Homeschool Activities

 The past few months between science and nature study, we've been doing some fun experiments and observations.

In science, the big girls dissected a flower, but we enjoyed the others from the bouquet in our vase.

My Grandma sent us a packet of souvenirs from Ireland that we enjoyed with our lessons on St. Patrick's Day.

We have had an uptick in doctor's visits since March, it seems.  Since I knew we would be rushed one of our days, I took some pictures of tree stumps while I was walking around a park during William's karate.  Their favorite was the heart shaped one, though we had to use a rounder one to follow the guide.  

Another project was to grow some mushrooms.  They required daily watering and then they just exploded in size! We put the decaying project near and old stump in our backyard, maybe they'll be able to expand into a new home. = )

For yet another project, we had to collect pond water.  The day we went there was a layer of ice on top of the pond that we had to break through just to get the water from below.  Once it melted, we were able to start our experiment.

From the literature that we read, we expected the bone meal to explode, and the rest to be hampered, but we think Alice added a little too much, so it didn't grow and it started to smell like rotten fish. = (  

The vinegar, soap and detergent all killed off anything that might have grown, so our control actually did the best.

We've since moved the bone meal outside, and are watching as small organisms are appearing in our control.  Also, we got to use some of the control water for another experiment during which we put a drop and viewed it through a microscope. = )

Yet another experiment was to grow bacteria.  We were unable to maintain as warm enough environment as the directions indicated, but we still had some gross growth!  Emily's purple popper had the fastest growth, so you'd better believe we sprayed that thing down with lysol as soon as we saw the strongest of the bacteria appear.

8ish days in:

2ish weeks in:

We threw them all away after we took this picture, because it was just too gross.

With only 7 weeks left in our school year, we still have a few more projects to which we are looking foward.

And I want to record that we've decided that the three little ones will return to public school in the fall.  It will be William's final year at the elementary school, and we don't want him to be thrown into middle school before reestablishing some of his friendships.  The big girls will continue to be homeschooled for the time being.

later days