Dandelion Spelling

While looking for pretty paper printouts for the girls to use for letter writing, I found some dandelion stationery that was too perfect to pass up as inspiration for a family spelling challenge.

First of all, I printed a few full sheets of the stationery (at least I guess it's stationery, I found the image - here).

I saved the image to my computer as well, and cropped it, so I could print out an individual flower (I found wallet size worked best) to spell out the word "dandelion", with one letter per flower.

I "laminated" the flowers with contact paper, so they'd hold up...

...and then called each child to the table, one at a time, and gave them a sheet of the stationary to list out all the words they could spell from the letters of "dandelion".  The Man of the House even gave it a try.  After we had eliminated all the duplicate words, Boggle-style, the one with the most, correctly spelled, words remaining was the winner.

It's an old game...

...but the dandelions added a fun "almost summer" twist.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Squid Fishing - Extending Crafts to Toys

I love it when crafts can do double duty as toys.  So, when I saw the idea for cardboard tube fish being used  with a paper clip fishing game in Judy Ann Saddler's Jumbo Book of Crafts (another excellent book from the Kids Can Press)...

...I thought it would work perfectly with our toilet paper tube squid, as well.  Well, almost perfectly, since a squid's mouth is not at the top of the mantle, but down under under the legs, but then you can't always be scientifically accurate when it comes to toys.

Anyway, besides a quick hole punch in the top of each squid, all I had to do to prepare for fishing tournament  fun, was tie a piece of yarn to a pencil at one end, and a bent paper clip at the other (I'm sure you've seen that done before).

A piece of tape will keep the yarn from slipping off the pencil.

 "Fishing" with a paper clip hook is trickier than with the magnets we usually use...

...but with practice, still possible.

I prepared the squid, and poles before the children got up this morning, and let the children discover the alterations themselves.

The squid fishing frenzy that ensued was a perfect compliment to our current breakfast-time audio selection.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

The "Elderly Nun's Prayer"

I was listening to a sermon online this week, and the pastor used the "prayer" below as an icebreaker sort of illustration.  I got such a kick out of it, I had to find the text.  A quick Google search turned up a number of copies, so chances are you've already seen it, but just in case you haven't - you should. 

I seriously doubt the anonymous author was really a nun from the 17th century, as the title indicates, but whoever penned the poem has a pretty good sense of the humor.  

17th Century Nun's Prayer

Lord, thou knowest better than I know myself

that I am growing older and will someday be old.

Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking

I must say something on every subject and on every occasion.

Release me from the craving to straighten out everybody's affairs.

Make me thoughtful, but not moody: helpful, but not bossy.

With my vast store of wisdom, it seems a pity not to use it all,

but thou knowest, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end.

Keep my mind free from the endless recital of details;

give me wings to get to the point.

Seal my lips on my aches and pains.

They are increasing, and love of rehearsing them is

becoming sweeter as the years go by.

I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of other’s pains,

But help me to endure them with patience.

I dare not ask for improved memory,

but for a growing humility and a lessening cocksureness

when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others.

Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally, I may be mistaken.

Keep me reasonably sweet;

I do not want to be a saint - some of them are so hard to live with –

but a sour old person is one of the crowning works of the devil.

Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places,

and talents in unexpected people.

And give me, oh Lord, the grace to tell them so.

Amen.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Dandelion Delights

You know what they say, when life (or your five year old) gives you dandelions...

...make dandelion lemonade!

Okay, nobody actually says that.  But, they should, because dandelion lemonade is tasty (honestly), and easy to make.  All you need is about two cups of dandelion flowers (just the heads, no stems - harvested from a clean spot, growing free from herbicides and pollutants, such as car exhaust or dog interference), washed...

...and dried...



...to add to a picture of lemonade, made anyway you like. I noticed the folks over at learningherbs.com (who put out a terrific wild-crafting board game, by the way - I'll tell you more about later), recommend the juice of four lemons for a gallon of lemonade, sweetened with honey.

We prefer the juice of five lemons for two quarts of lemonade...

...sweetened with a cup of sugar, that has been dissolved in two cups of the water that will make up the two quarts, stirred constantly for a few minutes, over medium heat on the stove, and then cooled before being added to the pitcher. That was a tip from Grandma...

...who also taught us to microwave our lemons for 15 to 20 seconds each, before cutting them, to make them easier to juice.

Grandma was a little surprised when we dumped the bowl of dandelion heads right into the lemonade...

...but she did admit it looked bright and sunshiny.  We let it steep in the fridge for a few hours before serving it, through a strainer, into glasses.

Grandma thought it was delicious, with only the lightest hint of dandelion - which as it turns out compliments the lemon quite nicely.  We enjoyed ours with a plate of dandelion scones...

...just regular sour cream scones, with a teaspoon of vanilla, and a cup of dandelion "petals" - or flowers, removed from the stems, added in...



...this time for a touch of color, rather than taste (similar to adding culinary lavender to scones).

Grandma enjoyed those too, and even listened along (with Grandpa) to our snack time story, about the dangers of wishing too wildly.

But really, with grandparents, stories and a dandelion "tea" time to be had - what more could we wish for, anyway?

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Nest Cams

Brimful Curiosity turned us on to the joy of the nest cam, last spring when tuned in to watched the Decorah Eagles care for three eaglets.

They have three again this year, but the "babies" are already fairly old, so we switched over to a couple of web cams from the Hancock Wildlife Foundation live streaming the White Rock Eagles - a nest in White Rock, BC overlooking Boundary Bay, with two eaglets just hatched.  In fact, we got to watch on, as one hatched, this morning.  You can tell Mom from Dad by size. Mom is a good deal bigger.  But, both are very active in the care and feeding of the young.

We are also watching two nest cams from Cornell Universities All About Birds site, a Red-Tailed Hawk nest with three eggs, and a Great Blue Heron Nest with five.  There is information on the site as to how to tell the parents apart, and footage of a very exciting owl attack on the heron nest..

Eagles, hawks and heron are all birds we can spot nesting right here in our own area, though we can only view our local birds' nests from a distance.

We also have a large number of osprey nests in town, so we thought it would be fun to watch the Earth Cam osprey nest in Longmont, CO, with two eggs, as well. The female osprey has brown feathers across her chest, that the male does not have.

It's quite a few nests to keep track of, especially since you never know when the action is going to happen, but it has been interesting watching the birds coming and going, and comparing their behavior, eggs, and nesting styles.  Watching birds from all over the countryside, live as they take care of their nests, right from our living room - is truly amazing.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

High School Science - Dissecting a Virtual Squid

My in-laws have arrived in town for a visit, so I'll be slipping away from my computer for the next few days, probably through the weekend, to allow time to be a proper hostess, and enjoy their visit.  Before I log-off though, I want to leave you with a quick review of Froguts.com's virtual dissection program.

Learning about squid over the past couple of days, through crafts, play and easy readers, has been sufficient for my younger children (ages 5-9), but the older children (ages 11-14) clearly needed a more substantial type of lesson.

On numerous occasions in the past, I've considered purchasing mail order dissection kits to supplement biology lessons, like those from Young Scientist.

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When I was in middle school, I had an opportunity to dissect a squid during a summer science day camp.  After catching a whiff of formaldehyde in the hallway, I transferred to the computer electronics class, instead.  And, this week, after a few moments of contemplating the image of a rubbery bit of preserved squid sliced open on the kitchen table, I decided to start looking for an alternative this time as well.

Happily, it seems, I must not have been the only would-be biologist sitting in the computer science lab.  And now, thanks to the trickery of technology, a foreboding of formaldehyde or a sensitive soul need not keep the budding biologist from a detailed knowledge of the inner workings of squid, frogs, or even fetal pigs, and I have the certificate to prove it (my six grade self would be so proud).

But in all seriousness, I did spend quite a bit of time researching various virtual dissection options, before settling on Froguts.com as the one that works best for us.  It is a subscription service, that costs $36.00 to $46.00 for a year, depending on whether you choose a CD, downloadable or online option.  Considering that it allows for multiple students to complete (multiple times, if they wish) dissection labs for a starfish, frog, squid, cow eye, fetal pig, as well as a Mendelian pea and fruit fly genetics lessons, complete with section, and unit quizzes, at their own pace (I had to take the 50 question, squid quiz twice before I was happy with my score - but it really helped solidify what had been presented in the dissection activities), over the course of a year, it's not a bad price.

My children, especially my oldest two (ages 13 and 14), were quite taken with the 3-d graphics (you can view a demo - here), and clear depictions of the animals' anatomy, even if they where disappointed with the lack of an earth worm lab. I was thrilled to find easy to follow, in depth, high school level lessons, that take no prep or additional teaching on my part.  I'm free to learn along with the children, instead of trying to stay one step ahead of them.  

As to the missing "goo and guts" element of the sanitized virtual approach, I'm sure a fall hunting, or summer fishing trip with the Man of the House will fill in the gaps.  Anyone for a guest post on "How to Breast a Grouse"?

It's great be a homeschooler.

Science Craft - Toilet Paper Tube Squid

The children weren't too happy to have to give up their balloon squid when I finally dumped out their ocean playground.  To lessen the blow, I walked them (my younger three, ages 5-9) through a toilet paper tube craft, that doubled as a review of the parts of the squid we had just learned about, minus the mouth and beak.

Mantle:

Fins:

Head and Legs (eight of them):

Clubs:

Feeding Tentacles:

Siphon:

Eyes:

Ta-da!

It's great to be a homeschooler.