Thursday, May 24, 2012

An Invention, Law Making, Cooking with the Sun & More

With the blogging, Pumpkin has been working on his spelling a lot more readily.  I saw an idea for kids to make their own dictionary's.  We took 3x5 cards and printed and wrote the word he misspelled.  (In addition we added a capital letter to the word incase it is ever at the beginning of a sentence.)  It came in handy when he went and made a card for his Latin teacher ;-)



Need a recipe box to alphabetize.  


Pumpkin has been into doing "other things" with milk jugs, mainly bird feeders (that never make it out & up).  The other day he had the idea of putting one in the fish tank for "hiding places".  I was nervous about the idea, but allowed him.

 Turns out it was a success.  The fish explored it one at a time and still hang out in there.  
Not too bad of an idea.

On Monday, the boys experimented with food coloring. 


Fireball Coyote was thrilled when he made purple.
 He used two drops of red and one of blue. 

Pumpkin got in on the mixing and called his chemicals.
(CM1 & CM2)


Later that night we were invited to a roller skating b'day party.


On Tuesday, the boys did some computer work. 
 Pumpkin went to his last art class with Nona. 
 Fireball Coyote worked more on Brainpop.com
They both did Law Craft.
They learned about the political parties, making laws and getting them passed.

On Monday, Pumpkin, caught two butterflies mating.
Wednesday,
we watched two kid movies from the library - The Penguins of Madagascar & Phineas & Ferb - The Fast and the Phineas.
 We released the butterflies after some observation.

We had a male & female black swallow tail. 


Pumpkin worked on his art from Nona.

We did suffix houses together.


Pumpkin & Fireball Coyote worked on 170's.

Fireball was into cooking dinner yesterday and made two meatloafs, beef and turkey.

Bubbles have been a BIG hit lately.

Mickey Mouse?
We had a nice history lesson yesterday watching Nova's Killer Subs of Pearl Harbor and Missing in MiG Alley.  We talked about the difference between what they watch regularly with M*A*S*H and saw on Nova.


Today, Thursday, 

We had a solar cooking lesson and project with the homeschoolers.

The kids lunch was made in this one: potato, nachos, or quesadillas. 

The temperature was about 104* or more at this time.

Making the boxes.

Needs black paper lining. 
 Ate lunch and then made dessert!
Dessert: S'mores or Banana Boats.


 While everything heats up they learned more about the sun.


YUMMY & OOIE GOOIE!!! 

Pumpkin wanted to make a sundial with his plate from class,
but turned it into a puddle jumper.


Tonight, baseball.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

A Little Bit of Everything in One Day

Friday, we went to Roper Mountain Science Center, for Homeschoolers Day.
We had a BLAST!
I found it a bit odd the layout of this place.  It has three buildings over a small campus.  Many of the lessons are in classrooms, unlike the one we're use to in Pittsburgh.
The pond at the butterfly garden.




Marine Science Lab.
Touch a stingray.

Touch a Horseshoe Crab.

Learning more about the horseshoe crab.

Touch a Marine Hermit Crab.

Touch a Sea Urchin. 


Glowing Jellyfish.


A friend?

A real Diamondback Terrapin (after seeing a bronze one on our turtle walk).

The Ecology Lab.

Raccoon fur, paws, scat, skull, and facts.
They had more doors like this one.

Touch  various parts of an animal.

Outside the classrooms in the hallway we found ...
By, Pumpkin




By, Pumpkin
By, Fireball Coyote


By, Fireball Coyote



Out in another hallway, leading to more classrooms (we didn't make it to), is ...
Comparing actual sizes of a giant sea turtle above.

Female Mammoth.
(actual size)

Giant Sloth.
(actual size!)

Baby Blue Whale.
(actual size)

Into the Rainforest Habitat.

Learning about Exotic Rainforest Plants.

"Monkey Cups"
from the 
Tropical Pitcher Plant.


Cocoa Tree.

The exit.

A bus ride to our next stop, the Planetarium.
(Of course we need to sit in the back for our first big yellow bus ride!)
Both weighed themselves.

Fireball Coyote.
Pumpkin.

The entrance and a 30 minute wait.
"Mommy, I'm bored!"
 When we went in we saw
 the Spring Constellations, a "Walk" thru the planets,
and a MARS Rollercoaster "ride". (BIG HIT!!)


Now on to the Symmes Hall of Science.
We learned about germs in the Anatomy Classroom.
 Then moved to the Weather Lab.
Made tornados.
 Physics Lab.
Straw Rockets.

Launching a rocket or the shuttle?!?

 Then on to an Engineering Design Challenge.


 Pop into the Observatory to see the sun!

Actual telescope that was mentioned in Orson Wells War of the Worlds!





 After being there for 5 hours went to our local library
 and watched the movie We Bought a Zoo.
LOVED IT!


Today,
was Saturday Science Lab Day.

They learned about Birds of Prey.
Received a hollow egg to put in vinegar & watch what happens.
Binoculars to look for birds and a sticker book to work on for the summer.
 Then they decided to set up a bigger fish tank.