Category Archives: Science

Exploring Creation with Botany

This year at our tutorial, the third graders are studying science through the discoveries of plants in the world around us. If you ask our three youngest students, they will quickly tell you a botanist is a person who studies living plants, and that they are in fact themselves botanists!

Here are some of the books we’ve read and/or had in our nature table book basket the past few weeks. Some we own and some we found at our local library.

To whet their appetites this past May for an upcoming year of botany studies, I had them each pick one of our plentiful iris flowers from the bed beside our house.

Then, we took them apart piece by piece by piece. Flowers are simply miraculous! They were able to name parts as we studied the intricacy of the plant. There really isn’t a flower much more intricately made and beautiful both inside and out than the bearded iris. I personally love the purple variety, but the white ones we discovered beside our home are magnificent as well! Continue reading →

Homeschooling High School {10th Grade 2014-2015}

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Our oldest, AKA Curly on the blog, will be in 10th grade this year. Where has the time gone?

Time marches on as they say, and he will be in his second year of high school this year. He will continue his education at home. This post is not about why, but he manages his time wisely, studies hard, is respectful of me as his teacher, and puts forth 100% effort in his school work 95% of the time.

This next year is going to be very challenging without a doubt as far as pure academics. He is going to have a heavier load than last year, and he will be working on his Eagle Project before the school year is over.

Below is a list of his classes:

Advanced Chemistry in Creation* (aka Chemistry 2)
~~Prentice Hall Algebra~~ **Per Jonah’s request, we switched to Geometry instead. More about that below.
Logic and Debate: Art of the Argument (1 semester)*
Music, Movies and Mozart (1 semester)*
American Lit and Advanced Communications*
~~Mandarin Chinese~~ ***I loathe Rosetta Stone now, but I’ve invested so much. Trying again this year as Jonah will have a lighter load and we will try it with a newer computer.
AP US History
Physical Fitness: Flyfishing, Pursuing Eagle Scout*Taken at our local Tutorial with a teacher and other students

Continue reading →

Let It Snow!

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It has been cold outside, but no snow here … yet!

Weather predictions are ZERO degrees this weekend. Our pond is frozen already and I told the kids I’d be buying everyone a pair of ice skates if it got cold enough to skate on it. The Prez says I might have opportunity to make good on the promise.

We are enjoying some snowy-themed learning here.

We’re reading these books, which we found at our local library or we own in our library …

Continue reading →

Homeschooling High School {9th Grade 2013-2014}

History: Simply Charlotte Mason History Guide 6 (Modern Times) {1 Social Studies Credit/3}

• This is unusual I realize b/c it covers both World History and American History. He studied early American History last year, and so he will officially finish it in 9th grade. He is actually finishing a few books that were assigned from last year. He is an avid reader, but I do assign a lot of living history books, and he loves to read some of his own choosing as well.

• This guide basically gives you tons of ideas for books to read that will give a student a LIVING history. The books are divided by grade level (with his books coming from both the 7th-9th grade list and 10th-12th grade list). He will not be using the Bible portion as he will have a full load with Community Bible Study and Youth Bible Drill (see below).

• My official plan is that he’ll be able to take the CLEP exam for US history and/or possibly take history classes at our nearby state community college while a junior and/or senior. Both of these options would give him college credit before he ever enters college, assuming he chooses a state university and/or a university that accepts CLEP credit.

• So, we will continue with SCM suggested r and a LONG list of reading material. And I quote him last night when I said, “Now I realize you have already read a lot on your own about World War I and that time period, so we may be able to mark off a couple of these books as already read” (with substitute books he has already read), but he says, “Mom, I think I’ll read them anyway. You know how I like to read about history.” Ahem. Yeah, I’m not worried about his history education.

• The LONG List of Living History Books he has been assigned (and I’m almost certain there will be some late additions of my choosing and his own as well):

{WORLD}

Mao Tse-Tung (Marrin)
Stalin: Russia’s Man of Steel (Marrin)
Hitler (Marrin)
The War to End All Wars: WWI (Freedman)
The Hiding Place (Ten Boom)
Swifter, Higher, Stronger: A Photographic History of the Summer Olympics
Animal Farm (Orwell)
The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia (Hautzig)
World War I: From the Lusitania to Versailles (Kent) **May substitute**

{US}

The Red Badge of Courage (Crane)
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Taylor)
America: The Last Best Hope (VOL. II)
America: The Last Best Hope (VOL. III)
Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Coycott (Freedman)
Victory in the Pacific (Marrin)
The Yanks Are Coming: The US in the First World War (Marrin)
The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane (Freedman)
Lincoln: A Photobiography (Freedman)
Across Five Aprils (Hunt)

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Math: Completing Algebra I {1 Math Credit/4}

• The rush to go higher and higher in math in middle school quite frankly perplexes me. There I said it. I feel like I should add the word disclaimer at the beginning of this bullet point. Seriously, though, wasn’t pre-algebra in 8th grade good enough for my husband, who obtained a Civil Engineering degree (and a math minor in the process) with HONORS, back in 1996? Why the push now? I have done some research and colleges are NOT requiring algebra in 7th grade, yet it seems that is the push. Even one homeschool Mom acquaintance tries to get my feathers all ruffled nearly every time we talk asking, “Is he STILL not done with algebra? You know, I have this or that or … ” NO, he is not and NO THANKS. I’m not worried!

• OK, moving on. 😀

• Resources:

The Great Courses Algebra I DVD and Practice Book

An Algebra I Textbook (with answers to the odd practice problems) *I found it for $5! at the used book sale and DH said it looks just fine: “Algebra is algebra.” It also gets high marks on ama•zon.

IXL for extra problems and drills (yes, they have algebra now as well as geometry)

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Finance {.5 Personal Finance Credit/.5}

• The Prez is very much leading the way on this. It was his idea, and he plans to discuss with Curly as he goes through this course. I am proud that both my son and DH think personal finance responsibility is important.

• Resources:

Dave Ramsey’s Foundations in Personal Finance

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Science {1 Lab Science Credit/3}

• Curly doesn’t love science, BUT he came back from the National Boy Scout Jamboree telling me he had earned 3/4s of the Chemistry merit badge. WHAT?!?

• This class will be handled by someone other than moi, and I (and probably Curly) could NOT be happier. He will take a one-hour class plus a one-hour lab one day a week at our new tutorial. He will complete reading, lab reports, and other assignments at home throughout the week. I’m figuring one hour a day plus the two hours of class and lab for this.

• Resources:

Apologia Exploring Creation with Chemistry

Knowledge Box Central Vocab set (probably)

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Language Arts {1 English Credit/4}

• We are trying some different things for language this year, including a literary analysis class through our tutorial (translation: someone else will critique his writing among other literary pursuits). He will be using IEW Windows to the World along with reading seven literary works:

Fahrenheit 451 by Rad Bradbury

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

{Plus one more still to be determined}

• In addition, he will continue with Word Roots, finishing up A2 and completing Word Roots B1 CD-Rom this year as well.

• He will also use the Critical Thinking Company’s Editor-in-Chief C1 workbook for grammar review.

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Foreign Language {1 Foreign Language Credit/2}

• He has already begun studying Danish and would like to continue. After evaluation, I decided to allow this because of his reasoning. He would really like to land a job at LEGO corporation in the near future, and he feels like a command of Danish would set him apart from other foreign applicants.

• I figure in further regards to Danish as a foreign language that any university would welcome a student with Danish as their foreign language AFTER hearing his reasoning. If that is not drive, I don’t know what is!

~~• Resources: On-line resources at the moment, though I’d love to find a textbook. If anyone reading has any ideas, I’m open!~~

We dropped this early in the first semester. He will be taking Mandarin Chinese now using Rosetta Stone and other resources. Danish is just too hard to find resources for use at home.

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Bible/Personal Growth {1 Elective Credit/3}

• We’ll put this under their “Career and Technical Growth” category. 😀

• He will continue in the Community Bible Study group I’m a part of, but he’ll be in the Senior High homeschool class this year. We will all be studying the Gospel of John this year.

• He will also continue with Youth Bible Drill, which he loves, and we love that he loves it. He still aspires to win the State Meet, but no matter the placement he knows the time and effort spent here has eternal value.

Physical Fitness {.5 Credit/1.5}

• He is now a Life Scout, though he hasn’t been awarded it yet. That will happen once the summer is over as his troop doesn’t give awards during the summer.

• He will continue with scouting. He LOVES IT! He hopes to begin working on his Eagle project maybe this spring or next fall. I have heard 15 is a great age to achieve it before one gets their license, but I don’t see this being an issue for our oldest as he loves his family and is very driven to achieve this goal.

• ~~He will also continue in our 4H Club this year, and hopefully maybe he’ll try for a leadership role? I won’t force it though.~~ We dropped 4H this year as the kids really didn’t want to go, and honestly it was just way too clicky for my taste. I won’t elaborate, but why force it when the kids there are not always so kind and some are downright rude.

Total Credits: 6.5 Credits/22 6 Credits/22

At this rate by the way, he will finish in 3.5 years rather than 4 or possibly in 3 years with additional coursework next year and the following. We are not pushing for an abbreviated high school term, but we are hopeful he can pursue college-level courses at the local community college by his senior year. We are also planning for at least some CLEP tests later in his high school career.

That about sums up the plan for 9th grade, though we *may* add in his Fine Arts requirement later in the year. He will most likely take Photography for this 1 Credit requirement as he loves it anyway, and this would also be useful I believe for the career path he is hoping to take. I hope to share more in a later post about each of our older three boys’ career aspirations. I think it would be worthwhile to have it recorded from time to time.

Nature Study: The Brown Recluse Spider

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**WARNING**

This post contains close-up photos of a spider. A quarter-sized brown recluse spider.

Please click off now if you have a serious fear of spiders.

Chances are, if you live in most parts of Tennessee and quite a few other states, you have encountered one of these spiders. While they are elusive, they have a distinct marking that makes correctly identifying them an almost certainty … if you know what to look for.

Take a look at the following close-up photo and see if you can see the identifying mark.

For those who know, I’m sure you can see it. For those who don’t, do you see something that resembles a violin?

Do you see it? The neck of the violin points toward the back of the spider. This particular spider has a very distinct violin marking. I have to admit he is a beauty as far as brown recluse spiders go. And yes, it is highly likely he is a he, because the females rarely travel away from their mating/nesting area. Survival of the species at its finest.

Do I dare say this amazing specimen was found at our new home?

I mean, how many people share on a public blog that they have some unwelcome guests who reside IN their home. Not many I’d say, but hey, it is what it is. It is also not uncommon in Tennessee, particularly in areas with mature trees nearby.

There are treatments available, but most traditional methods are ineffective because not only do these spiders stay RECLUSIVE but they also walk with their entire bodies OFF the ground/floor/surface so that most pesticides are not absorbed by them.

Ahem.

So, what to do? Well, shake your towel, shake your clothes, check your shoes and give them a good shake as well. While people will say they don’t like moist areas, this big dude above was found by our girls in their tub last week. Now, mind you, we had record-breaking rainfall amounts, but we’ve also found them in our WET creek shoes. So, by our unscientific observation, they do not mind our wet spaces. Seem to even like some of them. Sigh.

For perspective, the cup housing this specimen is a bathroom-sized dixie cup. While the spider wasn’t dead at this point, he was paralyzed and soon died. As for who captured the spider, that would be my seven-year-old daughter who said, “Mom, we had gotten in the tub and he was in there. So I got out and told Li’l Bit to get out, and I got a cup and just got it with the water around it.” Yeah, she knows not to pick them up, but she is a country girl and a spider in her bath water is not going to phase her too much. By the way, she also let the water out and got clean water!

Is anyone feeling things crawling on them yet?

The good news is that you are most likely NOT going to encounter one of these lovelies if you were to come to our home, as they come out at night when all is quiet. And even then, we haven’t seen them crawling around! We have found them on an item of clothing, in the attic, and in the aforementioned creek shoes and bathtub.

If you’d like to learn or read more about the brown recluse spider, lots of specifics can be found at the Etymology Department of the University of Kentucky.

To Try for Baby Chicks or Not?

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We are thinking … well some of us are … that it might be a great study of science to have some baby chicks around here. We have at least a couple of hens who seem to like keeping our eggs warm.

We will have to keep them perhaps in our garden shed for a while. Chickens will … how shall I say it … prey on one another in nature, and they will prey on baby chicks unfortunately.

On the other hand, I have wondered if the real science lessons might come in allowing nature to take its course.

I think we do have an actual baby chick to hatch that I’ll do a weekly post with updates on the chick(s).

In the meantime, I have three little people here who are immensely enjoying having our “ladies” (as Grammy calls them) here at our house.

I go every morning with our three littles and check for eggs, check feed and water and deliver the expected scraps, which usually consists of strawberry caps, bread crusts, apple cores and things like that. We don’t give them any meat or dairy scraps.

In the evening, the older boys usually make sure their little hen door is closed after they are all safely inside. Thankfully, the ladies take themselves inside their house along with Mr. Squawks at dusk or soon after.

We are learning that Mr. Squawks knows exactly how to fertilize eggs (our little ones say “they are married right now!). 😀 We are also learning that hens like to graze and that the old saying of a “pecking order” is literally true.

We are also counting eggs and will keep an average. We are going to graph the daily morning and evening totals over a week-long period and then calculate the average.

All in a day’s work on the farm!

Now, will you help a Momma/Teacher out? What do you think? Should we try to hatch baby chicks? Would you be interested in reading weekly updates and seeing their growth and hearing of their daily pursuits??? Please comment and help a Momma/Teacher convince the adoring Prez that his wife has not completely lost her wits. 😀

Mom! You Need to Blog This!

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The title of this post was inspired by my 10-year-old son, who said after we witnessed what you’ll read below:”Mom, you need to blog this!”

It is great fun and quite interesting to explore at night in the country. We have quite a few nighttime friends including countless toads and tiny little tree frogs which Mo held in his hand.
This last weekend we also witnessed fireflies, better known as lightning bugs around here, in a way we never have before.

They lit up our yard and the hill behind our house in a simply beautiful dance of flashing lights!

The girls and Mo chased them all over the yard and filled a jar I found with these amazing insects, which are actually beetles.
Then Mo found the toad and the conversation turned toward the natural order of things. Some of you are probably guessing where I’m going with this.

Yes, much to Li’l Miss’s protests, Mo with my blessings put the toad into the jar with the fireflies.

And an experiment was born.

It didn’t take long for nature to take its course. Yes the toad ate a firefly and even Li’l Miss was excited to observe what happened next.

The firefly continued to light up INSIDE the toad except it was glowing red instead of green.

And the moral of this post is that fireflies will get eaten by toads and from our observation they continue to glow.

Poor little firefly. Wish I had a photo but it just wouldn’t take in the dark. You will have to trust me or maybe try it for yourself! 😀

I Just Needed This Button

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I was at Staples last weekend. I found this button. If only I had found it sooner LOL!

I am happy to report it doesn’t always work, but it always redirects and often gets a laugh and sometimes it works. 🙂

I might have also hidden it from the Prez who wanted to take it to his office for use with his employees. And yes, I told him he needed to get his own EASY button.

Yes, friends, you probably need an EASY button too. Or maybe unlike our home things run smoothly and as planned most of the time in your home. I highly recommend it, kind of like those stress balls you squeeze but takes much less effort.

Like with teaching phonics, I am opting for ease. LOL! Really, it isn’t so bad, but I am reading a new book on my kindle: Understanding the Logic of English by Denise Eide. I am enjoying it, but I wouldn’t call it pleasure reading either. It has come highly recommended by a couple of homeschooling Mommas, and it promises to give me answers to the endless questions about the [lack of] logic in the English language.

But back to phonics and the easy button, I really will say I am glad I haven’t sunk a bunch of cash into an expensive program. The best tool I have found is my FREE phonics caps that are stored in repurposed parmesan cheese shakers.

Each of the colored caps represents a certain part of a word: vowels, blends, consonants, dipthongs, word endings such as -ing, -ed, -es. I even have some yellow ones with question marks, which I use to quiz them on the missing letter or sound. I use these ALL THE TIME. And they were FREE. 🙂

Back to the easy button, I (and the children) are loving my more-detailed assignment sheets. Now mind you, they took a L.O.T. of time this summer to make (and I am only through week 12 of 36 weeks), but then Mo does this without me reminding or prodding (mostly) … and the time is all worth it when he comes up to show me something like this drawing he put in his nature journal.

And one day while I was staring at my new button and admiring all of its beauty (not really), I looked outside to see this.

Do you see the plane way up there?

They flew this plane—all 6 of them—for an hour! Now this is when it is all worth it! Where’s the LOVE button?!

Today, I decided a little art/science project was in order with the jar of broken crayons I’d been saving for awhile.

*This photo looks like she was in the oven. She was NOT close, but it sure does look like it.*

And here is the final product.

I am in a summer Bible study, and we meet every Monday (days every other week with our children (14! yesterday) and alternating nights sans children. Since we spent 3 hours there, we had a shortened school day yesterday. Today, I worked with the littles on their 100 Chart and sequencing numbers. I was extremely pleased at their naming of random numbers between 1 and 100.

Li’l Bro had a harder time with the sequencing, but he is a WHIZ with our Al Abacus. And he is subtracting now with it. I don’t have pictures of him using it, but I did snap a few today while we worked on sequencing.

Here is another one for Li’l Miss to try.

She did it!

Mo and Larry had another assignment for the day. I am quite impressed as they ran with this on their own and came up with the idea to use clay instead of balloons as suggested in their book

I like the clay much better as the balloons just didn’t work for me (partly blown up and not round and a choking hazard). We plan to insert paper clips and hang them up … I’ll let y’all know how well that works.

And little brother was quite impressed too!

I have to wrap this one up because I’m out of photos (seems my iPhone is my only source these days since we started back to school), and I have some people waiting anxiously for me to observe the night sky with them. Mo has gotten out the telescope and sighted the moon and maybe a constellation or two using this book, which I highly recommend.

Our New “Babies” Are Here!

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I’ll let the pictures mostly speak.

Our baby chicks (and one baby rooster … see him in the pic below with the white spot on his head)

… are here. And I am in a little bit of shock. What was I thinking???

I will say I got some Momma points when I fashioned a brooder from the two large boxes the Prez had brought home.

The expert at our local 4H office, where we picked up our “babies” today, told me our box was too deep and we needed a brooder about 4 times that size … so when we came home I started cutting the top half off of each of the two boxes and taping and cutting sides … and before long we had a brooder 4 times larger and half as deep. 🙂

Mo was doubtful but quite impressed once I finished. Curly gladly loaned me his very sharp pocket knife and helped with the cutting too.

The pics include only Li’l Miss because I was too in shock at first to worry with the camera, and by the time I headed back to the shop with it Li’l Miss was the only one still interested except Mo.

But he was back at Grammy and Papa’s house working on “The Chicken Mansion.”

To Be Continued … hopefully …