Wells, deserts, duck pond, water for life

We went out to "find water" outside. Any place, any form. Clouds, irrigation canal, water fountain. We observed that ducks loved to be near the water. Plants were being watered. The water was cold and nice on their feet.



 We wondered how the water got there. We talked about how the water falls and gathers in depositories in the mountains. Then it is transported through pipes to a damn, and cleaned, and then brought to the city. Sometimes it is collected in fountains ,or ponds.

If there is no mountains with rain, or ponds, people sometimes dig well to access the subterranean water depositories.Jesus Christ is the water of life.

Living Water 

Measuring Water and Rivers, Lakes, Oceans, Puddles

The Sun and the water of the Oceans is where most of the action for weather impact originates, one could say. 

We started our circle time watching and singing this (click on the image above for a video, or on the words for link to sheet music):

 "Give," said the little stream,
"Give, oh! give, give, oh! give."
"Give," said the little stream,
 As it hurried down the hill;
"I'm small, I know, but wherever I go
The fields grow greener still."

"'Water depositories' are places where water collects."  I showed them pictures of the water cycle, and  of rivers, lakes and oceans. Then I asked: What are some of the places we can collect water?"

The Montessori Bin Exchange provided laminated cards with the puctures and sizes of common measurments. To make it funner, I prepared clean empty containers from the kitchen on the most popular sizes: gallon, a liter, a pint, a cup, a table spoon, a tea spoon, and a mililliter to match the cards. I wrote in permanent marker the names on the bottles.

We then got a big empty container outside, and had the kids pick their "depository" to then carry the water to our "big depository," an emty plastic bin.  Blue Berries picked the biggest, the gallon size, and merrily went on to fill it with water. This was a great idea, she thought, until she had to haul it all the way outside ;) it gave her a good sense of how much smaller a pint is in comparison to a gallon.

Water depositories

Sweet boy loved pouring the water from one container to the other. Baby had losts of fun watching.

TIP: call each container by its name, not just "this one or that one" but "the cup," the "gallon" the litter.

Gotta love that smile! the joy learning brings to children is inspiring! 

How many "cups" in a "sixty gallon" bin?

I had Pumma Tiger practice her math and handwriting by asking her just about how much water covers the earth, do you think?  She suggested we look it up online.

out 70 % of the surface of the Earth is covered in water, approximately 326,000,000,000,000,000,000 (three hundred, twenty six million trillion).  We practiced our hundreds, millions (seven to nine digits) and trillions (twelve digits). AbWe got the idea that it is a LOT of it from writing down all those zeros.

Seven tenths of the surface of the earth is H20, or water.  We graphed seven tenths montessori style, two columns, five rows each (to make ten spaces).  She counted and colored them in.

You can't really see it, but the big drop of water says H2O for two atoms of Hydrogen and one of Oxigen to make one water molecule.  These words are big, but I use them to explain thngs, and they totally get it. It all started with our YouTube Astronomy playlist where

This was a fun day.

Our scripture study for the day was the following:

"But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."  John 4:14

Crystal growing science fair experiment 2015

We experimented making crystals with Empsom salt in different amounts. After reading many posts online, we decided to dissolve Epsom salt in hot water (not too hot), measuring it to be one part salt one water, and cooling quickly in the freezer. After 30 mins in the freezer, we transferred to the fridge. The simple needle crystals formed by the next day!

  Everyone made batch. The green crystal here is Sweet Boy's crystal. He didn't follow my instructions, didn't do one part hot water one part salt, and a few drops of coloring. He instead mixed many parts salt to one of water to his heart content. Of course, I let him.



He left his crystal for two weeks on the counter. And when we went back to check this is what we found. He is so proud of "mi verde."  He calls it "my greeny." He is so proud!

Comparing the original cubic structure of salt granules to the needle formations of  our experiment. We observed that when we dissolved the magnesium sulfate (Epsom) in water, the molecules reorganized to form needles. We are using a bug-viewer, microscope, and science protecting glasses.

We loved the science fair, not because the fair was all that exciting, but because the process  was even funner. We used our microscope and our bug viewers.  For fun, Sweet Boy even used his science mask.

The kids drew themselves their theories, and tried to replicate the structures on the board with blocks.

It was fun to have support from family at the fair. Puma tigger's confidence grew as she explained her experiments to other great kids.  Cousins rock!

 It was so much fun to see our friend, winner with her popcorn experiment!

Papabue and Mamabue were so encouraging!

Grandma and her friend came to support too!

It was fun to get on stage and get a certificate. :)

 

Thanks for visiting! So tell us one of your memories from science fair!

December 2014

Out of the blue, Puma Tiger wrote this note for her sis "I heart you with all my heart" last night.  I usaully just keep these somewhere and then loose them, but it's much better in a photo, and if they are in it!  They play every-day together for hours! I am so glad we were blessed with the desire to have them only 18 months apart. Once the second was about eight months old and started crawling, my life got easier! They entretain each other (versus mom being the entretainer all the time). 

 Grandma Susu's sugar cookies are the best! She even brought her perfect cookie cutters from out of state for this occasion! You're so sweet grandma! And this silly goose four year hold, who hated binkies as a baby, took up this obsession over constantly sucking a binky, the real baby's binky by the way, for about two days. I didn't make a deal out of it, and she totally forgot about it by the third day.

 Snowy days are a blast! these kids look out the window for any chance to go out and build a snowman, or have a snow ball fight.

 The best gift ever!
She is so fun! she came out of that bag to give me a huge hug and a kiss :) My favorite!
 “Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Psalm 127:3)

 Having good ol' fun with dragons with cousin on Christmas day!

 Mami's Sunday school lesson of the Old Testament regarding the return of the Jews to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple culminated with the completion of the temple by these three good breathern! Out of the sixty or so in the class, these three took me up on the challenge! It was way fun! Another great use for the magnatiles.

 Tae Kwon Do, kicking it! We made it to the next level!

 Gracias tia for helping us learn and pass our testing. You're the best!

 Cousins rock!

Rainy Weather

1. Rain is falling* all around,
   On the housetops, on the ground.
   Rain is falling on my nose,
   On my head and hands and toes.

We started off our study for the day with this painting project. We do a "one room school house" approach, meaning, we all study the same topic at the same time. Super educational and super easy! I just pulled out the guide from  our Montessori Bin Exchange, pulled out from the shelf the paint that was conveniently stored and kept with paint in it, in these reusable cups.  We are painting on paper that we are "reusing" as any good boy or girl scout would, "reduce, reuse, recycle." 

 Monkey Boy here is proud of his underground water pool.  

You can also enjoy Sweet boy's grass floating in the sky.  

This paper can absorb the large amounts of water my kids will inevitably put on it when they pain, unlike the butcher paper from the dollar store. The paper came from Costco, it is garbage to them because its just the paper the store uses in their toilet paper section to separate bags.  We just got it and told the lady at checkout it was just for a project. We love Costco because they always let us take boxes, cardboard and such. :)  

We, meaning the six of us, from my 2-year old, to my 9 year old nephew, were copying the Water Cycle that was nicely laminated and provided in our Montessori Bin Exchange.  You can see the finished product in the background.

Now, I know it's not the most beautiful painting, I mean it has green grass floating in the sky right next to the cloud. But, it got everyone interested in it, and because we were focused on the process, and not the final product, no body minded that Bluberries painted a family of six rainbow rabbits jumping higher than the clouds. Because we talked as we drew, everyone understands now that the water cycle starts with evaporation of ocean water produced by the Sun, which then condenses into a cloud, and then there is precipitation in the form of rain, snow, sleet, etc. They know these big words: "evaporation, condensation, precipitation, filtration." They have been hearing it in the car in three of our commutes from our Weather Youtube Playlist.  

And what determines if precipitation will be rain or snow?  I let them respond, but they got distracted. So I let them go. 

We took a break, had lunch, and they all played. while they played, I "finished" the painting. I think this is an important step because I am modeling finishing a project, and also making it more complete so that we can use it later. I went ahead and hanged it in our Montessori room for reference. 

After a while we went into the Montessori room and started our circle time. I hung the artwork on the wall.

What determines if precipitation will be rain, or snow? I asked this open question and referenced the painting on the wall, and listened to their answers. Because everyone had worked on it, everyone paid attention.

I sang, and they did their best to follow and sing a song I had never taught them, "rain is falling all around."  We sang it with rain, and with snow. I had them look at our painting and determine where it might snow, and where it might rain. Puma Tiger went to the window and said "look, snow would fall on the mountain tops, and rain down here!"  She made this connection to real life in her own. 

I set on the floor our model of the sun and the earth (also from our Montessori Bin Exchange , it's just a movable paper model), and gave each kid three cards with the months of the year. I told them they had to figure out where theirs was supposed to go. I grabbed the earth and started singing a song of the months of the year, while moving the earth around the sun.  They had to listen and put their month down in the right spot. I started at twelve o clock and moved clock wise. 

Then I took out the four books on the seasons, and had them pick one.  I had in mind to have them match the seasons to the months, but they got interested in reading so I fueled that. Puma Tiger chose summer because she loves to "swim in the lake," Bubbles picked Spring because she "loves flowers." They all read their books out loud at the same time, and then traded (I didn't even ask them to read or to trade, but they wanted to so they did it themselves). It was a bit noisy, but they were all engaged.

 This picture was taken at the request of Rooster boy to showcase the "Spring buddies" because they were both born in the spring. We had a great time.

Our scripture study often has to do with the subject of our academic study. They seem to get more out of the scripture and of academics when we relate it. I usually read it to them while they are all sitting down having breakfast.

"But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46"For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?…

Math Balance

Math Balance

"Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity." Job 31:6 

Balancing is so much fun! Puma Tiger loves to figure out how to make things balance. Here they are exploring it on their own. They are observing or like they like to say "experiencing" the material. 

Research shows that a playful, yet focused, attitude brings out the best type of problem solving from children. When we are doing math, I also put my "playing" hat on, meaning, I am also trying to figure it out and talking out loud. I don't sit down to lecture "you must do this and do that." Rather, because correct math on a balance is self-evidence, I say, "let's see what happens if I put the nine here....what can we put on the other side to balance it? wow, what was that?  One four and one ......(wait for answear, five)  balance nine?  Wow!  nine is equal to four plus five.

Some times I feature a number on the shelf.  This picture featuring number nine. As you can see, one nine equals one four and one five.

This tool is super useful, and not very expensive! I got mine on a kit with the Right Start Math. Fabulous kit, or you can get it stand alone through this link, at no additional cost to you. THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT! Anything you buy from this link helps me keep this page afloat! :)


 

We take a very child lead approach to homeschooling, what some call TJED, and others unschooling. Myhouseoflearning.blogger.com

YouTube Unit Study Homeschooling Christian Medly Playlists

"Can I watch something?" kids as well as adults are drawn to media. I love to make the most out of the wonders of technology by preparing for them fabulous material to enrich their minds. So, I prepare a playlist on Youtube with a medley of styles, all which have something to do with our topic for the month. For example, our Astronomy playlist, with science songs on astronomy, LDS primary songs that teach principles around the subjects of the stars, the sun and Heaven.

Here are some links to our playlists.

Anatomy
American West
Astronomy
Botany
Geology
Geography
Music
Physical Science
Weather, Seasons Water Cycle 
Zoology

My kids and I love to use YouTube playlist to  on YouTube for "entertainment" screen time.  I pop out my Galaxy 3 (so outdated, but it works great!), I plug it to the speakers, and prop it up for my kids to watch as we commute to SLC, field trips, Walmart, TaeKwonDo or anything that will take more than 10 minutes. Any semi-long  or long commute.

HOW TO USE IT:  I will pause it (if we hit a stop at an intersection), and make a comment on what I liked, what I didn't know that I learned. Then I will ask them to share with me what they liked, what they learned, what they wonder.

GOOD USE: Media is a tool. As knife, it can be instrumental in accomplishing a good goal, like cutting an apple, or it can be harmful (you can think of your own example of how a knife can harm).  Besides the content itself meeting my quality of goodness standard (good, praiseworthy, honorable, educational), the manner of use has to be good. Meaning, if it's too much, addicting,

BAD USE: letting the kids spend hours watching media, even if it's educational, is bad for their brain development!




RECOMMENDATION:  Prepare good content and a good environment for what your kids watch (Montessori principle). Then watch for a few minutes, turn it off, and talk about it! The conversation, their telling you what they observe is where the learning happens!
 Do you have some educational videos that you just love? Please tell me in the comments!

Astronomy Montessori Christ Centered Homeschooling

Astronomy Montessori Homeschooling, Christ Centered

"I am like a star shining brightly,

Smiling for the whole world to see.

I can do and say happy things each day,

For I know Heav'nly Father loves me."

My favorite part of homeschooling is the empowerment I have to study in depth the beauties of nature, and through that expand my children's perspective in the things that are real. We explore truths of science and the principles they teach us, principles that we can apply in our daily life. The Heavens is a great place for inspiration! 

We studied astronomy for a month. We LOVED our experiences in field trips, games, and Montessori activities. There are many fabulous ideas online, but we are lucky to just get them delivered monthly at no cost or prepping time because of our awesome Montessori Bin Exchange. Our activities included some wonderful materials. We added some wonderful field trips, FHE and scripture study, and we had a BLAST!

The planetarium rocks! Sugar plum loved our visit to BYU's planetarium.  In this picture she was pretending she was traveling through space, she identified Saturn because of the storm, galaxies and nebulas. She can tell you that a Star is a giant ball of burning Helium and Hidogen, and all the names of the planets in the Solar System.  She loves space!

Building stars with magnates is not only super fun, but it challenges their creativity and develops their problem solving skills, great for math, trigonometry, etc. The two older kids had the basic base figured out, then Sugar Plum came along, took their flat top off, and built the green triangular top and the point on top. :) They all loved it!

 Practical life skill building activity, pouring star shape pasta in two pitchers.

Sweet Boy is playing with galaxy glittery dough, fitting it into the star shaped glass container and figuring out just how much to cut out for the lid to fit on it and form a star.



This is how things roll in action!

Fourth Grader Star loved learning with these three part cards and the small objects about the different kinds of space crafts, the first man on the moon, the monkey on the moon.  She did it all and loved it!


After learning tons of facts on the sun from our Youtube Astronomy Playlist onour car c omutes, Sugar plum made this fab video :)

Puma Tyger blowwing up the biggest ballon to represent the Sun.  We had lots of fun dancing with it and bumping people with it.

Now check out Earth, the blue planet! So small compared to the sun! 

 Our scripture study on the degrees of glory, the Celestial (sun), Terrestrial (moom), Telestial (stars).

Sombrero Galaxy! viva Mexico! The Montessori bin exchange had an activity with the different kinds of activities, and many books, and that's where I learned about the three kinds of Galaxies!  This picture is from one of our weekly BYU's Planetarium trips. I love that the documentary movie changes every week, that an expert teaches about the night sky of the day, and that we get to go upstairs and take a look with thier fabulous telescopes, and their nice guides.  My Sugar Plum learned about the life-cycle of stars with one of the exchange activities, and the staff helped us find Beatle Juice, a red star, on the armpit of Orion.

Twinkle twinkle little star!

This wooden frame got transformed into an orbit. Showing here a planet orbiting the sun, but we also had the earth in the middle, and the moon orbiting the earth. You could also pretend a galaxy is orbiting the black hole in the center of the galaxy.  The kids loved to use big balls, marbles, bouncy balls, and compare their speed, and their effect upon collision. 

This moon sand was played with almost every day! For our opening circle one day I pulled this out along with our globe of earth, and we pretended how this rocket left earth, landed on the moon, and the US flag was placed there by Armstrong. They asked if it was still there now, and we went to look in a book (provided by the exchange) to see if we could find out (we found that the foot prints and the footprints will remain for centuries because there is no wind).  

 Puma Tiger loves the planet Earth! She can tell you that it is the only planet with life because of a perfect balance of temperature and elements. She can tell you that water is what makes up most of earth, and that because God is grand and powerful, there might be life in other planets as well.

 This was our visit to the Holdman Glass Blowing Studio at Thanksgiving Point. We had previously learned that sand burns and becomes glass, and that different elements react differently to different temperatures. Hence the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Neptun are gas giants. farthest from the Sun, and Mercury is a giant ball of iron metal, heavier elements closer to the Sun.

This is from the SLC Planetarium. Free admission, with lots of fabulous stuff.

Here are some extra pics just for fun:

 

This picture reminds me of an evening we were driving through the middle of nowhere, and we stopped the car, got outside, and in awesome wonder looked at the stars and considered all the worlds the Lord's hand has made. I sang for them How great thou Art, and we all sang in the car as we kept on driving Families Can be Together Forever.

When I first considered teaching toddlers astronomy I thought it would be way over their heads. But the Montessori Bin Exchange had it and I decided to give it a try! I am so glad we did. It provided many oportunities to consider God's great hand, and learn about the elements, and we just had such a blast! Thank you Stacy Palowsky for puttingthe bin together!

What are some of YOUR favorite memories, thoughts, scriptures, videos, field trips, or Montessori activities?