One small step for...

Our day so far

After chores and watching Kiki's Delivery Service and finally getting out of pjs,  the kids did a few "tick-box" things from their folders and the boys did touch-typing. Ds2 translated rude English sentences into Spanish. Ds1 read a few pages of chemistry IGCSE and didn't grumble. Too much. 

Ds2 and dd launched into some Art from the Fine Arts Harmony Course (making clay and wire figures), while listening to Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (to go with our 'moon' theme today) on Youtube. 

We may not be very cultured, but we can at least do a good job of faking it.

Continuing with our Solar System/Space theme, we watched this on the moon and tides. Then, inspired by this, dd and ds2 made 'moon craters' using marbles, flour and chocolate powder. 

Ds1 put this film together, with a little help from ds2.

The experiments indicated that, yes, we could make craters just like those on the moon. The experiments also showed that flour and chocolate powder go a long way and don't brush off black clothes as easily as one might expect :)

Soon we will be heading down the library to return our - always overdue - books and to pick up a reservation of an audio CD for bookclub (20 discs. Yikes.) Then dd and ds2 will be going swimming with friends.

And now...

Dd has just rediscovered the asteroid landing zone that I brought in from the threat of terrestrial rain. She is currently covering the conservatory table, and herself, with flour and chocolate powder. Joy.

And what else...

...has been happening with the children for the past few weeks (apart from all the art!)

Ds1 plays drums at Rock School for a week. (The staff praised him on his talent and were gobsmacked he'd never had any lessons - just a teeny proud mum moment :) ). Meanwhile ds2 went rollerblading in the local park, and dd went for playdates with her friends.

We go to a local festival, held at a large allotment. Dd stays at the festival with friends for the rest of the day, while we made our way home.

We pick courgettes from the garden. (Note the closeness of the yellow football. Plants in our garden have to be hardy to survive!)

Ds1 continues with his IGCSE chemistry and Geography reading

  Blackberry picking, to make crumble and wine.

Ds2 empties the counties' libraries of books about manga. Then teaches himself.

He makes a short list of equipment he needs to do animation 'old school', then goes onto the internet to do a price comparison.

 Ds2 decides he wants to make shortbread.

We move paving slabs to make a base for the new chicken coop that we're making out of a packing case that was being thrown out (our 10 hens need more space).

 And discover a huge ants' nest:

 Lots of reading - Guinness World Records, British History, The Aztecs, and a 4-inch tome called "3D Game Development"...

Lots of talk and plans for the kids' new Minecraft server:

 Thoughts on design:

We took down our posters and information about Australia and New Zealand:

 And replaced them with posters on space and art:

We started a chart of moon phases. The moon decided to hide behind cloud for the next three nights :)

The children caught flies and fed them to the garden spiders, overcoming their fear of spiders and experimenting with size and type of fly.

We walked to the park intending to pick blackberries. But came home with elderberries for wine.

 Swimming in the lake (bit chilly, but fine once we got over the initial shock!)

And catching crayfish

Ds2 took the screwdriver to the waterpistol to try to fix it.

Wine, all bottled up and fermenting happily under the piano.

Dd and I have a discussion about wine-making, fermentation, yeast, gas and the similarities with the chemistry of bread baking. So that's chemistry, biology, self-sufficiency and home economics in one 5-minute conversation.

Dd continues on her reading journey. Having finally decided she wanted to learn to read (or at least was willing to give it a go), in a matter of weeks she has gone from simple words like cat and bed to reading words like 'couldn't' and 'everyone'. She seems to have an excellent memory for sight-recognition of words, less tendency I think towards phonics deciphering. Each of my children has been different and found their own combination of what works for them. I haven't been teaching her. I just sit with her while she reads. She'll do it at her own pace when she wants to. Being, at the peak of "reading readiness" (which she, herself, has recognised) I expect there'll be no stopping her now.

Doing a Space Theme, in true home education style.

Week 1 (ish):  Moon phases

• Bribe children with chocolate biscuits to watch this

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/9_10/earth_sun_moon.shtmlhttp://www.newtonsapple.tv/video.php?id=1671

• Look at our little plastic model of moon/earth and try to work out what the heck is happening. Or get dh to run around with a torch and a ball. (Definitely better to leave it to the physicist of the family)

• Start a lunar cycle chart: http://sciencenetlinks.com/tools/lunar-cycle-1-calendar/

(we started, saw the moon once, briefly, between clouds before it disappeared for three nights. How can the moon disappear? You'd have thought someone else might have noticed...

• Lunar eclipse: http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2007/0812-lunar_eclipse.htm

Listen to dh going on and on and on about lunar eclipses while we wonder how soon we can get away and eat the rest of the biscuits.

• Orbital forces experiment: http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/education/activities/active19.htm

i.e.  swinging an eraser by a piece of string and letting go without maiming anyone. Yeah. They'll love that one.


Week2 (ish): Tides and craters

[Not sure why those things go together, but it works for me.]

• Tides:  http://www.ehow.com/video_5238520_moon-affects-changing-tides.html

• Make a crater:

http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/education/activities/active15.htm
(need map/pictures of moon/craters; deep tray and the patience of a saint while children spill stuff all over the house)

• Listen to Beethoven’s moonlight sonata 

and pretend that we are really a very culturally sophisticated family.


Week 3 (ish): The Sun

• Video about the sun:

(short, so the kids might actually sit through it)

• Make a sundial - e.g. printout the pointer and base here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/kids/summer_activities/make_sundial.shtml

then move to a country where the sun actually shines at a strength that makes a sundial useable.


Week 4 (ish): The sun, day and night, seasons and other sun-ish stuff

• Sit kids in front of this video  that shows a model of earth going round the sun while sneaking off to the corner shop to buy more chocolate biscuits.

http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/visualizations/es0408/es0408page01.cfm?chapter_no=visualization

• Seasons. (btw, someone should put in a complaint to the met office that Britain was due a summer between June and August and it didn't turn up.)

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/education/teachers/key-stage3/lessonplan-seasons/animation


Week 5(ish): Solar System

• Make a solar system mobile

http://play.powerhousemuseum.com/makedo/pdfs/Mobile_Solar_System.pdf

This is where I spend 2 hours cutting out fiddly little shapes and sticking them together while the kids wander off...probably to eat more biscuits.

• Discuss the position of the planets. Or point the kids towards a book and make knowledgeable noises. Watch parts of The Planets series that I recorded years ago anticipating this very moment. Or take note of the kids' rolled eyes and lengthy sighs and get them to watch the (much shorter) videos here:

Mercury here: http://science.discovery.com/videos/space-school-mercury.html
Venus: http://www.cosmolearning.com/videos/venus/
Earth: http://science.discovery.com/videos/space-school-earth.html
Mars: http://www.cosmolearning.com/videos/mars/
Jupiter: http://science.discovery.com/videos/space-school-jupiter.html
Saturn: http://www.cosmolearning.com/videos/saturn/
Uranus: http://science.discovery.com/videos/space-school-uranus.html


Week6(ish): More Solar System

• Take a solar system walk:

 http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/science-projects-for-kids-the-incredible-universe9.htm

(need ball about 8 inches in diameter(football); 2 pins with small round heads; 1 pin with very small round head;2 peppercorns; 1 small walnut; 1 acorn; 2 peanuts; Index cards; Glue or tape; Bright markers; yardstick; Large park and some maternal enthusiasm. Latter might be in short supply.)

• Listen to some Holst The Planets,

e.g. Mars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0bcRCCg01I

or get a CD from library. Then acknowledge that none of the kids are interested but go through the motions anyway, because, after all, you are a home educator.

The End.