Human Body study

W has always been a little (ok, a lot) creeped out by learning about organs, skeletons, etc. I blame the episode of Curious George when George goes inside his own body when he has a cold. Seriously, W still hates that idea! So we tended to skip those Magic Schoolbus themed books as well. He has done way better with more abstract books (like Enjoy Your Cells).

We did a one day unit study of some of the basics, and although he knew about most of them already from reading or absorbing everyday knowledge, it was a nice project to give him a visual and give a little introduction of  the underrated organs that he didn't know too much about (such as the gallbladder).

We used the science workbook My Body, which had copies of each organ and a detailed description of the functions. We made copies so he could color them in and then we could still read the book afterwards for review.

We taped it up on the wall for a couple of days (supposedly safely away from puppies, although Lucy finally ripped a corner so it is down now). The organs were taped so you could lift them up and view the others underneath.

whole body view

He was glad to get this finished, and we will be reviewing the different systems of the body in the Giant Science book. W already read about the Skeletal system, and with Halloween on its way watching our annual favorite The Skeleton Dance was an inspiring and silly way to bring it up.

Museum of Science

We recently took a day trip to the Museum of Science in Boston. W was familiar with the museum due to his overnight experience last spring, but C hadn't remembered going a couple years ago so it was new-to-him.

They had a Shipwreck! exhibit of treasure and materials recovered from the depths of the sea, so that was really neat. Jacob's favorite were the coins, it was amazing to see such old coins in mint condition. If you get a chance to check this out, it is interesting for adults and older kids but it did not hold C's attention as much.

We also took in a Planetarium show of the night sky which was interesting to the boys and highlighted constellations to look for.

We found a large example of Calcite (the kind of rock that their geodes are).

in the space capsule

big footprint!

touching the snake skin at the animal demonstration

The triceratops that W & I slept under during our last visit

I didn't catch C's expression until uploading these photos. My little stinker! :p

C has been talking about "seeing chickens" at the museum. I think he means the chick hatchery. ;) I am hoping we will be able to get back there sometime later this fall to see the Mammoth exhibit which opens this month. 

Night at the Museum

T Rex model at the MOS

Last week W participated in the Museum of Science Overnight program. We had a lot of fun exploring  the museum, watching the lightning show, and seeing different demonstrations. In the morning there was a short planetarium show. It was a little scary for W when the Moon zoomed in closely! He said he thought it would squish him. I liked hearing all the "oohs" and "aaahs" even from the bigger kids watching the show. The technology has gotten a lot better in recent years and when the presenter zoomed in on the planets and their moons it was neat. Then we went to an Omni IMAX presentation of Amazing Journeys. This was my favorite part. It was amazing seeing the migration of monarch butterflies, Canadian geese and many other animals. 

happy W

W had a fun time sleeping in his sleeping bag. We got to sleep in the dinosaur area. I had brought along an air mattress for us to share after reading that a lot of parents find the air mattress as a "must have". It was a good idea! It was a late night for us, neither of us are used to lights out at midnight, and then an early wake up call for breakfast before the shows. Then we had a little time to see some other exhibits (the chicks and tamarins) before heading on our way. W also hit the gift shop and spent some of his birthday money on dinosaur toys for C since he had to stay home.

First grade is the youngest age range allowed to spend the night at the museum, so W was among the younger kids. There were several school groups, so it was pretty busy although not as packed as a busy day at the museum in general, although since there were hundreds of kids in groups with a ratio of 1 adult to five kids, it was pretty hectic! I would do it again though, when C is old enough to join us it will be more fun. I think Jacob would like it too (really with the air mattress it isn't too bad). ;)

the earth

This week will be a busy one, plus with a warm forecast here I am sure the kids will spend a lot of time outside while we try to squeeze in some homeschool work. W has an eye doctor appointment tomorrow and co-op Wednesday. 

W is on chapter 18 of Math-U-See Alpha, and we only have a few more chapters of Story of the World Ancient History. We went to a homeschool curriculum sale over the weekend and found a used copy of MUS Beta with the teacher book and dvd (score!) I also found the next SotW workbook, Before FIAR for C, and the Prairie Primer. W picked out some geoboards and C got a couple of storybooks. I love curriculum sales! :) Helping out other homeschooling families and getting good deals it is a win-win. W is almost all set for second grade. 

Astronomy Skywatch

We had homeschool friends over on Saturday for a skywatch. It had rained all day long, but Accuweather.com kept saying it would clear out and lo and behold it did! We were able to view Mars, Venus, Jupiter, several constellations, and star clusters. The moon was waxing gibbous, so there was a lot of moonlight. There was also a lot of snow and slush, but the warmer temperatures helped delay it from icing up. The kids had a lot of fun. W said his favorite star was Polaris. W has been reading Stars by H.A. Rey with me and it is a nice way of understanding more about constellations.

Our next event with our Astronomy Club will be later in April, during the Lyrids meteor shower on the 21st-- hoping for clear skies! There will be a new moon so it will be easier to view more stars if the weather cooperates.

Sea life field trip

We continued our in depth study of sea life this week at the New England Aquarium on Friday. The boys and I took the commuter rail train in, and it was an early morning for them but they seemed to enjoy the train ride. Then we walked from South Station to the Aquarium. The weather was unseasonably warm for February in Boston! I think it did us all good to go since we had planned this for several weeks and some other NH homeschoolers were going as well.

One of the seals painting.

Shortly after we arrived, there was a seal demonstration in the tank in front of the entrance, and one of the seals painted a picture. They are amazing creatures! They seem very similar to dogs in terms of training, as they use a rewards based system. There is much more to learn about the Atlantic Harbor Seals on the NEAQ training blog.

They have a good life!

W enjoyed learning about the jellies, C liked the shark and ray touch tank exhibit, and both of them loved watching the penguins. W observed and read about the Little Blue penguins from Australia. However, at the end of the day both boys said the sharks in the big central tank were their favorite.

Happy Groundhog Day!

How is it February already? We have had a homeschooling hiatus lately with a virus affecting the whole family. I am still feeling the affects. I am hoping to get back into the swing of things and updating here more regularly. Between the lack of sleep with the puppies and being sick, it has been a rough month here.

Today we watched a Jack's Big Music Show video circa 2007; more specifically a Groundhog day episode featuring Jon Stewart and a fun song by Steve Burns and Steven Drodz. I don't think C had seen it since he was an infant, but W enjoyed it when he was younger. I am thankful that children's programs are way more appealing and amusing to grownups these days compared to the cartoons of my youth. We also learned about Groundhogs and Punxatawney Phil. Supposedly we will have 6 more weeks of winter. I say bring it on, it feels like we have not had much of a winter since October! ;)



W has been plugging away on Explode the Code book 2, up to page 43. He is on Math-U-See Alpha Chapter 11, which is about 1/3 of the way through the book. Geometry is a section of this chapter, so he is doing some side work of classifying shapes from our Comprehensive Curriculum 1st grade workbook. For a history and science combination project he made a paper mache volcano shortly before we all got sick, so as soon as I charge my camera batteries we will make it erupt. At least it has held up and is dry. That will certainly have its own post.

For reading material, we are rowing Owl Moon by Jane Yolen this week for our Five in a Row group. W learned about Great Horned Owls and he often gets to observe the woods outside. We have only actually seen one owl in the wild since moving to this town, so one theme from the book to focus on is patience. It is a nice book for this time of year and also incorporates some astronomy studies. We discussed the phases of the moon, and have plans to attend some Skywatch events in the near future with our homeschool Astronomy club.

 Lately W is still into the Dinosaur Cove series by Rex Stone (almost finished with book 6). He also adores the Mr. Men books by Roger Hargreaves. I had collected several of these which we came upon years ago during a trip to Scotland, and now he loves reading them on his own. We are also continuing with The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, although we are re-listening to the early chapters on CD as I haven't had much voice to read aloud for long. I am SO glad W is an independent reader and can read to his brother too.

I'm hoping to find an unabridged version of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie for him to read this spring, and also read more of A.A. Milne's books. C is at a good age for the original Thomas the Tank Engine stories as well, so a bedtime re-read is in order. :)

FIAR: Ferdinand - take two

We rowed Ferdinand again recently for our Five in a Row co-op. You can see an older post about The Story of Ferdinand here. 


This time around we focused on a science aspect. W asked if the little corks on the trees in the cute illustrations by Robert Lawson really grew like that. I said you know, I don't think so but I really don't know, so of course we went to youtube to discover how they really harvest cork for corked bottles and sustainable flooring. He really liked seeing how the bark of the cork tree is peeled off, and appreciated that it seemed like a lot of work for the people to cut it down. Also the fact that it can grow back and be harvested again was pretty cool to know. That was part of geography as well because cork grows well in Spain and Portugal. 


Another science project was focusing on the parts of a flower (Ferdinand's favorite) and coloring in an anatomy sheet. We have read this story so many times that it was nice to do some fresh activities.


Our co-op met yesterday and we made silly hats like the men that decided to bring Ferdinand to the bull fight in Madrid. We used newspaper, stickers, and craft supplies to decorate. This month we will be rowing A New Coat for Anna with the group. 

making the hats

                                         

some of the silly hats and silly expressions :)

Measurements

I was tasked by the 5-in-a-Row supplement to teach W the following: there exist 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard, and 5280 feet in a mile (I Googled just now to double-check this last one).  In addition, we were tasked with measuring W's height and finding the height of La Girafe.


I decided that the conversion numbers are the least important aspect of this lesson. Foremost is to show that measurements are useful.  I asked W how we might build a lid for our stove, and we worked through using the measuring tape to decide where to make cuts in our imaginary lumber (our pretend buzz cutting being the highlight of the lesson).


Next, we thought about other things we might measure or different ways to measure things.  I told W about how there are devices that measure distance by how long it takes light to bounce back and forth.  We put the same principle into practice by counting how long it took for W to run back and forth.  W knew that the longer it took for him to bounce back and forth, the greater the distance.


I also wanted to emphasize that measuring units are fairly arbitrary, so we remembered a past lesson in measuring the house in lengths of W.  We created "the crayon" as a unit of weight and talked about how we'd decide how many crayons a book weighed.  We also talked about why there are different measures of length: for greater distances, you want a larger unit so that you count in smaller numbers.


This was a great lesson for W because it kept the Daddy lecturing to a minimum in lieu of several small, fun activities.

FIAR: The elusive Giraffe That Walked to Paris

A friend from co-op lent us the hard-to-find book The Giraffe that Walked to Paris by Nancy Milton and illustrated by Roger Roth. (Thank you Steph!) :) We are rowing it for Five in a Row this week. It is a pleasure to read, the story is a true one based on a gift given to the King of France from the Pasha of Egypt in the late 1820's. The illustrations are beautiful, in soft colors and extremely detailed. W and C both liked this story, it is quite long so I was pleased that C listened too.

I always wanted to go to Paris in the fall.

We found many materials online to accompany this book. Check out this paper printable of Paris from Made by Joel, an artist's website. It am a dork about paper dolls, so I was in heaven, but W even liked them. We printed the pdf on cardstock so it will last longer and W had fun coloring in all the people for the city. We will continue using this for our French lessons with HOP, Muzzy, and the First Thousand Words in French. We found a Giraffe coloring book page which resized nicely to go along with our city.

Thank you to the Pumpkin Patch blog for your free lapbook for The Giraffe that Walked to Paris. This covered vocabulary words, which months go in which seasons, a wind science experiment, learning about giraffes, geography, and history. Jacob is planning a Daddy lesson on measurement to go along with this theme too. 

Now I just wish la Girafe would come back in print!

Full Fall Days

We have been having a good week. I am feeling really happy with where we are at in general. W is rolling along with Story of the World (Ch 10, W began Ancient China today), Math-U-See (Ch 5 Alpha), science supplements, Explode the Code 1 1/2 and Printing Power workbooks among many other things. Today we made pizza dough for homemade pizza to go along with the book we are rowing this week, Little Nino's Pizzeria. That post will be once we have the photos of the finished product. ;) Anyway, this was something both boys enjoyed using their measuring cups and seeing how the yeast changes and makes the dough rise.

This week we hosted our FIAR co-op here Monday, and went to another homeschool co-op yesterday. So far the focus has been on the New England states. The kids listened to a book on the Nashua River called A River Ran Wild: An Environmental History. Then one of the moms did a presentation. The kids brought in some rocks, leaves and twigs to add to a large container of water to see that once they settled, natural things did not hurt the water. Then they added in paint and oil, and quickly they got the idea of what should not go into the water supply! They also read One Morning in Maine, we have been on a Robert McCloskey kick lately for sure.

W has been enjoying this co-op, but I find it challenging to keep C entertained through the whole thing. He sits down and listens to stories at home, but his attention span is better for short stories, and his energy level is high. It is an afternoon co-op at the time he usually takes a nap at home. They had a variety of puzzles and activities so he did pretty well, and since this was our 3rd time going I felt more comfortable with him doing his own thing.

FIAR: Make Way for Ducklings

For our Five in a Row co-op, we rowed Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey in September. Yesterday we had our monthly meeting with four local homeschooling families to read the book together. The kids got to share their artwork and activity pages they worked on. Our friends even brought a real duckling in, it was so cute! We heard it peeping, and they told us the duck parents were very upset that they were taking the duckling since they didn't know it would be right back that afternoon, they were so protective just like Mr. and Mrs. Mallard in the book.

duckling

W worked on some activity pages made by a friend's Mom on CurrClick, and learned about the duck life cycle. He read about the statue in Boston which he visited last March and will see again in a couple of weeks. 

W is working on lowercase letters; every now and then an upper case sneaks in, but there is great improvement already!

W (pre-glasses last spring!) and Mama Duck

He also read a Rivers booklet from CC. This geology/ science study has tied in with where we are in The Story of the World as well, he is learning why ancient cities were located on rivers since not only was it a good water source for drinking and crops but it also gave them much easier transportation on boats compared to crossing mountains or deserts. I love when the stars,.. err... curricula align, much easier for planning lessons! ;) Outside he used sand from his sandbox to make hills and obstacles for his mini river to go around. We checked out a Rivers and Ponds DK Eyewitness dvd from the library as a supplemental resource. They have a pretty large collection of these dvds there so I will try to remember that for next time, he really enjoyed watching it. 

W also read Homer Price by Robert McCloskey as a read aloud and finished it last week. It is a chapter book which reads more like short stories. He absolutely loved it and many of the stories made him laugh. I did get a chuckle out of the doughnut story, although personally I prefer Mr. McCloskey's books for younger readers. 

FIAR: Salamander Room

Salamander diorama (the head is by the yellow leaf)

Last week we rowed The Salamander Room by Anne Mazer. W said this was his favorite Five in a Row book and he really enjoyed reading it to his brother as well. We went on a hike in our woods looking for salamanders but were unsuccessful. Rain put a damper (quite literally) on our plans to try again. So after reading a FIAR message board post I was inspired to go to the tackle section at Walmart and found realistic looking fake ones for cheap. If you do this please, please take out the hooks before giving to your kids! They were thrilled with their creepy crawly little guy and found some leaves, ferns, rocks and sticks to make him feel at home. And I was thrilled that I didn't have to touch a real salamander. ;)


W enjoyed reading this website on Salamanders and Newts and seeing the photos, and in the past when Jacob finds them in our yard when working he has shown the kids so he was excited to see some that looked "just like those". The Salamander Room was also featured as a Reading Rainbow book.

What Science Leaves Out

Kids have lots of questions about the nature of the world, and this is good.  However, I think our answers to these questions often miss the mark.  Consider that quintessential chestnut, "Why is the sky blue?"  Google for an answer and you will find physical explanations involving atmospheric molecules, light scattering, and wavelengths of light.  Let's focus on the color aspect, because here the explanation given to children and adults is about the same.  The color model is that white light, such as that given by the Sun, is actually a bundle of waves, where each color is a different wavelength.

I remember reading such an explanation in one of W's "science for kids" books and feeling uneasy.  I did not like the matter-of-fact approach and authoritative tone, as if the question and answer belonged to the same category of question as "What is the state capital of Massachusetts?".  It seemed to me that something important was left out of the answer.

One source of my uneasiness has to do with how much explanatory power we can ascribe to physical models at all and how we interpret the reality of those models.  I could write at great length here, but I'll admit this is mostly metaphysical quibbling.  Given the success of physics in getting men to the Moon and back, I am willing to put aside those questions... at least until the boys are a little older.

But even if we take the physics at face value, I still have uneasiness.  Doess the "color is really just a wavelength of electromagentic radiation" answer really do full justice to the phenomenon of color?

Recently I came across a thought experiment that articulates my unease: Mary's Room.  The idea is to conjure someone who has never seen color because she has been captive in a colorless room her whole life.  Now give her perfect knowledge of the physics involving color, atmosphere, and anything else you like.  The question is this: when she is released from the room and looks up at the sky for the first time, will she learn anything new about color?

Of course she will.  She will learn what color looks like.  And here we come to what it is that physics necessarily leaves out: experience.  Because of this, we should not pretend that physical science provides complete explanations for the nature of things.

Let's get back to the child asking why the sky is blue.  Maybe "color is a wavelength" needs to be part of our answer.  But maybe part of our answer also needs to be "color is a particular experience".  Which is a small child really reaching for: the mechanics of light waves, or wonderment at why an experience is just this experience and not that experience.

As a philosopher might say, perhaps whatever answer we give should end with a semi-colon instead of a period.

What we're using this year (part 1)

It’s been a while since I did a post on the curriculum we’re using (besides FIAR of course). This year first grade was a bit more intimidating, although I know it shouldn’t be. We sent our first letter of intent to homeschool in July. That felt very liberating, but after that the need to plan for this year set in. We are not using a box curriculum and haven't yet, so planning each subject was a wee bit overwhelming at first. Now that we are a couple of weeks into our routines I am seeing what works and what can wait a while. I find that with W just leaving books that I want him to read around the house will work almost by osmosis, since he loves reading most anything. I will break this post into a few posts by subjects.

Math

W is using Math-U-See Alpha this year, which he started last spring after finishing their Primer, but took a break on over the summer. As we started our first week he got a bit frustrated (mainly the writing part) so next summer we may keep doing some worksheets more often. He loves math but sometimes it is a chore to sit down to do workbook pages, but he loves the Math-U-See blocks and even little C can join him in building towers and bridges with them. W finished up Chapter 3 and is starting Chapter 4 this week. We didn’t watch the DVD lesson overview for 3 (How I’ve missed Steve!) We will catch up on that this week. As Math supplements W has Kumon workbooks on Geometry and Counting Money, as well as the board game Sum Swamp.

Science

First grade is traditionally supposed to be when you learn about how your body works. You know, organs, muscles, skeleton, etc. Unfortunately, W is totally freaked out by anything like this right now, so we will ease into that gradually. He prefers to focus on Astronomy, so for now that is the plan. W loves the book A Child’s Introduction to The Night Sky by Michael Driscoll. He also likes doing experiments, and has a mini weather station that his Grandpa gave him set up on the deck to check the wind speed, temperature and rainfall totals. W is also keeping a nature journal and I encourage him to observe things outside to notice all the details of the local wildlife and changing seasons. I want to work in a few more trips to the Aquarium in this year as well, especially to see some feeding times and shows for the animals like the penguins and sea lions.

History

Initially I resisted buying a history curriculum, as W learns a lot by reading books, but something drew me to the Story of the World. I am drawn to history. Yes, even census records and some dry facts, but I know most people aren’t. W isn’t necessarily drawn to it unless he understands the context, the story that it tells. This curriculum is Classical in approach but it is very accessible. We went ahead and ordered The Story of the World with the workbook for Volume 1 (Ancient Civilizations) and the book on CD. We have so far made an archeology dig in the sandbox, learned about the Fertile Crescent and are working on the Egyptians this week. One of the projects is mummifying a chicken, but I don’t think I’m ready for that one yet! I love the workbook, and we are keeping a notebook with printouts of the pages along with a journal for narration and W’s illustrations along the way. Adults can brush up on their history knowledge with this book as well; I am excited about introducing timelines to W! :)

Geography

We are members in a local geography co-op which just started up last week. The co-op will travel the United States through literature so it is a great way of learning of the different regions of our country. We also have 2 GeoPuzzles for the US & Canada, and Europe. W likes them as puzzles so it is kind of a sneaky way to work in learning about other places while he’s at it! They are tactile maps and many of the European puzzle pieces are the same shapes as the countries. I am planning to get some of the other GeoPuzzles for Christmas this year. W also subscribes to Highlights’ “Which Way USA?” as a supplement.

Coming soon: books and curricula we like for literature, grammar, writing, spelling, spiritual development, art, languages, exercise, an overview of unit studies we're planning for this fall/winter, and a C update.

Animal Adventures

A couple weeks ago we checked out a presentation on animals at our favorite library. Animal Adventures is a small zoo in Bolton, MA, and we have been to a couple of their presentations in the past and they always do a great job safely presenting various animals to the kids and answering questions. And getting peed on by animals. Ew! :) The kids had a great time. Here are some of the lovely creatures we met.

A very cute de-skunked skunk

An albino hedgehog. It was prickly. And yes, it has reddish pink freaky eyes.

My brave boys pet this alligator. eep!

Caterpillars pt. II: Butterfly release!

Yesterday we freed our 4 painted lady butterflies that had emerged from their chrysalides and had enjoyed feeding on the nectar we deposited on some flowers for a few days. Rainy and busy days delayed us in setting them loose, but the whole family enjoyed seeing them get so excited about being free to fly in the real world and get out of their mesh world.

But first, let's revisit our little friends. Here Jacob gently moved the paper insert with attached caterpillars to the mesh habitat.

Then we waited. Within about 5-7 days, all of our butterflies had "hatched".

It is difficult to take photos through mesh and plastic! But here are two of the butterflies. The bottom of their container was brightly decorated, and real flowers at the bottom held drops of syrup (we used hummingbird nectar, sort of the same as sugar water). This made things pretty sticky in there but it will wipe up well to use again next year. We may even gather our own caterpillars next time since we have seen some pretty cool looking ones in the garden and around the yard. Here is an interesting web site on identifying moths, butterflies and caterpillars in your area by country, state, and county.

The big moment!

We had never seen the butterflies bounce around so much in there until the last few moments when I moved the container from it's temporary home (our porch) outside. They must have sensed it was finally their time. It was very cool to see and they were gone in a shot, flying straight up in the air. I hope they were able to find some flowers. 

Caterpillars part I

Our current summer science project is watching caterpillars change into butterflies. We ordered a painted lady caterpillar culture through Insect Lore, and it arrived last week. The first couple hours, the caterpillars did not move at all so I was hoping we didn't get a dud culture, but the insert said it is common for them to take a couple days to move. Soon they started crawling all over it and they have been busy ever since. The culture contained all the food they needed for this stage of life.

Today all 4 of the caterpillars are on the top of the container and forming into the pupa stage. Once they are all attached, we can move the cover into our bigger mesh habitat for the butterflies to hatch in. W & C enjoy seeing them up close and are excited to see their metamorphosis.

See the two pupa hanging down and a fuzzy caterpillar on top?

We wanted to do this during the summer so that we can release the butterflies outside when they are ready. More pictures to follow in part II.

    

Summer Reading

Last week while trying to beat the heat,we had a few playdates and attended a Science event at the library. The Mad Science program was drop in and W got to meet up with a friend afterwards and he really enjoyed seeing the experiments the "mad scientist" did. He showed how air pressure affects an egg in a beaker, and how electric blowers can hold up balls in the air, and used dry ice and bubbles to make some cool special effects.

the kids hold their ears during the air pressure demonstration

W has been keeping a reading chart for the summer reading club at the library and he's doing well with it. With reading chapter books it takes a bit longer to go through as many books as he did last year but he's reading something every day whether it's a picture book or chapter book so I'm happy with that. The librarians set up a wheel for the kids to spin each time they get to 10 more books and get a sticker and prize. W loves to go to the library anyway to play but this just adds to the appeal. He even wanted to go on Saturday after a birthday party, so now he is planning to read 10 more books before the next time we go. They are having an end of summer reading party at the end of August so that will be a fun wrap up. 


Lately W is still into the Magic Treehouse books and enjoys to do the little quizzes on the passport section of the web site for the series when he finishes the books. He also checked out one of the books from The Littles series, and I plan on introducing Flat Stanley pretty soon as well. We are also reading On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder as a family group read. 




    

Museum of Science

W & C pose in front of a stuffed bear in the New England animals exhibit

Over the weekend we met up with some friends at the Museum of Science in Boston. Actually in Boston & Cambridge as we found out. They have a little border within the hallway of the museum so you can be in both cities at once. I am a dork and love those sorts of land markers.


We had last taken W there when he was 3, so he did not remember any of it so it was all new to him. Jacob and I have fun memories there from our college days so I was reminiscing a bit (the MOS offers a free night for students in the fall). Back to the current century... :) The boys enjoyed exploring many exhibits and were delighted by the two dinosaur areas; one is a traveling exhibit called Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries and it was very impressive. If you're able to get there before August 21st check it out. Alas, there were no photos allowed in that section but it well worth seeing, and it was organized by the American Museum of Natural History which we talked about in our New York post last year.

little space explorer!

W and C loved exploring the model of the Apollo command module.

We took in a show at the Planetarium at the end of the day; Undiscovered Worlds: The Search Beyond our Sun. This was a recent movie produced by the Museum and has up to date facts. It was a fascinating show mainly focused on discovering exoplanets, planets outside of our solar system. It is amazing to think of how much more there is to discover, and how much we will learn within our lifetimes. The MOS web site offers a monthly star chart to view/download. There is even an educator's guide (pdf) on the website to accompany the program we watched. This is targeted at older kids but I will modify an activity for W's level this week as a follow up to our museum trip, along with a review of our own solar system. The boys enjoy looking at stars on some clear evenings and can pick out the big dipper, and now with his glasses it is easier for W to spot shooting stars. 


Now is the time for me to start planning some more science activities for first grade as it's coming up fast now. Most of our "summer science" has been gardening and observing nature. In the fall we will continue to use the Giant Science Resource book, Let's Read and Learn Science books from home & the library, and multiple experiment books along with supplemental materials. 


  

Our Garden 2011

Garden beds! Excuse the camera phone photo.

Saturday was a fun day spent at a local farmer's market, strawberry picking, and errands ending with some ice cream. We also worked for a while on the garden beds and bought some plants. Last week we rowed Paddington's Garden by Michael Bond, which was sort of appropriate as we made rock lined garden beds. After church on Father's Day Jacob went to work on our garden, and then on the last minute idea of a pumpkin patch in back. In one bed we planted tomato plants, pepper plants, eggplant, acorn squash & herbs. In the other raised bed W helped plant carrot seeds, lettuce seeds, and cucumber plants. I may move around the herbs to their own area once we see what works, but we have heard it may help dissuade the deer and other animals from eating the blossoms on the vegetable plants. 

We are getting a pretty late start this year due to weather, and it took a lot of hard work on Jacob's part to make the rock lined raised beds. Jacob would also like to add another raised bed or two and extend the garden back, eventually even putting a bench in that area, and fencing in the yard. So for now we will see what works, but this is a big experiment. Jacob used some of his leftover container gardening filler, a mix of vermiculite, manure, and peat moss. See last year's post for more about container gardening. He also made a few trips to the store to get enough materials to fill the two beds.

Our local family of turkeys made a cameo appearance yesterday as well, and Jacob got to see all the little ones which were MUCH bigger, and actually flying up to the trees to roost. This time it appeared that the Daddy turkey was there too. 

More (better) garden photos coming soon and of course updates to see what's growing! :) As you can see the yard is very filled out with hostas, ferns, and lilies. I am hoping to thin these out a bit. One of the next yard projects will be  shuffling a few plants to new locations. I planted a couple of flowers in the yard, and they add a nice splash of color.