On Our Journey Westward - Homeschool Blogger

Bittersweet Days

Sun, 9 Nov 2008 15:23:00 -0600

My last baby has (finally) stopped nursing. We've both cried some, but he is a big boy who understands that it's time to move on.

On the positive side, though, I can have dairy and citrus products again! (He's allergic to both and I have truly sacrificed for him for nearly two years without cheese and ice cream!) Dairy Queen Blizzards - here I come!!! I'm thinking lasagna might be on the menu this week, too.....

Living Arts and Science Center Field Trip

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:51:00 -0600

It just so happens that we're studying chemistry this year AND the Living Arts and Science Center has a special exhibit open called Invisible World: The Beauty of Microscopic Life. Perfect!

Observing prepared slides of all sorts.

Completing a scavenger hunt of the hands-on exhibits.

Making our own pond water slides for the microscope.

Guessing what items are magnified.

Do I look any bigger to you?

Magnifying letters using various unconventional tools.

Fingerprinting with pencil lead and tape in order to observe the prints under hand-held microscopes.

We visit the LASC every year. They do a wonderful job with hands-on learning!

Living Math - Graphs Galore

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:22:00 -0600

October/November = lots of falling leaves and lots of candy. What better to do with both of those things? Math, of course! :o)

Whether you have extra M&M's, Skittles, Smarties, Runts, or just a big bunch of assorted candy bars, take a few minutes to turn those sweets into more than cavities. Even little bitty ones can sort candy, place the pieces on a blank grid, then color a bar graph. As the kiddos get bigger, all the more fun they can have graphing their candy. Here's a post from last year about how we used M&M's to do all sorts of graphs. This year, we did some candy graphing, but not quite as in depth as last year.

And don't forget all those autumn leaves! Make a nature walk even more productive by collecting a sack of leaves to sort and graph.

Literal or concrete graphs are not only fun, but help younger ones understand better what a graph on paper represents.

After making the concrete graphs, my children jotted the information and used centimeter grid paper to design their own graphs.

Happy graphing!

Decoupaged Notebooks

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:40:00 -0600

This was another of the projects we did during our Colonial Life unit. It was super-easy and I loved how the notebooks turned out!

To begin, we found compostition notebooks (the kind where all the pages are sewn together with string and the covers are hard.) I picked out several scrapbooking papers that complimented each other then the kids cut the papers into various square and rectangle shapes. We used Mod Podge to decoupage the scrapbooking paper to the notebook covers.

Just in case you don't know how....To decoupage, you apply Mod Podge (or any liquid glue, really) to the surface you plan to cover. Place your papers on the glued surface then apply more Mod Podge over top of the papers. Easy!

We turned our notebooks into new Bible Journals. As the Bible is read each morning, the kids are taking notes or drawing pictures about the reading to keep their minds more focused. ;)

The Great Walnut Experiment

Fri, 7 Nov 2008 18:39:00 -0600

Remember the black walnuts we collected to harvest and freeze? Yeah, well, let's just say it turned out a bit like the applesauce experience. What you see below is less that one cup of walnuts, which took at least 45 minutes of my hard labor.

I got lots of great advice on doing applesauce the easier way next year. Any advice for an easier way to harvest these little boogers? (I used a hammer on a large rock to crack the shell - which flew everywhere. Then used a nut tool to painstakingly get the meat out.)

At this point, I told my son to scatter the rest of the walnuts out for the squirrels! My husband told him to bag them up just in case I change my mind. Me, change my mind? ;)

A Nature Walk With Great Finds

Wed, 5 Nov 2008 18:27:00 -0600

Hubby joined in on our nature walk this week. I love when he goes because he always knows where to take us for a new adventure on the farm.

This week was a walk along a creek bed on a neighboring farm that we rent.

He has known about several of the secret surprises we found for a long time. I can't believe I'm just now having the chance to "discover" them. :)

A horse-drawn manure spreader that's in a fallen barn.

Very old rock walls - this one probably had something to do with a nearby spring.

Probably a groundhog's home.

Worm tracks in a decomposing log. I'm thinking of taking some paper back to do a rubbing of the log for our nature journals.

Some sort of interesting finger-like fungus.

A huge hawk's nest in the top of a sycamore tree.

Another large bird's nest in the middle of a small hedge apple tree.

It was a lovely November day with temperatures in the 70's. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful afternoon or more wonderful nature finds.

Almost Two

Sun, 2 Nov 2008 11:48:00 -0600

It's hard to believe my littlest one is almost two. Time flies. He's been up to some antics lately that I wanted to be sure to document.....

During a family movie one evening, we made "real" popcorn in a pan on the stove. The following day, Eli was served corn as part of his lunch. All of the sudden, he started hitting his plate and yelling, "Pop!" Over and over again. Mahayla and I were trying to figure out what in the world he was doing until it finally clicked. He was trying to make the corn on his plate pop. Apparently he like popcorn much better than plain corn!

"Vwhy?" I've never met a child under two who asks "why", but this kid does. If you tell him "no" to anything, he very sweetly asks, "Vwhy?" As soon as you give him the reason, he simply says, "Okay." Usually, that's the end of it. :o)

Okay, that's enough of the mommy memory post. Oh, how I wish I had known about blogging when my other two were younger. The memories are too quickly fading from their baby years. Praise the Lord for pictures. We have stacks and stacks (which need to be organized) that keep some of those memories alive.

Embriodery Project

Thu, 6 Nov 2008 19:42:00 -0600

We did many projects to go along with our Colonial Life unit study, but this one tops the list. Not only were these embroidered hand prints a wonderful handicraft activity, they turned out beautifully, too. So much so, that they are gracing my mantle right now and I plan to hang them on the wall soon.

Sorry, this isn't the best picture. Place a piece of plain colored fabric tightly in an embroidery hoop. On the back side, trace your child's hand with a pencil.

Using any stich you like, have your child embroider around the traced hand using a brightly colored embroidery thread. Remember, all the knots and not-so-pretty parts of the stiching will go on the side where you have traced the hand.

As part of the unit, we had made homemade buttons out of Sculpey clay. These just seemed to be a perfect addition to the embroidery.

The final product turned out to be quite a keepsake. I've written their names and the date on the back of each.

Chemistry Fun

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:47:00 -0500

I promised to show you some of the fun things we're doing as we go through Christian Kids Explore Chemistry. I can't brag enough about this curriculum so far. I don't typically follow any curriculum to a "T" - but this one I am. It is teaching my children things that I didn't learn until high school in very understandable terms. How many third graders do you know who can tell you all the parts to an atom and make a labeled model? It makes me smile!

Lithium model

Labeled carbon atom

Hydrogen and Carbon atom cookies

13 Colonies Lapbook/Notebook

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 08:42:00 -0500

We're finishing up our Thirteen Colonies & Colonial Life Unit this week. I'll be posting soon about the biggest chunk of the unit, but I wanted to take a minute to highlight the 13 Colonies lapbook/notebook we put together using this book.

I had to do the legwork of locating library books about each of the Thirteen Colonies, as well as Roanoke, Jamestown and Plymouth. But the wonderful activity ideas were ready and waiting in the book. It turned out to be a lovely way to document a bit of info on each of the colonies we learned about.

Nature Study - Leaves

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:52:00 -0500

It was COLD in Central KY yesterday. The nature walk part of our study was rather short - a quick trip down to the creek bed to collect a variety of leaves. But once we got home - the learning and fun began!

We started with a review discussion about the purpose of leaves and why they change colors. After a bit of struggle getting everyone to pay attention during the discussion, I announced there would be a test later in the day. (Yep, that meant I had to come up with some sort of test on leaves! In all that spare time I have, you know. Lucky for me, I was able to find this quiz online.) I don't do tests very often, but it was just the thing needed today to turn their attention back toward our discussion.

Math was next on the list. Using a few of the leaves each, the kids had to find the perimeter of the leaves in inches and centimeters. Then had to find the area in square inches, square centimeters and an unknown square unit. Yarn and a measuring tape made finding the perimeter easy.

The area in square inches was found using one-inch tiles. A one-inch grid could be used as well.

We used cemtimeter grid paper for finding the area in square centimeters. (Simply trace the leaf and count the full squares inside the leaf. We estimated the half and quarter filled squares to add more area. For instance, if there were two halves, we would count them as one. If there was a square about 3/4 full and another 1/4 full, we combined them as one.)

Graph paper was used to find an unknown square unit. We talked about smaller units making for more accurate measurments.

Finally, we used Melissa's idea of creating leaf bursts for an art activity to add to the nature notebooks.

MSG, Food Coloring and Homemade Mixes Revisited

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:00:00 -0500

I had the pleasure of speaking at co-op this week. (Boy, do I miss those gals!) We talked on the topic of healthfully and frugally making convenience mixes. I talked about my reasons for even considering making homemade mixes in the first place - MSG and red food coloring - then added that being frugal is a huge benefit even if the same health issues don't concern your family.

Since I didn't make a handout for the meeting, I thought I'd put all my links about the subject in one place.

Being such quick, easy and frugal mixes, these would make great Christmas gifts, too!

As usual, if there's anything more specific you'd like to know, just comment with a question. I'll do my best to answer it.

Equine Hospital Field Trip

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 09:57:00 -0500

We live in Central KY - what's often called the "Horse Capital of the World". We're surrounded by beautiful horse farms and have the priviledge of living near the Kentucky Horse Park. With so much horse business going on in the area, there are two premier equine hospitals within easy driving distance. Lucky for us, Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital agreed to give us a tour of their amazing facilities. Horses that are worth millions have state-of-the-art hospitals with every just about everything you might expect in a hospital for people - surgery suites, recovery rooms, MRI machines, laboratories, pharmacies....

Here are just a few pictures from our day.

Doctors, nurses, interns and visiting vet students preparing for an emergency colic surgery. All the surgery suites have viewing windows. Since colic surgery is one of their messiest, they closed the blinds once the cutting began.

A doctor, ultrasound technician, horse hand and owner are looking at an ultrasound of this horse's throat.

The x-ray reading room.

A healing horse.

The farrier's shop where custom horse shoes and such are made.

The treadmill.

If you're interested, they have an online tour here. This really was an amazing trip!

October's Creation Club - Trees

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 10:35:00 -0500

Our Creation Club met for the last time until spring. (Boo Hoo) This month's focus was on trees and we were as busy as beavers!

As a warm-up activity, each child was asked to find a leaf from any tree in the area. They had to remember which tree it came from! Then, they exchanged leaves with someone and had to located the tree their new leaf came from. The partners worked together to give hints to each other if needed.

I gave a simple explanation of why leaves change colors in the fall while the kids took notes on a notebooking page.

Then, we played a game to warm up their detail finding skills. Everyone teamed up in partners again. The first partner had to close their eyes, while the second partner led them to a tree. With eyes still closed, the first partner had to touch the tree remembering as much detail as possible. The first partner then led them back to the starting point with eyes still closed. The first partner then had to try to locate the tree with eyes open. Fun!

Now the kids were ready to "adopt" a tree. Using a notebooking page from Considering God's Creation, they had to notice all sorts of things about their tree such as bark style, tree shape, leaf type, leaf shape and more. On the back of this page, I added a few more things for them to do like measuring the circumference of the trunk, tracing a leaf and coloring in detail, sketching something they found using a magnifying glass and such. You can see this simple page here if you like.

Using watercolors, they had to paint a picture of their tree. We used our imaginations a bit since the drought has really caused all of our trees to lose their brilliant colors already.

Then, they were asked to take a few quiet minutes to write a poem about their tree or a prayer to God in thanksgiving of trees.

Finally, we took a short walk to some tree stumps to see if we could figure out the age of any of the trees that were once there by counting the rings.

This was two hours of our day that were definitely not wasted! Thank you , God, for your glorious creation!

Why I'm Cleaning Today

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:07:00 -0500

I'm considering this one of those impromptu fall break days. My house is a wreck. Really. With all the busy fun we've had over the past several days, the house has suffered greatly. So, today is a cleaning day. No school - except for those all important life skills called chores. Sadly, the house is in such disarray, I'm afraid we won't even be able to scratch the surface in one day. How does that happen so quickly? Anyway, here's a peak into what's been keeping us busy.....

I forgot to take pictures when visiting with my friend Dawn on Friday. She's a treat to be around, and if you're a homesteader, you'd drool over her chicken area. Look for an article by Dawn on entrepreneurship in the upcoming Old Schoolhouse Magazine!

Also on Friday, we attended a benefit chili supper hosted by Nancy to support the Hopeful Farm Foundation. I met Claire Novak, who is a very sweet gal! Above is a video of Eli dancing to the bluegrass band that was there.

Saturday was spent at the Preston Court Days. It's a HUGE yard sale/antique sale/flea market event that takes place every year. You can't tell from the picture, but we were there for seven hours and didn't see every booth!

And Sunday was our church's annual trip to the pumpkin patch. It's always great fun!

The camera didn't pick up the brilliance of these pumpkin colors. The first was bright red and the second was almost a robin's egg blue. Beautiful!

Making Butter the Old Fashioned Way

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:59:00 -0500

Well, not exactly!

We've been doing all sorts of hands-on learning during our Colonial History unit and one of the activities I had planned was making butter. At co-op over the years, the kids have had the opportunity to shake cream in baby food jars to make their own butter, so I didn't think we needed that experience again. We don't own a butter churn, but I had an idea that the Kitchenaid Stand Mixer might give us a modern day look at the butter making process. And it did!

Easy directions:

Add heavy cream to your mixer
Put on the whisk attachment
Turn it to level 8 or 10 for about five minutes
Be prepared to cover the bowl with a couple of towels toward the end to keep the liquid from splattering
When the liquid has separated from the butter fat, take the butter out and squeeze out the rest of the liquid
You can keep the liquid (buttermilk) for use in other recipes
Enjoy your fresh butter! It's SO yummy!! :o)

Happy Birthday to Me!

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 09:00:00 -0500

Mahayla surprised me this morning with a very yummy breakfast in honor of my 37th birthday. I wasn't allowed to come downstairs until it was ready - in other words, they made me stay in bed for an extra half-hour! When I was called down, everyone greeted me at the bottom of steps by singing "Happy Birthday".

And the day is going to get even better, too! Steve is taking me out to dinner. That may not seem like such a big deal to most of you, but Steve and I haven't been on an alone date since Eli was born - almost TWO years! (Thank you, Jody!)

Nancy has already given me several birthday wishes today and Stacy is such a sweet friend that she made this for me. The sad thing is - my hair did look similar to this in high school!! LOL

I hope your day is shaping up to be as good as mine!

Fall Treescapes, Degas and Tchaikovsky, and 4-H

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:46:00 -0500

Yesterday was Tuesday and that means another busy, but very rich day of learning in our house. After a bit of Bible and math, we went outside for nature study from a distance. Instead of observing God's creation up-close and personal, we took time to view the beautiful autumn trees as they grow in groupings. All the greens, yellows, organges and reds together are just breath-taking!

To record nature study today, we created sponge painted treescapes (a very easy and fun activity.) Take a cheap sponge (I found a bag full of 15-20 sponges at the Dollar Tree the other day) and let your child cut it into various odd shaped pieces. You'll need a little piece per paint color. Squirt several fall colored tempera or acrylic paints onto a "pallet".

We started by using a few different blues and a white paint to make the sky. Then we moved on to the ground by using a couple of greens and a gold. Using a thin paintbrush and a couple different colors of brown, we just went along the ground/sky line painting in several tree trunks. Then using reds, yellow, orange and the green paints, we dabbed the edges of the sponges into the colors and gently dabbed onto the paper to create leaves. My explanation probably makes this sound harder than it was! At any rate, the finished product was lovely.

This week started new artist and composer studies. Keeping with the theme of Impressionistic artists, we began studying Edgar Degas by reading Edgar Degas: Paintings that Dance.

Since Degas painted so many ballerinas, it just seemed fitting to teach Tchaikovsky at the same time. I found a wonderful site for composers called Classics For Kids. Where have I been, right??? We were able to listen to a couple of biographical stories about Tchaikovsky and hear some of his famous Nutcracker.

And finally, after our tea time and a history activity we headed to the first 4-H meeting of the year. Our homeschool 4-H club is designed mostly as a service-oriented club. The kids packed snack bags for needy children in the area, then worked on fall-themed thank you magnets for our local hospital workers.

Like I said - busy, but wonderful!

Autumn Living Math

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:23:00 -0500

Remember Mathwire? Boy, do they have some goodies for the fall season! Below are some of the activities we've done so far.

Scarecrow Measurement Man

Candy Corn Triangular Number Pattern

Insect and Spider Problem Solving

And these are on our to-do list....

~Area and Perimeter of Leaves (I'm thinking of tying this into a nature study day??)

~Coordinate Graph Jack-o-lantern

Go have some fun with math this month!

Chemistry

Thu, 9 Oct 2008 15:07:00 -0500

I don't think I've mentioned how much we're enjoying chemistry this year. We follow The Well Trained Mind's recommendation of four-year science and history cycles. This year's science cycle is chemistry. The word "chemistry" can certainly be intimidating, but choosing good materials and being sure to have f-u-n is making chemistry turn into nothing more than pure joy this year.

We've just finished Unit 1 from Christian Kids Explore Chemistry. I've waited to say much about it because I really wanted to be sure it was working before I made any comments. I'm so glad to report that it is working! After one unit (five lessons, I think) my children have already been introduced to some very big concepts (biochemistry, elements, mixtures, compounds, periodic table) AND they are understanding it! The book seems to move slowly, but I'm finding out that it's very deliberate - to concrete the concepts before moving on. And concrete it has - both of my big kids scored 100% on their unit test. :o)

My children like experiments that "wow" them. Christian Kids Explore Chemistry hasn't quite done that - yet anyway. So I've got a few books around the house with easy chemistry experiments for them to try on their own. Solids, Liquids and Gases, Science in a Bottle, and Chemistry for Every Kid.

When we're finished with Christian Kids Explore Chemistry. I plan to review several of the ideas using Kitchen Chemisty. It's full of simple and fun experiments that cover similar topics we will have learned through the year.

Earlier this week, we completed a periodic table scavenger hunt created by Makita. The purpose was to help my children become familiar with the elements and their symbols - and what a fun way to do it. Thanks, Makita!

Now that I know I really like what we're doing for chemistry, I'll try to share more of our activities. I think we're making protons during the next lesson!