Restoration Place

Volcanic Eruption Activity

Yesterday afternoon was volcanic. We watched videos, read books, colored pictures, investigated pumice, made a Sculpey lava flow, and created an erupting volcano. Even with all that, I think the boys could have kept going the rest of the afternoon.

We're on Unit 2, Lesson 5: Volcanoes of the Christian Kids Explore Earth & Space and there are perfectly good instructions for simulating your own volcanic eruptions in the lesson, but I already had this kit stashed so I brought it out:

Never mind that I neglected to read all the instructions and gather necessary household items beforehand, and didn't have club soda, and didn't want to make a plaster and sand volcano that would have to dry 24 hours before creating the eruptions--we were erupting a volcano that afternoon!

Good thing I know how to make a giant glob of salt dough, and had a few liters of Coke sitting in the basement (for the Steve Spangler Mentos-Coke geyser).

The children globbed the salt dough onto the kit's plastic volcano form:

 

We prepared the eruption ingredients:

 

Filled the volcano's crater with Coke:

 

Threw in the kit's tablets (which are mostly baking soda and red food coloring), and watched the eruptions:

 

 

Of course, you don't need a kit (or even salt dough) to create an erupting volcano. Just Google the phrase "baking soda volcano" and have fun!

September 29 ~ Home Learning Plans

Here's a peek at our focus for the day...

Bible & Breakfast: Finishing the story of Noah; Psalms; Our 24 Family Ways; Prayer and worship music.

Morning chores & personal care.

Maggie: Torches of Joy, William Carey, India: The People, India: The Culture, Exploring Planet Earth, Anne of Avonlea; math, dictation, spelling; India scrapbook page, Artistic Pursuits; choosing Indian recipe.

Jacob, Katie & Ben: Picture book read alouds (current favorite--The Giant Jam Sandwich), Child's History of the World, Fifty Famous Rides and Riders, A Child's Garden of Verses, Stuart Little, Castle Diary, The Minstrel in the Tower, Little House in the Big Woods; Ben's activities (Signing Time, etc.); math, handwriting, and reading lessons/practice for Jacob and Katie; hands-on Middle Ages project.

Group work: Science--volcano project.

Various individual rabbit trails (some time I'll have to write them all down!)

If we run errands this afternoon, we'll listen to Story of the World: Vol 2, The Middle Ages narrated by Jim Weiss, while driving.

Australia Scrapbook Page ~ Sonlight Core 5

As you know, Maggie's working her way through Sonlight's Core 5 ~ Eastern Hemisphere for the bulk of her home education focus this year. But we kept getting hung up on the core's Eastern Hemisphere Explorer, a research guide coupled with the World Book on CD-ROM, which were provided to help us navigate our way through the various countries.

As attractive as the guide is, it's little more than a fill-in-the-blank workbook to us, as we have never taken to the idea of using workbook-type activities for our home learning. Yes, it has a fantastic section entitled, "Choose Your Own Adventure" which provides great ideas for hands-on projects to experience each country (recipes, art, music, crafts, games, and so on). And in other sections there are great opportunities to research each country, draw in a picture of a flag, fill in information about the people, culture, etc.

But we really disliked the format and because Maggie's frustration level was increasing to the point that her joy of learning was draining away, it was time to turn to prayer. After talking and praying together, we decided to try a scrapbook/lapbook approach to learning about the countries included in the core, instead of making ourselves fit into the constricting box that the Eastern Hemisphere Explorer had become for us.

And so, with absolutely no scrapbooking experience, but with the encouragement and ideas of my dear friend Deb at As We Walk, and a complete stranger at in the aisles of Michael's (who must be the queen of scrapbooking!) who generously shared the world of scrapbooking with us, we've begun!

Here's Maggie's first page, done almost entirely by herself and with such joy!

 

I feel certain that when Maggie completes Core 5, she's going to experience the deep satisfaction of creating her very own travel guide to all the countries she's explored. And she'll be the richer for having learned about the non-Western world.

I'll have the peace of knowing I've prayed, listened to God's voice guiding us, and let Him who knows my children best help us navigate our home education journey.

Blog: Think! A Program Designed to Encourage Kids to Think Outside the Box

Think! presents weekly challenges for kids to come up with creative solutions using only the list of materials and parameters provided in the challenge.

This is week four and the current focus is to elevate an apple as high and as for long as possible using marshmallows, toothpicks, straws, plastic caps (from a water bottle, etc.), and lifesavers (we used Cheerios, an approved substitute).

The children were very excited about the challenge:

 

 

Once you've completed the challenge, you can submit your photos to Think!

We might not be able to participate in every week's challenge, but we're going to do as many as we can as we love "science-y" inventive stuff around here.

Hope to see you there!

Afternoon for Nature Journaling

Several years ago, when my children were much younger and I was only homeschooling my oldest (who was 6 or 7), I remembered feeling somewhat dismayed to read on a popular Charlotte Mason email list that families were having difficulty finding time to keep up with their nature journals.

~Big, sheepish grin~ Well, here I am in the very same situation. I am having a lot of trouble finding regular time to spend in nature with my children, and to journal, however simply, about our experiences. I now understand a little better the sort of daily demands that keep a family from scheduling a weekly nature outing.

On Monday (my birthday, so it was Mom's choice, whee!) we packed a picnic, grabbed an old quilt, our nature journal supplies, and headed north to Rocks State Park for some exploration and sketching.

Though it was 72 degrees F and the water was cold enough to numb my feet, the children readily immersed themselves:

Signs of fall on this first day of fall were everywhere, but there were still shells to pocket and creek "seaweed" to scuff in:

 

 

 

Next, lunch and sketching. The children had found nature treasures to record in their journals, and got busy drawing as soon as they finished eating because they wanted to get to the most important thing--the playground. ~smile~

 

 

 

 

 

When we got home, look what we found crawling across our driveway:

 

A Woolly Bear caterpillar...on the first day of fall!

Birthday Treasures

September 22. The first day of autumn and my birthday. We celebrated last night with a fire, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, my favorite wine, and a beautiful chocolate mousse cake.

I only had to blow out one candle, thank goodness! 44 candles might have set the cake on fire. I was surrounded by my greatest treasures--my husband and children. They graced me with lovely handmade gifts and nature finds.

I am filled up with goodness and joy.

Dragon Boats and Viking Ships

Last Saturday we went to Baltimore's Inner Harbor to watch Karl and his rowing partners compete in a Chinese dragon boat race to benefit Catholic charities. There were 30+ teams of rowers so it was a very busy and exciting day.

 

 

There was a hat competition, too. Look at this dragon head!

Naturally, watching the Chinese dragon boat race led to a "ships through history" rabbit trail this week. We've read some books, looked up ships online, drawn ships, and finally we made Viking ships (which coordinates tidily with Sonlight's Core 2 history--not that it really needed to, though, ~grin~).

We've also been listening to Story of the World, Vol. 2 - The Middle Ages narrated by Jim Weiss (not a part of Core 2, but we didn't want to miss it) whenever we're driving around town and he really makes the Vikings come alive.

The Viking ship project comes from the Story of the World, Vol. 2 Activity Book. 

 

 

The boys had plans for making their Viking ship water-tight, so these might be covered in clear, durable tape and make a journey down the creek.

100 Species Challenge ~ #4 & #5, Mushrooms

On the heels of yesterday's mushroom post, I dug deeper to identify two of them. The first one was easy:

4. Lycoperdon curtisii:

This is the one that reminded Deb at As We Walk of a flower. It's a little wider than a quarter. Pretty, isn't it?

5. Coprinus plicatilis (Japanese Umbrella Inky/Fairy Parasol):

 

 

For this very difficult one, I turned to David Fischer, a North American mushroom expert on the ecology and identification of mushrooms at American Mushroom. Fischer is the author of Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America and Mushrooms of Northeastern North America. I emailed him a photo of the delicate, gray mushrooms and he very kindly (and quickly!) responded with his identification: Coprinus plicatilis. Thanks again, Mr. Fischer, for your helpful response! 

Mushrooms, Mushrooms!

 

 

All these mushrooms in my yard, and not one can be named...yet.

I adore mushrooms. I have fond memories of Maggie turning three (she's 10 now) and discovering mushrooms. This enchanted me to no end. We would spend hours searching for and identifying mushrooms in our small Texas town. She was the only three-year-old I knew who toted around a mushroom identification guide and an old computer keyboard at the same time.

Now that I've experienced four three-year-olds I know that three is the age of mushroom fascination. I'm 43 and still fascinated. I can't not notice mushrooms. They're just so different.

I'm driven to know all their names. Do you know how difficult it is to accurately identify mushrooms? I would love to take a guided mushroom identification hike.

Until then, I'll be the weird neighbor lady who's crouching around her front yard with a tattered Pocket Guide to Mushrooms and a camera, shrieking at my kids to stop cartwheeling and hand-standing on my mushrooms.

Home Education ~ Snapshots from the First Week