Chemistry for Toddlers ?!

Yes, you read that right. Toddlers can learn chemistry. Anyone who has been around a small child knows they pick up information at an amazing rate and retain so much of it. So why shouldn't they be exposed to Chemistry and other science topics? Now they can have their own science books just like their older brothers and sisters.


 I want to share with you a brand new science resource I stumbled across the other day. My First Science Textbook : Chemistry Storybooks for Kids. They combine facts, fun, and darling little characters to teach children of any age basic chemistry.  Book one is Protons and Nuetrons in which you will meet Pete the Proton. In book two, Electrons, Ellie the Electron comes on the scene and completing the trio is book three, The Atom.  The books also teach basic information about the jobs of protons, neutrons, and electrons and where they are found.


My First Science Textbooks were created by John Coveyou. He saw that his young daughter picked up and remembered so much from their reading together that he decided to create a series of  science books. He wanted something which would be interesting for both of them and capitalize on her curiosity. As a chemistry teacher he found many students struggled because they thought science was hard, so he wanted to give his daughter and other children the opportunity to learn basic chemistry in a fun and easy manner. He doesn't want children or youth to give up on chemistry or science because they think it is too hard.


I think these books look great and I really wish they had been around when my children were younger and beginning to explore science concepts like electrons and protons, atoms, and the periodic table. These Chemistry Storybooks for Kids are a gentle introduction to the world of chemistry and other sciences. There are not many chemistry books available for elementary age and even fewer for younger students so this collection of books should fill this gap. The My First Science Textbook:Chemistry Storybooks for Kids series could be read aloud to children of multiple ages; introducing the concepts to all and giving elementary students concrete examples on which to build further knowledge.


Not only are these a great introduction to chemistry, the concepts and vocabulary apply to other scientific disciplines as well. My youngest started out this year with a kids physics course this year and at least the first two chapters covered electrons, protons, neutrons, and their properties and behavior.

Sample page from Protons and Neutrons

My First Science Textbooks:Chemistry Storybooks for Kids is nearing the end of their Kickstarter funding campaign. You can find out more information at their Kickstarter campaign page and preorder the books there as well if the campaign is closed before you find their page.

My First Science Textbooks:Chemistry Storybooks for Kids are produced by Genius Games. Genius Games currently have two biology and two chemistry card games which look absolutely great. The biology games are Linkage and Peptide;  Ion and Covalence are the chemistry games. Ion and Covalence are on my wishlist for the next school year as they look like great additions to my daughter's Chemistry course. I wish I had know about the biology games as they would have been great with biology this year.

 Check out Genius Games at their website or on Facebook.




Disclaimer: I have not received any product or been compensated for this post. All opinions expressed here are solely my own. This post was written after consultation with the above mentioned company who provided images and links.

'The Fault in Our Stars' Book Thoughts and A Lesson

May is Get Caught Reading Month. I'm not really planning on doing anything special, except maybe introduce my children to some new genres or challenge them to read a type of book they don't usually read. Because of this focus on reading in May I thought I would use this month to share some of the books we're currently reading or recently finished.



Today my 13 year old daughter is writing about her current read. This is what she has to say.

My favorite book that I've been reading this month is "The Fault in Our Stars". I haven't finished reading it yet, but it is just so good that I had to write about it. This book is by award winning author John Green. I found out about the book on YouTube because the author is also one half of the Vlogbrothers, and has talked about the book on their channel.

" The Fault in Our Stars" is about a girl named Hazel Grace who has stage IV cancer. Her mom wants her to go to support group to make friends, much to Hazel's complaining, until she meets Augustus Waters. They immediately take a liking to each other and become friends. But this is tested when Hazel is waiting outside with Augustus he puts a cigarette in his mouth. When Hazel sees this she gets mad for smoking when she has lung cancer. She says, "Are you serious? You think that's cool? ... even though you HAD FREAKING CANCER you give money to a company in exchange for the chance to acquire YET MORE CANCER. Let me just assure you that not being able to breathe SUCKS." Then Augustus tells her that it's a metaphor. He puts something that is able to kill him right between his teeth but he doesn't light it, he doesn't give it the power to kill. After this Hazel feels better about it. After they are friends for a while, Hazel tells him about a book she likes, "An Imperial Affliction". It is about a girl who has cancer like her, and the book ends on a cliff hanger. Augustus reads it and likes it as much as she does, Hazel tells him that she has written a bunch of letters to the author asking what happens, but he has never written back. The next time Augustus talks to Hazel on the phone, he tells her that he sent an email to the author's secretary and the author wrote back through his secretary. Hazel also sends his secretary emails asking the author the answers to her questions, but he tells her that the only way he could tell her the answers is if she came to Amsterdam where he lived, and talked to him in person.

This is as far as I've gotten in the book, so if you want to know what happens next you have to read it yourself. I can not recommend this book highly enough, because it is so good. I would rate it 1,000,000/10 stars it is so good. This book is great for teenagers, but I wouldn't recommend it for children younger than that. The movie is also coming out this year so if you like the book, you should watch the movie too.

Mom's Turn

Despite how much my daughter enjoyed this book I didn't allow her to finish it. While she was writing this I picked up the book and started reading parts of it. I was unpleasantly surprised so I continued to read it later to get a fuller understanding of the text. What I found disturbed me.

• There is a lot of inappropriate language used by the teens in the story. While I can't isolate my children from hearing this type of language, I don't feel it needs to be read.
•  I wasn't pleased with the attitude exhibited by the teens towards their parents.
• The main characters also engage in  a physical relationship inappropriate for children.
• The graphic descriptions of the physical deterioration and process of death didn't set well with me either.

Unfortunately I can't give it as many stars as my daughter or really recommend seeing the movie.  The latter is hard to say, but knowing how books are often changed for movies I really don't expect the movie to be improved in a way which addresses my concerns.

The Lesson

Because I wanted to have the opportunity to discuss the book with my daughter I hung onto it until we had the opportunity to talk. I shared with my daughter my thoughts about what I had read and my desire that she didn't finish the book. As I expected this was not what she wanted to hear. Fortunately, she was semi willing to listen to my point of view and problems with the book. We discussed the situations and language in the story and agreed the language was probably not a major point to keep her from finishing the book. I was more concerned about the actions of the characters, the physical deterioration of the characters and the utter hopelessness they had due to their lack of faith and how this influenced their behavior.

While I realize all of these things are issues that she will probably encounter at some point in her life I don't believe she needs to read about them right now. I hope she will have time and more maturity before she has to wrestle and deal with these complex issues.

The Result

I did let my daughter read a little more of the book, enough so she could learn the outcome of the characters visit with the Author in Amsterdam. While this did not avoid the language and attitude issues, it did eliminate the other topics I found objectionable.

I also learned I need to be a little more vigilant about reading selections. I usually know what my children are reading, but when something is recommended by a professional I thought it would be ok. In doing some online research after this incident I also found it enlightening how books are currently classified, the labels used by the industry are not as straight forward as they are made to sound. They also use different age ranges than other industries. So this is something I need to research more. Something else to add to my summer to do list.



I have tried to keep this semi short and not go into many details because you never know who maybe reading over your shoulder. :)  If you would like more details about the content of the book or why I found it objectionable send me an email at martharf95@gmail and I am more than happy to share more thoughts with you.

A Lego Story

This fall my 9 year old son has enjoyed writing Lego stories using the prompts from Mary at Homegrown Learners. The other day when he was making his own Lego creation he decided he needed to write his own story to do with what he built.

This is what he wrote:

Jack goes to work in a lab at Lego University in Brickville. Jack has altered the flavor of vegetables so kids will eat them but with the same nutrition. Nowadays Jack is trying to make a serum that will kill cancer but not the body. Jack made a serum yesterday, but it was too radioactive. Jack, while he is waiting for that serum to decay is making another one. His new serum, sadly, is not correct. Just when he is about to give up, Jack sees the diagram of a cancer cell. Now he knows how to kill cancer!  "I got it! I got it! The serum to kill cancer!" And sure enough it could kill cancer but nothing else. Jack then won the Nobel Prize and retired to the countryside.

Curriculum for Fourth Grade 2013-2014

These are my curriculum plans for my 9 year old son for the coming year.

Theology

A Bible History
Catechism Review



Math

Teaching Textbooks 

I have struggled to find an appropriate math program for several years. So we are trying TT this year. I know many other Moms and students highly recommend it so I am hoping it works well.

History

Story of the World 2  The Middle Ages
Famous Men of the Middle Ages
Kingfisher History Encyclopedia

History also includes notebooking and lapbooking. We will also use other resources to enrich the study. They include this Prof Noggin game, and Usbourne Middle Ages encyclopedia.


Science

Elements Ingredients of the Universe

I will probably add additional resources. This is not a full year course so we will have to see what comes next.




Language Arts

Spelling Power
Vocabulary Cartoons
Scholastic Literacy Place
learn Cursive




  






 

Foreign Language

Latin for Children A
Greek Alphabet Code Cracker

Son has not picked up the grammar of Latin too easily, so I plan to go back to the beginning and take it slowly. He is interested in Greek so we will do this on the side.


Electives

Feed My Sheep
Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?
Typing


I plan to read Whatever Happened to Penny Candy outloud so he will hear it. Some of it maybe a little too deep for him, but the exposure to the topic is beneficial.


We will also do lapbooks and notebooks on various topics, some which I choose, others which he chooses.

You have probably noticed I have left some subjects out, I do plan on covering things like writing,  grammar, and geography I just don't know what I am going to use yet. We moved a month ago so most of the summer has been consumed by planning, packing, moving, and unpacking. I also have a wish list, but will have to see how much of it I can find or purchase.

Seventh Grade Curriculum for 2013-2014

The following are most of my curriculum for my 12 year old daughter for this next year. There are something I haven't decided on yet, but hopefully it won't take to much more studying to decide. This is enough to get started with though.

Math

Teaching Textbooks Pre Algebra
Family Math


This will be our first year using TT. The last few years we have been looking for a math program, but none we have tried have been a good fit. I hope this works well for us.







Theology

A Bible History






History

Story of the World 2 The Middle Ages
Famous Men of Rome
Jumpstarters for History
Huzzah means Hurray
Additional Literature and projects

History studies will also include notebooking and outlining. I also plan to include some games and web resources for review.


Science

Botany

I am not sure what curriculum yet. I have looked at several that look interesting, but have not made a decision. This may be a whole year topic or it may only be one semester depending on the curriculum chosen.





Language Arts

Spelling Power
Prentice Hall Literature
Writing with Skill





Foreign Language

Finish Latin for Children A
Latin for Children B

Daughter has just a few chapters left in the book which we weren't able to finish in the spring due to our move, so we will finish those up before going on to the next level.


Electives

Artistic Pursuits Jr High book 1
Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? 
Art of Argument    -  Logic
typing
piano practice/lessons







Red Herring Mysteries and The Great Chocolate Caper are just two books that we will add in when we have time. We have done some of the Red Herring Mysteries before and both children really like them.

Just as with my son's curriculum there are something I need to figure out yet, mainly in the language arts area and just which science program. But I think I have made enough choices so far that we can get a start on the school year.

A Hodge Podge of Activities

Well its been several weeks of good intentions for writing here, but it hasn't happened.

But even though I haven't written, I have taken some pictures so I'll share them and briefly explain them.


The first pictures is a sample of cookies my 11 year old daughter made. When we go to the library I insist each of my children pick out a minimum of 1 fiction and 1 non fiction book each. One week Daughter picked out a cookbook,decided she wanted to make something and picked out cookies. They are a simplified version of Black and Whites. She made these pretty independently. I helped her find a couple supplies and with melting the chocolate. They were quite tasty.

Both of the children have been interested in the Solar System and Space, but Son seems to have a longer lasting, greater interest. He has been studying constellations for science lately. One day they both decided to make a picture of the solar system. They simple put together 4 sheets of black construction paper and used a variety of art supplies to make the planets, asteroid belt, and stars.  Although they don't show up to well in the picture there are clusters of stars in each of the four corners of the large picture. These stars of made from Glow-in-the-Dark fabric paint. (The only glow in the dark material they could find at home.) While it is faint, they do glow somewhat when the light is first turned off.

Another fun activity around here has been playing/experimenting with the Snap Circuits set they received for Christmas from an Uncle. I am not sure, but I think the project pictured is a flying saucer type project. The ride discs spins while the motor is on and when it turns off the disc lifted up and flies off a short distance. They are both enjoying all the projects, but the first time they did this the end was a very neat surprise. Needless, to say Snap Circuits has been used quite a bit since Christmas.

Last week we also spent several hours one day at the local history museum for their homeschool day with the theme of The Civil War. This included a couple one person theater productions and two classes learning how to read and interpret primary source documents. One focused on written documents and the other on maps, photos etc. Craft time featured the opportunity to make banners or pennants similar to Regimental Flags from the war. Attendees also had the opportunity to view the special exhibit about the Civil War. Many of the events explored the unique situation of Missouri during the war. Part of the reason for that was the governor left his office and joined one side and a good portion of the rest of the state went to the other side.


For read alouds we are working our way through one of the volumes of the My Book House collection. I happened across these on the sale table at our library shortly before Christmas. I had heard about them before and so when they showed up there I grabbed them. Even though a couple of the volumes are below my childrens' interest level, we have been enjoying many stories.


Daughter has finished her Chemistry course so I want to share some of her projects in a separate post.

What Have We Been Up To?

It has been a LONG time since I wrote anything here. We haven't been overly busy, but I just haven't been motivated to write. Since I finally put the pictures from my phone on the computer, I thought I would share those along with some of the highlights since we started school in early August.

We usually start the first week of August, but it takes some time to get into the swing of things after summer, so we usually go a little slower. Last year I tried something different,  instead of diving into each subject right away or even just a couple, we spent a week reviewing one topic or subject. This year we only had two theme weeks, one of which we spent learning about the Olympics, London, and England as those were in the news.

These are lapbooks about Buckingham Palace and the Royal family. While they were designed by In The Hands of a Child, they are only available to subscribers of Schoolhouse Teachers.

These are the Olympics lapbooks. They are a compilation of mini books from different sources. Some of them are from a set I bought, others I found for free online.

Another of our topics this year was geography. Geography seems to be something we don't get to on a regular basis during the rest of our year, so I wanted to get some basics in. We examined the differences between globes and maps, types of maps, map features, and map reading.  I wanted to keep things interesting so we used some library books, read and looked at websites, played some geography and map games, solved geography related mysteries, and made a scale drawing of our property. A couple of the books we used were Great Map Mysteries, Great Map Games, and Comic Strip Map Skills. We also read Around the World in 80 days by Jules Verne.

We have also been able to attend the monthly homeschool class at our library again this year. The topics this year have been drawing with perspective and personal finance.

We also had a field trip to the local history museum continues for their monthly homeschool event. The theme in September was Olympics.

We have also had fun playing this game which I one this fall. I submitted a made up word and definition when OUT OF THE BOX was having a contest and I won. This is an expansion pack to go with the original game. We don't have the full game so we have just made up our own way of playing. It has been a lot of fun to make up our own wacky words to match definitions.

Piano lessons have also continued throughout the summer and this fall. A couple weeks ago daughter had the privilege of playing in the competition at the local teachers music conference. She did a good job and even exceeded her expectations by receiving a score of 1. Now she is eligible to play at the teachers' state conference next month. 

 

So here are just a few highlights of the last few months.

What is Homeschool Mosaics and Why Am I Writing About It?

I'm not sure if I have mentioned it here, but I have the great privilege of being a writer for the blog Homeschool Mosaics. All of the wonderful women who make Homeschool Mosaics possible and write for the blog are homeschooling moms. We all bring our unique talents, perspectives and experiences to the blog and share once or twice a month in a personal column. Not only are they a great group of ladies, whom I am privileged to call friends, the collective wisdom is phenomenal.

Each month, usually on the 22nd, I write a column on budget/ frugal homeschooling. Today my column for July is posted and I share some local and state freebies which have been useful for my family. I would invite you to take a peek.

Also while you are at Homeschool Mosaics, click on the Giveaway tab to learn about this months great giveaway. A pedal car from BERG Toys! This looks like a wonderful exploration vehicle. Check it out for yourself.

Since my post on Homeschool Mosaics is monthly, I try to focus on a different theme each time. I would be interested in learning if any of my personal blog readers have any ideas frugal or budget homeschooling they would like to read about. Feel free to leave me a comment.

Homeschool Supplies and Finances

Several times a month the TOS Homeschool Crew members have the opportunity to participate in a special blogging opportunity.A specific topic or question is posed and members blog about their answers or experiences. Although I was on the Crew last year, this is the first time I have participated in this blog cruise.

The Question for the newest TOS Blog Cruise is asking crew members Do they set a budget for homeschool supplies and books?Quick Answer: No, not really.

Ok, here's what I do. Beginning in the late spring I generally take stock of where are my children are in different subjects and begin looking at and thinking about what I want to cover in the next year. From there I look through my shelves to see what I have that my work for my youngest.This doesn't work too well for my oldest as I generally don't have materials for her to grow into. Then I make a list of what I need to fill in the gaps and ideas of programs and curricula to check into.

During the summer I try to purchase the most essential materials or what I would like to have for the first few months of school. I try to do this as inexpensively as possible. This may mean from used sources or discount curriculum suppliers.

Throughout the year I keep a wish list for books and other items that I would really like to have. So far, if I have been patient I have found a number of those items for a lot less than new. I don't start a new list each year, just add and subtract as I find things or learn more about products.

I also keep my eye open for discounts and sales throughout the year,so when I see something on a good price I can grab it.; This also has the side benefit of something new to use and it occasionally review of something covered. I particularly like $1 sales offered by various online retailers. Also one online homeschooling group I belong to has a sale day at the beginning of each month and occasionally someone with have something I am looking for on sale.

We do several lapbooks a year for science and history as well as more for other topics. For these 'kits' I watch several online companies and purchase when they have sales or specials. My history and religion materials have been purchased over the course of several years at the publishers sales in the fall.I have often been able to pick up text books for $5 and workbooks and resource materials for $3 at this time.

For supplies, I usually purchase those when retailers have their back to school promotions. They often have many items for under $1 or not much more, so I can get a whole lot of what we need for less than $10.

We also use the local library system quite extensively.They have a numbers of branches and a fair sized collection as we are in a metropolitan area. They allow a number of items checked out per card, but the number which can be requested from other branches is fairly limited. We use library books quite a bit for science and history as well as fun approaches to other subjects as well as simply to read.

I also use quite a few free resources from various online companies and sources.If I run across anything free online I generally save it to my computer because I don't know when it might be beneficial.About the only time I don't do this is if it is something which is way below my youngest level.However, I may still save it if it is something which can be modified or used for another purpose in some way.

So you may be wondering how I keep my spending under control and keep track of what I am spending for our homeschooling adventure.I simply keep a record of all my purchases and the amount.Since most of my purchases go on a credit card which we pay off monthly it is fairly easy to double check to make sure I have recorded everything.Also, if I notice the credit card getting to high, I just don't look at "good sales" for a month or two.

While this may sound kind of loosey goosey, it has worked for us so far.I actually have not spent over $500 a year total in any of the years I have been homeschooling.Some years I may spend more for one child than the other, but it's not the amount of money spent that determines the quality of their education.

Homeschool Mothers Journal Weekly Review

 



In my life this week...

I have been busy reorganizing after moving furniture around and trying to find some important papers. Finally found them, now I can get those pesky taxes done. 

I also had to say goodbye to a favorite sweater; it has just gotten too thin to be wearable any longer.  So sad.

I have also been going through resources to get ready to sell what we are done with at a sale this weekend.
I have also been contemplating what I want the focus of my blog to be.

In our homeschool this week...

We worked on our mini nutrition unit by reading several books and doing a couple paper and pencil activities.

I also have a project to do yet, I am not sure if we will get to it Friday or if it will have to wait until next week.

We had fun with a science experiment learning about acids and bases.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...

Lots of people and places this week. Saturday we went to the Kids Workshop at Home Depot where the kiddos built race cars as this months project.  

Tuesday we went to our local library branch for their monthly homeschool class.  The topic was healthy eating. 

As a family on Wedenesday we went to Ash Wednesday service at our church.

Thursday daughter had her piano lesson and we did errands after that. 

My favorite thing this week was...

The Homeschool class at the library.  The librarian had a super Power Point presentation for the kids about the food pyramid and they discussed what foods are in each group. Then they analyzed their previous days diet to see how they compared to the guidelines.  Then the kids prepared several different healthy snacks.  The librarian has something that each of the kids could do from the 3 year old to the 14 year old and they were all happy to help and got along so well.  I think they all tried at least some of the snacks.

I really liked this class because it was a meaningful activity and I didn't have a big project to take home!  

What's working/not working for us...

The weather.  I am SO ready for warmer temps.

I think my kids are ready for spring too, they keep checking the temps to see if it is playground weather.

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...

I am still checking out curriculum ideas for next year. 

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

 After we were done with the formal acid/base experiment we used the leftover liquid and sprinkled baking soda on top and got this over flowing foam! We only did this because we knew what the mixture in the cup was and I knew the result would not be dangerous.  I did remind the children that it is dangerous to just go mixing things willy nilly.

Art Museum Field Trip

Today we had the opportunity to join our homeschool group for a field trip to the Art Museum.  The Museum has a great art collection and we enjoy going there, but just don't seem to make it there very often.

The class focused on Egyptian Art and mummies.  The museum has 3 mummies in their collection and on display.  The curator explained to the children briefly about the process of mummification and the reasons for it.  One of the mummies they own is over 3000 years old with a very elaborately decorated case. She also explained the art on one of the sarcophagi.  This particular case has pictures of many of the Egyptian gods and pictures depicting what they "governed".  The deceased name is also on the case in hieroglypics as well as several scenes of his life.

Another one of the mummy cases had a picture and writing painted on the inside of it. While it was under glass, the cover was lifted up high enough so that the children could squat down on the floor and see the underside of the cover.  This also made the mummy visible.  It was kinda cool to see the actual wrapped mummy, not just the case.

Also with the displays were pictures of Xrays that had been taken of the mummies.  I was amazed at the detail these Xrays showed.  They were very clear and it was relatively easy to see the bones and organs.  Not only was this a great art lesson, but also anatomy.

After this the kids went to a classroom where they had the opportunity to make their own mummies out of air dry modeling clay and decorate them with markers.  They were also given small boxes to keep the mummies in and were allowed to decorate them as well.  The staff provided diagrams of hieroglyphics and other Egyptian art to assist with decorating.

I know my son had a great time.  He is especially interested in Ancient Egypt right now due to a LEGO magazine and online activities, our study of beetles,and Exodus.   Seeing mummies and sarcophagi which were so much a part of the Ancient Egyptian culture was extremely exciting for him. I think all the children present, not just mine thoroughly enjoyed the outing.

Butterfly Life Cycle Project

Last summer and early fall we did a unit on insects. Both my children enjoy hands on projects of various kinds so we tried to incorporate several projects since we weren't also doing all of our normal subjects as well.  When my daughter found the idea for this project in Pack O Fun magazine she decided we needed to try it.

We made a few changes to personalize the project.  It was originally supposed to be a monarch lifecycle, but they wanted to make their butterflies more colorful, so they just made generic butterflies.  Yes, I realize the butterflies probably don't resemble any known species, but I am okay with that. The instructions called for polymer clay that required baking in an oven but I really didn't want to have to open windows for ventilation or turn on the oven when the temperatures were in the 90's.  So when I discovered a polymer clay which was air dry we decided to go with that.

They each had fun making all the little pieces out of clay and talking about how they would arrange them on the foam core board. Then they decided that white was too boring so they needed to pain their backgrounds. Finally after several days the pieces were all dry and the kiddos could arrange and glue their creations together. I made the labels using my word processing program on the computer.

Here are the final results:

Daughters' Butterfly Lifecycle

Sons' Butterfly Lifecycle

They both had a lot of fun making them and using polymer clay for the first time.  They were pleased with the way the plaques turned out and I was too. Now if I was just a little more prompt in getting pictures on the computer!

Fun Science

What do you get when you combine a stage,simple machines, and common household items?  A laugh outloud, engaging science program that leaves the audience asking where the time went and begging for more!


That is exactly what we had today when we attended a performance/ production by Doktor Kaboom.  Doktor Kaboom is a dad who has taken his passion for science, children, and encouragement and turned it into a career.  He has taken the scientific method and made it less intimidating for children. He is from Germany and so while he is proficient with English it is not his first language and he enjoys sharing bits of German with his audiences.  We were instructed that for the show we not allowed to say yes in response to his questions, but Jah! or Nein!  To teach the kids this he had a fun interactive game and sure enough by the end of the program all the kids had remembered to say Jah!

One of the highlights of the performance was the explanation of a catapult and a highly entertaining demonstration of its use.  His "theory" is that it was not a weapon of war, but instead a means for the nobility to feed the peasants in an efficient manner. (He also explained the defense use of a catapult). Then using a student volunteer from the audience he demonstrated what the catapult can do while encouraging his volunteer to catch the bananas that he hurled around.  This was a challenge for the volunteer while providing laughs for the audience, so after every few attempts the "Dr" paused to make adjustments to his process.  Thereby demonstrating that often the point of an experiment is not to get the "right" answer, but to learn from the process of trial and error. 

He also demonstrated several other scientific principles in hilarious, attention grabbing ways.

Doktor Kaboom made sure to offer encouragement to the audience, but not in a sappy artificial way.  He strongly encouraged doing ones best in everything and believing that you can do it and are competent.  He encouraged the children to make eye contact and speak clearly about who they are and what they can do when asked  about themselves.

I was also impressed by his generous references to parents and their importance to the children.  Unfortunately too often the dominant message is parents aren't as important for a child as other non related adults.

Like most presentations or performances we could not take pictures of the stage or event, but if you would like to get a visual sense of our experience you can check out Doktor Kaboom's website.  One of the rotating scenes on his homepage is the 'banana catapult'.

Back to Routine

 We have completed two weeks of school after a break for Christmas and New Years.  Surprisingly there was very little resistance about getting back into the routine.  For this I am thankful, I don't like having to cajole my children to accomplish assignments or chores.

So what have we done ?

Started a new science unit.  This is Matter and Chemistry.  Both Daughter and Son are very interested in science and can't wait to do anything remotely scientific.   Most of our time has been discussing matter, but we just peeked at the Periodic table the other day and talked about what it contains, (no son, not food at various times!) and how it is arranged.  We are going to go into more detail and learn about the elements and try some experiments.  I even found a cool website that has experiments for each of the elements.  Try The Periodic Table of Videos .  Some of the videos are slow though.

Went to Cici's Pizza for a tour.  For those of you who may not be familiar with Cici's, it is a pizza buffet restaurant.  The tour was great and each of the kids made their own individual pizza.

Visited the library for their monthly homeschoolers class.  This month the topic was Ancient Egypt.  The kids had the opportunity to build a paper pyramid, play a game, and decipher hieroglyphics. Another Mom commented they were the first "texters" as sometimes vowels were left out in their words.  Also got some books while we were there.  Can homeschoolers go to the library without checking out at least one book?

Read the book  The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses  illustrated by Paul Goble as we continue studying some Caldecott winners.  The kids also made pictures of a horse and sun similar to some of his illustrations.

We also continue to plug away with the basics like Math, and Spelling and Theology.  We toss in some penmanship too and hopefully get it done without to much fussing.  Daughter is also learning about the art of writing with a writing course that we are using as a review product for the TOS Crew. 

Daughter started back up with piano lessons.

Additionally, they also had some play in the snow time one day this week while I needed to shovel. They had fun, not sure if I did.  We generally don't take snow days when the local schools do, but take other days when we need to.  Don't tell my kids when there are snow days!

So actually our return to routine hasn't been bad at all.  I hope it continues that way.

Last Weeks Events

It's been a while since I posted and then those were reviews. So I decided I would write a little about how we filled last week.

Monday the local history museum hosted their monthly Homeschool Day. This fall they started having special programs just for homeschool families and they have been a lot of fun. The museum is The Missouri History by name, but the permanent exhibits predominantly showcase St Louis, but the special exhibits usually have a larger scope. Now the special exhibit is focusing on the role of women in settling and shaping the western part of our country. So this months theme was based on this topic, but that was not all. To celebrate the holidays this month they also gave the children the opportunity to decorate Gingerbread cookies and take a horse drawn carriage ride around the outside of the museum. The cookies were a huge hit and totally covered with candy. (Maybe I can post pics in the next day or two). The carriage ride was also a hit, but just a little bit cold. The temp all day didn't get above 8 degrees! They also had hot chocolate which was greatly appreciated.

Tuesday afternoon we went to the homeschool class put on by our local branch library. Then the children had the opportunity to build "gingerbread" houses. The librarian made it a learning experience by giving each of the participants play money and having them buy their building materials. Knowing how my son likes to pile on the candy I was a little concerned he might hot have enough money to buy everything he needed to construct his house, but he actually completed the project with several dollars left.

Wednesday we listened/watched an online sewing class as daughter is eager to begin sewing.

Thursday was a piano lesson for DD. She was shocked to learn that was her last piano lesson for the year. Before piano we also baked some cookies.

Friday we made a trip to our library for books.

In addition to all of these activities we also finished up several lapbook projects. That is material for another post. Also we continued to use a couple products which I am reviewing and began using a couple new ones. We also threw in a little spelling and devotions to round out each day.

At first I didn't feel like we had accomplished a whole lot this week, but looking at the week as a whole I guess we did do quite a lot. I hope we can finish up a couple more holiday related projects this week, but I think we are going to do some more baking and craft things.

Hello

Hello and Welcome to my blog! It is my intention to write here about homeschooling. This may include fun things that we have done, new curriculum, and new discoveries. This list is not exclusive, just thoughts as I begin this new adventure or is that an e-venture! Check back shortly as I begin to write more about the Joy of School.