Beginning of Fall George Washington

We were very busy bees last week in school. We learned about George Washington Had some silly fun making tricorn hats

Learned how and why the seasons change

pressed some leaves and made bookmarks with them

made some pretty trees with falling leaves for our seasonal window in the kitchen

THEN we made our own ink from crushed strawberries

This freaked me out a bit, but Jesse was very very careful not to get any berries on himself

we crushed and crushed and crushed until

FINALLY we had a nice amount of strawberry ink...and since we made ink we also had to make quill pens to go with the ink

Aren't they pretty?

We took our quill pens and strawberry ink and signed the Declaration of Independance

we had plenty of ink left so we drew some pictures with our quill pens

We also began our science with water lesson. This week we learned how water is absorbed. We put marker dots on coffee filters and poured water on them, notice how the colors seperate as the water is absorbed into them.

Here you can see the colors seperating and you can really see how the green is seperating into yellow and blue. SO COOL.

Close up of green seperating into yellow and blue

More water science next week!....

Ben Franklin

Last week was Benjamin Franklin week. We learned that Benjamin Franklin went to the same school as daddy did, Boston Latin. He also was the very first postmaster, daddy works for the post office too. Jadyn and Jesse said that daddy is just like Benjamin Franklin! They were suddenly interested in learning more =)

We made our own versions of Poor Richard's Almanac and the kids had fun repeating the sayings over and over and over and over again.

We also learned about the different types of rock and touched briefly on erosion and volcanoes.

Volcanic rock was very interesting to the kids and we also watched a fun video on volcanoes and how they erupt. Jesse was rooting for the lava to destroy things while Jadyn was yelling at things to get out of the way.

We had a fun week....stay tuned for George Washington and how the seasons change!

It's Fall! Time for Apples

Fall is my favorite season for SO many reasons, cool weather, crunchy leaves, cute sweaters and boots. Although I am not a big fan of apples, or apple pie for that matter, my husband LOVES it. SO yesterday after church I made him a deep dish caramel apple pie. It came out so good I even impressed myself and the mess in the oven was ALMOST worth it. How are you celebrating Fall?

Today I am 40yrs old. I don't feel any different, or over the hill or whatever they call it now. I'm still just me. So happy birthday to me and everyone else who has a birthday today!

Narragansett Bay Science Class

Every day I feel blessed that I am able to homeschool my children. On days like yesterday I especially feel it. We were so fortunate to be able to take a science class, once per month, for the school year at the Narragansett Bay Campus University. Yesterdays class was fabulous and here are some of the highlights..lots of pictures. Campus Sign

This was our classroom today, Narragansett Bay. The Bay is actually a mix of fresh water and salt water.

The students were told all about the bay and how important it is to preserve it's inhabitants. Did you know that 1 out of every 4 breathes we take is created by algae in the oceans?

The students were then given a bottle to layer sediment and water from the bay in and make water columns

They also found some starfish

I'm glad I put rain boots on Jadyn, but the rest of her ended up getting wet

But she had fun and learned SO MUCH, so it was all worth it

The Bay

Jadyn emptying the water out of her waterproof boots, so much for that idea

The children then gathered together on the shore and were taught about water columns and the trophic level in ecology, very interesting

question and answer time

Then we all headed back to the classroom to let our water columns settle and relax a bit

We then proceeded to the science center to learn more, first we saw some amphoras that had been recovered from the ocean floor

Jadyn's feet were wet and she was not amused

The campus view of the bay

More amphoras

Then on to the inner space center where there were live feeds of undersea exhibitions are broadcast on huge screens as well as highlights of past exhibitions

This is a live feed from the nautilus in Turkey where Dr. Ballard is exploring, Dr. Ballard is the man who found the wreck of the Titanic.

This is the studio where the undersea explorers are interviewed for the National Geographic Explorer show, almost everything in this studio was donated by National Geographic, the pictures just do not do it justice. I expecially LOVED the floor.

A bigger live feed of the nautilus in Turkey

This is Meagan who is working with Dr. Ballard and is watching his live feed, What an amazing job!

This was a fascinating class and we cannot wait until next month when the topic will be Underwater Volcanoes

DIVA!

My little diva! I LOVE her so much!

Bread and Butter Lesson

Last week we studied the effects of yeast and why it works and we also studied milk and all the wonderful things you can make with it. Below is a picture of yeast in a bottle, the resulting carbon dioxide is blowing up the balloon, the kids thought this was amazing, notice the bottle of benedryl at the ready, just in case LOL. Then we went on to milk, as you all know milk is poison to Jesse, so when our curriculum suggested we make butter I panicked! I put Jesse's cream in a baby food jar and then made sure it was safe and secure in a plastic baggie so none would get on him and he shook it and shook it until.....

.....BUTTER! The kids were amazed that it actually worked, Jadyn decided she would not have liked to live in colonial times because it was too much work

The resulting buttermilk found a new home in my coffee, it was SOOOO sweet

along the lines of yeast and dough we made some play dough to play with

Jadyn said "this isn't play dough! It's bread!"

Jesse said it was fun to squish even though he had to wear plastic on his hands to play with it

That was our lesson on bread and butter