Science & Nature

  • Newport Aquarium

    Did you know the Newport Aquarium offers two free children’s admissions per adult in January and February each year?  I didn’t until recently.  We’ve been wanting to go forever, but haven’t wanted to fork over the steep prices.   Our first trip today was made even sweeter with the $42.oo savings! The Aquarium sits right beside…

  • What’s Under a Rock?

    Around our house  – a slug!  Can you see him near the middle on the left?  He’s pretty well camouflaged. We weren’t even doing nature study.  We were learning about measuring the volume of an irregular shape in water when I sent the kids outside to find a few rocks for measuring.  This little critter…

  • Chemisty Update

    Okay, I have to admit up front that Christian Kids Explore Chemistry is getting tough for this ol’ momma who realized early on that she was never meant to be a chemist in life.  Seriously, what I’m teaching the kids now are things I learned in high school!  Lucky for me, the book is walking…

  • My Kind of Winter Walk

    It got into the upper 50’s last week.  Just a few days before we had been hovering around 0, so the upper 50’s was truly a heat wave!  We took advantage of the warmth and headed out for a wonderful wintery walk.  I say wintery because there were still icy signs all over the place. …

  • Icy Nature Study

    If you live anywhere near a pond when it freezes over, this is a great nature study activity! We headed out in the very cold wind to bring a sample of ice home from the pond.  After trying to break the ice with a knife (which usually works), then a large rock (which almost always…

  • Math and Science – Bridges

    Our “math break” continues to bring lively and rich lessons!  One of the projects from Hardhatting in a Geo-World concerned bridge construction.  We had to make six different bridges and test their strength. After completing the activity and filling in the chart provided, I had the kiddos show their findings with homemade graphs. The book…

  • Hardhatting in a Geo-World

    We are having SO much fun with this book!  A little break from the regular math schedule has turned out to include such exciting math and science that my kids are actually asking to do more.  🙂 Here are some photos from one of this week’s investigations…. Cylinder structures – Using various sized cardboard tubes…

  • Nature Study – Leaves

    (This post contains affiliate links and links to my business website, Shining Dawn Books.) It was COLD in Central KY yesterday The nature walk part of our nature study was rather short – just a quick trip down to the creek bed to collect a variety of leaves.  But once we got home – the…