Science & Nature

Camping

Mahayla and one of her best buds have been planning a camping trip since January.  Yes, that’s FIVE months!  After many revised lists, faxes to one another and late nights on the phone planning, the trip finally happened this weekend.  The two girls and two other best buds (along with a couple of Dads and,…

A jug tied to a stick is drug through a pond. An image for a blog post about ponds

Creation Club – Ponds

This post contains affiliate links. So here’s what I had envisioned. A peaceful day at the pond with children who ever-so-quietly and diligently explored life in and around the pond.  Children who would pull out their nature journals at every interesting find, writing lovely poems and prayers.  A day of discovery and awe. Here’s what happened….

Simple Machines and Play

Don’t ya just love when kids use their imaginations and create really cool things?  This afternoon, the older kids made great use of their free time (and I was able to get in a little discussion about simple and complex machines!) Caleb loves ladders, ropes, tools and other bits and pieces of boy stuff.  Living…

Haircuts and Flowers

Yesterday was a b-u-s-y day!  Between a 15-month checkup with shots (ouch!) for little one and his first haircut, we really put Eli through the ringer.  I’d been waiting until we got the new camera before taking him for his first haircut and this picture shows just how badly he needed it.  🙂 You’ll see…

Our First Creation Club

Even with almost half of our club missing due to a funeral/illness/traveling, the first ever meeting of our Creation Club was a BLAST!  This month’s theme focused on why we study God’s creation and how God has perfectly designed plant and animal interdependency through food chains and predator/prey relationships. The meeting started with a reading of Psalm 95:…

Toyota Field Trip

There’s a Toyota Plant not too far from us.  For years I’ve been wanting to go on the free tour they offer,  but my children have always been too young.  Children have to be at least 1st grade with a parent chaperone for safety reasons.  Anyway, this year, we left baby toddler Eli with Grandma and…

Columbus Day Science

Our Fun Friday activity this week focused on Columbus Day.  We did the sink or float experiment from Science Projects for Holidays Throughout the Year.  After doing some basic experimentation on what objects sink or float, we moved on to asking the question, “Does sinking and floating make a difference in salt water vs. fresh water?”…

A Trip to Michigan

Why is it that you usually feel dirtier after showering at a hotel than you did before you showered?  Why is it that once the baby finally falls asleep in his carseat, somebody else in the car decides they have to use the bathroom and can’t possibly hold it – thus waking up the baby…

Chromatography with Leaves: A Nature Study Experiment

(This post contains links to my books.) What is chromatography? It’s a big name for: separating mixtures.  Or, in this case separating pigments.  As complicated as the word sounds, experimenting with chromatography is very easy. Chromatography with Markers I always like to teach the concept of chromatography with markers before using other materials because markers…