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.

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Crafts and Experiments

 We read that you could fit an entire cup of popcorn into a cup of milk.  So, we tried it.

It worked!  So, we tired water and popcorn, which worked too.  Water and rice did not, so we did not attempt milk and rice.

Emily spied an American Girl doll backpack at the store one day.  While she was admiring it, I thought to myself "I could make that."  So, when I had a bit of time to spare, I cut a template for the front and back out of some scratch paper, then pieced the pockets together from there.

I loved the big zipper pull that i had in my stash.  The heavy decorative pull will be appreciated by Emily I think.

All done.  There are a few things I would change, but I hope she will enjoy playing with her Coral and Coral's new backpack on her birthday.

I also found the motivation to finish the 2 almost finished projects that had been on my sewing desk for months (a pair of oven mitts and a small zipper pouch.) 

Since they were not for anyone special, it was really hard to find the motivation to finish them.

Grace really wanted to pass out mustache lollipops to her enrichment day friends.  I didn't have any black card stock, and ended up fighting colored paper, which was brutal.  Luckily, she only needed 20. They were so funny, I took one of the less than perfect ones for myself.  Juliet opted for lips, and I had plenty of cardstock for that.

I'm rereading some Agatha Christie novels which led to my decision to make Yorkshire pudding.  It was so good.  Since many in my crew opted against them, I ended up getting them for 3 lunches during the week!!

We were poised to do a bacteria experiment, but the dishes are supposed to be kept between 85-100F and there is just nowhere in our house that warm in February.  We'll have to try again once we are truly warm.

It's been a busy, fun kind of few months.

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School Days: Science and Nature

 For one of our Nature Study activities, the kids copied a leaf into their journals.

Alice added a "character" that she made from hers.

Emily's was very well done and true to size.

William's leaf must have been one of the first off the tress this year, but he did a valid representation I think.

Grace traced her leaf before coloring it in, and was happy to add some background too.

Juliet's leaf matched in color and primary lines pretty well, in my opinion! 

We tried to make a cloud in a jar, but it didn't work out for us.  We tried hotter water, and longer times, but it just would not work for us.   The jar in the picture was shorter and wider, so maybe that's where we were lacking.

We finished Term I last week (already??) and so I had my "getting ready for science" day, where I sort all the items into baggies and label them for the day.  The curriculum is awesome and comes with "cards" that let you know what is for each lesson, as well as the master list, which helps get together all of the items you'll need throughout the year.

Another not so successful experiment. We got it spinning a bit, but the wind took it out 2 minutes into our observation. = /

I think we are all enjoying the curriculum more this year, and the science has been pretty fun.  I'm excited that William will get to join us for experiments next year!

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Spring Break 2021

When I planned out our school calendar, I lined our spring break up with the cousins, because if I've learned anything the past year, I don't really know what 5 months from now will look like.   We didn't head to Texas, but did enjoy taking a week to play and acclimate to the time change.

These were technically our science projects that we did on Wednesday, but I'm throwing them in just the same.  We floated a needed on water, and painted with shadows.

Emily and I finished a 500 piece puzzle that was one week in the making!

It may not look it, but those rocks are tricky!

Billy had a craving for chocolate, so we brought all the kids to the chocolate shop.  I told them they could pick out one thing.  I didn't realize that the would have their Easter selection up, so they all came home with giant, solid, bunnies.  There was a building nearby that the kids enjoyed to do some "parkour."

William exploring practical physics in his free time.

Billy and I had a Sunday afternoon date to Dimes (again courtesy of my awesome mother.)  We hadn't been since before the lockdown, and it was nice to get out.

Something pushed a brick into the basement! = 0  I still don't know what type of animal it is.  And the first two places that I called (on a Friday) were not able to help me out.  So, It's a battle that has been pushed out until Monday.  It did give me a chance to clean up though, so the shelves look better than they did, just with fewer bottles on the shelf.

St. Patrick's day came and went without much fanfare.  We did have fun hats and green milk though.

My mom treated us to Raya and the Last Dragon.   We went to the first showing, and there were very few people there.  It was very cute, and it felt nice to go out into society a bit.

One Wednesday, we had less fun, with an afternoon dentist appointment in Ann Arbor.  Since William had such early tooth loss, his teeth shifted, and he's been referred to an orthodontist (also at U of M.) Of all my children he dislikes the dentist the most, so I feel bad that he will now have to go more than the others.

Alice and I went in search of some Japanese treats (we kept the wrappers from Christmas) but didn't find much in the way of Japanese cuisine.  We did find lots of other goodies.  The biggest fail: rose flavored Turkish delight.  The biggest success: a coconut. lol.

Billy had to drill a hole into it, so that everyone could try the coconut water.  Emily genuinely liked it.  Everyone else enjoyed the novelty.

It wasn't the most spectacular of spring breaks, but it was nice to recharge (and recalibrate) to prepare us for the final 9 weeks of our school year!!

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