an absorbing experiment
December 9, 2011
The science experiments that go over the best around here are ones that double as art projects. Our MSC love them. Who am I kidding? So do I.
Our science studies lately have been about absorbency. We made these super fun (and pretty neat looking) experiments the other day.
Each child got a colorful piece of scrapbooking paper. Using a bottle of Elmer’s glue, they “scribbled” abstract designs and lines all over the page. While the glue was still wet, we set the pieces of paper onto cookie sheets. Then, we shook salt straight from the big container all over the glue lines until they were covered. The each child lifted up their paper and let the extra salt fall off onto the cookie sheet.
While the glue was still wet (although I’m sure this would still have worked even if you waited until it was dry), we used straws, covering our thumbs over the top, to drop little bits of food coloring onto the salt lines.
The color spread quickly along the salt, and we talked about absorbency. The dried experiments are now hanging in our living room. Yup, I just taped them up with masking tape. I’m classy like that! We tested out the absorbency of other household items. Is the table absorbent? No! Is the sponge? Yes! Then I had our MSC list as many absorbent and non-absorbent things they could think of. The best answer? As to something that is not absorbent, Nuggey offered, “Grandpa!”
No, I guess he isn’t!
I fantasize about the school bus driver.
November 3, 2011
Sometimes, I fantasize about the bus driver.
I mean, not about any bus driver in particular. I don’t even know any school bus drivers. But I fantasize about the bus driver anyway. You know, the one who pulls up in his long yellow ride and scoops my happy, eager to learn students up and takes them away for a few hours, bringing them back smarter than they were before.
What’s that you say? I decided to be a homeschooling mom, so what am I fantasizing about that for!?
I don’t know. Maybe it’s one of those grass is always greener things. Or maybe it’s just me. But there are some days, some moments of some days rather, when I honestly do daydream about the bus driver. I am fairly certain that if our children were in a brick and mortar school that I’d fantasize about homeschooling. But as it currently stands, I from time to time I actually wonder what on earth we were thinking when we decided to homeschool.
After all, the entire burden of building our children’s educational foundation is upon us. Some of the time, I feel as if I’m doing my bigs an educational disservice because of the time I spend with my littles, and other times I feel as if I’m doing my littles an educational disservice because of the time I spend teaching my bigs. And then other times I feel overwhelmed by how much work it takes to teach my children well.
But, for the most part, having our family always together is brilliant. We love it, this crazy chaos of always having five kids around, nary a school bus in sight to take them away. The work I put in it definitely worth it, as is the extreme lack of me time in my life. Being able to teach my children at home has it’s difficulties, but the thankfulness I have at knowing I can meet them where they are at, accommodate their learning styles, be intimately involved in their education and be there for all of their aha! moments makes up for the difficulties. Yup, not having to rush to get out the door each morning, getting to eat lunch with my children each day at noon…
…and being able to encourage their natural talents and innate interests totally makes homeschooling the choice for us.
And I feel really, really good about homeschooling our children. Most of the time.
During the other times, I fantasize about the school bus driver.
History books, Schmistory books.
April 15, 2011
I mean, really, who needs history books!? Okay, fine. I jest. Sort of. Books are great. Awesome. Spectacular resources and excellent means of information transfer. Still, history books aren’t our thing.
Maybe that’s because our children are all ages six and under. Hitting the books isn’t exactly what school is about for us at this point. While I’m sure someday it will be to some extent, I still have a feeling we’re going to continue to be more of a “the world is our classroom” kind of a family.
Yes, this is our classroom. The big, wide world. (And, yes, those are our four oldest, running free like their parents encourage them to do.) In case you didn’t know, my husband and I homeschool our children. So do you, you know, even if your kiddos go to a brick and mortar school. We all teach our children every moment we are with them, through the examples and experiences we provide them with. Our family has simply decided to forgo “regular school” for our clan at this point, preferring instead to teach them at home.
Or, not at home as the case may be.
Homeschooling is kind of a funny word for how we are teaching our MSC* at the moment. Road schooling is more like it. We also believe in museum schooling, un schooling, church schooling, National Park schooling, history center schooling and backyard schooling.
(*Many Small Children)
We have been on the road in an RV for almost three weeks now. I’ve been working, we’ve been driving, and we’ve had plenty of time to sample boiled peanuts, see the ocean, sing bedtime songs, take baths in Rubbermaid tubs, laugh around the campfire, get (lots of) dirt under our fingernails and learn history.
Learn it without books, that is.
We try to stop at as many historic locations along our journey as we can, pulling Happy Wheels into spots where our kids can reenact parts of the Civil War, learn about life during the Colonial times, feel the tools used by early Americans and taste traditional food.
Indeed, there is nothing like learning about nature from nature, about history from history, about relationships by building closer ones with each other, and about bugs from the very bugs themselves.
Yes, I find myself thinking lately, “History books, Schmistory books. Who needs ‘em!?”
Maybe our brood will eventually. But for right now?
We are huffing and puffing, tasting and sipping, feeling and touching, listening and learning, all while on the road, using little to no books. Well, except for the Beginning Readers and Boxcar Children we read in the RV.
The world is our classroom, these are our students. And life is our teacher.
If Dr. Seuss wrote about Big Mac and homeschooling…
February 2, 2011
If Dr. Seuss wrote a book about Big Mac and homeschooling, I’d totally read it. But he didn’t. So I’ll have to write one myself. You’re welcome.
Homeschooling.
Big Mac can do it in a box. He can do with a fox. He can do it in our house. He can do it with a mouse. He can learn by dawn’s first light. He can learn so late at night.
Big Mac can learn both here and there. He can learn most anywhere!
HeCanLearnMostAnywhere from Jennifer McKinney on Vimeo.
Even in Mom and Dad’s bed. Yes, the other night, our firstborn and I decided to forgo his math lesson at the kitchen table, instead moving venues to my bed, since his lesson for that day was just a review in his workbook. That’s what all homeschoolers do, right? Well, at any rate, we do! And he does. And I love him. And we love homeschooling. And bedschooling. And eating popcorn while pajama schooling.
With a lox, fox, box or not. All I know is that he can learn most anywhere. Even while I wash my hair. Or as I’m folding underwear.
Okay, I’ll stop. You’re welcome.
waste not, want not…and every parent is a homeschooling parent
January 13, 2011
If you are a parent, the chances are very good that you’re a homeschooling parent. What? Your children go to public school, perhaps? Yes, but you still teach them at home, even if they also go to a brick and mortar school.
From the time our children are very young, we are teaching them everything they need to know about how to communicate, eat, move around and sleep. We teach some things by example and our children follow our lead. Other things are perhaps taught in more structured ways, be it learning numbers with flashcards, sitting down and reading a book together or teaching math concepts with Cheerios, adding them together before eating them.
Oh yes, or learning to write letters in flour and rice.
Sure, you could use a drawing app on your iPhone or iPad, and those are fun, too! But for young children, who usually learn so well through touch and manipulation, using very tactile techniques for learning has worked well as I teach our young ones.
Even our MSC who are old enough to hold a pencil and practice forming letters on paper still enjoy our messy letter writing activities. The other day, I gave each child a cookie sheet with flour all over it. I would make a letter, either in the flour or on a piece of paper, and they would all try making it with their finger in the flour. A simple shake of the cookie sheet after each letter created a smooth, clean slate!
Think Etch-a-Sketch or Magnadoodle. But lots more primitive.
We tried rice, too, but that wasn’t as easy to make letters in, as the rice would cave in on what you just wrote.
It is easier for young children to make letters with their fingers when they are first learning. Plus, a messy activity like this is fun for them, and I’ve found that they stay engaged in learning letters longer this way than when I try to use pencil and paper.
With how digital things are becoming in our world, I’m determined not to let handwriting become a lost art with our children. So, flour on cookie sheets it is for our little ones now. And when we were done with the flour, we added water and made our paper mache!
Waste not, want not, I always say.
Actually, I never really say that. But I should start.
See Big Mac read.
November 16, 2010
Hear his Mama proud.
See Big Mac read.
Read, Big Mac. Read!
