Rock and Roll!

Here we go!  We're now studying history!  We started at the beginning...the VERY beginning.  The first lesson was about the days of creation.  The kids created their own fictional animals out of play doh.

We also studied Adam and Eve, and their descendants Jubal and Tubal-Cain.  Jubal was a musician, and Tubal-Cain made things out of iron.  The kids played "Name that Tune" with musical jars, and Kyler researched iron smelting.

Every Friday, we work on a timeline and do map work.  So far, the kids are really enjoying it.

This is a bit of a stretch, but we heard about a rock show, so we went and called it a history field trip.  Rocks are old, right?

I Hate Goodbyes...

Sniff, sniff.  It's time to say goodbye to our astronomy unit.  We had a lot of fun, and learned a ton (yes, the parents did too!).  Fortunately, we are all likely to remember what we learned, because the kids recorded it in their notebooks.  I asked each of them to pick their favorite page, and here they are:

Brennan

Ella

Kyler

Next, we will say hello to history.  We chose "Mystery of History" as our curriculum, which starts with creation and goes from there chronologically.  It includes lots of hands-on activities, notebooking, and living books as supplemental material.  We're looking forward to it!

Planet Party!

We celebrated the end of our astronomy unit with a planet party!  I let the kids do most of the planning and preparation, so it was fun to see their creativity run wild.  They made planets, stars, and other space objects out of paper and pipe cleaners and hung them from the dining room and living room ceilings.  One of my favorites was Brennan's Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2, complete with a dog sticker representing "Laika", the first dog in space.

Each of the kids invited a friend over.  Kyler invited Thomas from church, Ella invited Sophia from preschool, and Brennan invited Judah from co-op.  They had a blast decorating planet cookies and making space-themed crafts.  We'll definitely do something like this again!

Arrrrgh!

If we ever study astronomy again, we'll do so in the summer, when we're more likely to have some clear nights.  This past week, we talked about stars, constellations, and galaxies, but we haven't had a chance to actually look at any constellations in the sky because of the clouds.  The next few nights are supposed to be clear, though, so maybe we'll get a peek.

Today we'll be going to OMSI to see an IMAX movie about the Hubble telescope.  That will be a great way to cap off a week studying stars.

I didn't take any pictures this week, so I thought I'd wrap up this post with a picture of my niece as a pirate.  Enjoy!

Project Pluto

One of the things I love about the Apologia science curriculum is that the projects are simple (not a lot of supplies to buy), but interesting and varied.  The Pluto project, I have to admit, is one of my favorites....homemade ice cream!  You know, because Pluto is so cold.  A bit of a stretch, I guess, but one I'm willing to accept.

We even added our own special touches, including a night sky backdrop made of hot fudge, and a Kuiper Belt made of sprinkles.  Mmmmmm....

Note: Yes, we are aware that Pluto has officially been categorized as a dwarf planet, which was covered in the curriculum, but we didn't think that should stop us from doing this project. =)

On Cloud Nine

One of the things I love about homeschooling is that I'm learning right along with the kids.  For example, I've learned there is no polite way to pronounce "Uranus".  This doesn't seem to bother the kids, though, and they've enjoyed learning that the reason Uranus and Neptune are blueish is because they have a lot of methane in their atmospheres.  Also, since they are "gas giants", they are covered by swirling, stormy clouds.

So for our experiment this week, we created clouds in our kitchen.  We filled a jar half-way with warm water, dropped in a match, and immediately covered the jar with a bag of ice.  If you look closely, you can see the "clouds" forming in the top of the jar.

When we removed the ice, the clouds swirled out of the jar.  As you can see from their expressions, the kids thought this was really neat!

Wanted: Giant Bathtub

Ella's project and presentation were on Saturn.  One of the many unique facts about this planet is that it is actually less dense than water.  That means that if you happened to have a humongous bathtub, Saturn would actually float.  So if you have one lying around, Ella would take it off your hands. =)

As a visual aid for her presentation, Ella made a Saturn out of a CD and a foam ball.  She covered one side of the CD with glitter and painted the ball.  It is now hanging in her room, and it looks great!