Fibonacci and Art

We are heading out of town for a week for a family vacation. Yay! I can't wait. But before we leave, I want to leave you with a very cool You Tube video that makes me feel absolutely thrilled and awed with math and nature. Have a wonderful week.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahXIMUkSXX0

Stinky Liver Stan

Our human torso model arrived this week to aid in our study of the human body. In addition to removing his lungs, heart, stomach, liver, and intestines on a regular basis we are currently considering names for this handsome gentleman. So far it's a toss up between Naked Bob and Stinky Liver Stan.

We also did a quick experiment this week that helped us to 'see' air. We've been discussing how our nose, trachea, and lungs help us to breath air, and how our red blood cells take the oxygen from that air and circulate it throughout our body. Of course we can't taste, touch, or feel air (unless it's windy) so we looked at some air trapped in a glass. We added water to a bowl, and then food coloring to the water. We placed a paper towel in the top of a glass and placed the glass, open side down, in the bowl of colored water. We could see the clear air trapped in the glass, and that the paper towel stayed dry with the glass placed upside down. When we tipped the glass the air escaped in bubbles, which we could also see. This was a spontaneous experiment we decided to do after reading Air is All Around You, a Let's Read and Find out Book. The experiment is included in the book.

Human Body, part 2

Just a quick post today to let you know what we've been up to in the land of science. We're continuing our study of the human body and are currently learning about the circulatory system. Today we made a model of blood.

Have I ever mentioned how much we love science?

Our blood model

Museum of Science

Were were all feeling a bit uninspired and sluggish this week, so we decided to spend a day with friends at the Museum of Science in Boston. This is one of our favorite field trip destinations. We spent quite a bit of time in the Pompeii exhibit, which was amazing, and visited some of our long-time favorite exhibits as well. Animals and dinosaurs seem never to disappoint.

My Seaside Naturalist

D is taking the Seaside Naturalist class offered through the Fieldtrip Research Center this year. This is a monthly class run at Northeastern University's Marine Research Center in Nahant. We've taken many homeschooling classes over the years, and this is by far the best class that D has ever been a part of it. It is well-organized, interesting, challenging, and super fun. The homework is interesting but not overwhelming and D has learned so much these past four months. Marine Science is his passion so I'm thrilled that we found a program that offers him so much new information in a fun and engaging way. During the past four classes D has learned about tides, currents, micro-organisms, algae, sponges, and jellyfish. They even collected sea moss and made their own carageenan, a thickening agent used in many food items. Then they made egg nog using their own carageenan! It looked quite interesting and I had to bribe D to try it. Although it was an awesome experiment, I don't think sea-moss egg nog is going to become a staple in our home any time soon.

Checking out cniderea and sponges under the microscope.

Some pressed algae D made.

One of the coolest things about Northeastern's Marine Research Center is that the lab is basically in a bunker, which is built into the hillside, right on the ocean. Every time we go there I feel like we are on the set of 'Lost' and I keep waiting for the doors to open and for someone in a brown Darma Initiative uniform to greet us.

Nahant is absolutely beautiful and I was able to snap some pictures while the girls and I were exploring the area on Monday.

For information on FRC, click here: http://www.fieldtripresourcecenter.com/
For information on Northeastern Marine Research Center click here: http://www.northeastern.edu/marinescience/
And to check out the Seaside Naturalist Book that they are using in the class, click here: http://www.amazon.com/Seaside-Naturalist-Guide-Study-Seashore/dp/0671765035/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323265176&sr=1-1

Botany

My favorite part of our homeschooling day is when we put our math and language arts learning aside, to get ready for science, history, and the arts. These are the subjects that make life vibrant, enriching, and interesting. There is nothing like watching your child's face the first time they learn about Egyptian mummification! Or watching their intense focus in the middle of a science experiment. Or their joy when they've learned a new song, or finished a new drawing and can't wait to share it with you.

Right now we spend about an hour or two every Monday and Friday afternoon learning about Biology, and every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday learning about Ancient History. Biology is a great subject for little ones, because most of the content is tangible. Plants, animals, and people are all readily available in our immediate environment. This year, D is learning quite a bit about cells and micro-organisms as well. Right now I'm using Real Science 4 Kids with D and R.E.A.L Science Odyssey with J. These curriculum have almost identical subject material, geared to different levels fo learning, so it's easy to teach one topic to both children simultaneously. D has just about finished up Real Science 4 Kids, so we'll be switching to ClassiQuest Science when we begin learning about the human body. We just finished a 2 month-long study of cells, taxonomy, and botany. We learned so much about plants!

We covered the leaves of this plant to see what happens to the chloroplasts when they don't get any light.

The leaf after 3 weeks.

We added food coloring to water to see how the stems of plants deliver water and nutrients to the leaves and flowers.

Checking out a seed coat that has been removed from the seed.

Finding the embryo and cotyledon in a seed.

Kentucky

I recently visited Kentucky, along with D, to celebrate my Dad's 65th birthday. We bought him a t-shirt that said "In Dog Years I'm Dead" (couldn't resist) and a new set of horseshoes, which he loves to play.

While we were there we visited the Louisville Science Museum, and did some fishing and swimming. Louisville is a beautiful city and these are some of my favorite pics of the trip.

Back at home we've been busy with homelearning, activities, and lots of music making. But I haven't been posting much lately because it seems that when I do finally find the time to add to our blog, I encounter technical problem after technical problem with Blogger. I've tried the new interface, as well as the old, but things just don't seem to be jiving. I should have prefaced that statement by saying that I am in no way a technology whiz. But I am thinking of making a change to Wordpress at some point in the near future. Any thoughts? Any blogging experts want to weigh in on this?

This week

This week we did some hands on science.

These are simple models of plant and animal cells made with jello and fruit. I think a little finger or two sampled the jello while making the model :)

We did some fun history learning

J made this history pocket, published by Evan Moore. We just discovered them and all agree they are great. They are wonderful for crafty kids who like to draw, cut, and paste, and are looking for a more creative approach to learning history

and started an ancient history time line.

We've been reading our favorite fall books, and making some fall art.

and doing some fall knitting.

My littlest one is a busy bee this year, learning right alongside her sister and brother, making me realize how big she is getting.She insists on doing her own "work" each day.

Happy fall!

End of year Wrap-Up

We've officially ended our homeschooling year 2010-2011. Actually, we finished a few weeks ago and I have been trying to write this post forever, but a new dog and trying to pack up to move for the summer have been keeping me from most other things these days. Summer in New Enlgand is so very beautiful. When it finally arrives I inevitably say to myself 'so this is why I live here'. We put aside any formal work for the summer, and relax into a different type of learning. We will soon be moving out to our house on the beach, and I look forward to spending our days playing, swimming, searching for treasures, reading great books, and taking long walks.

We did so many fun things this year! I'm sure I won't remember everything, but here are a few things we enjoyed: D learned about physics, architecture, and biology. He had a great time building models of simple machines and reading 'The New Way Things Work'. We took nature walks, planted a garden, and photographed the birds that come to our birdfeeder throughout the year. We participated in the Cornell Ornithololgy Lab's Backyard Bird Count and entered a Science Fair. J learned all about animals and plants. We visited the Museum of Science and the New England Aquarium. D learned about world history from 1849 to the fall of the Berlin Wall. He worked on maps and learned about the 50 states, important U.S documents and amendments to the Constitution, and read some great biographies and historical fiction. J learned about the seven continents and read stories from around the world. We visited Battleship Cove and Old Sturbridge Village. We discovered our new favorite board game, The Scrambled States of America.

D read the entire Guardians of G'Ahoole series, and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, along with many other wonderful books. Some of our favorites include Nory Ryan's Song, The Sign of the Beaver, and Number the Stars. J became a fluent reader this year! We read so many great read-alouds. Her favorites were Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie, and Around the World in 80 Tales. D wrote some wonderful stories this year, and did some great non-fiction writing as well. I truly enjoy the content of his writing and it's been so much fun to watch his confidence in writing grow this year.

Both kids worked on math skills using Math-U-See. D began learning German and continued his study of Latin and Greek root-words. J practiced violin while D rocked his drum set, and both kids made some beautiful art in their art classes.

We ended the year with two performances of Much Ado About Nothing, in which D played the role of Dogberry. It was a wonderful way to end the year.

D, backstage, during the Young Shakespeare Company's performance of Much Ado About Nothing

We went for a hike last Saturday afternoon and man was it cold! We didn't last too long on the trail but I was able to snap a few good pics of the kiddos.

We've taken some time off from any formal learning to do some spring cleaning and gardening. But we've been reading lots of great books and tending to our little indoor garden. Last weekend we decided to transplant our growing shoots to larger pots. The kids painted the pots and decided that they would like to give some away as Easter gifts this year. By the end of the day they looked like true artists and nature lovers with paint in their hair and dirt in their finger nails.