More Cool Science: Ants--Nature's Secret Power

My husband somehow ended up learning about an "ant city" and then found the whole documentary from which the original clip he saw came.

By last night, he was watching it his 3rd or 4th time. :)

It truly is fascinating and could make for a good science class. The mass collective intelligence of ants is astounding.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/ants-natures-secret-power/

Science Coolness: You Won't Believe Your Eyes

My 15-year old son might be a near iPad addict, but he also does find some really cool stuff.

He is subscribed to a YouTube channel called Smarter Every Day and this new video from the channel showed up in his YouTube feed. He just had to show it to me--watch it and you'll see why! It's crazy!

Second Day of Khan Academy

My son and I watched another chemistry video yesterday. He balked at first. "21 minutes?!" (Apparently, that's a long time?) I said that if he were in school, class would be 40-50 minutes. He retorted, "But it's not a video." lol. I'm not sure I totally understood, but that's okay.

We watched the Introduction to the Atom. It covered some of the same information from the first video and went in a little deeper. The thing that hit my son the most was the end, when the instructor said that what we see as solid is really mostly empty space. It is mind-blowing, isn't it? Which means that if our eyes could see that "clearly", we would not see things as solid but see the empty space. Crazy.

When we finished, there was a thing about having earned so many points and signing up and this and that. Do any of you "do" the points? I looked it up. All it seems to be good for is earning badges, which, I guess, are supposed to make the kids feel proud of themselves or something? My son having grown up without rewards for the most part really has no interest in earning points and badges. Sees it as totally useless. lol. (Perhaps if there were some actual physical product gain... lol)

So, so far, so good with Khan Academy. If only my son found Canada: A People's History as interesting (or perhaps if Canada: A People's History were in only 20-minute snippets and not hours upon hours long...).

I finally used Khan Academy!

I feel like I'm so behind the times, what with so many familis using Khan Academy regularly--even my own husband has used some of the math videos for years in his junior high math classroom--and other than my briefly looking at one of the videos, I've never used them as part of our homeschooling.

Until yesterday.

And let me tell you, I think if I could have an entire video curriculum for my son, it could be just the ticket for him. The possibility of pausing, rewinding, having the visuals...

We looked specifically at the first video in the chemistry section. I took notes on the side in a notebook my son will eventually be using to take his own notes. I also added in additional notes/information and his questions. He actually had a really good question at the end of the video yesterday:

"What would happen if you could make the electrons and neutrons change places?"

I explained about electrons having no mass compared to the neutrons and what that would do. He came up with the idea of an apocalyptic movie where such a thing would happen--"It would be a two-minute long movie." (I'm not even sure it would last that long. lol)

If you haven't checked out Khan Academy yet, do so! Now if only they had Canadian or world history instead of just American and art history...

We Finally Did Science!

We had a pretty good homeschool morning, my son and I. We did some math questions from Life of Fred: Decimals and Percents (although I did the lesson on the side; I have NEVER seen anybody go about teaching how to multiply decimals the way he does!!) and then I had him read part of a passage in Matthew. For the math, I actually added some extensions to it all. We'd already looked in the past about how a decimal number reflects a fraction, so I tied that in and then (re?)introduced scientific notation since one of the answers was 0.00000009. Made sense to do so.

And then, wait for it: We finally did SCIENCE! Woot! I pulled out the Deluxe Science Kit we've had for, oh, perhaps 2+ years and have never really done? It's been open and we set some of it up but haven't done the experiments.

 
Deluxe 450+ Experiments in Physics & Energy Scientist Kit  

I decided to just start with Experiment 1 (they're not so much experiments as activities, but anyhow) and we worked our way through to Experiment 9, I think. He quite enjoyed the water play, which is funny because it brought back memories of him and his cousin, 11 years ago as 2-year olds, playing at the kitchen sink! lol. I have a picture, but I'm not at home and it's only in emails and I can't figure out how to get Blogger to put it in while I'm on a public computer! I'll share it in a separate post. Along with an after-picture of his having put away the dishes...

In any case, he went on to explore a bit more. The last experiment we did, he had a beaker full of water upside down in the sink full of water and put some tubing into the beaker, then he blew air into it. That led to his having lots of fun (no, 13's apparently still not too young to enjoy making bubbles! lol) with that and then seeing what would happen if he put a beaker full of air upside down in the water and sucked the air out. I'm not sure all he did as I ended up walking away when I saw he was just exploring.

After that, I read to him from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (the Kindle version is currently FREE!). We've been working on this book for over a year for sure. He had started it on his own, but found it difficult to understand, so I started reading it too him and I stop every now and then for him to tell me in his own words what they mean by something or to just outright explain because some of the vocabulary is like a foreign language. We are just about done but it's been an interesting story for him and I'm glad we're doing it together. I grabbed the Socratic Logic book I have by Peter Kreeft

 

Socratic Logic: A Logic Text using Socratic Method, Platonic Questions, and Aristotelian Principles, Edition 3.1
 
Peter Kreeft has a great sense of humour, or at least in the early pages. It was kind of funny as my son asked, "Why are we doing this?" and I said it was to help him write well, so that he could write papers and such where he could defend an opinion. "Oh, okay." (Always that practical, teenaged-mindedness!) And I opened it to what I thought was the first page and it was something like "Reasons to Study Logic". Ha! Then I realized there was a preface. I turned to that and it started off talking about Middle Earth (my son has seen all the Lord of the Rings movies, the two most recent Hobbit movies and we've been slowly reading through The Hobbit (oh! I was just trying to find a link in Amazon for the book and discovered an illustrated version!), so it definitely caught his attention. I only read the preface and a part of the first page of the reasons and he ended up playing his guitar for a little bit. This all took us the morning, was relaxed and enjoyable. It was superb. :)

Bugs, bugs, bugs

My 12yo was sitting next to me on the sofa last night as I looked through my Facebook newsfeed. One of the posts had to do with an insect and one thing led to another and we ended up spending a good 30-45 minutes looking through the Bugs of Alberta site and further research on select bugs led us to BugGuide.net where they put the full classification of the bugs (very useful for those of you studying zoological classification!)

One thing we wanted information on and had a hard time finding was the meaning of Chlorochroa (Say's stink bug). I kept looking for Latin but it seems the roots are Greek. Chloro = green; chroa = colour. I thought that Latin names were, well, Latin? Can anybody provide some insight?

Science Funny

From: Graham, CD. 1957. A glossary for research reports. Metal Progress 71: 75
Taken from Science Is Awesome on Facebook

The Herb Garden Report

I haven't had a look at my 12yo's binder to see which day we are on, but two new sprouts showed up today--one sharing a peat pellet with the very first sprout!

 

My son had put sticky notes on either side of the mini garden so we would know which seeds were planted where (parsley on one side, basil on the other), but I didn't think to tape it down, which meant they fell off. This isn't disastrous as it has allowed him to write in his prediction that the side with 3 (4 now; can't see the 4th) is basil since the package said they would germinate sooner than the parsley. There is one little parsley sprout on the right-hand side.

I don't know yet if we can just leave the herbs in the peat pellets, if we'll need to fill it with dirt at some point or what, but we're not there yet, so it's all good. ;)

Our Tuesday... So Far

It's been an "interesting" day today. And it's only 12:04 pm as I start typing this.

First, I "slept in" until just after 5:30 am. I normally wake up sometime between 4 and 5, move down to the couch and try to fall back asleep. (My husband's alarm goes off at 6 am and I am often able to sleep past that--if I don't have the alarm waking me up.) But I finally got out of bed close to 6 and realized I probably wasn't going to go back to sleep. I did some things on the computer instead.

My son, who has been awake before 8 for days now, showed no signs of being alive until after 8:30. My daughter, who thought she had her alarm set for 8:15, but wasn't feeling great yesterday so I didn't wake her up when it turned out her alarm wasn't on, didn't get up until after 9, I think it was.

Before she was ready, my son and I tackled the first activity in the TOPS chemistry unit we are doing:

Our coffee filter wasn't quite the type of filter they had wanted us to use, apparently, because the jar on the right was supposed to have clear water, but it still did a decent job since you can tell the iodine made the other jar's solution a much deeper purple.

When my daughter was finally ready, she actually said she was feeling great. Finally had a decent night's sleep. That didn't last long. We didn't have what she wanted for breakfast but needed to go to the nearby Service Canada--in a mall where Safeway is--so she decided to wait on breakfast and we headed to Service Canada. 1.5-hour wait, we're told. Oh. It was already after 10 am at this point. We sat down and she started complaining about pressure behind her eyes. I thought it must be sinuses. I go buy her a bottle of water and a package of Pop Tarts. After a couple of minutes, she has a blind spot. Shoot. Sign of a migraine. She's had one before. A little later, pressure was gone from her eye and the blind spot was gone. But her forehead was hurting. By the time we actually got into see someone, she was really not feeling well. We skipped Safeway and went straight home, but she ended up vomiting in the van. Including on her black suede boots.

She's now resting on the sofa, perhaps even sleeping, with HGTV on in the background, a large bowl ready just in case and her cat keeping her company.

We were doing not too badly at trying to get her math course done before the end of January. I'm keeping my fingers crossed she'll still manage!

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow...

I'm actually feeling rather nervous about tomorrow. Especially once I sat down to work out a sort of schedule for my two and realizing I don't like having a schedule. lol.

For my nearly 14yo dd, especially, who has never worked on a schedule, and I do like the Montessori approach of controlling their own time more (although, admittedly, if she were in a Montessori school, she'd probably have a schedule; something for me to keep in mind), I just ended up going, "What am I doing?!?!" It felt so off from what would work well. I think a sort of schedule for my son would work to start--he's kind of had a short routine schedule this past year. Now I want to add things in.

But I think I'm changing too many things at once. It just all felt so artificial as I was writing out the specifics of what to do tomorrow morning. I need to regroup and restart my plan.

REBOOT ;)

I do really like the idea of starting off with a Bible verse or some other religion time. I have most of the Faith and Life series and we've only made it 3/4 of the way through book 3. That could definitely part of our morning routine.

Ds is used to having handwriting--although I admit to not doing it as much as I would have liked to have had him do last year. I've been noticing improper letter formation and will be starting off focusing on that. Dd at this time could just move onto her own work, whatever she chooses. I'll tackle that in a minute. In any case, I will have him start off by writing out the alphabet, lower case, and I will take note of which letters are problematic. I know his p's are--he always places them on the line rather than the tail below. I'll also have a look at just how nice the letters are. I think, though, I might like to have him then compare his letters to my letters and to have him tell me what's different. We'll tackle the ones he sees clearly are different first.

Ds is also used to doing math in the morning. I will do a place value lesson with him tomorrow on that.

Now, what to do after that??? The CM schedule had in Drill, which I was skipping, then Repetition Poem. I like the idea, but think that's one of the last things I ought to introduce.

What other subjects are there?

Science: I had meant to have picked some books for him and I haven't. What are some ideas as I sit here? I could look at the provincial program of studies. I could have him use his science kit (I like that idea!). He's had this one kit since his last birthday--and his next one is less than a month away--and not once done anything from it. I think he found the set up confusing. That could be a fantastic project tomorrow. If we actually do something from the kit beyond setting things up, I could have him narrate to me what we did and I will write it down in a science notebook. This, of course, has me wondering if I even have notebooks...

Social Studies: I'm rethinking having him do social studies with his big sister. First of all, I don't know how much government would really interest him, even how I plan to go about it. Second, being stuck waiting for him would not work when dd is ready to move along--she is far too used to her individual pace and I see nothing compelling about having to present something twice. Three years apart is quite a difference, especially since dd is much more academically inclined. My thoughts at the moment are perhaps Canadian history and geography or world geography, with picking some areas to learn more about. I can throw the ideas out there tomorrow and observe the reaction.

Art: I haven't picked an artist to study. I have some pages from a Monet calendar; I could always start with Monet. It could be interesting to do another one though. Of course, he could also spend some time drawing tomorrow. We've got a bunch of fantastic instructional books.

Music: He has not touched his guitar in ages. Now, guitar's not something I'd really want to be doing with him in the morning, but he could always disappear to his room during the regular school year. There is a kids' instructional book that I bought sometime ago that he has not touched. If I present it to him and do a lesson with him, he might continue with it.

French: I want him reading more in French--which he's sort of started doing (Calvin and Hobbes--it's a start!). The writing will come later once his handwriting's better and he's had more practice with narration. The other thing to tackle is grammar! I could have him learn avoir in present tense tomorrow. It could also serve as copywork. I had something else originally planned, covering terms such as nom commun and nom propre, but I think I'd like to just get into the verbs and take it from there.

I could also add in geometry as a separate subject.

Now, all this written down, what is he likely to actually do in a 3-hour period and in what order should I suggest things (since he's nowhere near just picking the order on his own)?

*Bible/religion
*handwriting
*math
*social studies
*science
*French grammar
*art
*music

If we actually do all that, it will be amazing. ;) However, it could end up being one of those things where he spends about 15-20 minutes per subject, which means he'll be done in a couple of hours. If so, I'll take it from there and work on presenting more to him. Like Latin, dictation, etc.


---

Now, what about my dd?

She can start off the day with us and the Bible. After that, she'll have her choice of the following:

*math: I'm not sure if she's ever done exponents with 10's, so I'll do that with her. If that's fine, I'll move her into place value with the "developped form": 32 465 = 3 x 10^4 + 2 x 10^3 + etc.

*social studies: I don't have any French resources yet for this. We do have a Kingfisher Encyclopedia of History (I think that's what it is) as a starting point to look at early civilizations, their lifestyles, what sort of government would have have needed, etc. I want her to either tell me about it and the write down what she's told me, or write something down pretending she's telling it to me. My goal is not note-taking.

*science: First order of business will be to have her decide if she is going to cover one unit at a time or more than one at a time. There are advantages and disadvantages to both! If she does one unit at a time, she'll start with the first unit and have about 24 school days to work through it. If she decides to tackle 2 units, then we'll extend that time! Approach: Read a short section, be able to tell back, write down any vocabulary words, answer any questions that are a part of the text.

*French reading: I found Les misérables but have not even read the first page yet. I need to do that and write down words or phrases that she might have difficulty with. (I expect to have difficulty with it--despite my years of French Immersion schooling and then most of my university in French, I have actually done very little in terms of French literature!) Her assignment, after I go over some things, will be to tackle a small section and then do a written or oral narration. I might also find some historical background to it so that there is some sort of context provided before she gets going!

*French grammar: Verb conjugations in the present tense, starting with ER verbs. A little review! She can come up with a bunch of verbs and then work out their conjugation and maybe a few sentences. (She actually likes coming up with silly sentences to practise verb conjugations.) One thing I ought to check is there are new grammar and spelling rules since I studied them. The old are still acceptable, but I really ought to show her the new. I am quite certain that some of the ER verbs have had their conjugation rules change when it comes to doubling letters for certain verbs; not sure if accents have been affected. (Those of you unfamiliar with French, I'm sorry--you probably have no clue what I'm talking about and I'm sharing a bunch of babble!)

*German: This is her one key course this year. She would like just to be able to converse more than follow necessarily the program of studies. I'm thinking I wouldn't mind getting all her abilities up enough that she could skip a course or two through distance learning or be able to get easily into a private one-day program we have here in town (although she has thus far shown an extreme aversion to any sort of lessons on the weekend and would rather have a job!). If we do enough, she could probably do the grade 12 level correspondence next year (grade 10 year) and be done with the formalities while we continue improving our German together. Well, okay, I need to remember a lot first. ;) So, what to do for tomorrow? I think I should take some objectives from the grade 7 (first year for one track of the German second language options) level and focus on vocabulary that we can use in day-to-day situations. I wish they had a vocabulary and expressions list like they do for French! But alas...

I've just looked things up. Things we could work on are just basic house vocabulary and question words like wer, wo, wie, wann, was... Ich möchte is a great expression to know and easily use. (I would like...) I will have to take some time and make up a vocabulary list. Mind you, we have the one workbook that covers both grades 7 and 8, so I could maybe just focus on that, plus household daily things. That would work. For tomorrow... Shoot, I think my brain just shut off. lol. ... Oh woot!!! I just did some searching and found a vocabulary and expressions list! Yay!

Other than that, there is art and music. For art, she has a painting book and I will simply ask her to do one of the lessons from it. We have all the necessary materials for it. For music, I will ask her what she wants to do: keep going with piano? try the flute? both? something else?

That's enough for now. I must go rest my brain a while! Too much stress today with various things. :/

Summer "school" plans

I have all kinds of thoughts running through my head! :D

First, my 10yo ds has a chemistry kit he chose a few weeks ago--and he's still not tried a single thing. There is some prep involved and he doesn't want to do it by himself.

Second, my 13yo dd expressed to me today that she really wants to learn German once and for all. Not that she expects to master it quickly, but she would like to stay committed to it, focused on it, etc. She really feels that the workbook way is not ideal, has asked about Rosetta Stone... I can set up a plan of vocabulary and phrases to use with her each day. I've already been incorporating a bit more German here and there (by a bit, I mean a VERY tiny bit), just to try to get myself more into German-thinking mode and to get them used to it; essentially, slowly building up a habit. A little more of a push on my own habits and I think she could learn a lot this summer orally--and then see the usefulness of the workbooks.

Third, I've been decluttering my den. I tackled a pile of stuff tonight in which there were photocopied pages of a TOPS Science unit. I completely forgot that I had any of these units. I'd tried to use them years ago--and I literally mean years: something like 6 or 7 years ago--and I'm not sure what happened (couldn't find the materials we needed? got caught up in something else? I don't know), but I still have the photocopies of the corn and beans unit. Would just need to buy a few items and we could do this as a project this summer.

Other ideas floating through my head:
*Lots of practical life, aka housekeeping. One idea is to make a list of everything that would be done daily or regularly in a house and have them do everything at least once.
*Lots of meal planning and prep: I want them more involved in planning what they will eat for snacks and meals, more involved in meal planning and preparation. To start, one of them will help me each day for supper. That and first thing each morning, they plan out the fruits and veggies they will eat and when. (A good amount of fruits and veggies is lacking in all our diets!)
*Lots of walks and hiking. I can't forget, though, that I will be babysitting my friend's little guy--20mo.
*I want to get myself a copy of Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye .
 Primarily to use with my ds, since he has not had anything incite him to write yet. I figure some games could be a good way to play around with writing while not requiring it nor demanding a lot!

Some recent pics

Our "pink" tower that the 3yo did last week. It is a set of wood nesting blocks, different images on each side, but the same arrangement of images for each block. I was going to repaint them at one point, but then I noticed how older kids paid attention to the images--it became more of a challenge--and the younger they were, they tended not to. It's kind of fun to see that "oh!" moment kick in when they realize they can match up the images. As you can see, she hasn't hit the "oh!" moment. ;)

This is from an experiment from dd's French workbook (it covers all subjects, but for French-speaking students). Green water, vegetable oil on top, then you sprinkle a bunch of salt. The "bubble" you see in the middle was the result of salt, stuck in oil, had dropped down to the bottom and is now going back up.

I decided yesterday that given how she'd done the cylinder blocks the previous week, I was going to present two at a time. So I pulled them out, did not get a chance to show her before she sat down with them. I decided to just kind of observe how she would do. It was too hard for her, BUT she decided to do some knobless cylinder towers. :) The first one she did was actually more how it should have been; here, she tried to mix the two sets of cylinders. She watched me look at the cylinders to decide where to put them back and was able to do some of them. It's possible I picked the wrong 2 blocks to start with.

Forgot to share!

Last week, I think it was, we did a little science activity with hot water, cold water and food colouring to see how diffusion works. Very, very neat! I will hopefully be able to post some pictures soon!