Posted by Cindy on October 31, 2008
We’re finishing up our Thirteen Colonies & Colonial Life Unit this week. I’ll be posting soon about the biggest chunk of the unit, but I wanted to take a minute to highlight the 13 Colonies lapbook/notebook we put together using this book.
I had to do the legwork of locating library books about each of the Thirteen Colonies, as well as Roanoke, Jamestown and Plymouth. But the wonderful activity ideas were ready and waiting in the book. It turned out to be a lovely way to document a bit of info on each of the colonies we learned about.
Posted by Cindy on October 30, 2008
I promised to show you some of the fun things we’re doing as we go through Christian Kids Explore Chemistry. I can’t brag enough about this curriculum so far. I don’t typically follow any curriculum to a “T” – but this one I am. It is teaching my children things that I didn’t learn until high school in very understandable terms. How many third graders do you know who can tell you all the parts to an atom and make a labeled model? It makes me smile!
Lithium model
Labeled carbon atom
Hydrogen and Carbon atom cookies
Posted by Cindy on October 29, 2008
It was COLD in Central KY yesterday. The nature walk part of our study was rather short – a quick trip down to the creek bed to collect a variety of leaves. But once we got home – the learning and fun began!
We started with a review discussion about the purpose of leaves and why they change colors. After a bit of struggle getting everyone to pay attention during the discussion, I announced there would be a test later in the day. (Yep, that meant I had to come up with some sort of test on leaves! In all that spare time I have, you know. Lucky for me, I was able to find this quiz online.) I don’t do tests very often, but it was just the thing needed today to turn their attention back toward our discussion.
Math was next on the list. Using a few of the leaves each, the kids had to find the perimeter of the leaves in inches and centimeters. Then had to find the area in square inches, square centimeters and an unknown square unit. Yarn and a measuring tape made finding the perimeter easy.
The area in square inches was found using one-inch tiles. A one-inch grid could be used as well.
We used cemtimeter grid paper for finding the area in square centimeters. (Simply trace the leaf and count the full squares inside the leaf. We estimated the half and quarter filled squares to add more area. For instance, if there were two halves, we would count them as one. If there was a square about 3/4 full and another 1/4 full, we combined them as one.)
Graph paper was used to find an unknown square unit. We talked about smaller units making for more accurate measurments.
Finally, we used Melissa’s idea of creating leaf bursts for an art activity to add to the nature notebooks.
Posted by Cindy on October 28, 2008
I had the pleasure of speaking at co-op this week. (Boy, do I miss those gals!) We talked on the topic of healthfully and frugally making convenience mixes. I talked about my reasons for even considering making homemade mixes in the first place – MSG and red food coloring – then added that being frugal is a huge benefit even if the same health issues don’t concern your family.
Since I didn’t make a handout for the meeting, I thought I’d put all my links about the subject in one place.
Being such quick, easy and frugal mixes, these would make great Christmas gifts, too!
As usual, if there’s anything more specific you’d like to know, just comment with a question. I’ll do my best to answer it.
Posted by Cindy on October 25, 2008
We live in Central KY – what’s often called the ”Horse Capital of the World”. We’re surrounded by beautiful horse farms and have the priviledge of living near the Kentucky Horse Park. With so much horse business going on in the area, there are two premier equine hospitals within easy driving distance. Lucky for us, Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital agreed to give us a tour of their amazing facilities. Horses that are worth millions have state-of-the-art hospitals with every just about everything you might expect in a hospital for people – surgery suites, recovery rooms, MRI machines, laboratories, pharmacies….
Here are just a few pictures from our day.
Doctors, nurses, interns and visiting vet students preparing for an emergency colic surgery. All the surgery suites have viewing windows. Since colic surgery is one of their messiest, they closed the blinds once the cutting began.
A doctor, ultrasound technician, horse hand and owner are looking at an ultrasound of this horse’s throat.
The x-ray reading room.
A healing horse.
The farrier’s shop where custom horse shoes and such are made.
The treadmill.
If you’re interested, they have an online tour here. This really was an amazing trip!
