Our Life of Learning: September 2011

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Don't look directly into the sun!

We always heard that growing up. I even say it now that I'm a mom. I never knew exactly why this was though, despite the old adage that it can "damage your eyes". Our science studies went from learning about the solar system as a whole to a study of the center of our universe - the sun! During these lessons, we learned WHY it truly can be damaging to your eyes to look directly at the sun for too long. The lenses of your eyes are shaped similarly to the lens of a magnifying glass...and we all know what can happen when you take a magnifying glass in the sun to a leaf. The kids didn't yet though ;). We went outside, armed with a simple magnifying glass and some curious children, on a hot, sunny day. We were lucky enough to actually find a leaf floating around from a neighbors house (since we have practically NO trees at our house LOL). After a little bit of practice (because I have to admit...I had never actually done this before), some focusing of the heat from the sun into one small spot onto our leaf - it started sizzling, then smoking, and soon had a hole in it!

I gave all "safety first" lessons, but even after that, Aly was still a little too eager to show her newfound discovery, to her Auntie. We then let things be known with NO questions about it, that ANY sort of play with fire, no matter how simple it may seem, can lead to disastrous results. It's nice that I was able to be around to see that she might not understand the magnitude of the original "no playing with fire" speech, so I could nip that in the bud right away.

So what did we learn from this experience? 1) The lenses in our eyes act very similarly to the lens of a magnifying glass, and it could be fairly simple to do big damage to our eyes; 2) Despite the fascination, even a small smoke can lead to a giant fire, so DON'T MESS WITH IT.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

The Solar System

When I got into the whole homeschool world, one of the things I loved was that I would have the ability to put more emphasis on history and science for my children. Unfortunately, with the No Child Left Behind act, and the California school systems in the budget crisis that they are, History and Science are 2 things (among many) that are being left behind, in favor of focusing more on the subjects that the end of the year test (STAR test) surveys them on (only reading and math for the lower grades). These subjects are of course, very important, but so are all the rest, so I was really looking forward to digging deeper into both history and science with the girls. I knew that since I had control over what they learned, I wanted to teach them a Creation Based science, while making sure that they understand all of the rest of the theories out there, but also understand why I feel this is the truth for my life. I chose to go with Apologia's science curriculum, but then I let the girls pick which area of science they would like to study this year. They chose (after some negotiating LOL) Astronomy, so Astronomy it is!

We're loving Apologia so far! The girls each have their own age appropriate notebook where they take notes, do crossword puzzles, have copywork, make mini books, write summaries, etc of the things they are learning. It should be a fun thing to look back on at the end of the year to remind them of everything they did in this course. The first thing we started learning about was the planets in the solar system. Right off the bat, this was all new for me, so I went right along learning with them. We learned about the order the planets rotate around the sun, we learned about Copernicus and Galileo and what they brought to this field of study, we learned gravity and how the planets all stay balanced in their position, and so much more. The girls made up a silly mnemonic phrase to help them remember the order of the planets. The cool thing I like about this is how they brought in the Magic Tree House audio books we've been listening to in the car, in their phrase: Morgan visits everywhere, means just some ugly new place (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune & Pluto...more discussions later about Pluto's planet status removal).

Our first science project for this year was to make a model of the solar system out of balloons. This is obviously not an exact process, but is more of a fun, hands-on way to get a feel for the difference in sizes of the planets, along with the order that they rotate the sun. We did this project on a weekend, so that Daddy could be there to do it with us. It was so much fun for the girls to bring him into their school lessons with them. There was measuring of planets involved, decorating of planets using markers and construction paper, and lots and lots of blowing up balloons. Normally our science time is done when Miranda is napping so that we can focus a little more on the actual studies, but we wanted to make sure she got to be there for the fun of this project also. This just meant that there was a little more spit-swapping in the balloon department than we might have had otherwise, but she loved it so that was what it was all about. Here's some pictures of our first project:

NOT Back to School Day

One of the awesome perks of homeschooling is that we don't have to go on the public school's schedule. We started 3 weeks before the public schools started, so when it was time for the public school to start, we decided to have our own "NOT Back to School Day". I will out myself and say that this was a little perk that I might have mentioned to the girls when they were up in the air about homeschooling ;). A bribe...nahhhh, but a nice little perk :).

For our Not Back to School Day we decided to take a trip to the beach. We had been so busy that we hadn't actually taken the kids to the beach all summer long :(. We are normally Central California Coast folks but we decided to change it up this time and head south. In our new found Life of Learning, I couldn't just let this be a regular ol' beach trip...I wanted to make it educational in the process. Leading up to the trip, I found a very cute little preschool beach unit for Miss Mir. It had some fun math, writing, matching, cutting, sorting, tracing, etc projects in it. We did some leading up to the trip, some during the trip, and even some after the trip. She loved it :)

For the older 2 girls, I wanted to find something that taught us about the beach itself, not necessarily the ocean life, but truly about what you experience at the beach itself. What the sand is made out of, how the shells get there, etc. I found a great study with wonderful book suggestions, art activities and more. It gave the kids a whole new way of looking at the beautiful sand beneath their toes and a wonderful appreciation for God's gorgeous creation.

My sister is a teacher at our co-op preschool, but the first day of school wasn't until Tuesday, so she got to go with us, and of course she brought my cutie patootie 2 yr old niece also. Unfortunately Daddy didn't get the day off work, so it was a just a girls trip this time. Since we were at a new beach, we wanted to see everything that it had to offer. We started off at Redondo Beach with a goal of a paddle boat ride or a glass bottom boat trip. After some back and forth and a little drama that comes with 4 kids, we decided on the glass bottom boat ride through the harbor. It's just a little boat and not a long trip at all, but what fun it was! When you were in the bottom of the boat, the driver took you along the rocks so you could see some beautiful sea life. I wish I knew all the names of the fish...but alas...I don't LOL. I know one of them is apparently the California State Saltwater Fish (or something similar)? I didn't even know there was such a thing, but we saw it ;). The boat also drove us to an old abandoned dock that has become home to a large number of sea lions. The guys were so crowded on it they were laying all over each other and fighting to keep their position on the makeshift island. It was fun to see :)

Auntie & Aly

Miss J

Sav

Sea lions

Aly

Fish everywhere!

Watching the sea lions

Miss Mir - This sums up her mood for a large
portion of the day

After walking along the pier, we then headed next door to Hermosa Beach for the sand-castle-building-play-in-the-sea type fun. That waves were much stronger than we were used to, so it took all of 3 seconds for the first kid to eat a face full of sand, and maybe a max of 5 minutes before 3 of the 4 had done the same. They were tough and kept on playing...some a little more cautiously...some not a care in the world :). We had sand castles being built, shells being gathered, naps in the sun, arts & crafts on the beach, and just general fun :).