County Park Field Trip

We had a field trip on Friday.  It was the perfect thing because I was so tired (from being up with a booger baby in the night) that I couldn't have functioned well at home.  We visited a county park nearby that had wildlife that you could see.

 

There were some birds.  These ones are turkeys.

This was a golden pheasant.  It's colors were so pretty. 

I didn't take pictures of the other birds.

Next we saw the bison. 

These bison were happy to eat the carrots an lettuce we brought for them.

 Somewhere out there are elk.  I hear that they usually like to eat what people bring them, but they wouldn't even look our way.

After seeing the animals, we had a picnic, played on a playground, and threw rocks in the water.  It felt good to get outside that day.

Jello Experiment

We had another fun experiment a few days ago.  The kids had read that there is an enzyme in pineapple that will break apart the gelatin in jello, but that apples wouldn't have the same effect.  So we decided to test it out with several types of fruit.  We knew what would happen with the pineapple and apple already, so they made guesses about the others.  They guessed that everything would set up except the pineapple and oranges.

They guessed wrong!  Everything set up except the pineapple and we had a fun treat with dinner.  :)

Patience Is Not A Homeschool Virtue

I have had dozens of people say this to me:

"I don't know how you do it.  I'm just not patient enough."
"I thought about homeschooling, but I don't have the patience."
"I could never homeschool because I'm so impatient."

I can sympathize.  It takes a LOT of patience to be a parent.  My kids drive me bonkers sometimes.  They whine and fight and have selective hearing when it comes to instructions.  They are incredibly noisy and need things from me all the time.  My brain gets so overloaded at times that I don't know which way is up.  If I had no experience with homeschool, I would probably say the same thing.  Our non-school days are often nuts!  However, homeschooling isn't like that, or at least doesn't need to be. 

So, today I'd like to share a little secret.  Patience is NOT a homeschool virtue.  What I mean is that it doesn't require any more patience to homeschool than it does to have your child go to public school.  It might even require less.  Being an extra patient person is not what enables me to homeschool.  Anybody who knows me well (Mom?? Dad?? Jim??) would tell you that I am WAY below average on the patience scale.  It's easily my biggest fault and gets me into all sorts of trouble.  I'm constantly working on it.  (That's why I had kids, right?) 

I'm pretty sure my impatient nature would give me more problems if my kids were going to public school.  I would have to fight them to get ready on time every morning and force them to do their homework (that they probably aren't interested in) at the end of the day when they are already tired.  I can just see the battle that would be.  In the end I'd spend just as much time and energy helping my kids with school concerns without any of the enjoyment we have now.  That sounds so frustrating!  We don't clash during school time.  We have fun and we learn together at their pace.  We have a simple routine that keeps things calm.  It's pretty easy to be patient when my kids are happily cuddled up next to me while we work math problems or read together.  I don't want to lock anyone in their rooms when they are excited to write letters or make a science project.  They want to do our school activities and so they cooperate.  It's my easiest time of day.

It doesn't require an extra dose of patience to homeschool (thankfully!).  The things it does require are bravery, a firm commitment, and extra brainwork (to figure out HOW to make it work).  Most parents could do it if they so desired.

Naked Egg

During the last week and a half we've been experimenting with a 'naked egg'.  It's been interesting to hear the kids guess what will happen next and then to see the results.  Annie and Logan are going to dictate the rest of the post.  Their words will be in italics.

 

 

First we soaked it in vinegar.  It was in the fridge for two or three days and the vinegar ate up the shell.  The egg felt squishy.  It also felt rubbery.

Next, we colored some water green and put the egg in it.

I (Logan) guessed it would swell up.

It was in the fridge for one day.  It got bigger.  The water got inside of it.

Then we put it in syrup. 

It wasn't totally covered so we put it in a cup with syrup in it.  I (Logan) guessed it would shrink because the syrup was more dense than the water.  We left it in the syrup in the fridge for one day.

Then it shrunk.  It looked like a raisin except bigger and yellow inside.

Next, we put it in water.  We guessed it would grow.

It was in the fridge for one day.  It got bigger.

Then we added salt to the water.  We mixed the salt and the egg floated.

We put it in the fridge for a few days.  We guessed it would get bigger, but it didn't.

Today we boiled it in a pot.  We wondered if it would look like a hard boiled egg inside.

We ate some candy and it was boiling.

It was only boiling for a couple of minutes before my mom took this picture.  It looked like a ball that was yellow and sort of white inside.

We found this on top of the water in the pot.  We ate it.  It tasted like an egg that was really salty.

It had boiled about fifteen minutes and it felt squishy and rubbery, but the yolk had cooked and felt hard.

We cut it up and we discovered that water had gotten into the egg white and it was still pretty squishy.  It tasted really salty.

I was pretty impressed with how well most of their guesses turned out, especially Logan's guess about the density in the syrup.  This was a fun activity.

Early To Bed and Early To Rise

"Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy and wealthy and wise."

For years I've been promising myself I would improve on this.  I've had a lot of excuses though, mostly centering around being pregnant or having a nursing baby.  So last week when I started a wellness challenge (see our family blog) I was terrified to get up early to exercise.  To be clear, getting up early is NOT part of the challenge.  As a team we decided that would be a good time to exercise together if we so chose, and I decided to try it out.  Initially I said that I would only do it a couple of times a week.  I like to sleep!  I have a baby who wakes up in the middle of the night to nurse!  So I was surprised that by Wednesday I WANTED to do it every day.  I am amazed at how wonderful it feels.  Sure it's difficult to pull myself out of bed, but it's even more difficult to squeeze a workout into my day.  That's not the best part, though.  It makes me a better woman all around.  I start my day energized and alert.  I have time for personal scripture study before my kids are all awake.  I'm in a good mood for companionship study with Jim before he heads to work.  I'm much more patient with my kids when they get up and I don't feel like I'm dragging to get our day started.  I actually feel HAPPY and MOTIVATED in the morning.  I was looking forward to a better exercise regimen and healthier eating habits when I signed up for this wellness challenge, but this optional extra is turning out to be the best part! 

Projects and A Double Field Trip Day

We have been having so much fun with science activities these past weeks.  We've been including a small hands on project/ experiment every day and it's been really neat.  They've all been really simple, so they only take a few minutes each day, or else we've extended them over multiple days.  The kids really look forward to this time!

 

We did a density activity one day.  In this cup are syrup, green water, and oil. 

After the syrup, water, oil demonstration, we created some new liquids and made guesses about their densities.  The pink is sugar water, the yellow is apple juice, and the blue is water.

We tested their densities by putting strawberries and orange slices inside.  The strawberries floated in all three, but you can see that the orange slices did not! 

Then we attempted to layer the liquids starting with the heaviest.  Unfortunately it didn't work; they mixed as we poured.  The kids have been talking about density ever since, so I'd say the experiment was a success!

We've had a 'naked egg' experiment going on for the last week and a half, but I'm waiting to post about it until it's finished.  So stay tuned!

Another day we had a double field trip.  Annie is an incredibly heavy sleeper.  Despite the noise everyone else was making, I had to wake her up so we could go on our field trips.

The first field trip that day was to some botanical gardens.  We had a scavenger hunt through the gardens.

Abby had a nap in the stroller while we were there.  She's such an easy going baby.

Annie and Logan used a map to help them on their search through the gardens.

Alex wouldn't let me take a picture of him, so I snuck one.

They had a really neat kids' area at the gardens, so we stayed to let the kids play for a while after walking around.  There is also an arboretum there, so we're excited to go back and see more.

Our second field trip that day was to a tractor show at Jim's office.  He met us outside for his lunch break.  We did the same thing for a car show back in July, and have come to a conclusion.  John Deere chooses the HOTTEST days for their car and tractor shows.  We melted again, but it was neat to see the tractors and visit Jim at work.

Alex LOVED the little tractor toys.  He kept telling us that he wanted to ride the 'wittle tractors, NOT the big ones'. 

Alex really liked all of the tractors.  He got so excited when he saw this one because, "That one has training wheels!"  Then he wouldn't let me take his picture with it.

 

See the training wheels?  :)

 

Something else we've done is learned how to use an abacus.  It's pretty interesting the ways you can use it to help in math.  I took this picture because I found it amusing that we chose that for our Friday night family activity the day we got it.  Aren't we exciting on a Friday night? 

We've also been making a lot of cards lately.  I showed the kids how to make pop up cards one day, and they've been wanting to do it frequently since.  So they work on them during our read out loud time.  I took a picture of their first round of cards.

Last, we've been using the library to our full advantage.  Our first big round of library books lasted us quite a while, so we didn't need to go again until last week.  Then we stayed for three hours and brought home way more books than I'd planned on.  Come to think of it, that ALWAYS happens; maybe I just need to plan on more.  Abby was a champ.  She napped a little when we arrived, and then cheerfully sat on my lap for a long time.  When she got tired she ate and went right to sleep without a single whimper.  She is an amazing baby.

Highlight Reel

This week's highlights include:

 

Reading and nap time.

We made a weather vane.

Another homeschool perk: When Daddy can come home for lunch, EVERYONE gets to see him.  Yeah!

Back to work he goes.  We love this man!

We pulled out the microscope.

More reading.

Week two was another good one.  Hooray!