Pinterest Boards for Homeschool and Education

Today, I am sharing a few of my Pinterest boards that are related to homeschool, or education.  Check them out if you want.  There is tons of info there.  It is easier to do it this way, then for me to sift through, pick and choose, and then you sift through my blog to find them all.  I love Pinterest!  It is a giant filing cabinet.

https://www.pinterest.com/iaminterested/eclectic-homeschooler/
https://www.pinterest.com/iaminterested/books-worth-reading/
https://www.pinterest.com/iaminterested/upcycling/
https://www.pinterest.com/iaminterested/artsy-fartsy/
https://www.pinterest.com/iaminterested/earths-kids-club/
https://www.pinterest.com/iaminterested/fun-things-to-do/
https://www.pinterest.com/iaminterested/volunteer/
https://www.pinterest.com/iaminterested/higher-education/

Grid Art, Snake Skin Under Microscope, and Our Week In Review

The drawing assignment for this week was a grid drawing. I just couldn't get into it. Those lines drive me crazy. Caitlin did hers, you can see it below. DJ has one printed and ready, just has to draw it out. Next week should be perspective, which is always hard. If you have been following this blog, you know that on Sept 1st I posted the Earth Kids project for this month. Tonight is the results night. If you go back in the blog to the first, you will see we were all gung ho. Put all kinds of stuff in our glass containers with colored marbles. It was so pretty. I actually wanted to see if root vegetables, like onions and carrots, would grow in the water with no dirt. I use them as compost and they do grow in the dirt without even being planted. But no, after a few days all they did was rot and stink up the water bad. So we added clean water, that did not help. It was quite gross. So, last Friday, we emptied out the jars, cleaned them, added fresh water and plants that we pulled out by the roots. One of them, in the tall skinny jar, is actually a potato. If you look real close you can see a small potato starting to grow in the roots. They have stayed beautiful for the week, and just needed some new water due to evaporation. I am going to leave these and see what they end up doing. There are some flowers in there too, both wild flowers, and a rose piece we pulled out. As you can see by looking at the jar, this experiment also shows condensation, and it also covered photosynthesis.  You can't see the tiny bubbles but they are there.

Today, we finally got to dig out our new microscope and use it. Again, if you follow along, the kids had found a snake skin at the springs, and brought it home. Today we put it under the microscope. The assignment was to look at it and draw what you see. There are two different shots, they look a little different due to the magnification of each. The third magnification no one could actually see anything or get it to focus.

A Separate Peace, Romeo and Juliet, Martin Luther King Jr, and the Winter Olympics

Our school week was shortened, due to one of the kids feeling ill yesterday.  Today, DJ and I will be watching, A Separate Peace, then Math and Spelling.  Caitlin will finish her next friendly letter, Math, Science, Reading and Spelling.  Our Earth Kids meeting was postponed, for today, due to a scheduling conflict. 

Next week, we are switching things up a bit.  Monday we are taking a field trip, our final visit to Bush Gardens.  Then we start a Martin Luther King Jr, unit study, and our new Geography game, which we only got in once this week.  Learning via games is especially fun, and a nice way to learn.  If you missed the states Geography game post, you can find it in my archives.  I will have the virtual states up soon.  I am about halfway through with that.  We won't start that, until the kids have mastered the Geography part of the game.  DJ, and I, will also begin reading Romeo and Juliet next week.  We will read, and also listen to the book.  I chose this method, because sometimes Shakespeare is hard to understand.  I read Romeo and Juliet in high school, but that was a real long time ago.  Over the weekend I will share all the links to all these, and some Winter Olympics lessons too.  Feb will be a different month for us.  We will get in as much as we can, plus do Olympics studies as well. 

The end of this second grading period is Jan 31st which is also the date of the Medieval Fair.  Boy, that is a busy weekend, but more on that later.

Digging For Fossils at Alfred A Ring Park

On Friday our Earth Kids group went digging for fossils at Alfred A Ring Park in Gainesville. The kids of course love all the field trips we get to do, but this one was especially neat. Florida used to not be a land mass, it was under the ocean. Then millions of years ago, when whatever happened, happened, Florida rose out of the ocean to become a peninsula. All the sea creatures that had died and been buried at sea, now can be found by digging for them in several fossil digging areas in Florida. There are very strict rules for digging for fossils. The most important being if it is state owned water, you can not keep vertebrates other than shark teeth, and you can not keep human artifacts such as pottery or flints. Hogtown Creek is not state owned water, so we didn't have to worry about that. We did not find an plant fossils, at least I didn't. The kids were mostly seeking shark teeth so they might have put them back. I found lots of shells, and one big shark tooth. I found a ton of manta ray teeth or jaw bone, since they don't really have teeth. I had one jaw bone that fell apart before I got it home or got a picture of it. I found some really neat rocks as well. The two that I liked the most, was a white one with blue specks, kind of looks like Medusa Quartz if anyone is familiar with that, and the other was mostly blue with tiny white specks on it. Alfred A Park is a lovely little park, with picnic area, small playground, clean bathroom facilities and hiking trails. I believe we will be going back just to hike in the near future. I have other pics, but on the other computer. This was a most enjoyable field trip, and the weather was perfect. We have collected shells from other trips as well.  When we get enough and the time we will be doing various crafts with them, including wind chimes and jewelry.

Angler Fish Upcycled Bird Feeder and Sandwiches

So, we made the bird feeders using recycled milk jugs. We were supposed to do four but one jug got forgotten at home. If you don't know what an Angler Fish looks like, they are a hideous scary fish that live in the deepest darkest depths of the ocean. They have a lure on the top of their head that glows to attract prey. So we took milk jugs, cleaned and dried them of course, and cut a really big mouth opening. Angler Fish have large appearing mouths with long sharp teeth. Since we wanted birds, or squirrels to come and eat from the feeder we opted to leave off the long spiky teeth. We did cut the top of the mouth with scissors in strips and colored them in black to appear to be sharp teeth. They spray painted the jugs with yellow or green spray paint. Then after they dried, they added googly eyes, the lure which is just a pipe cleaner and a puff ball glued to the end of it. The lure is held in place by cutting a small slit in the back of the jug sticking in the pipe cleaner and then bending it over to hold it in place. DJ added a goatee to his, but since he was in the shade you can't really see his very well. I forgot the worksheets I had printed out, but thankfully DJ is well aware of the Angler Fish and was able to lead the class without them. Due to the holiday in November, our next meeting is in two weeks, and we will be going on a fossil hunt. There are very specific rules for this, and I will share them in a future post.  Oh I almost forgot the sandwiches.  I used a biscuit cutter to make them round, added the chicken salad, then made the lure with a pepper and olive.  An olive makes the eye.  I tried to use shredded cheese to make teeth but it was the fine shredded rather than the thicker shredded cheese so it wouldn't work.

The Beautiful Angler Fish!

Wow you would have to really have to believe beauty is in the eye of the beholder, for this scary fish.  Tomorrow is our Earth Kids meeting, and Faith chose the Angler Fish.  Below are links to the reading and worksheets we will be doing.  Because I could not find ocean theme math for the older kids, I used TLSbooks.  There is also a Geography page where they will be identifying what level of the ocean the Angler Fish would live in.  Do you know?  We also are doing an Angler Fish bird feeder using upcycled materials.  I will share those, and how we did it, after they have been completed. Oh, and I almost forgot, for lunch, I am making Angler Fish theme sandwiches.  I can not wait to see how these come out.  For such a hideous fish, they truly are fascinatingly unique.  It has been a good, and productive week, here at Melissa's Homeschool.  I am off this weekend, so we will be having some family fun.  Hopefully there will be pictures to share.

http://animalstime.com/angler-fish-facts-for-kids-angler-fish-diet-habitat/
http://www.oceanlife4kids.webs.com/anglerfish.htm
http://www.education.com/worksheet/article/angler-fish/
http://www.kid-friendly-homeschool-curriculum.com/ocean-worksheets.html#OceanZones

I am somewhat disappointed because I found some awesome sheets on Teacherspayteachers, that I could not print because I used pdf files not Microsoft Office.  Since I have no intentions of getting Microsoft Office, I am really glad I did not pay for something I could not use. 

Robinson Crusoe Audio Book

If you have children that like to listen to audio books, then today's freebie is perfect.  It is a Robinson Crusoe mp3 audio book.  My kids hate listening to books, so this is not one we will use.  I hope many others will find it very useful though.  Just click the link to visit the website, to obtain your freebie. 

Today is our Earth Kids meeting, and we continue studying Oceans and the creatures that live there.  I will post all the links, and pictures of the projects we do, after the meeting is completed.  I told the kids today, I am switching the meetings to only once a month, rather than twice.  They are not super happy about that, but there are several good reasons to do it.  As with all classes, done during school hours, there is a reading, math and geography lesson, centered around the Leafy Sea Dragon, oh and art too.  I am making a pizza in the shape of a Leafy Sea Dragon.  You will have to come back to see how it comes out.  I have never done one like this before.  I figure we are going to eat it anyways, so if I mess it up no big deal.  I found a cake also, but that looked way complicated.

I love all the Scholastic products, and am considering trying the book below with my daughter next year, for fifth grade. I do have the Saxon book I can use, that my son used, but will have to see.

Lesson Snips, a website I have used a lot in my years of homeschooling, is both a paid and free website. You sign up, and then pick if you want free, or paid. I recommend the free. I had the paid, but was not happy with it for many reasons. You get a lot of stuff for free. Check it out, and they have all subjects, and all grades.

Ocean Theme Cake

Today was the first day of our second year of Earth Kids. We are learning about Oceans this year, and to celebrate I made the ocean cake shown below. Because it is still quite hot here, in the middle of the day, I froze the cake, then frosted it right before we left. We walked first, then the cake was just nice and thawed, ready to eat. The blue frosting and fish sprinkles were bought together in the baking aisle at Walmart. Tomorrow back to regular lessons.

Wilderness Survival School

We have two weeks of Summer Vacation left. Public school begins school tomorrow, but we don't start back until the day after Labor Day. Since I am constantly searching for new and interesting websites, that will help us achieve our goals, I found Wilderness Survival School. I was not technically looking for that subject, but was searching for Earth Kids stuff. This Wilderness Survival School website is awesome! You can sign up for a free ecourse, which of course I did. The kids will be doing the first ecourse together, as a part of their Science school work. If your kids love nature, or you just want to get them involved in nature more, then check out Wilderness Survival School.

Earth Kids for 2013/2014

Today was the official end of our first year of Earth Kids. We made our butterfly feeders, made butterfly cookies and then voted and decided on next year. The kids decided they want to study oceans and ocean animals. I already have a project book on Marine Biology from 4H, so that works out awesome. Plus, I found this website, with tons of great ocean themed items.  She has put a lot of time into her ocean themed unit study.  It incorporates Math and Geography, not just the Science of oceans.  Love it.  We switched up our meeting times.  The 5 PM time slot just was not working well, and definitely will be very hard on me in the very near future.  So we decided we would meet at 11 AM on one Tuesday, and then a Friday, so twice a month.  The kids want to do some hiking, nature walks, visit a pond, visit a zoo and aquarium, visit the springs some more, crafts, painting and photography.  So, I think they decided on some pretty fun activities.  We are taking August off, and will start back up in September.  I can't wait!

Summer Schedule, Terrariums and Outdoor Art Class

Yesterday, was our last 4H meeting of the year. DJ is technically in two now, because he joined the Archery group as well. Now we will have a banquet dinner in August. It was a good year, we covered First Aid as a group, and all the kids gave a short demo on something they learned. I was so proud of them all for doing this. It is not easy to get up in front of people and speak. DJ finished all the Photography books as well as FLVS Creative Photography, plus book two of Entomology for 4H. He has had a very busy and productive year. I am so proud of him. Caitlin finished her butterfly book for 4H. She too has been productive and equally proud of her. For the Summer moths, Earth Kids we will be taking off appx six weeks to get past portfolios, evaluations, family visiting and VBS. So, we will begin meetings again around the third week of July. Today's meeting was canceled due to bad weather in the area. DJ will continue Math and through the summer, until both segments have been completed. He is doing so much better and it is starting to click. Caitlin will also continue her Saxon Math through the Summer months. I am also adding an Art program to do over the Summer. This will be one or two days a week. As you can see from the pictures below, the terrariums they made at the last Earth Kids meeting, are beginning to grow. It is fun and exciting to watch something grow that you planted from a seed, and we have grapes already on the grape plant we planted about two months ago. Yesterday, I also moved a spare table out to the front porch so I could paint out there. Today, we held our first painting class outside. It was nice and cool in the morning hours and so relaxing and peaceful. I highly recommend it. Well that is it for now. It is thundering and I better get off before I lose all my work.

Upcycled Terrariums and First Day of Age 9

Today is Caitlin's 9th birthday. That means we have been in Florida for exactly eight years. Can't believe it. Each year we take a picture of the kids on the first day of that year, or their birthday, and the last day of the previous year. This is just something fun we do. Caitlin chose to stand in front of my very huge yellow rose bush for her picture. I need to tie it back again, because it has gotten so big. It currently has no flowers, but it will. On Tuesday, we had our Earth Kids meeting. This time we made upcycled terrariums. The first picture is a butterfly terrarium I bought for Caitlin as a school project. It cost 20 dollars, and as you can see it is growing nicely. It waters itself, and the holes in the top should attract butterflies once the flowers bloom. The ones we did at Earth kids were made with recycled jars, that were upcycled into a terrarium. The total cost for all the supplies was 10 dollars, and there were seven kids. You can see which one is more affordable. Anyway the Tide pod container was the perfect container for this project. However, the Tide sticker was almost impossible to remove, and it scratched the container in the process. I upcycle jars all the time, and have removed upteen labels and the glue, with not much difficulty. If you decide to use this type of container, it will be very time consuming. DJ put a car in his, so the flowers will grow around the car, and some colorful rocks. Caitlin put a few stickers on hers and a kitty and puppy figurine inside, with some glass stones. I will take pictures as the plants begin to grow and bloom. As long as you leave the top on these are self watering systems. Their own little ecosystem if you will. I found a page you can print and use in your class to help teach the kiddos why making a terrarium is educational. Have fun, we did! Next meeting we are doing hummingbird and butterfly feeders that hang in the tree. We have tried other ones with little success, but this one I think will be awesome, and it is upcycled as well. So stay tuned for that.

Earth Kids at Manatee Springs

The springs are finally clear, though there is still water where it shouldn't be, we could see into the water nicely this time. This was our last trip to the springs, at least for now. The gnats were out, though not too bad, and one child was found with a tick on her. Our next Earth Kids meeting we will be making terrariums, and I want to tube down the Rainbow River one of these meetings. So many fun things to do. We got to see a manatee again, which was nice, because the last time we saw one our whole group was not there so some didn't see it. Manatees can be seen in various zoos here, but it is so nice to see them in their natural habitat. This one was young, and no one was for certain why it was even in the springs this late in the year. Usually they only come in the winter months. Anyway, it was moving really fast, and did not appear to be injured in any way. We were glad it was there. The weather was beautiful, the water was calm and all in all a great nature walk.We did see two deer, and they came close enough that Caitlin almost fed it some grass out of her hand. She was just a little excited, lol! Today we are off to Devil's Mill hopper. I will share that experience tomorrow.

Happy Easter, Archery Tournament and Spring

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter! Is it finally getting Spring like wherever you are? Dec, Jan and Feb were quite warm, even had to use the air conditioner over the Winter months. So strange! But March was freezing most of the month. Now it is April and I am hoping for warmer temps. Caitlin got a Hyacinth plant for Easter. It has the sweetest smell. Caitlin also did most of the egg decorating herself this year. We hard boiled the eggs and set up all the dye stuff, then she just went at it with supervision of course. You can see her work below. Don't mind my art table. Speaking of Art I am painting later today, and will be working on Mother's Day gifts. It will be here before you know it. On Saturday, DJ and Craig had their end of beginner class Archery Tournament. I have to say it was kind of boring for me and Caitlin. They both did awesome though and want to move on to the intermediate classes. They won't be able to take them together, and that might pose a problem for transportation. I am hoping to find a 4H Archery Group local to us, and that would help a lot. They took their beginner class at Easton Newberry Sport Complex, in Newberry. We have a very busy this week, including Earth Kids tomorrow, and a Bee Farm field trip on Thursday. We have been in a rainy pattern, so we will see about both of those. Have a great week! I will share the Nature Scavenger Hunt DJ put together, this week.

4H Scrapbook, and End of School Year

Even with all the fun stuff we did this year, we are finishing nicely. Matter of fact both kids will have completed several books in the next few weeks. We don't officially go on Summer break until June 10th. Not all books will be completed. I carry them over to the next year for each child. But, they get other lessons besides just the textbooks. DJ will have Science and Math textbook not completed by June, but he will do a chapter of Math each day over the summer. His Science book will be carried over to next year. Since he did photography and Entomology, plus the National Zoo curric. these all count as Science for him. They have both worked very hard and have earned some much needed time off. Caitlin is reading independently now, and already knows her sight words for next year. She has to learn to spell them though, lol! Over the summer she will also focus on Math, mainly memorizing simple addition and subtraction facts, time and money. She currently uses a number line and fingers for adding and subtracting. I might even introduce a little multiplication, not sure. We have also decided to continue our weekly education co-op over the summer months. We will be done volunteering, until the Fall, and playdates will be limited also. I need a break. 4H will also be over, for meetings and such, have the annual dinner and our group dinner over the summer. Speaking of 4H DJ is the Historian, which means he is responsible to do the yearly Scrapbook. I do not intend to spend a fortune on this, so if anyone has some ideas I am open to them. I think I have come up with one, but my ears are open. We have never done a scrapbook before, and no it can't be digital, I already asked. I have to get all the pictures and print them off, first. Plus DJ and I have to go through all his pictures to get them set up in the lesson book, to be turned into 4H by June. Plus the bug book, and Caitlin's rabbit book. Oh man! I am checking into starting an Earthkids group for our area. This is still very new and needs some investigating.