Friday, October 23, 2020

Seed, Sprout, Propogate, Humidity...

 Sometimes with homeschool, as in life, things just fall together in a way that makes us see the divine in everything. I call this serendipity. We started out the year with so many dreams, tools, and ideas. But never fully knowing how things will turn out. Today, our friend Serendipity took us for a ride and it was a fabulous example of how intuitive, organic schooling can be such a great thing. If it hadn't been for one grouchy kid, it would have been perfect. Maybe it was better, being more real because of it. Who needs perfection? 

Walking home yesterday I remembered a stalk of mullein that I had been eying. It wasn't just any weedy wooly mullein, but a large leafed popcorn mullein. It had mostly dried up and had hard brown seed pods all the way up. With the help of a friend and his pocket knife I brought home a sizeable piece of stalk and lay it on top of the schoolroom shelf. When it came time to start school this morning there were tiny black seeds scattered all over the top of the shelves. Finding it was simple inspiration. Today we would talk about seeds. I remembered a book Ada had from last year called "A Seed is Sleepy" and asked her to go get it. 

We start out every school day with a word of the day. It gives Leonardo and Astor some great writing practice and sometimes we come up with a word that even Ada and Nahuel don't know the meaning of. Like today, our word was 'Humidity'. Yesterday started with the word Sprout. We read the book A Seed is Sleepy" and it was a perfection. There qualities of a seed are portrayed, from wise to adventurous and inventive. Seeds find diverse ways to continue on the cycle of their DNA. Leonardo's seed sprouting activity, which of course, everyone partook of, was a natural follow-up. But we decided to take it a bit further and do a little experiment, comparing old seeds and new seeds. We have a can of white wheat that had probably sat in Grandma and Grandpas storage for 2 decades and we've been wondering how much the time has affected the seeds. A 'Seed is Sleepy" talks about how seeds can lay 'sleepy' and dormant for a long time, depending on the kind of seed. We also have a new bucket of wheat from Costco that we opened a few days ago. We'll try sprouting both wheats and compare how they each do.  We watched a few you-tube videos about seed sprouting. Most of the you-tube videos were for fodder for animals, but we'll probably use ours for bread. Astor and Leonardo were the most active participants by far. 


And later on we went on a seed hunt, collecting and labeling seeds from all over the irrigation ditch. 

The most serendipitous part of the lesson was during our reading/coloring time. We're currently halfway through The Education of Little Tree. Ada and Nahuel sometimes remind me that 'son of a bitch' is a swear word...and I'm glad that even in Sanpete County, I can offer them some diverse cultural elements through literature and hopefully teach them not to take themselves so seriously that a simple swear word breaks their whole spirit...This is the first time I've read this book and I've been waiting for a few parts where the wisdom of nature would present itself in the narrative. Today we happened upon this passage as we read: 

        "Different kinds of seeds are born at different body heats in Mon-o-lahs womb. When she first begins warming only the tiniest flowers come through. But as She warms, more, bigger flowers are born and the sap starts running up in the trees, making them swell like a woman at birthing time until they pop open their buds." p 101  

We've talked about some of the different kinds of seeds that we've seen and how they have adaptations to get them through the wind and and into soil. We decided to change the place of the bird feeder, as it doesn't seem any birds have found it in our window. We got the microscope out and tried to look at some different seeds under it. Now that it's out we'll probably keep it out, as the kids are constantly curious to know what different things look like under it. 

 


Sunday, October 11, 2020

October Life

Contemplating big changes for our homeschool and switching gears a bit this week. We tried to get as much done outside as we could and getting the garlic planted was a big deal. This is real life, after all.

 

While I was out preparing the soil by tilling and spreading compost, the kids were in watching Youtube videos about garlic. This kid is always up for anything where he gets to stick his fingers in the dirt, he must take after his Mom. 

Nahuel and Ada had a fun excursion in preparation for our co-op preparing our own version of Midsummer Nights Dream by going to see the play put on by Snow College. Ada did a lot of reading in preparation and knew who all of the characters were beforehand. Snow College did such a great job of it that we were all rolling in our seats (figuratively) before the end of the night even if it was Nahuels first experience with Shakespeare. It was an historical experience. Never before, and never again after covid (we hope, also we hope that someday covid goes away) will we see an entire troop of actors performing on stage with masks on. Their ability to sing and dance and project while masked was impressive. The fact that the kids caught on to the humor without being able to see their faces was truly a marvel. 

We always seem to find ways to fit science in effortlessly. As we're focussing on DNA alot this year we're talking about different animals and how traits present. Birdwatching is always one of our favorite passive pass-times. This week we got a new bird feeder that sits in our window and book about birds found in Utah. The kids have started marking which birds we see and documenting when in the book. You can just make out the tale of a female housefinch on this bird feeder and possibly the silhouette of a male on the branch. But Ada also saw a beautiful Northern Flicker. 
        

The funnest sightings were of the Great Horned Owl, possibly the same one, which seems to be perfectly comfortable with us at it's feet. Here is Astor, up close and personal. We saw it 3 times in 1 week! Maybe we can figure out where it has it's nest so we can find some pellets to dissect! If we see it again, we're going to have to name it or at least figure out if it's a male or a female. Thankfully, it hasn't taken any of our chickens or cats, there seem to be plenty of voles and other food in the fields for now...


 



Monday, October 5, 2020

Inch by Inch

Is it just me, or does it seem a rare talent to be able to measure?...

It's just me...I have independant children who are constantly telling me they know how to do things, but then they get hung up on simple things like measuring. Our math life this week has been focusing on correct measuring and understanding/applying real life measurements. What is real life you ask? For us this week, real life was moving furniture and cooking. Yes, that's how easy it is to incorporate school into your daily life...

The kids have known for a few weeks that there was a very special addition to our learnosphere and it was time to install it. It was....drum roll...

A microscope! Bata boom!

We had to decide what kind of table was most appropriate, how much room it would require, if we had enough room and the right thing. Don't tell them...I was pretty sure it was going to work beforehand. But they did all the measuring, checking, dismantling, carrying, shifting, and installing. 

Through this process, it became abundantly clear that they needed help understanding the measuring involved in the process. We undertook a diagram project that took over the rest of the morning. It was rough, but we got it done. By the end they were able to measure 1/8 inch, 1/4 inch, 1/2 inch, and multiple increments of each. We were also able to practice adding, multiplying, and dividing fractions, and had a whole lot of experience doing all of it. Our diagrams were not to scale which complicated everything. So it helped that by some random serendipitous turn of fate, both appropriately aged padawan learners ended up with the same measurements to half, half, and half again to make a diagram of the inch. 

In other news:

We've been pouring over cookbooks lately. lot's of tiny ripped up papers for tabs in pages filled with delectable things, which is Ada's favorite word this week. Delectable. We've been planning our menu for the next 3 to 5000 months. Nahuel really wants to learn how to make sushi. Ada is a lover of soups, and Astor is good with anything that has a high sugar content. Leonardo just really wants to manipulate dough, so there are sure to be many sugar cookies in our future. Today though, Nahuel obsessed until he gathered the materials and measuring spoons, cups, etc. to make pumpkin pie. So more measuring, multiplying fractions to double the dough recipe etc. Real life math.  


Thank Heavens we did a few other things this week. Along with a lot of youtube videos about how to treat and use a microscope, we collected leaves for future science experiments with light and photosynthesis, and started a new read aloud book. We also took a break from home to visit Rowleys Big Red Barn to take a ride through apple  orchards, get lost in a corn maze, and go down a big slide...

This is not in fact, an apple from Rowley's Big Red Barn, but 1 of 2 surviving apples which were still on our apple tree from this years late freeze. 

Animalia

The words we use and the words we learn go far in determining the direction of our lives.  This week at work I saw, played out, in perfect e...