Homeschool Highlights

We had a very hands on week! It was fun to complete a bunch of projects we have been wanting to do.

In Early American History we finished our colonial beds complete with a straw stuffed matress.

Now we are working on a woven blanket for our bed. I really love this project! I'm counting it for handicrafts too!
Hopefully, I can show you the finished projects next week. The kids worked on them while we were reading, The Witch of Blackbird Pond at night before bed.

We are also dying muslin using natural substances such as onion skins, coffee, and beets. Samples of these will be going into a dying book we are making.

In Human Anatomy this week we made models of DNA! It was delicious! :-)

We also made a model of the ear the kids could crawl through. We used a couple of tables for our base.

First, you enter the pinna.

Next, you crawl through the auditory canal.

Then, you finally enter the inner ear!

WARNING!!!! WARNING!!! GROSS MATERIAL COMING UP!!
J2 dissected a cow's eye ball. B could not even watch but my youngest J3 was glued!

We also complete another LEGO challenge. This week they were to build a household object. Of course my clan did all things electronic. B did a labtop, J3 an ipad with a game on the screen, and J2 built a flip phone.

Hope you had a productive week!!

Adding Spice to our Week

This week I was researching kid's Lego challenges online and I found a blog full of ideas called, Lego Quest Kids. J3 loves Lego building, and we needed a little spark in our homeschool week, so I decided to try the most recent Lego challenge for April. They come out with a new challenge at the beginning of each month. B was inspired by it and decided she wanted to do it too! They had to build something that grows and then photograph it in it's environment. The website has submissions from kids all over the world! It was a lot of fun showing my kids the other children's interpretations of the challenge. I did not show them these pictures until AFTER the challenge was complete, because I did not want it to sway their ideas. Also, I loved the photography component of this challenge. I think they had more fun taking the pictures!! They each took about 10! Here's a few pics of what they came up with..... B created a tulip!

J3 created a dandedion! The first picture cracks me up. He said, "Can you find the Lego Dandelion in the dandelion field mom?"

What do you do to add a little spice to the week???

Homeschool Highlights

Hello All! We just finished up our third quarter and are starting with our second week of the forth quarter on Monday. Over the last couple weeks J3 turned 10 years old. He had a Star Wars themed party and Darth Vader (his older brother J1) arrived to battle his guests.

What a great time everybody had!! So glad we decided to do it up for the double digits celebration! In science, we made models of neurons our of construction paper and then labled all the parts. I found this idea on Pinterest. Who would have thought how Pinterest could change the way we homeschool? This is J3's Neuron.....

....and B's....

Also in science, we studied the brain, and tried an experment called the dollar drop. I dropped a dollar bill from on it's side, so it fluttered and fell. Then, the kids took turns trying to catch it. It's hard!!

The book states, "....your nervous system needs time to size up a situation and react." They definately got the point. In highschool this week, J2 has been teaching a dissection class in our co-op every Monday. He will sometimes dissect that weeks specimen with B and J3 as practice for the upcoming class. This week they did a freshwater clam.

Also J3 was so inclined to bake us some chocolate chip cookies! Love when his inclination goes in that delicious direction!

He has entered three of his photos in an art contest that will be held at the end of the month which is exciting and today he took senior pictures for a friend that he will spend the day editing. All great things to add to his portfolio! Now that we are in the home stretch before summer, I'm really going to take the next week getting organized and scheduled. I want to finish strong! Have a great week!