It's a Bug Life

It's safe to say that at our house we like bugs. 

Leonardo with his pet moth.

The kids are always excited to preserve the big catface spiders they find around our house and Mom is starting an awesome new project at work with worms. 

Vermicomposting beginning.

So we used bugs to reach a few of our school goals this week. 

We found some awesome preserved bugs in glass and the kids had to identify which bugs were which with the description that came with them. Astor even practiced his writing skills and drew the bug all on his own. Then we made an art science project out if it. Each of the kids had a lump of clay to start with and a bug to model it after. 

The clay was a big hit and the kids are excited to let them dry and paint them. Next up: Identifying bug heads and researching vermiculture with Mom.

In other news this week: Astor has been trying to read Zoey Sassafras, a stretch for him, but he's up for the challenge! Also, he lost a tooth and has been learning about different states that are on the quarters the tooth fairy gave him...

Ada has been teaching Nahuel how to use her animation tools and using the modeling clay to practice characters for her first short animated film. 

Leonardo has been doing lots of bug puzzles, geometric looms, and building abstractly with the fraction tiles.

Nahuel has been practicing some new songs on the piano and learning about different parts of the earths crust and innards. 

Gently Giants

This week we've begun the long awaited journey of talking about genetics. Key learning words for this week have been allele, chromosomes, dominant, gene, traits, and heredity.  We had a bit of a celebration in store as Astor had his 7th birthday. He has been obsessing about animals lately, planning an animal rescue mission with his cousin. He asked if we could go see the gentle giants at Young Living's farm in Mona, Utah for is birthday. It was arranged and fit perfectly with our science lessons this week. There was a lively discussion about where we get our different traits from with an object lesson. Astor received as a gift, a pair of horses with a surprise foal inside and we talked about how the foal has some things from the father and some things from the mother and it introduced our birthday activity perfectly. 

Young Living's horses are nothing short of entrancing...We went to the show barn and made friends with a few gentle beasts. These Percherons are aptly called the gentle giants because they are just that. Easily taller than my 5 foot 7 inches at the rear, 7 feet tall at their heads, incredibly gentle and curious. 

The Percherons were by far the most fun, as we've never seen anything like that big of an animal to be up close and personal with. But we also visited  the Fresian barn, saw some gorgeous Andalusians, and made friends with Petey the pony. It was a perfect opportunity to see what strictly bred horses are like ant talk about the different traits. At first glance the Fresians and Percherons look alike, but their bred traits are very different from eachother. The massive feet, well, massive everything, of the Percherons is unique to them as much as the Fresians arching neck muscles and slender yet strong gracefulness. We were ale to compare and have a plentiful supply of future observation at our fingertips. 

Other things that happened this week were:

Ada got her first piece of magical mail corresepondence and has responded in kind...

Nahuel continued helping Papa fix up the car and learned all sorts of things about using tools and friction...

Leonardo has been waiting to learn about volcanoes and finally got the chance...

Astor got lots of animal toys for his birthday; horses, a big beautiful shark, and a wolf with a wolf book and is making marvelou
s progress with reading...

Little Tree and Elbow Grease

Our school has a name. It's the same name we've given our home and life and everything we hope to accomplish. And even though we don't know the future, we love our little homeschool! Palenque is our name. It means a holding post. It's where a horse is broken and trained. And to our kids it means that we throw ourselves into life for them. We create our home as a reflexion of what we want to grow into.    

    

We've been making some heavy changes to our homeschool routine (and life!) and for a while there, we weren't really sure how it was going to end up. But we've had a very successful transition to a completely new way of life. One where Mom goes to work and Papa stays home. The kids have been enjoying having so much time with him and the many things he has to offer that are completely different from Mom. This week we finished reading The Education of Little Tree. And I wasn't there to hear how it went, so don't spoil it for me, I'll catch up over the weekend...But the kids loved it. And that's enough for me. 

One thing that Papa has to offer is his knack for mechanical things. This isn't the first time he's brought the kids out and under the hood. This week, though, each of the kids got a turn under the car. Each performed a different task related to changing the oil. 

     

Nahuel was in charge of removing the plug to let the oil drain.

  

Ada took charge of changing the filter.

 

Leonardo put the plug back in. 

 

Astor primed the oil filter and installed it under the car.

Each of the kids took pride in their part and learned the methodical care that is taken when performing an important job. 

Some other things that took place this week were: 

Nahuel finished building the table for his model trains to go on and has started designing the rails.

Astor made an awesome pinball machine with this months Kiwicrate.

Leonardo got a new workbook for practicing his letters and did lots of math puzzles.

Ada has been plugging away at math, math, and lots of math as well as fine tuning her aquarium writing assignment.

Sloths, Penguins, Fish.

Cutting to the chase, we did something fun this week! 

We've been waiting for a long time to go to the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium. I had my reservations, being that we're a land locked, desert mountain state. But was thoroughly convinced that it's well worth the visit. We all got so much from it but one detail won me over. One of the aquarium 'guides', for lack of a better term, explained that one of the Aquariums goals is to teach about not only aquatic life, but ecosystems. She added that all ecosystems revolve around their water sources, making it appropriate to teach about all of 

the ecosystems throughout the world. 

While I was enthralled with the 2 toed sloth, the kids were entranced by the swimming penguins. 

Each of the kids was assigned to choose an animal to write about or draw over the next few days. Ada has been talking in co-op about writing focused paragraphs and different forms of adding details and information to a piece of writing. So this fits in well with her assignment. Nahuel on the other hand, will be asked to either write a poem about an animal, or use one in the introduction to a story. To say 

the least, there's so much more 

than science that will come out of our visit.

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. 

 

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...

 

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.