Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Human Body: Final Presentation

It feels good to be wrapping up the year and finishing projects.  I'm so glad to be putting this year in the books.  It was a great year!  Don't get me wrong. But homeschooling is always a little extra challenging with a new baby in the house.  Next year I may eat those words!  Next year we'll have a toddler destroying all of our work and getting into everything you can think of.  Well, I've lived through it before. I'm sure we can make it work again.  :)  Big inhale.

Anyway, 5th grader just finished up her.  I've posted a lot of her work here recently because she had such a good time using the resources that came with her unit and doing all of the fun hands on projects.  I will definitely be using THiS UNIT again in the future with my other kids.

I accidentally threw out her model of a human lung.  But here is a compilation of some of her other work that she put together for her final presentation.  So proud of her hard work!!


Here's a closer look at the skin model she made which is not pictured.  And here's my daughter working on her Squishy Human Body set, which is required to finish the unit.

It glows!

My 7th grader did a chemistry class this year using Noeo Chemistry 3, which I think she mostly enjoyed.  I think the biggest thing we had to work on in this class was how to write up a good lab report without cutting corners.  I think the readings were solid and fairly interesting too.

The chemistry kit was fairly complete and came with some good resources. She found a few of the labs to be a bit trite and redundant.  But a few of them sparked her interest.  The last one was kinda cool.  We happen to catch it on video.  Her lesson was on chemo-luminescence.  Did I spell that right?


Saturday, June 11, 2016

It must be summer!

I always feel like summer has officially begun when the strawberries are ready to pick.  They were ready a little early this year but with the warm weather and all, it sure does feel like summer around here.  It was fun to take our little one to the fields with us and watch her devour her favorite fruit endlessly.  I think she finally got her fill by the end.  Check it out:



























Friday, June 10, 2016

Family Book Club- Owls in the Family

We recently finished reading Owls in the Family together.  I loved it!  Another story based out of   Canada.  I loved that it was a shorter book that we were able to finish fairly quickly this time.  The story is so simple, and yet so endearing and entertaining.  My kids loved it too and they never wanted me to put the book down.

So to celebrate this book reading, we invited some friends over to dissect owl pellets with us!   Super fun.  A tiny bit gross.  Mostly interesting.

Here are some fun photos.





Look at these scientists hard at work!






Wow, this student worked very carefully and thoroughly to unpack this intact skull from the pellet.  I was impressed!  One of the pellets even had two complete skulls in it. That was a hungry owl!  If you're wondering what the bleach was for, some of the kids decided to bleach teh bones (3 minute process) and take them home to glue onto cardboard using the identification chart to form a complete skeleton.




Here we are talking about an owl's part in the food web.  I gave the kids necklaces that named their part in the web, and I used yarn to connect the producers and consumers in this web and make the activity a bit more memorable.

Fun times!  I was so glad to wipe down the tables with disinfectant and thoroughly clean the floors when it was all done.  Ick.

Kindergarten PE

I've been meaning to get these pictures up for a couple of weeks just because they are cute!  A friend from the co-op snapped these for me since I am monitoring the study hall while my cutie pie is in PE.  But here she is on the last day of class, making some really cool, very huge bubbles!

I love to see my kids having fun and enjoying cool experiences with good people.  Makes me happy.





Thursday, June 2, 2016

Memorial Day 2016


Last year at this time I was fairly pregnant with baby six.  I remember we attended a really nice military service for Memorial Day at the cemetery where Hazel is buried.  Before the service  I remember kneeling by her grave with my big belly, missing her, but so grateful for a chance at a new life to join our family.  And so sad that I would be able to raise these two girls as siblings on earth.  A whirlwind of emotions.  Certain moments or events bring up a lot of memories and emotions for me.

This year, I feel like we commemorated Memorial Day a day early.  We almost always go visit Hazel on Sunday and bring her fresh flowers.  So this past Sunday the staff were putting out all the flags on the service men's graves.  There were so many.  SO many!

It was a good time to talk to the kids about just how many of our good citizens give up their time, talents, families and opportunities to serve our nation.  The cemetery was just a very small representation of the hundreds of thousands, no millions, of Americans that have fought for freedom in one way or another.

So on Monday, Memorial Day, we decided to go for a hike.  It was a gorgeous day.  Perfect for hiking.  We went to Wallace Falls.  We have attempted to hike Wallace Falls many times, but never have made it because we had a little (always someone different) that needed to turn around and go home.

But this time we were determined to make it!  At least to the Lower Falls.  And...we did!  Hurray! It only took ten years.  :)

It was so worth it.  What a site!


Can't resist getting close

This is funny if you know about the sibling feud happening at our house.  This guy thinks pigs are the best animals ever.  His sister things horses are the best.  It sometimes turns into all out war!  Seriously.  With tears and everything.  I don't get it.  But sometimes we can all laugh about it and this sign helped us do just that.
The Great North West!







We were certainly tired, muddy, and happy by the end.  At least most of us fit that description.  After dealing with some traffic on the way home, we arrived late for a yummy BBQ with friends at the park.  Fun day!