Penguin Geography, Science, and All Kinds of Fun

Just when I think we're done with penguins, we get pulled back in by all their black and white cuteness.

On a whim, I checked out several penguin themed, story books, on our last trip to the library, thinking we'd read them, and then move on. One of them, Bob Barner's Penguins, Penguins, Everywhere!, turned out to be a science text, in story book disguise.

It has colorful, cartoonish, illustrations, and a simple text, perfect for little ones, but enough penguin facts, for older children to enjoy. It ends up with a nice review page of what penguins eat, and who eats them, followed by a couple of flashcard like pages, picturing the 17 different types of penguins, with fun facts, such as where they live, how tall they are, and how much they weigh.

D, doubted that penguins really live anywhere but Antarctica (we'd recently had a discussion about how penguins, and polar bears don't live together, because penguins are at the south pole, while polar bears are in the north).

So, we had to look up a map of penguins of the world. The map we found (click, here,to view it), was an interactive one, that let the children click on the locations of penguins (in red), to see pictures of the penguins, and view facts about them.

D (age 7), and A (age 9), spent a good hour clicking around on the map.

They had such a good time with it, in fact, I thought it would be fun to follow it up with some video footage of live penguins. I Googled around a bit, and found this amazing BBC video. You might have already seen it, as it's from 2008, but somehow we had missed out on the fun.

Of course, about the time the penguins were flying over South America, I realized it was a hoax. But, what a hoax! They really did a good job with the special effects. Naturally, we had to watch the "making of" video, too.

It's just unbelievable, how believable it looks. Now, I'm off to search for some credible penguin footage, from the different locations around the world.

But, in the meantime, you can find more fun with geography, and history, at the Geography and History link-ups, hosted by Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Penguin Counters

G, went to work painting penguin counters, for her younger sisters, yesterday, modeled after some outrageously, cute ones we saw over at First Grader...At Last. They made theirs with black, glass, vase weights, but we didn't have any on hand, so we opted to use a left over bag of wood knobs/doll heads.

She gave them a base layer of black, tempera paint. Then returned, when that dried, to add details in white, with the final touches of black, and orange going on last.

She had some trouble painting triangular beaks, so opted for little noses instead, making them look slightly less penguin like, but still pretty cute, I think.

I'm sure C (age 4), is going to have a great time using them today, to practice counting by 10's.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Circle Penguins, A Simple Fraction Craft

Our craft today, was mainly for the younger girls (ages 4 and 5), and mainly about fractions, but I had G (age 11), help with the set up, so she could practice her compass skills.

For each of the girls, she drew two black circles, and one white, with 6 inch diameters, and one smaller orange circle, with a 1 inch diameter. E, cut her circles out, while G, and I helped C, with hers.

Then, the girls cut one of the black circles in half, for wings.

E, decided quarter circles would make better wings, but needed some help with her symmetry.

Once the wings were on, they cut the white, and orange circles in half, and half again, to make quarters, for the stomachs, beaks, and feet.

A couple of googly eyes...

...and both our craft, and a simple lesson on fractions, were complete.

For more fun with math, check out this week's Math Monday link-up, hosted by Joyful Learner.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

A Fabulous Award

Debbie over at Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn passed an interesting award on to me, this week. Thank you Debbie!

I hate to say it, but I'm terribly, terribly behind on accepting, and passing along awards. So, if you've given me one in the last little while, please know I do appreciate them, I just haven't taken the time to truly discover new blogs to pass them on to.

The rules of this award are a little different:

1. State three destinations you'd like to visit, and tell why.

2. Pass the award along, if you'd like, to as many blogs as you'd like.

I'll opt out of officially passing the award along for now. I'm up to my chin in books, and supplies tonight, trying to prep for the "official" beginning of our winter term (it's a lot less formal than that sounds, but I do like to make sure we have a good supply of books, games, software and such on hand, and ready to go).

As for the places I'd like to visit, narrowing them to three is extremely difficult. There are so many interesting places out there. I can name three places I'd like to visit right here in Montana.

1. I'd like to finish visiting the museums on the Montana Dinosaur Trail, for instance. So far we've been to five of the fifteen, and they're spread all over the state, so we could be at it for a while yet.

2. Pompeys Pillar near Billings (pictures from Wikipedia). It's 200 year old graffiti, from the Corp of Discovery. I worry about rattlesnakes, but walking in the footsteps of history might be worth the risk.



3. The Ringing Rocks near Butte. Watch the video, they are so cool.

So, what three destinations would you choose?

It's great to be a homeschooler.

What My Child is Reading - The Messy Room Edition

This week we read:

Stan and Jan Berenstain's The Berenstain Bears and the Messy Room. It's a typical Berenstain Bear story, except this time it's Mama Bear who loses it, and Papa Bear who comes in to bring peace, and order.

Just a Mess by Mercer Mayer, where Little Critter cleans his room - sort of.

Franklin does a better job at it, with some organizational help from his parents in Paulette Bourgeois' Franklin is Messy. This one is based on the cartoon (or the other way around), which you can watch in two parts, starting here, on YouTube.

And finally, The Big Tidy-Up by Norah Smaridge, about a little girl who's mother decides to let her live with the consequences of her own messy room. It's old fashioned, but very apt, as the little girl's appearance takes the same turn for the worse as her room, until she decides, for her own sake, to tidy up. The illustrations are darling (you can see some of them for yourself, and get a taste of the text, at the Google Books' preview pages).

I'll let you draw your own conclusions about the state of my children's rooms this week, but it's safe to assume, I'm seriously beginning to identify with Mama Bear.

So, while we're busy cleaning, be sure to follow the links below for more family favorites at the What My Child Is Reading blog hop, hosted by Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.




It's great to be a homeschooler.

Smithsonian Crystal Growing Kit - Review

The children made me promise, some time ago, that I wouldn't buy educational presents for Christmas. So, I was happy to when a box arrived from my sister, with a couple of science kits included amongst all the toys, and candy.

G, decided to try out her new Smithsonian Crystal Growing Kit, this week.

Early in our homeschool adventure we used a lot of science kits, and enjoyed some of them. But, gradually we figured out we could perform most of the same experiments without the kits. So, I was curious to see how a kit would measure up now.

If nothing else, it provided a good chance to test the children's ability to read, and follow instructions. The instruction sheet, which has a colorful poster on the back...

...provides clear, step by step instructions, with accompanying pictures.

But, despite the apparent simplicity, there were several bumps along the way, leaving plenty of room for critical thinking, and stretching of scientific, and mathematical knowledge.

To begin with, even though the chemical pouches of blue, and yellow dyed monoammonium phosphate, came with scary warnings, suggesting the necessity of protective eye wear...

...the included safety glasses, where less than reassuring...

...although, G enjoyed modeling them.

The measurements for the water, that needed to be added, were given in millimeters, but the included measuring cup was marked with oz. and ccs (which after we Googled to double check turned out to be the same, for this purpose).

But, that was okay anyway, because although the instruction show the chemical being measured, and mixed with boiling water, in a mixing cup, there is an accompanying note, not to use the included measuring cup, as it is not heat resistant.

Then, we were instructed to pour 2/3 of the chemical out of the packet...the non-see-through packet. Since approximate amounts are not really very scientific, and since the chemical was to be dissolved in a premeasured amount of water, G decided to make use of the "play" measuring cup, to determine how much chemical there was, and how much of it would make 2/3.

The kit came with three rocks for growing the crystals on, and two different sizes of plastic, growing cups, but stated the crystals would only grow in the smaller cups, even though one of rocks was much larger than the others, and didn't fit well in the smaller cup.

So basically, you cut the cups apart.

Boil the premeasured water.

Mix it with 2/3's of the contents from one of the pouches (the remaining one thirds get mixed together to make the third color)...

...until the crystals are dissolved. This was next to impossible. It took a LOT of stirring - more than most children would have the patience for. And finally, we just used it, mainly dissolved, and hoped for the best.

The solution is poured over one of the rocks, in one of the grow cups.

Seed crystals (which the instructions did not tell us to save out), are sprinkled over the rock, and the container is placed in a safe place, to allow the crystals to grow undisturbed, until the water evaporates down to the point of touching the growing crystals.

Then, the steps are repeated two more times, so three different colors of crystals are growing.

The instructions suggest shining a flashlight through the water, to observe the crystals growing. We did begin to see crystals in our yellow solution within a few hours. But, we could not see through the blue, or green solutions, so we weren't sure if there were any crystals growing in them, until a few days later, when we poured off the water.

We didn't grow the spectacular crystal formations shown on the box, but we did have some success.

And, G enjoyed the process, as well as the results.

I'm not sure I'd say the kit is worthy of the Smithsonian name, with toy safety glasses, and measuring cup, but it wasn't a total loss.

We've grown various crystals before, most recently from alum, with enough success, that I think a kit is probably not necessary for crystal growing either. But, it does come with an informative poster, and the glitz, and glamor, of at least some of the proper tools.

If your interested in growing crystals at home, without a kit, check out Wayne Schmidt's This and That, Crystal pages. They are very informative.

And, for more science themed fun in general, click over to this week's Science Sunday link-up, at Adventures in Mommydom.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Recycled Calendars

I realized last week I hadn't picked up a 2011 calendar, yet. I don't know about you, but I can't bring myself to buy a calendar the last week in December, knowing full well, they'll be half price within a few weeks. For some reason, though, I find it depressing to start the new year without hanging a new calendar.

After checking my old stash of calendars (I keep them for the pictures), I discovered 2005 was a match, date-wise, to 2011. Problem solved.

We'll use the 2005 calendar until the 2011's go down to half price, and then it can be stored back away. This one, has special significance for us, because 2005 was the year we moved to Montana, with E as a baby. That year, with the move, and stress of a new baby, we had neglected to buy a baby book, so I recorded all of E's little events on the wall calendar - this calendar.

So, hanging it now not only has the benefit of getting us through the gap, until we pick up a new one, it's also a little walk back in time.

It's great to be a homeschooler.