BHLC Field Day

While we're on the subject of school and fun days, I thought I'd do a catch up post from the BHLC Field Day we had in July. The day was beautiful and so much fun! As you can see from the pictures below the kids enjoyed an unlimited supply of shaved ice. :)

 

 We were at a park but the main attraction was definitely the rented waterslide

 Kennedy and her "big, big sister" Zoe sliding together

 Our good friend, Tori, heading down the slide

  Our fearless leader, Wendi, had fun going down the waterslide with her son a couple of times. What a great day! :)

 Reagan enjoyed the slide too :)

  More cute kiddos having lots of fun! :)

 Waiting in line for the slide 

 There was a decent line at the other end of the slide waiting for the splash as well

 The older boys did a pretty good job of not disappointing the throngs

Thanks to the BHLC and all its members for another great year! We're looking forward to the 2013/2014 school year and classes getting underway! :)

Making a Roman Mosaic

As part of our Story of the World work we spent a good bit of time studying Rome (Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Augustus Caesar, Nero, Diocletian). We read about mosaics and one of the recommended art activities was to make our own mosaic.  

 Thank you to Grand-dad for helping us out on this activity!

 Working hard

 The two finished products. We had a cross for Jackson to work on as well but he just wanted to carry the caulk gun around and play with cars. I thought for sure he would be interested in joining us in this activity, but it was probably just as well that he wasn't since the caulk was a little messy.

The girls both enjoyed this activity and it's probably the first art project we've made this year that they were both adamant about keeping and displaying in their rooms. They were both quite proud of their work! Thanks again to Grand-dad for cutting out the crosses and helping us get started with the caulk! :)

Globe - Geography Lessons

Grandma and Grandpa gave the kids a globe for Easter and we have been loving it! In following the Classical education approach this year not only has studying world history been important, but also working on geography and learning where historical events took place. We have been spending even more time familiarizing ourselves with the Middle East and surrounding areas since receiving this globe and beginning the Classical Conversations memory work. Here the girls are hard at work identifying various locations of the ancient world as well as seas and rivers.

 Kennedy mistakenly identified Baghdad as Babylon which the girls thought was hilarious. I mean, seriously, how could anyone be so silly? lol :) I love that my 4 and 6 year are not only familiar with world geography, but can appreciate and recognize the difference between these modern and ancient cities. 

 All three munchkins excited about their globe.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for such an awesome gift!

Plant Science

Look at me! I'm blogging something that is a current activity! lol :)

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Over the course of the last month we have been studying plants and how they grow. We have done numerous science experiments to help us understand the process. We have checked out several great books from the library to help us understand how plants grow but the book "Plants" by Sally Hewitt had numerous great recommendations for experiments. The explanations were also at a good level for the kids to understand and maintain their interest.

 Jackson putting adding red dye to water where we placed celery to see how water travels up the stalk/stem of a plant. This was a great experiment because it worked very quickly (within a couple of hours) and you could so clearly see the red traveling up/in the stalk. I highly recommend this experiment!

 We also tested how water is absorbed by plants by placing the flowers in colored water. For some reason this didn't work out great for us this time (we've done it before with varied success). The biggest downside (especially compared to the celery) was it took days for the kids to see the result(s).

 Water dyed and plants placed - all ready to watch and observe the results! :)

 This was a side experiment we had going on. When we planted everything with Grand-Dad, Jackson wanted to dump all the pea seeds in one container. After we planted as many as I wanted the way I wanted I decided to let Jackson have his way so we could see if the peas would grow. Sure enough they did! What really cracked me up is that there are so many plants that it just pushed the dirt up vs pushing up thru the dirt.

 This day we began by prepping a couple of future experiments by soaking bean seeds

 Next we gathered some dandelions from the yard for a couple of experiments and observations. In our various books we have been learning the various parts and purposes to a plant. In the next couple of pictures you can see them discussing the plant and why each part is important.

 We also picked a couple of dandelions and allowed them to wilt and then placed them in water to watch how the rehydrated. We compared how they looked before and after the process. This was another easy experiment that worked pretty well. It would have worked even better if we had paid more attention to the directions and placed a couple in a cup with water and a couple without water to have a ture comparison vs. doing one step and then the other with all of them. 

We took clippings of some ivy and placed them in water to watch how roots develop

 By letting the beans soak in water (picture above) for 24 hours we could more easily but still carefully take the seeds apart to identify all the parts of the seed.

 We have learned that growing roots from clippings is a pretty slow process! Nearly two weeks later you can just barely see some roots developing at the end of one of our clippings. We'll try to keep you posted on our ivy's progress! :)

 The other experiment the kids did with the beans they soaked was to place bean seeds in a glass container with paper towel so we could watch them sprout. I think this will become more interesting, but is also a very slow process. It has again been nearly two weeks and the beans are just now beginning to sprout. I guess we've learned that dirt really makes a difference in plant growth too! We'll try and keep you updated on how this experiment is progressing as well.

I also wanted to mention the book Janice VanCleave's "201 Awesome, Magical, Bizarre
& Incredible Experiments." This book is recommended by Classical Conversations. Some of these experiments came from that book. Everything we've done so far using that book are relatively easy and straightforward and clearly identify the process you are experimenting with to understand. I have purchased lots of science experiment books over the years, but I would definitely rank this one near the top!

Density Science Experiments With Water

We have done science experiments throughout the year and while I can't get to everything I thought I would once again share a couple of the year's highlights. 

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While I would say I'm pretty consistent with most of our schoolwork I'm a little more hit and miss with science experiments. The kids naturally enjoy them and Jackson especially likes to participate in these types of school activities. It's nice to know we'll be doing science experiments consistently next year through the Classical Conversations Co-op. Having said that, it is an area I want to improve on going forward.

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 In January we spent several days exploring the concept of density. Sure wish I could remember the book we used from the library because I would highly recommend it (that's why it's important to stay on top of my blogging! My memory just can't keep up with the details after 3 months! lol :)The first experiment we tried tested cold and hot water. We began by freezing ice cubes of different colors. We then dropped the ice cubes in the hot water to see which water rose to the top.

 Another day we tested the density of different types of liquid. We put syrup, oil and water in a container and learned they do not mix.

No  matter how much we stirred, the liquids would not mix and would completely separate as soon as we stopped stirring.

Next, we experimented with different items to see what would sink or float based on their density. This was pretty cool as we learned some objects float in all three liquids, some things sink thru all three liquids, and what was the most interesting (and entertaining) were the objects that sank through one or two liquids but floated on the other(s) giving the illusion of suspension. I think this experiment was the one that most clearly demonstrated density and the girls really understood what we were discussing and learning about after this experiment. 

Another day we did an experiment involving eggs floating in water. We used salt water, sugar water and just water to learn what the eggs would float in.

After discovering the egg floated the best in salt water and not at all in plain water, the kids insisted on trying out the water. I told them the salt water would not tasted good but as I said they were determined to try it out. Here's Jackson as he discovers listening to Mom sometimes has its' merits...

Our homeschooling friend, Ms. Mo'mina, both encouraged and inspired us to really begin utilizing our local libraries. I'm not sure what took us so long to take advantage of the libraries, but we've been using them for less than a year and a half and I can't imagine how we ever survived without them! These experiments were all in a book one of the girls wanted to check out as well as all of the books in my previous post. Sure wish I had been more on top of blogging so I had recorded what book all these experiments came from! Bummer!