Super Moon

Yep ~ tonight was the “SUPER MOON”…

A full Moon of rare size and beauty that rose in the east at sunset and called a "Super Perigee Moon" ~ the biggest in almost 20 years. It was truly a thing of beauty. A moon so big it looked as if you could actually reach out ad touch it.

We patiently waited for it to get dark enough to try ad get some good pictures… 

     

 

Coming of Spring…

After our testing today, we went on a field trip with some friends. On the way home, we passed some beautiful daffodils growing on the side of the road, so we stopped for an impromptu romp in the flowers…

   Tommy exploring the field of flowers…

Taking some pictures together…

  Libby picking the flowers…

  Enjoying our friends…

It was such a beautiful day and a reminder that spring is just around the corner…

Winter Wonders...

We have spent the last 2 weeks marveling in the "Wonders of Winter" .  Since we were taking a small break from our usual school schedule with the holidays we decided to use the Download n' Go unit "WINTER WONDERS"...   This is a unit that is designed to be used in a week, but I took 2 weeks since we were doing it as a fun thing to entertain the kids during our time off and as a way for me to "sneak" some school in too.  Now, as with all the DNG units ~ it's a comprehensive unit study geared toward K-4th grade students, but I use it with my 5th grader and he learns and enjoys them  just as much as my 2nd grader. They are really easy to beef up by adding additonal work sheets on the older childs level. Everything is organized and prepared for you. It includes videos, websites, activities, and lapbook components. You don’t have to spend a lot of time doing research, all the work is done for you.

 For the last 10 years or so, East Tn has had relatively dry winters (virtually no snow ~ except for the occasional flurry). In the last month we have had 3 snowfalls with accumulations and more is predicted to fall in the coming days... My kids are in heaven and taking advantage of learning about winter was perfect for us.

We lean towards the eclectic order in our homeschool and I use the DNG units as I use most of my material  ~ in the way that works for us. And that is one of the reasons why I love using these units. They work with us and take almost no prep work on my part. Now I know some people don't mind printing and use every page and that's great, but for us I like to save ink and paper (my budget prevails) and I print mostly the lapbook components and  a few of the activity pages.


This is one of the pages that my kids completed on Caribou.
  I usually take 30 minutes to an hour for my prep for the WHOLE week~ that includes reading over the material, printing the neccessary pages, and putting my library books on hold. Since you download the unit, you have it available as soon as you need it ~ no waiting on it to be mailed or shipped to you. And I usually just take the laptop to our table and we work together on it orally. It is perfectfor our family. 

Each week is broken down into daily objectives:
 1. What is Winter?
2. Science Secrets of Winter
3. People and Places of Winter
4. Time for Tips and Treasures of Winter
5. Goodies and Gadgets of Winter

I didn't use any library books this time with it being the holidays and wanting to have a slow-paced study. So I pulled these books of our shelves and used them.

     These are some of our favorite books involving winter themes. I through the whale book in as we studied Beluga whales...

Now we did this study over 2 weeks and took our time and really went in-depth on each topic. I added some math worksheets with a winter theme that I found here . You can choose your grade level and just print our what you need.


My children used the bible verses or poetry included  with each unit as their daily copywork. Here is my daughter's version of  "BED IN SUMMER" by Robert Louis Stevenson.

 

The videos that were included in the unit were fantastic... My kidlets loved watching them ~ and I especially loved all the falling snow... It was so relaxing to watch the videos and drink hot cocoa made from some of the recipes included with "WINTER WONDERS".   One of our favorite recipes was for the "SNOWFLAKE COOKIES" .. the kidlets had a great time making them and then hubby and I had a great time eating them...




The kidlets found out what the "Winter Solstice" is, when it occurs,  how the earth rotates to create this occurence, and the season in other parts of the world. Then they each drew their own earth rotating on it's axis. 
     
                                      
Learning about animals like the Snowy Owl, the Arctic Fox,  and  the Beluga Whale would have covered our science but the included experiments took us even further... We learned about "When Does Water Float" in an experiment using household ingredients and a plastic bottle. We melted ice cubes, learning what reaction salt has in the process.

And then we spent a couple of days with the "Iditarod"... my 10yo son really enjoyed reading "Balto" and watching a video on Netflix called, "Iditarod: Toughest Race on Earth" .      We learned why it is the "Last Great Race"  and were able to trace the race on a map of Alaska...

 

We spent some time getting to know the artist Robert Duncan and took a look at some of his paintings. This was my kids favorite:



We learned about Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley and spent time looking at the beautiful pictures he had taken in his lifetime of the snowflake.
We used this website to learn more about snowflakes and their compostition.  I also thought it would be a good time to use a site that I had found on similies using snowflakes and  "Snowflake Bentley" and you can find it here.  Here are some of the beautiful snowflakes that we looked at online:

                     

And then we made our own snowflakes which was another of my favorite activities in the unit...
           

And we ended our week playing in the snow and looking at the beauty of the snow all around us....

 

 

 

 

 

You too can have a wonderful week learning about this great season. At only $7.95, it's an inexpensive way to add some fun and learning to your homeschool week. You can purchase this unit here. For more information on other Download N Go Series  and all the titles they offer can be seen here.  Check out the DNG Blog for all the latest information and specials or the Winter Wonders Blog Tour and see what other reviewers have to say about these great products.

 I received this product free of charge for use in exchange for my family's honest opinion and I received no other compensation in exchange for my review.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

Pine Cones on a Sunny Afternoon

We decided to take advantage of this beautiful afternoon and do some nature study...

We went to our local playground/park which happens to be on the lake and had some fun learning...

Armed with our magnifying glasses, our nature backpacks and Anna Comstocks' "Handbook of Nature Study' we were off...

We decided to do a pine cone study...Pine cones are really neat when you think about it... we discussed the differences between deciduous trees and evergreens... found the name of the pine tree we were looking at (WHITEPINE)... and of course sketched these and other treasures we found on our journey around the lake...

 


You can read up on pine cones in the Handbook on p. 670-675  (Lesson 185)... You can look at this great Highlights article about pinecones too...

The we used a magnifying  lens to look closely at our pine cones.  Take note of its shape, size, color, and patterns. The Handbook of Nature Study suggests the following sketches in your nature journal:

• Bundle of needles, showing the sheath and its attachment to the twig.


• The cone.


• The cone scale.


• The seed (under the scales)

For our experiment we did this: Soak your cone in water. Check your cone every 15 minutes to see what happens. Now let the cone dry. This sometimes will loosen the seeds inside and you can take a closer look at their shapes and structure. Try this activity again and soak only half your cone in water and see what happens...It was so neat to see the pine cones which had been completely open and dry to close up tight and look like new pods... The kids were fascinated... and then we left them out on the counter to dry overnight and they began to look the way we found them by morning... Really neat...


Another experiment that can be done is making a Hygrometer with the pinecone... I got this from the Happy Scientist.

PINE CONE HYGROMETER

Hygrometers measure the amount of water vapor in the air. You will need:

- a pine cone.
- a straight pin
- a piece of wood
- some glue
- a piece of paper
- tape
- a pen or marker

If you look at the pinecone, you will see that it is made up of many scale-like pieces connected together. Carefully stick the point of the straight pin into one of the scales, near the top of the cone. Glue the base of the pinecone to the piece of wood. Place the pinecone outside near a wall or some other surface. Be sure it is somewhere that it will not get wet when it rains. Tape the piece of paper to the wall and position the pinecone so that the head of the pin is near the paper.

Watch the weather on the local news. Listen for the humidity. Make a mark on the paper where the head of the pin is. Write the humidity near that mark. Repeat this each day. Soon, you will have a very good device for measuring the humidity.

What is happening? Inside the scales of the pinecone are the seeds. As the humidity increases, the outside of each scale absorbs moisture. This causes them to swell, closing the scales and protecting the seeds from too much water. This extra moisture could cause them to mold or rot before they are ready to grow. When the air is dry, the outside of the scale dries out. This causes it to shrink, opening the scale to let the seeds fall out.

Even after the seeds fall out, the pine cone will continue to open and close as the weather changes for quite a while.

Nature Study the Charlotte Mason way...

For the last couple of years,  I have been wanting and working towards  a more relaxed homeschool, following more of an eclectic Charlotte Mason style for our education and school plans...I also wanted to begin a regular nature study... I was inspired by e-mails from the Outdoor Hour and the "Handbook of Nature Study" blog..



So last spring the kids and I got some "Nature Backpacks" together and started going on little hikes and short adventures in different areas and just seeing what we discovered...

Today we went with some HS friends  (at the suggestion of my friend, THANKS RHONDA) to a park about 1 1/2 hrs. drive from our house... It was a beautiful park and a great place to have some relaxed impromptu school and nature study...

Armed with or backpacks containing our miscellaneous nature guides, binoculars, field mini-microscopes, bug nets, sketch pads, and colored pencils down the trails we went... One of my favorite books for this is Anna Comstocks "Handbook of Nature Study" , a must have for any homeschool library in my opinion... I had always borrowed it from a friend or the library, but I broke down in the spring and purchased my own copy...



Here are some pictures from our adventures today...

[caption id="attachment_772180" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The kids and their friends about to take off on their ourdoor adventure..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_772181" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Looking at the ducks..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_772183" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Looking for tadpoles..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_772184" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Doing some sketching of items we saw along the way... "][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_772185" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Just enjoying the beautiful park... "][/caption]