We recently participated in a nature exchange. The object was to find 12 things during outside exploration that would fit inside an egg carton and then mail 'em off to some lucky participant; that participant, then, mailing you their cool finds.
These were some of the things we sent:
Well- we got our carton in the mail the other day!
Yippee! Mail!
Yippee! Cool stuff!
Yippee! Science!
The children were especially impressed by the driftwood "mouse".
I was especially impressed with the amber!
Though, the hops that they grow to brew their own beer was right up there on the coolness factor too.
(Matt would be jealous.)
Our nature table is looking mighty fine these days!
Thank you J family- for the great exchange! You made our day!!
In our homeschool, this years science focus is Astronomy. Science is an amazing subject and so fun to teach, but I saw that, having no curriculum to guide me, it was consistently being shoved aside last year. I love science and saw the tragedy in that so this year I broke down and got some Apologia.
Apologia is a CHRISTIAN science program so, while I do explain what athiests and evolutionary worldview scientists believe and why (so that the children can defend creationism when the time comes and know what they are up against) I am not consistently RETEACHING creationism from a science text with a foundation of evolution. Having a book to keep me on track has proven invaluable for us. And Apologia isn't just a text. It has experiments, projects and many hands-on learning experiences with each new chapter.
I've been searching out supplemental resources on this lovely internet of ours and thought I would share a few links, for those of you interested.
The best site I have found so far on Astronomy for children. It has rotating 3D images (real images) of each planet and incredible information on the solar system, deep space and each planet (or dwarf planet, argh.) It has short video clips of different topics like solar wind and stars. If you go to any of the links I share, go to this one!
This too, is a pretty great resource online. It has videos, projects, factoids, photos, lessons, games and experiments and not JUST for Astronomy! It covers quite a selection of topics.
And MORE printables. (Only a few are free but if you have a few bucks to spend, this site has really GREAT printables and handy information pages on each individual planet to fill out. At the very least, check them out and see if they are worth recreating.)
This little ditty had the planets memorized by the children in about 30
seconds. I do admit that there is a (or several) little voice(s) that
sneaks in "PLUTO!" at the end. (Yes, we know about the dwarf planet but
we kinda like Pluto anyway.) Be ye forewarned, however, once it gets
in your head, it stays. For a LOOONG time.
And last but not least, you simply MUST watch this. Right now. Do it! :-)
Know of a great Astronomy resource? I'd LOVE to hear it!
It's springtime, and very nearly GARDEN time. This fact, paired with my recent goal to include more variety into our schooldays, resulted in this experiment completed nearly four weeks past.
"What would the effect be on white carnations, if they "drank" up colored water?!"
It reiterated color concepts as we mixed food coloring into various colors. It confirmed the purpose of stems as "pipelines" for nutrients. (They DID change color) It got us out from behind books and into the "lab room", aka kitchen.
It was the impetus behind child-made hypotheses like "If we split the stem in two, will one flower suck up two different colors?" (It did.) or "If we create purple using red and blue, will the petals show the separated colors or just purple? (Just purple).
It added vibrancy to the window, especially around 5:00pm.
It required me to buy fresh flowers at the store. My arm is still sore from all the twisting.
