A day in the life of homeschooling

Carnival of Homeschooling is posted.

Today was an excellent day overall.

The lad came out to talk with me while I cared for my rabbits. And then we talked over breakfast, we read

World History

10 minute Stories



We prepared for Renee to come over with her children. We planned to do some science and then go off of a nature walk. When the children arrived they really really wanted to play with some baby bunnies so we headed outside to do that. We had a spot of lunch to eat and then did some art science.

We experimented with wetting down paper and then seeing what happen when we dropped thinned paint on it. And that taught us about diffusion. :)



We then sprinkled dry paint over a pan of water and then put dry paper over the powder paint. it was fascinating to watch what adding the paint did to the surface tension of the water.

We varied the length that we let the paper sit in the water to see what that would with how the paper reacted. It was VERY interesting to see what happened. I did neglect to take pictures of some the results from the children but i did get this one.

Looks rather cool eh?

The lad decided that mixing paint was VERY interesting so he had fun doing that, and then decided to paint a picture with the resultant mixed paint.

After the children left we watched a thing on Sound that Aurora was doing through Supercharged science. We made a hornet and a harmonica. I was unable to capture of pic of J using the hornet, but here's the harmonica we made. :)


Earlier during the day we made some yellow jacket traps since we got inundated with yellow jackets today. Take a pop bottle, cut off the top. Mix up some basic lemonade, invert the top (normally I'd secure it but this one seemed to sit on really well) set it somewhere near the hornets and just wait. If you see a hornet crawling around inside speed up the process by CAREFULLY squirling the liquid around.

as you can see.....highly effective (after 1 hour).

Woot Woot! he was independent!

My six year was DYING to do an experiment.

I had no protracted time to help him.

I found the site the experiment was on and said here it is.

He did it!

He was VERY happy to have learned how to turn a motor on. And then he went on to learn how to make a dimmer switch. :)

Pretty cool huh? :)

Electricity

We joined the E-science camp from Supercharged Science for the summer.

We haven't done a whole lot with it since it takes a bit of time. BUT this week and next we plan to do some things with it. make it worth our while.

We've gotten good ideas for a number of experiments though and I need to find the time to jot down the information for the ones we want to do before our time runs out!

anyways, today we did Electricity. We did a number of experiments using two batteries, alligator clips, a buzzer, led lights and what not. I tried to make a propellor for the small motor we have but that didn't work out so well.

The lad had a HOOT.
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him teach his dad some of the things he learned today. They both seemed to enjoy their time together. I really wish I had the foresight to get my camera out. But it was fun listening to him teach, and watching his excitement.

Aurora does these videos that go step by step what the children are to do in each experiment. She encourages them to be safe. And she encourages them to have fun while learning what they need to learn. and it's OKAY to experiment and not have it all work out. :)

He learned to complete a circuit, to test for conductivity (one test was very complicated with a transformer), to make a buzzer work, to learn about open switches and what not. Lots of to learn, very sequential learning.

Is he ready 'mentally' for some of what he does? ah...no. but is he experimenting? yes. Is he learning the language? Yes. Is he learning to be safe and to follow instructions? definitely. He is learning the science and experimentation is a good thing? for sure! :)

today... air pressure...

Today we learned a bit about air pressure.

taken from this book:
hands on earth science activities for k-6 by marvin tolman

we took some straws.

we took a potato.
one straw, one potato

we learned what happens when you combine the two and various ways of holding them.

IF you put your thumb over the end of the straw... it works like a spear!

this of course led to further experimentation with jack o lantern making supplies and the leftover potato......


we also watched a rocket video from Supercharged Science. We are part of their summer e-camp. It was "really cool mommy". Supercharged science does a really good job at even helping kindergarten/grade 1 students understand higher science as well. All that fire made a super impression on the lad. These things helped a lad keep occupied on a day he needed quieter things to amuse himself due a headachy mommy and a sick tummy on a lad.

Friction Experiment #1

So we joined supercharged Science for a month.

Cost us a $1 so it was no biggie to do this.

Today we did an experiment on Friction.

We took a book, we took a bunch of different shoes. and then used a ruler to see how high we could get the book cover to rise before the shoe started to slide.

We had some surprises!

1. daddy's new show and daddy's old shoe. both the same brand of shoe. The old one slid at 11 the new slid at 13.5. The only difference we could find in the shoe was the old one had more wear on the sole of the shoe.

2. Justin's crocks and flip flops. The blue ones slid at 11.5, the purple at 12 and his flip flops at 10.5. the flip flops weigh the most so we THINK that is why they slid faster, but why the purple slid later.. we could not figure that one out. the purple and blue are the same weight, the purple has little gems on it so my boy thinks that is why it slid later.

3. mommy's church sandal is fatter (wider) and flatter than her work shoe. It should have slid later, but it slid at 9, while her work shoes slid at 12. WHY??? Her work shoe weighs more but the sole is bumpier...could the weight have made the difference?

But it was very interesting for a five year old boy child.