Experimenting with Copper

Today we began working in our Apologia Exploring Creation with Physical Science book. I mainly wanted to use this book with the older two but wanted to include our 4th grader somehow and was happy to find a unit study online that used the curriculum and made it for younger children.

Today they were introduced to atoms and molecules and had the opportunity to do an experiement. They took a glass of water and added baking soda to it. Then had to connect copper wires to a battery and put the other end in the water. It made bubbles and caused one of the wires to turn green...to know which one, you'll have to do it yourself!

We are using the lab reports and other resources from DonnaYoung.org. Here are some pictures from our science experiment today!

Back to School

Yesterday we started our new school year! The oldest is now in the 9th grade, middle child is in the 7th and youngest is in the 4th...where has the time gone? It doesn't feel like I have been homeschooling my children that long! I enjoy it SO much because we are learning and exploring together.
The kids decided that they really enjoyed doing the lapbooks last year but they wanted to put all of their work into more of a scrapbook type book this year so that is what they are doing. They are currently working on pages to show what they learned from reading The Apple and The Arrow. It was a book recommendation for what we had been studying in The Mystery of History Volume II at the end of last school year. I wanted to do a review of some of last year's topics to get us back into "school mode" so I chose this. Most of the printables activities were found at Homeschool Share

The picture shows the kids working on their projects.

Did I mention that I LOVE homeschooling??

Speaking of spelling / Scrabble Contest

While we are still on the topic of spelling, (see last post)I decided that this contest will have a spelling focus!

Amy and I watched Akeelah and the Bee yesterday and we saw how the spelling bee contestants used Scrabble to practice. We have used the game ourselves to work on spelling. Today as I was rearranging things in my office, I came across a box and guess what was inside??

An extra Deluxe Edition Scrabble game! So what better than to give it away in my Playing To Learn Contest!




Here is what you have to do to win:

* Post the link to this contest on your blog and then leave a comment here with your blog link.

I will hold a drawing from all of the entries on Saturday Feb 28th.

Good Luck!!

Tired yet full of passion

Bet that title caught your attention but it has nothing to do with what you might be thinking!! Read on.
This morning started out ok. I didn't get up early and go for my walk because I had trouble sleeping last night and didn't drift off until almost 2 so when the alarm went off at 5, I hit snooze....many times! LOL
We started school about 20 min later than normal and everything was going ok until around 10:30 when I was trying to give spelling tests and was so sleepy that I kept forgetting to give them their words! We go through it but it was tough.
William came home from work early because he said that he wasn't feeling well. We both feel blah now. I think it is going to be a very early night.

Do you ever think about what your kids will be when they grow up by looking at what they are interested in now? Andrew LOVES to watch the weather and will give me a report later on. He likes to look at radar maps online, he loves the WeatherBug, he likes the interactive weather feature on the satellite. But, he also is a train fanatic and will watch documentaries about the history of trains. William and I always say that he is going to be a Train Engineer/Meterologist! LOL
Alex has started to be very interested in painting with acrylics. He got an acrylic paint set for Christmas and has painted 3 pictures. He is actually pretty good. I will have to take pictures of his work and post them. I don't think he wants to be a full time artist but he enjoys it. He has actually always said that he wanted to be like his daddy and build houses when he grows up....well, that was before the housing slump. William hasn't built a house in a year. I wonder if Alex will still want to do that.
Amy...what can I say about her? She likes to cook and is really into fashion design. Maybe she will be a fashionable chef! She loves cookbooks and watching cooking shows...oh and is a QVC freak but that is a whole other story. LOL
I want my kids to pursue their dreams and I do whatever I can to help them learn more about the things that they are interested in. We read library books, look up info on the web, watch TV shows, and visit museums that have the topic that we want to explore. I think this is one of the reasons I love homeschooling so much. I get to see the spark and excitement when they learn something new about something that is so close their little hearts.

I hope you enjoyed reading about thoughts for today. I look forward to sharing more another day. Have a good evening and be blessed!

Starting Over

Well....where do I begin?
I am trying to decide if I want to move my blog over to this server and get rid of my personal website completely. This is such a difficult decision because I have poured so much time into my personal site and am trying to determine if I really want to give it up.

I don't think I do. I actually told William that I wanted him to scrape the website off of my back window and then got upset that he didn't do it....and then 2 days later told him to just leave it alone. I really want to use my website to help other homeschool moms. So, I am in the process of re-doing my website now and am looking for a new web server since the one I was using has increased their price....again! I am trying to save money during this economic crisis for goodness sake!

So, as soon as it is all revamped and ready for release, I will let ya know.... as far as my blog goes, we will just have to see which one is a better fit for me.