Volcano!

I found an easy way to make a volcano on Pinterest a few weeks ago, and the little girls and I gave it a shot.

You take a cup, some red sprinkles for the lava mixed with 1/4 cup baking soda,

 Add 1/4 cup of vinegar, and it ERUPTS!!

Sophie is really hoping Delaney knows what she is doing.

We just made a little one and followed the directions carefully, since I wasn't sure if it would work, or what would happen. It worked perfectly!

Delaney thought the ERUPTION!! was fantastic. Soph was outta there!

Delaney is going to build a mud volcano next, and we are going to make it ERUPT!!! (You have to YELL "erupt". It's just not as much fun unless you do.)


We are going to visit Sunset Crater again sometime soon, and I would like Delaney and Hailey to be able to visualize and understand what happened there. We are going to learn a little more about how volcanoes actually work, then try this experiment, which will be an amazing 3-D way to see how a volcano erupts (ERUPTS!).

(The blog that this idea came from, http://preschoolalphabet.blogspot.com, is a really fun blog, and has some other great ideas too. You should check it out!)

Growing a Garden, Homeschool Style

Homeschooling means taking a perfect morning to go to Home Depot, pick out very own flowers for the garden, then learn how to dig holes and mix soil, plant and water.

It means watching the way the sun shines in your yard, and the way the wall casts a shadow over the garden, and why.

Observing how many hours the sun shines on the garden, and figuring out if that is long enough for your pretty flowers to grow, learning about how flowers grow, and watching it in action.. (So far, so good. :) )

These two plants have new blooms already!

Homeschooling means doing out subtraction lesson on the sandbox table under the shade from the trees, while Sophie practices climbing up the ladder to the slide and sliding down all by herself, or plays in the swing.

Math is always more fun with a little bit of sunshine and the wind in your hair.

It means writing poetry and drawing pictures at lunch time, or watching YouTube to see what surfing really looks like.

Delaney said, Look Mom, I wrote a poem!

 

Under the ocean

Is a fish.

 

It means learning about things we are interested in in as much or little detail as we like...for as long as we like. (Hello, Month 3 of the Sky and the Universe...) Doing a whole chapter of math in one morning if we are particularly inclined, or just reading about Laura and Mary for hours, because it's a really good part.

It means to work on skills until they are mastered, in an order that makes sense, and not have to skip around and quickly learn things that will most likely be on a standardized test, but don't make a whole lot of sense to learn right now...Yes, AIMS, I'm talking to you and your arbitrary skill set. Hailey did the test all last week, and I tried not to get annoyed every time I read the "Make sure your child gets plenty of sleep and has a good, healthy breakfast." emails. Shouldn't she be doing that EVERY DAY, not just during precious testing time? (No offense, teacher friends. I know it's not your fault.)

It means a bathroom break or water break or snack break whenever you need one, without an evil eye looking at you for daring to be thirsty or need to go to the bathroom.

It means becoming friends with the nice people that work at the library, or the grocery store, or the many places we go...learning to talk politely with people of all ages.

I'm so thankful to be able to raise my kids like this.

Dugout!

Delaney and I are continuing to read the Laura Ingalls Wilder Series, and are now about halfway through "On the Banks of Plum Creek". Delaney is really intrigued by the idea of living in a dugout as the Ingalls family does for the first third of the book. We decided to recreate it with cushions and blankets, fort-style. 

 Delaney called me "Ma" all morning, and Sophie was "Carrie". 

 Delaney was "Mary" all morning, but if you ask me, she is a little more like Laura.

 

If you haven't read the books, Mary was always perfectly good. Laura was a little on the, shall we say, spirited side.

 I always loved Laura when I was little.

We did math in our dugout, and of course read some more about our favorite little pioneer family.

Spring School!

We had our first day of Outside School today! It was so sunshine-y and beautiful, we couldn't stand to stay inside.

We lasted about 10 minutes in the 52 degrees and our clothes meant for 72 degrees...haha.

It was still fun though. :)

Delaney read a book, and we looked at our tulips that are beginning to bloom.

Inside, she pretended to be the teacher, and wrote directions and responses.

"Did you make a square? Yes I did. Ok. Will you have a dance?"

She finished her Easter basket she made from paper plates, with plastic spoon bunnies inside. We found this super cute project at www.LittleGiraffes.com.

 

 She added the "It's beautiful" sign on the bottom herself. I love it!

Solar System, Part 2

Delaney finished up her solar system the other day. I decided she should make a flat model, rather than 3D, so she could do the majority of the work on it.

First, she cut out all of the planets that she had previously colored.

 

Then, she wrote labels for all of the planets. We always feel sad when we have to leave out poor Pluto.

 

I made our night sky, and she attached the sun in the very middle.

I found this image of the solar system at www.abcteach.com.

Delaney looked at it and put the planets in the correct place,and added her labels.

 

 I wanted to draw the circles for the planets' orbits, but I didn't want my bad circle drawing to mess up her totally awesome sky. :)

We talked about the stars and constellations while she was assembling. After she was finished, we made some constellations with goldfish, and ate some delicious meteorites (M&M's).

Even Sophs got to make a constellation.

I can't wait to see what we get to learn about this week!

Greater Than, Less Than

We love to play games at our house, and we had a family War tournament a few weeks ago. Delaney really enjoyed it, so Cullen played with her a few more times over the weekend and taught her to say "A is greater than B" for whatever the cards were during each turn.

I took it a little further while we played for our math time this week, and made an "alligator" mouth. I explained that the alligator is only hungry for the biggest number, and also that in official math terms, the alligator is a greater or less than symbol.

Then we played, and she beat my socks off. Again. :)

Getting to make the alligator eat all of the numbers while she told me which number was greater than the other was an added bonus.

 

Delaney has also been working on recognizing all of the numbers through 100. Did you know that information gets to your long term memory better if you learn it while wearing pajamas? If that were true, we would all have fantastic long term memory around here...haha.

Sophie has been enjoying making towers with her pegs lately.

Her favorite part might be knocking them all down when she is finished. I love her face in this picture - so proud of herself!

Thank Goodness for the Internet.

We have been focusing on science quite a bit lately. Delaney is very interested in space, and the planets (who isn't, right? Such fun!). She had requested a telescope for Christmas, which sadly, Santa did not bring this year, but mentioned that maybe her birthday will be a better season for skywatching. In the meantime, we have been learning about all of the planets and their order, as well as lots of random facts about them. Yesterday, we found some great coloring sheets here on Coloringcastle.com, and Delaney worked on coloring all the planets as they are seen in the night sky.

Next, she will cut them out and we will assemble a hanging mobile like this one on Enchantedlearning.com, and dazzle her father and sisters with all of her outer space facts.

Delaney watched a "Go, Diego, Go" the other day that talked a little bit about oil spills. Delaney has been asking me questions ever since..."What happens when oil goes into the ocean? How do they clean it up? What happens to the animals?" This morning, at 6:30am, no less, the poor sea creatures were on her mind again. We did some research together, and learned quite a bit about oil spills and the effect they have on the environment, and how the oil is cleaned up. We saw some pictures of some very sad little animals and plants, and learned about how the oil affects them. We found a story about using hair mats to absorb oil - it was SO interesting!

One of my favorite things about homeschooling and planning education around my daughter's interests is the amount of new things that I learn! Her curiosity requires knowledge that is beyond the scope of my expertise much of the time, and I get to show her how fun it is to research and discover the answers to her questions, and then share our new-found details with our family. We often do themed trivia questions during dinner, and it is awesome when Delaney can pick the theme and stump the rest of us with her questions.

Just a few moments ago, Delaney was holding a rose from the bouquet she talked me into buying at the store ($5 Friday roses! They are SO BEAUTIFUL, Mom!), examining it carefully. She asked me, "What is inside the stem?" When I told her that the stem takes the nutrients to the flower, she answered, "Yes, Mom, I know that. But what is INSIDE of the stem?"

So now, I am off to research what is actually inside of a plant stem, so I can have a decent answer for her when she wakes up from her nap. :)