particular demand of the mind.   ~A Philosophy of Education p. 256.

And our favorite field guides around here:

Borders bargain at $9.99!

Hammond’s Animal Atlas

The same from my childhood with a new spiffy cover!

As well as all the other Golden Guide Pocket Books…especially the Pond Life

(Although, I personally like the older shabby chic cover better.)

Of course, we all remember this review! Great book, great bargain!

Extensive and up to date! Another Borders bargain!

(find here used at Amazon)

Universe…what can I say except this is a must see book! (another Borders bargain)

It takes you across our galaxy from stars to planets and moons to meteors all in the order of how many light years away from earth it is. And the pictures are phenomenal. One of my personal faves!

Visual Dictionary…bargain for us at Barnes and Nobles and now you can get it bargain priced as used!

Smithsonian’s Rock and Gem

Animal Tracks & Signs…a gift from Grandma!

(The poop quiz is their favorite, of course!)

Stokes Beginner’s Guide to Birds

I think we use this one on almost a daily basis in the spring time! And the diminutive size means it is constantly getting lost as little hands snatch it and carry it around in pockets and purses.

The Bird Songs Anthology…which they’ve looked at so much that we’ve had to glue the sound part on several times and now we just set it in with the stuffed birds basket. Most listened to bird? The ptarmigan. This erupts in giggles for hours! (And the giggling is contagious…just to warn you! Don’t believe me? Go hear for yourself!)

Field Guide to Wildflowers

(native to our forests in Nebraska…will update later with a picture since I can’t find one online)

Trees of North America

One of the best identifying books ever whether you have a pinecone, a leaf, a piece of bark or a tree seed. Real time pictures of each part of the tree…just flip pages until you see what you’re holding in your hand from that nature walk!

And, of course, we can’t forget the Crinkleroot Guides! I don’t think there is a book alive by him that we don’t love!

 

The Learning Room and an Amazing Book Review!

January  10 – 21, 2011

We have been spelling, spelling, spelling around here. Next Friday is the spelling bee. We got a late start this year because they didn’t have the lists prepared and I admit, I feel a bit nervous this time around. I know Gabe will do great but his competitive edge will either make for a really great day for him or make him miserable despite all our talks about good sportsmanship and just doing your best. But, really, I’m not that nervous for him. He’s gotten through three pages of list words at the fourth grade level and is aceing all his tests on spellingcity.com. Who I’m really nervous for is Lily. She wants so bad to do well and keep up and is getting frustrated with herself (she is not a naturally good speller) at still having to work on certain words over and over and over again. I’m trying to be as encouraging and supportive as I know how.

On the positive side, our Little House studies are going fantastic. We read two chapters yesterday and Gabe was begging for more. They really enjoy doing the lapbook work and we listened to some jigs yesterday (like Pa played on his fiddle) and we had quite the group of bouncing kids jigging around the house (bet our downstairs neighbors loved that!). Along with jigging we tried our hand at making maple syrup candy with our plethora of snow days. The kids gobbled it up but it was too soft. Would have been better had we had a candy thermometer. They also loved sampling the difference between “real” maple syrup and the hybrid stuff from the store. They noted the difference in flavor and had fun reading the ingredients label but thought each were equally tasty…especially when compared to the sample of more-common molasses they had which they thought tasted like medicine.

Speaking of snow…there has also been quite a lot of sledding going on around here. We have a perfect sledding hill next to our house and my husband has felt extra inspired to be taking the kids out in it. Better him then me, I say! Although, I did sneak outside for a few pics and to rescue my baby who was standing in a snow pile up to her knees, stuck, with tears iced to her cheeks. As much as you want to be a part of the gang at 20 months old, some things aren’t quite as much fun as anticipated!

But our most favorite part of the past 2 weeks…

This little gem of a book that I found on clearance (1/2 price!!!!!) at Barnes and Nobles.

It showcases all the elements in order, like a field guide, with a picture of each elemant in its natural state on one page and then a brief history with pictures of how and what it is used in on the opposite page.

It also showcases a mini-map of where it is on the periodic table; its atomic weight, density, radius, and crystal structure; and where it lies on the atomic emmission spectrum.

It is written by an author, Theodore Gray, who truly is passionate about this subject (a true living book!) and has a knack of drawing you right in despite the fact that you’re learning college level science! Case in point:

The very last column is the noble gases. Noble is used here in the sense of “above the business of the comman riffraff.” Noble gases almost never form compounds with each other or with any other elements.

Or

Alkali metals react with water to release hydrogen gas, which is highly flammable. When you throw a large enough lump of sodium into a lake, the result is a huge explosion a few seconds later. Depending on whether you took the right precaustions, this is either a thrilling and beautiful experience or the end of your life as you have known it when molten sodium sprays into your eyes, permanently blinding you.

Or

Almost everything you see in this book is sitting somewhere in my office, except that one thing the FBI confiscated and a few historical objects. I had a great time collecting these examples of the vibrant diversity of the elements, and I hope you have as much fun reading about them.

It is truly one of the most fascinating books I’ve looked at! And, to put the icing on the cake, it comes with a bonus DVD that plays The Elements Song by Tom Lehrer (a mathematician who wrote satirical educational songs, all of which I find greatly amusing!) . This song is already on our much-played science CD and the kids LOVE it! As the DVD is playing the song, you see the pictures of the elements flash on the screen then find their place on the periodic table. My husband bet the kids that whoever can memorize it first will win $10! If you listen to the song here you will know what a challenge that will be! Phonics? Pisshhh. That’s nothing on pronouncing ununoctium or yanomanmite!

My husband decided that we go through the book with the kids as a full science course. The kids seconded that vote. Then the kids decided (their idea…really, I didn’t even suggest it) that they draw a picture of each element. I just added the nice touch of putting a mini blank periodic table for them at the bottom of the page to “map” where that element is found. They thought that was a great addition and today a new science notebook was born! I loved how their first pages turned out and I would love to show you except my camera is on the fritz. (Hmm…maybe I’ll try scanning?) Gabe even mentioned today that even though they were doing school during their free time (a consequence of not finishing morning chores on time) that it was okay because this was cool and not really like school at all so he didn’t mind missing any free time.

Oh, how my homeschooling mom’s heart went pitter patter just then! Blessings this weekend!

Linked to:

The Learning Room

December 27-31

I so wanted to take this week off and organize the learning room and our files. But with all the time we took off for the fall I knew it was unfeasible. Especially since we are trying to stay on a schedule with the kids to develop other healthy family habits. So I forged ahead. It turned out to be a good, productive week. And I got to spend New Year’s weekend on the organizing part (what better weekend then this?).

Our emphasis in Language Arts is the Spelling Bee coming up (January 28th). Since the moderators did not get this year’s list to us until later then usual, we have dropped most other grammar work for now to concentrate on just spelling. We will pick up more grammar starting in February. They both practiced at SpellingCity.com..again, each choosing which words they thought they needed help with…and also helped each other study their lists. Other then that, we are doing a lot of reading. Lily is reading a lot on her own and to the littles. Gabe’s always reading and has been more helpful (of his own accord) and patient with reading to 18 month old Ivy. It’s sweet, really!

 With Math we did the usual but added in learning about fractals. I got this new book in to preview (The Snowflake: Winter’s Beauty Secret) and it is breathtaking to look at. It reminded me of last year’s study of Snowflake Bentley and so I dug up that triangle grid sheet and we made snowflake fractals, poured over the beautiful pictures in this book and read the Shapes Convention chapter (about fractals…cute story!)  from the Fractals, Googles, and other Mathematical Tales. It was a fun day.

Gabe worked on his chapter 11 Math U See (learning averages) which turned into a discussion with dad later that night about statistics and projecting for dice games (he was playing Farkle at the time). I had Lily read me The Coin Counting Book and we did the practice work from this book. I mainly wanted to emphasize with her how us learning to skip count (a thing she hates) ties in with learning about money. She grumbled when the problems got harder but I made us persevere. Her hardest is counting quarters. She has a mental block that adding 25’s to each other is much too difficult. I know she will look back one day and say to herself, that’s actually the easy part!

With history we read chapter 5 of our Little House in the Big Woods book, worked on lapbooks some more, listened to some fiddle music, learned the song “Pop Goes the Weasel”, read some more from If You Were a Pioneer, read a Laura Ingalls Wilder biography and two more of the My First Little House series: Winter on the Farm and A Deer in the Wood. We did narrations on the bio to add to their lapbooks.

Science was the most fun for the kids this week. Since the kids have all been to the dentist in the past two weeks, and since we forgot to take back our library books, and since I found an old pulled molar of mine while getting out the tooth fairy pillow for Lily (who lost another tooth this week), we decided to reread Open Wide (which thrilled the kids). They were amazed at my tooth and feeling real bone and getting to see a real cavity. We followed that with some fun brushing teeth video watching, more fun reading, practice brushing our teeth properly, and labeling a tooth chart. Everyone, including littles, loved this subject and participated with rapt attention. LOVE when that happens!

Fun Dental Books we read:

• Open Wide: Tooth School Inside
• Going to the Dentist by Mr. Rogers
• Wibble Wobble
• Moose’s Loose Tooth
• Arthur Tricks the Tooth Fairy
• The Berenstain Bear and Too Much Junk Food (not necessarily about teeth but a good supplemental booklet to go with it and there is a fun-to-do worksheet for the kids that will highlight the book below in the Dentist Color Page section – color page #6).

Fun Dental Resources:

• Dentist Color Pages
• Label a Tooth Anatomy at Enchanted Learning
• Toothbrush Chore Chart
• Brushing Teeth for Children Video
• Toothbrush for Kids – Crawford the Cat video

We also read three books for our forest study: The Skunk at Hemlock Circle, Whose Tracks Are These?, and Jim Arnosky’s Animal Tracking. The kids thought the first okay but loved both the second and third and had so much fun following clues and guessing which animal tracks they had found.

Woods, Winter, and the Ingall’s Girls

December 13 – 24, 2010

I am just now getting a chance to sit down and write about our history and science days of last week. We officially started our Unit Study of Little House on the Prairie. On our official “history” day we will be reading from the book, discussing, doing activities to supplement and putting together our lapbook. For our “science” day we will be studying the forest as a compliment to this book and making our own field guides.

I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant on how they would take the Little House study. I am super passionate about these books and this time period so, of course, I was excited. But sometimes history sends Gabe straight into eyes-glaze-over mode. I thought Lily would like it, as most girls who read this book do in the elementary years. I wasn’t so sure if Gabe would enjoy the book or not. To my surprise, they both loved it. Gabe even did extra reading and volunteered (hear that cyber world….volunteered!!!) a narration on his reading to put into his lapbook. Even the two smaller ones, Luc and Lilah, wouln’t hear of being left out and made me print off lapbook pages for them to do as well. Our two hour schooling window expanded to a 5 hour window (with a break for lunch of course!) and I was amazed at the enthusiasm.

History

Read:

• Chapters 1-4 of Little House in the Big Woods (ending with the chapter appropriately titled “Christmas” yesterday!)
• Winter Days in the Big Woods (a My First Little House)
• Gabe read and narrated from Look Inside a Log Cabin by Mari Schuh
• All read from If You Were a Pioneer on the Prairie (which delightfully grossed the children out – especially outhouses and bed bugs!)

Activities ~ Making our own butter. At first everyone one was so excited and fighting over who got to shake the cream. By the end of 20 minutes they were all trying to shove it off on each other and no one wanted to finish. We got it to the butter just starting to seperate out from the buttermilk stage before they gave up all together and were no longer interested. Gabe said he sure was glad we could just buy butter from the store now!

Lapbooking ~ picked and colored cover pages and put together lapbook folders, hotglued popscicle sticks onto a log cabin (Luc and Lilah’s fave activity), made food preservation mini books, made a mini smokehouse replica (Gabe and Lil’s fave since it involved Liquid Smoke), wrote about our Christmas versus the Ingall’s, wrote about a favorite gift and used as copywork/penmanship, made mini books about making bullets and gun safety, made a mini book on the Ingall’s weekly chores

Language Arts

These past two weeks we also concentrated on reading. That pretty homeschool picture we all have in our head of snuggling on the couch and reading great books rarely happens around here. Mainly because mommy is always busy and interrupted with the needs of littler ones and we do a lot of our reading separately by subject.  But since we have forgone stories at bedtime to replace with our Advent activities, I really didn’t want the Christmas season to go by without reading some of the classics! Plus, we needed to return some library books that were too good to not let the kids get a chance to hear read aloud! So our whole day of language arts this week just focused on reading great children’s literature. I let each of the kids pick a book and I took turns reading their selections (which they loved!!!) and then I would pick a selection and read. This took time, but it was nice time that we all desperately needed. And it fostered some great discussions. We talked about homophones (hair and hare), about hibernation and dens (science), about the real meaning of discipline and it’s oppositte meaning (dictionary skills and bible character training), and about what would truly satisfy you and make you happy on Christmas morning (Let’s just say my kids have a long ways to go! Apparently a tin cup and one peppermint stick or a new pair of mittens would not make them as excited as the Ingall’s girls. Who knew?)

Literature & Poetry Reading  ~

• Bear Snores On by Wilson & Chapman (one of our winter faves…so lyrical and fun to read!)
• Forest Child by Marni McGee
• The Little Engine That Could and the Snowy, Blowy Christmas by Watty Piper
• Santa Comes to Little House by Laura Ingalls Wilder, illustrated by Rnee Graef (beautiful pictures and the book that inspired the conversation of materialism and happiness ~ also counted towards our history unit study)
• Christmas in the Big Woods (a My First Little House book)
• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Krats
• Antler, Bear, Canoe: A Northwoods Alphabet Year by Betsy Bowen
• Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
• A Charlie Brown Christmas (Hallmark interactive story – Lilah’s favorite!)

Spelling ~ Both Gabe and Lily worked on the Scripps spelling bee list for the upcoming spelling bee. They practiced alone, with each other and with mom. They picked out the words they needed to work on independently and worked on them at SpellingCity.com Lily and I talked about memorization tricks and visual learning (picturing letters as colors).

Phonics ~ Lily did several pages in her phonics workbooks concentrating on long vowel rules.

Grammar & Mechanics ~ Gabe and Lily both did a fun worksheet on alphabetizing Christmas words (Gabe’s was more intense). Lily did a Christmas worksheet on forming compound words.

Math

Gabe ~ Math U See – all of chapter 9 and test (finding the area of triangles), all of chapter 10 and test (division by 4’s)

Lily ~ Kumon Counting Coins book (adding nickels and pennies together, adding dimes and pennies together), Kumon Time book (telling time by hours, the different ways of writing o’clock)

Science

We did a lot of science reading too. Our favorites are Jim Arnosky’s books. I will be investing money in these this upcoming spring. Though Lily is pretty convinced that she doesn’t want to go back into the woods after all the precautionary talk we did, I assured her it’s a lovely place to explore but she is now hyper-worried about disease and poisonous plants!

Read:

• Creatures in the Woods (National Geographic book)
• Walking in Wild Places by Jim Arnosky
• Wild Tracks by Jim Arnosky (By far the most looked at book the past couple of weeks. We will be adding to our home library this spring. Includes fold out pages that have life-size tracks pictured. That impressed us all!)
• Whose Tracks Are These? (a fun book where you were given clues and then had to guess the animal who made the tracks – kids loved it)

Discussed: Ticks, Lyme disease, poisonous plants, bee stings, water pollution, reindeer (what kind of real deer they are), protective forest clothing and why.

Activities: All went out to the forest and prairie area and had a great time looking for animal scats and tracks before it snowed. The kids had great fun with this. We think we may even have found mountain lion tracks! And Luc was beyond thrilled to discover real deer poop! I also had kids look through several different types of field guides, plants and animals, to see real-life examples of how they are put together. They’ve looked at these a million times before (by far the most used books in the house) but were now looking with fresh eyes. Do they want to use real photos or sketch? If real, use a camera or pull off internet? If sketch, pencil or paint or colored pencil? What information to include? Bound or spiraled? Laminated or paper? I told them we will discuss their ideas after Christmas and each one would be unique to what that person wanted to do.

Gabe ~ made an illustration of a forest biome including the canopy, understory, brush, herb, and floor layers to include in his field guide; read his new National Geographic magazine

Lily ~ tried her hand at sketching a deer and also sketched some tracks (deer and mountain lion) to include in her field guide; read her new National Geographic magazine

deer tracks

deer scat

cat tracks

The much bigger mountain lion tracks!

Faith & Advent

• Read The Nativity by
• Read nightly out of The Jesse Tree by
• Made ornaments for our Jesse Tree.
• Practiced singing carols and learning words (The Cherry Tree Carol, The First Noel, and O Come Emmanuel)

In the Woods

We will soon be studying the deciduous forest and woodlands as part of our winter homeschool science program this year. This is mainly due to the fact that we just moved out to the country and have our own little forest right in the back yard. I want the kids to learn forest safety and some plant identification (mainly poison ivy/oak/sumac) just for my own peace of mind. But we will also be exploring woodland animals and tracking and the life cycle of trees as part of science. I think this will fit in nicely with our Little House history study as we are reading Little House in the Big Woods first and the kids will be able to make a correlation of living out in the country away from towns. Plus, we also have natural prairie grasslands in our backyard as well. I think it will be a full and rich year of learning out here! I’ll be posting our living books on this topic soon as well as adding them to our side bar.

I took the kids out in the woods last week to get some pics of plants that I wasn’t sure of. I tried finding them in my field guides (and I have quite a lot of them) and couldn’t come up with anything. I’m sure what is growing are considered weeds even though they’re in the forest. If anyone recognizes them please let me know. I didn’t have any luck on the internet either. I think I will just have to ask one of the camp guides if they know.

Of course, the kids (who normally ignore me and my camera as I’m always taking pics) were, “Look at me…look at me…take a picture of me climbing this log!” the whole time. I did capture some cute photos of them but it was hard to get anything natural looking when they were constantly trying to pose for the camera shots.

And, last but not least, the classic picking the pickers off our clothes after leaving the woods shot.

The Learning Room

March 1-18th, 2010

It’s been a while since I’ve had a moment to really sit down and list what we’ve been studying. I’ve been trying to jot it – very rough hand – on a piece of recycled paper that generally floats somewhere around my computer. So I’m going to try and make heads and tails of it today and put it into a list. I want to get it down in a permanent place before officially starting our Audubon study. Sorry if this is long-winded.

History

We have been wrapping up the Colonial & Revolutionary War period. I keep thinking we’re done and then I find another great book to read on the topic. I just recently got a paid membership (because I live outside city limits) to the Omaha Public Library and am so excited to be able to resource their books now as well as the Bellevue Library’s.  We also worked a bit of seasonal history in with the study of St. Patrick.

• Read Katie’s Trunk by Ann Turner (a wonderful story from the oppositte viewpoint of a “Tory” – a heart tugger and written in beautiful literary style)
• Lily did a narration of Katie’s Trunk and drew a picture to go with her narration.
• Read Can’t You Make Them Behave, King George? by Jean Fritz (delightfully funny and kept the kids interest despite the longness of the book – wonderfully written.)
• Gabe read What’s the Big Idea, Benjamin Franklin? independently (also by Jean Fritz) and did a narration.
• Gabe copied the Preamble to the Constitution in cursive for penmanship and filed it under the proper time in his Book of Centuries. Lily did the same, but only copied the title and date and did it in manuscript.
• Both copied the title and date of the Declaration of Independence and filed it in their Book of Centuries.
• Worked some more on colonial paper dolls but they kind of petered out on this.
• Read, as a family, Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie de Paola and discussed the reason we celebrate St. Patrick’s.
• Reviewed through their Book of the Centuries notebooks.

Literature

• Read The Last Snake in Ireland: A Story About St. Patrick and discussed the literary style of a legend versus fictional and nonfictional work.
• Started reading I Samuel from the Old Testament with Dad this week. He wants to take the kids personally through a Bible Study of I & II Samuel and I & II Kings so they can hear the many wonderful stories that most kids don’t hear in church to broaden their view. The kids are enjoying this because daddy makes storytelling come alive and seem adventurous that just doesn’t work when I read.
• Dug out all the Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit series for the spring/Easter season and the kids have been requesting them regularly. I’ve only collected them when I can at thrift stores because I want the tiny handheld size that the kids cherish. I could easily get a big anthology book of them at any discount bookstore but there is just something about them being pint-sized that the kids adore. Also listening to the collection on audio.
• Started Funny Frank by Dick-King Smith.
• Read Winnie the Pooh’s Easter by Bruce Talkington
• Read many, many poems from My Poetry Book about spring, mud, birds…a little of everything.
• Gabe and Lily have been doing lots of reading on their own. Gabe is currently on a Roal Dahl kick and picked up BFG and James and the Giant Peach for this week as well as finishing a “Choose Your Own Adventure” that dad has introduced him to as well as rereading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Lily is practicing hard in any spare moment on whatever book interests her. I see her reading improving everyday and she is wanting to be more grown up and read chapter books like Gabe. Her top pick for the week: A Pickle for a Nickel by Lilian Moore (a chapter book she borrowed from a friend.)
• Gabe has been reading Where the Sidewalk Ends and memorizing his favorite poems.

Grammar & Writing & Phonics

• Gabe and Lily both did copywork to improve penmanship (see History above). Lily also finished her Kumon: Uppercase Letters book and worked some in her Kumon: Lowercase Letters book. Gabe is doing extremely well with his cursive. Although, he has naturally good penmanship.
• Lily also used the Kumon letter cards and practice paper to particularly work on the capital ‘N’ (as she is still doing it backwards) and the lowercase ‘g’ (getting the tail below the line).
• Gabe worked in his Language Lessons book with sentence combining and how to break up run-on sentences.
• Lily worked in her Language Lessons book with more phonics work, copywork, reading practice, sentence practice, and poetry with picture narrations.
• Luc worked on phonics intensively. He sat down and practiced Hop on Pop with me and we also played a phonics game together. He worked with the Kumon letter cards and short word vowel cards almost daily. Him and Delilah both watched Talking Words Factory several times and are enamored of the sticky-icky-rama vowel machine.
• Gabe was asked to do a short essay by dad on 6 things that he will not be mastered by.
• Gabe dictated to me a first draft narration for his independent history reading and we will be using next week as a chance to practice editing, using editing marks, when to use pronouns, and when to break up paragraphs.
• Both Lily and Gabe started Commonplace books this week. They are notebooks that the kids can write special book/poetry/music/inspirational passages in, journal in, take notes on nonfiction books in, draw pictures in, etc. It is a pretty open-ended project. We will be doing it officially on Friday afternoons but they spent most of the night with them and then took them to bed to sleep with. What I am hoping to accomplish with this is twofold: 1) to encourage writing, penmanship, grammar usage, spelling practice and promote higher level thinking skills of reading comprehension at pulling and assimilating information from books (a study skill that will benefit them in all walks of life) and 2) to do purposeful work – that is, have a place where they can record or write about things that are not required of them but that they think is important or worthy enough to be recorded on paper. Gabe has already made a science diagram summary after reading a new science book and Lily has recorded two poems and drawn several pictures.
• Lily has been writing her own poetry and drawing pictures to go with them.
• Lily and I used a new system to help practice her reading. Will write about soon. She used the system with much success with the book Red Fish, Blue Fish.
• Lily read Word Bird’s Spring Words and decided to make her own word flash cards (spent 3 hours on this project of her own choosing!).

Math

• Gabe did chapter 17 and started chapter 18 in his Math U See book (multiplication of 6’s and 7’s).
• Gabe independently read (3 times at least that I saw – and it’s a chapter book!) Do You Wanna Bet: Your Chance to Find Out About Probability by Martha Weston. He greatly enjoyed this book as it expanded on his dad’s conversation of what statistics are.
• Lily did her Math U See Primer book about solving unknown equations in addition problems and learning place value with tens and one hundreds. We used her new Montessori number tiles with the place value exercises and these helped out SO much! Loved them!
• Lily practiced her Kumon Number Flashcards (numbers 1-30 with extra emphasis on 2, 7, 9) in order to master writing the numbers the proper way and to help with number recognition. Still having a bit of trouble turning around numbers like 12 and 21.
• Lily finished her Kumon: My Book of Numbers 1-30 book and recieved her certificate. She worked really hard at this and did about 20 pages (4-6 hours worth) in two days time of her own accord. This just clicked for her and she wanted to really work on accomplishing the book. She wants to start the Kumon: Easy Telling Time book next so I think that was her motivation.
• Luc read (with me) Can a Dinosaur Count & Other Math Mysteries by Valorie Fisher – a great living math book that we will come back to. Depending on child’s ability, this book can be used at multiple levels.
• Luc has also read the How Do Dinosaurs Count to Ten? book almost daily and practicing counting on all the pages.
• Gabe and Lily watched Cyberchase videos: Equations ~ A Battle of Equals and Patterns ~ The Poddleville Case

Latin

• Gabe learned new words: navigo, memoria, fortuna
• He also practiced his flashcards (with new words and dipthong sounds) every school day.

Science/Art/Music/Gardening – interchangeably life!

• Gabe has been reading Rocks and Minerals and collecting rocks outside with a specific interest in the softness or hardness of rocks and whether they can write or not (all based on a question he had one day about his pencil).
• Lily had me read certain portions of Pandas: A Portrait of the Animal World after getting a new stuffed panda with her own money at the zoo gift shop. We learned that there are only 9 pandas in all the zoos and only one of those is in the U.S.!
• Luc has been collecting “fossils” outside – basically any rock he finds that is jagged, not smooth that looks bonish-sorta-colored.
• We’ve not really ‘officially’ started our bird study, yet birds seem to be abounding everywhere. We’ve been listening to bird sounds for identification (through some birding CD’s we have and googling those we don’t have). We’ve been reading field guides galore on our favorites (more the kids doing this…especially Luc). The little ones have been playing with our Audubon stuffed birds (Did I say playing? I meant fighting!) from morning till bed time. We’ve taken walks and listened to see what birds we could identify (so far only a Mourning Dove, a Cardinal, and a Woodpecker). The balcony windows have been another flocking place for the kids, especially first thing in the morning, as they are shouting for me to come look and see what bird it is (mainly cardinals – the kids favorite right now – the stuffed bird most fought over). The kids are going crazy with drawing birds, especially Lily. And I haven’t even introduced the watercolor/colored pencil sketching we’re getting to with that. And we’ve been reading lots of bird poetry and listening to songs about birds which inspires more bird drawing. Even made a mixed bird CD (will tell about in the Audubon Study – Part II post)!
• Read chapter 4: The Robin of Birds at Home by Marguerite Henry (one of the best living books on birds we’ve found. This has been their favorite so far…comes out and stays out all day along with the field guides) and Lily did a volunteer narration and picture of it.
• Been starting work in the garden, uncovering mulched beds, looking for new perennial growth, planting seeds indoors (our broccoli is the first to sprout).
• Been looking through DK’s Visual Dictionary on Skeletons (not just human, all kinds!) which is an amazing book and is hard to tear your eyes away from! Will have to own this one…is going on my Amazon wish list. Must see what the others in the series are like.
• Gabe and Lily have officially taken the sketchbooks outside to start capturing spring.

The Project Room

Gabe and Lily are loving using their project room. They have been in there almost every second of the day making and crafting. The only time they emerge is to eat, play outside, or (for Gabe only) to get his computer time (Lily is more than happy to give her’s up for more craft time). Things they have made:

• Day One: made goody bags for each other with cards and homemade toys specific to the others interest. Was very sweet really and I tried not to cringe at how much tape was used. That’s what the Dollar Store is for, right?
• Using recyclable bin to refurbish into new uses.
• Making caterpillars and “squirmels” out of pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and pom poms.
• Making mosaic pictures out of the dried beans (suppose to be used for preschool math counters!).
• Scrapbooking.
• Reading.
• Journaling in notebooks.
• Drawing and coloring pictures.

Field Trips

• The Henry Doorly Zoo (exhibits: the cat complex and the aquarium)
• The Rose Theater to see There’s An Alligator Under My Bed (a play adaptation of several of Mercer Mayer’s books).

Audubon and the birds, Part I

Well, spring is officially here and I am excited to do a post on our upcoming history studies. I have been waiting to do this study since the beginning of the school year…before even, when I fell in love with this book from my local library:

I admit, I don’t know much about John James Audubon except that he did draw exquisite pictures of birds that I have loved looking at since a small child. I can tell you, I am very excited to learn all about him! It reminds me of a pivotal childhood moment that I wish had been capitalized on for me. Our neighbors, for reasons I cannot remember, invited me to attend a seminar on Lewis and Clark. I was the only child out of my six sisters who went and the only reason I think they invited me was that they might have been more in tune with my true nature then my mother was as I was always at their house collecting rocks and looking for mysterious fossils and real Indian arrowheads. Regardless, I don’t remember much about what was talked about, but I do remember the feeling I had which was of pure, utter enjoyment. They let me roam among the book tables afterwards and allowed me to purchase one book. I found the Golden Guides field guide to Butterflies and was smitten. I came home and secretly looked through that book more times then I can count.

Why, this story has nothing to with birds! you are surely saying to yourself. What this story encapsulates for me is that love of nature. I was born to be a naturalist – in the career form of the word. I love nothing more then traipsing through woods, taking pictures, sketching, learning about flowers, growing and using herbs, studying botany, etc. etc. etc. And, when it comes to history, the parts that most fascinate me and capture my interest is any part that includes these passions of mine…hence the Audubon, Lewis and Clark, Thoreau, Pioneers, etc. There were many more childhood moments that should have clued me into this – collecting old gardening magazines they were tossing from the library, ripping out photos in National Geographic Magazines that captured my interest, finding and buying with my own money a copy of “The Girl of Limberlost” at an antique store and then reading it out loud secretly in my room as my tongue rolled over the spellbinding words, playing “Little House” and foraging for food in the wild, walking along the banks of my neighborhood creek to explore, sitting for hours in the springtime in any woods I could find looking for new growth under old, dead leaves…and the list could go on.

Surprisingly, I never had a garden. My parents were too busy to notice my interest. The school certainly wasn’t aware of them and there was no guidance counselor directing my career path toward something…anything…having to do with this field. I did eventually (after my freshman year of college) grow my own garden and fell in love with it.  I did eventually end up working at a Garden Nursery (as a cashier and receptionist) and loving it. It was enough to just feel and handle the plants as people rang them up. I did eventually (after already graduating college) go back to school for horticulture only to not be able to continue due to starting a family. But I think of all the things I could have done if anyone…anyone at all…would have shown an interest!

I want to be that for my kids. Not that they are necessarily going to grow up and love gardening or botany like I do, but that they will get to grow up in their interests, that I will get a chance to cultivate that in them – whether it be electronics or dinosaurs.  That I will actually get to help them open up the doors of possibility down career paths where they will be doing meaningful work that they are passionate about. How many of us get that possibility?

My children are in love with birds right now (as is their grandmother) and have collected a number of stuffed birds over the years. We have a field guide that we regularly consult as we are spotting a glimpse of red or patch of blue here and there in our yard. When the kids do crafts they make insects and birds…repeatedly, in many different ways…and play with them and talk to them for hours on end. We have a birding sounds CD that we check to see if we can learn which bird is saying what. So naturally, I am so excited to learn about a field I am interested in but know very little about and expand a field that they are interested in as well. I envy them in that they get to actually study this for history if they want. What I would have given for that over a dry textbook full of boring facts!

Tomorrow (or the next depending on Ivy’s teething) I will come back with Part II and tell you about our study we are planning. It will be an all encompassing unit study and pretty much take over all our other subjects. I am pretty excited and can’t wait to share the book list with you!

An Unschooling Moment…The Digestive System

We are sitting here eating breakfast when the discussion of swallowing gum comes up. I’m trying to remember how exactly but, for the life of me, can’t.  All I know is suddenly we are talking digestion, where our food goes, what happens to the gum.  I remembered the old child-hood myth about it staying in your stomach for years. Luc mentioned how it would make you sick to swallow gum, ironic considering he swallows his fair share.  The kids talked extensively about the Magic School Bus episode they had seen numerous times from the library about being inside Arnold’s stomach and what happens to the food in intestines.  This brought up even more questions and suddenly we found ourselves at the computer, searching for the answers. We discovered a lot of science, history and math – even some Spanish!

In a Snopes ariticle we discovered that gum, as we know it, was invented in America…Maine, in fact…by John Curtis in 1848 when he experimented with spruce resin after seeing loggers chew it.  This led to a discussion on why someone would chew a tree followed by the “eewwwhhhss”…a must when your discovering the good science!.  We discussed ancient history, the Egyptians, using bark as toothbrushes…all of which seemed terribly funny to my kids.  Then we discovered that the same General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna of the Alamo introduced chicle (a resin from rainforest trees) to an inventor in New York, Thomas Adams as a rubber substitute that ended up as a gum-base (remember Chiclets?) to which Gabe excitedly shouted, “Hey, chicle means gum in Spanish!”  – a fact I didn’t even know!

We found the myth was a bust. So…if gum doesn’t stay in your system – being indigestible fiber – where does it go? (Now I’m sure you readers know the answer to that and I must say my children enjoyed yelling at the top of their lungs the potty word we only refer to with diapers and potty training!) So off we went to look into the intestines.  We couldn’t find any good sites (in our short amount of time looking) but I did get a few tips from snippets here and there which made me throw together 2 quick science experiments.

Experiment One: Where the Gum goes

Mission: Set up an experiment that shows what happens to food in intestines and how fiber (and gum) is separated out from food nutrients.

Lab ingredients: tea strainer (to represent intestines – may use wire mesh strainer or coffee filter and glass), breakfast food, drink, gum, a spoon, a cup, lemon juice

First: chew up what we ate for breakfast (pancakes and syrup), spit in tea strainer.

Second: spit what we drank for breakfast (milk, some coffee and grounds) into tea strainer

Third: chew up some bubble gum, spit in with food

Fourth: pour on some stomach acid (lemon juice) and mash down with spoon

And – voila! – fiber rich leftover food and gum ready to be passed through the bowels, leaving the liquid (or that other bodily fluid) to be flushed out of system and our invisible nutrients passed on through to enter the bloodstream.  The kids weren’t sure about chewing and spitting food, but once they got the hang of it the game was quite fun and interesting to watch!  An experiment not for the squeamish at heart!

Experiment Two: The Length of Intestines

When we read that the intestines are over 25 feet in length, I challenged the kids to figure out how long that was.  First we reviewed measuring a foot.  Then they made predictions on how many feet tall they were.  We got out the rulers and measured.  Then pulled out some ribbon from the handy dandy craft desk and set about measuring that.  Lily participated at the math level she knew and Gabe helped with multiplication and yards.  Once we had the right length of ribbon they spread it out to the end of the hallway, which delighted Lily.  They were able to visually see how much longer the intestines were then they were tall.  So how did it fit in our belly?  We talked about coiling and wrapping and practiced with our ribbon, which delighted Gabe.

Our Intestines!

The kids got to chew some gum (Lily accidentally swallowed hers – a firsthand object lesson) while watching Arnold’s gum chewing experience on the Magic School Bus: Inside the Human Body on YouTube (since we can’t get out to the library till Saturday) and delighted in watching the process in action.  It was one of those mornings that, if you had planned it, NEVER would’ve happened as it did.  The spontaneity of it sparked from the natural curiousity of children and drove this delightful study.  I wasn’t planning on school today on account of celebrating Luc’s birthday, but God had other plans.  It is that leading that I want to remain aware and responsive to with my kids!

Other questions this has brought up (after much thought and downtime doing own things):

1) Do carrots really make you see better? (Discussed beta caratene and what other foods contain it.)

2)Why does cheese smell bad but tastes so good? (Didn’t really have an answer to why it smells like dirty feet but tastes like a slice of heaven!)