Fly Me to the Moon

Since our last post, we've studied the Earth and the Moon.

The emphasis of the Earth chapter was on how God created our home to be the perfect place for us, with perfect rotation speed, atmosphere, mass, etc.  The kids also learned about the layers of the Earth and made a compass out of a sewing needle floating in water.

For our "field trip", each of the kids pretended to be from somewhere besides Earth, and that they were on a field trip to the Earth.  Brennan was from the sun, Ella from Venus, and Kyler from a planet in another solar system.  They made special hats and did a presentation for their fellow visitors on what they'd learned about Earth.  After that, they created alien lunches, followed by an "Earth Dessert", which we pretended was actually made of earth (chocolate pudding, Oreos, and gummy worms).

Alien Hats

mmmm...worms

We also learned about the phases of the moon, the tides, and Apollo 11, capping the lesson off with a peek at the full moon with Kyler's telescope.

Family Night

If you ask our kids what their favorite thing about homeschool is, they'll probably say "CO-OP!!!"  They love getting together with friends and learning from someone besides Mom and Dad for a day.  We love that we get to take advantage of other parents' expertise, and it costs us practically nothing!

One of the highlights of the fall was co-op family night.  We were able to fellowship with other parents, and the students displayed their artwork, performed music, and presented what they had learned in science.

Ella was one of a couple of kids in her class that volunteered

to prepare a speech about the human body.  She chose the femur.

She did a great job preparing and presenting the speech!

Kyler and his partners worked together on a model of the

digestive system.  They explained what they learned 

to the group very well.

We are looking forward to a similar program this spring!

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas

OR..."My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles", depending on if you think Pluto is a planet =).

We've started talking about the planets.  So far, we've covered Mercury and Venus.  We've learned that Mercury is very hot during its day and very cold at night, since it has no atmosphere to hold in the heat.  The opposite is true of Venus; its thick atmosphere makes it the hottest planet, both day and night.  We also learned that Venus rotates the opposite way than all the other planets.  The kids are becoming experts!

One of my favorite things about our curriculum is that it emphasizes the evidence that shows that there is a Creator.  Here are some of the things the kids have learned, in their own words...

Ella: "Venus spins another way than the other planets, so that shows that there couldn't have been a Big Bang."

Kyler: "Since the sun is getting hotter, it would have been too cold for there to have been life on Earth billions of years ago."

Brennan: "God made the Earth."

The kids created model Mercuries out of salt dough.

For their Venus project, they acted out a story about astronauts landing on Venus.  Maybe some day I'll post the video here =).

Next week, we're off to planet Earth!