November 10, 2012

Today we headed to my sister's church. They had invited Dr. Jobe Martin to come speak. He was as great in person as he is on his videos. Some of the more well-known are "Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution." Much of what he discussed at the workshop was similar to what he presented in the videos. You can see what he has to offer at one of his websites - Creation Proclaims.

This was a full day workshop from 9am until 2pm with a lunch included. We only stayed for the morning portion and lunch. I didn't take any photos, but you can see some of what was presented in the clip below. If you have access to Netflix, you can also see the "Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution" videos there.

Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3

Day #15/175 Days

October 27, 2011 - Science Co-Op

This is our last day of co-op. Many of the other students will be going one more week to do all the dissections. I let Lego-Man decide if he wanted to do those or not, but he decided against it. Considering we did 90% of the other experiments, I'm calling it good.

The high school students completed experiments for Modules #7 & #8.

The CGC kids completed pages on birds.

Sadly, I'm entering this so late I have no other details of the day.


Day #46/175 Days

October 20, 2011 - Science Co-Op

The kids have been doing very well with the science co-op. Today the high school students covered experiments in Module #6: .

Experiment 6.1 (Module #6)

Cell Structure I

Experiment 6.2 (Module #6)

Cell Structure II


The CGC class that I teach worked on learning about fish. I really like the way CGC works and it's been going well. We finished early.

The boys & I worked on chores around the house in the afternoon. 

October 13, 2011 - Science Co-Op

Today was another Science Co-Op.

The high school students work on the experiments for Module #5:

Experiment 5.1 (Module #5)

Osmosis and Diffusion

Experiment 5.2 (Module #5)

The Fragility of an Enzyme

Both of the experiments take quite a bit of time, so while the kids waited they watched the videos Indescribable and How Great is Our God both done by Louie Giglio. Both videos can be viewed online at YouTube.

Indescribable - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, & Part 5
How Great is Our God - full version

The Considering God's Creation kiddos work on insects and spiders. We finished prior to break so we joined the older kids upstairs and watched the How Great is Our God video.


Day #37/175 Days

October 6, 2011 - Science Co-Op

Today was our Science day. We spend the morning at a co-op.

Lego-Man was upstairs with the high schoolers. This week they covered the experiments in Module #4:

Experiment 4.1 (Module #4)

Class Basidiomycetes

Experiment 4.2 (Module #4)

Yeast and the Fermentation Process

Experiment 4.3 (Module #4)

Molds and Mildews

Experiment 4.4 (Module #4)

Imperfect Fungi


Conductor & Happy were downstairs with me in the Considering God's Creation class. Today we covered Lessons 8 & 9 - Clouds and the Speed of Light, Wind, and Sound.


It was a nice day at co-op so after break all the younger kids headed outside to fly the kites we had made two weeks earlier.

After co-op the boys & I headed north to meet our new flock of sheep. I needed to gather information on them and wanted to do that without the stress of unloading and getting them settled in their new home. They are arriving on Saturday.

The ewes were all out in the pasture and didn't come near us. We had a dog with us and they didn't know us. I was able to snap a few photos all the same with my telephoto lens.

Only the sheared ones are mine. The ones with more fleece are a different breed. We are getting Navajo-Churro sheep which is an endangered breed. We'll be adding this in to our course work and each boy wants to train a lamb for the fair this year.




Day #32/175 Days

September 22, 2011 - Science Co-Op

Today the high school group worked on flower and fruit anatomy and dissected both. They also looked at chick development slides.

The Considering God's Creation class worked through Lesson 7 which covered weather. We discussed the "weather equation" and what things affect weather (sun, air, water, rotation & revolution, and land). We broke in to two groups - older and younger. One group worked on creating the notebook page and the other group made homemade kites.

The younger group made kites first while the older kids worked on their notebook pages. The older kids managed to make their kites faster so I sent them to help the younger ones with their notebook pages. This seemed to work well.

I used instructions on this page to make the kites.

Unfortunately, it was raining by the time we were done, so I saved all the kites and we'll fly them the next time we get together if the weather cooperates.


Day #22/175 Days

September 15, 2011 - Science Co-Op

The high school class continues to work their way through the Apologia Biology labs. Today they worked on Experiments 14.1, 14.2, and 14.3.

Experiment 14.1 is "Leaf Collection and Identification." To makes things work a bit more smoothly, each student was to bring in a sixteen of one leaf in order to share with the class. We had each of them also take a photo of the tree and a close up of the bark. We are working to get inexpensive copies made to add to their lab notebooks. (This did eventually happen thanks to one of the moms who willingly printed them out for cost of paper and ink.) Experiments 14.2 & 14.3 looked more closely at the leaves. Lego-Man is still enjoying the class and doing well from what I gather.

In the Considering God's Creation class we looked at talked about earth and it's atmosphere. This was a VERY quick overview of everything. We also created the CGC notebook page on the earth and rainbows. This showed the layers of the earth.

After break we headed outside - admist some rain - to do a couple of fun experiments. The kids were broken up in to groups of 3-4. Each group was given a small glass piece vase and I went around with a box of baking soda and a bottle of vinegar. Yes, they all got to "explode" a volcano which they thought was great! To top off the morning we had four of the older boys do the "Diet Coke and Mentos" explosion. Needless to say, they loved it - as evidenced by the photo above.

Overall the co-op continues to go well. Although, I am looking forward to late November when we don't have to be up and gone quite so early in the morning.

Day #17/175 Days

September 8, 2011 - Science Co-Op

The co-op continues to go well. The high school students worked on Module #3 in Apologia's Exploring Creation Through Biology. Lego-Man seems to be doing well with the class - keeping up - completing his assignments - and learning. That's all I can hope for right now.

The younger kids and I had a blast. I just wish I had brought my camera. I was a bit frazzled when I first arrived as I had forgotten to bring the teacher guide for CGC. I had my lesson plan typed up so I decided to just use that as a base. It worked.

We reviewed what we had learned the previous week. The kids did a great job sharing so I know they are listening! We had a rip-roaring Bible drill. They seem to enjoy this but one young man obviously knows his Bible and wins more than the rest. He suggested that those that win sit out a round so that offered up a chance for others to snag the verse. I'm actually surprised how much they like this part!

One verse we discussed a bit more than others was Job 38:7 which says....(I'm sharing Job 38:1-7 for context):

The the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:

"Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? 

Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.

Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand.

Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?

On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone - 

while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

The CGC book shares how scientists have "discovered" that stars emit sounds. I just found a neat BBC video that actually shares this with actual sound footage from a star.




The we created a fun notebook page from CGC. It was a model of the solar system made in to a notebook page. It did mean a lot of cutting and pasting, but most finished it by the time we took a snack break.

After snack we headed outside to create a model of the solar system. What fun! I found a neat site called "Jump to Jupiter" that had a model I felt we could construct outside. I was just thankful the rain had stopped long enough to create this.

For our sun we used a softball. Most of our planets were represented by pepper flakes and poppy seeds while the giants were represented by marbles. The original plan was to do so many "jumps" before placing the next planet.  For example - it was 600 jumps from the sun to Pluto! However, we quickly ran out of room! Instead we had the children do a "toe-to-heel" step which fit much better. We still used about 500 yards of space. It definitely put things in perspective!


Day #12/175 Days

September 1, 2011 - Science Co-Op

Today was the first "classroom" day of our Science Co-Op. The high school students were in the gym. They tackled Experiment 1.2 from Module #1 (Intro to the Microscope) and 2.2 from Module #2 (Pond Life B). While I wasn't able to be upstairs to see what they completed, I know that Lego-Man seemed to have a good time and seems to be doing well with the material. We're moving on to Module #3 this coming week.

I had the younger siblings downstairs for our first Considering God's Creation class. It went very well. We had originally thought to only include those age 7 and up but changed it to have ages 5 and up. This meant a bit more hands-on help from the moms but we decided to continue with this. I had 2-3 moms helping which was nice, but I may ask for more. CGC does a lot of cutting and pasting of pages and little hands sometimes need help with that.

We covered the first 1-1/2 lessons in CGC which went over Creation and Stars. The children created the notebooking pages. We held a Bible Drill a well. I read Yellow & Pink by William Steig (excellent book) which led to a discussion about a Creator vs. evolution. The children also watched a short segment from a Moody Science video about creation.


Day #9/175 days

Science Co-Op Begins

This year we are trying another co-op. Once again though this is a "limited time only" one which fits in to our schedule a bit better. However, when I tell people what we are doing they do scoff a bit at me. We are meeting weekly in order to just complete all the experiments. Our goal is to be done by Thanksgiving. Yes, that fast.

My oldest son is now in high school. I have another homeschooling friend who has graduated one and is near to graduating her second. She asked if I wanted to try doing a co-op for Apolgia's Biology (1st Edition). I decided to give it a try.

Since there are just as many younger siblings as there are high school age, I am teaching all the younger siblings (ages 5-12) using Considering God's Creation. There are parents helping in each group plus we have a nursery for those too far too young for my class.

We met today to do the Pond Study experiment. My friend & I took the liberty of moving the experiments around a bit in order to take advantage of our seasons here in Maine. While we are doing the first four modules in order, we will then be skipping around a bit.

All the kids (and even a few of the parents) seemed to have a great time at the pond today gathering samples, checking out insects, and doing observations.

I was surprised at how into it Conductor got. He had excellent luck capturing lots of water striders. Here's an example...

I think know it's going to be a lot of work - for everyone - but it will be a good start to Lego-Man's high school portfolio.

Day #4/175 Days

Day #112/175 Days - Co-Op

We started something new today at co-op. All children ages 10 & up started a new class with a friend of mine teaching. She is doing an ecology class for them. She used to be a public school teacher and did this class for eighth graders. I think it went well. This is the class Lego-Man will now be doing. Conductor and Happy will continue in the geography class.

This also halved the number of students we had in our geography class. I taught about the country of England today. My hubby & I had the opportunity to visit here about 12 years ago so I brought in my photo album. We discussed the facts about the country (capital, continent, currency, government, flag, etc.). I also found a great website and used it for most of my information. It's called ProjectBritian.com and it was set up by a junior school to share information from a project they did.

When we had a break and snack, the older children joined us. We enjoyed tea (of course!) and scones (so yummy!!) as well as some "biscuits" (lemon cookies & ginger cookies). I think this is the favorite time for the kids!

We finished up with a craft. They kids created a "Royal Guard" paper doll that I found at DLT Kids site.

Once this was done we sent all the kids outside to play for the last 45 minutes. I brought along a soccer ball and we had some nets set up so a few chose to do that. The rest played on the swing set. We'll start doing this more often to give them some time to burn off some energy and just have fun playing together. It also gives us a chance to clean up the classroom without rushing to get to where we need to be next - well, me anyway.

Day #33/175 Days - LC Bates class

Not a lot of photos today. I never passed off the camera & Mr. H kept trying to help. The class today was on mollusks. There are a lot of them & I learned some neat stuff. My boys did too. We discussed a bit of it on the ride home today.

We again started upstairs & Serena let the children explore the "sea" room & look at all the different specimens of mollusks in there. There is even one of a giant clam - it's over three feet long!

Then we went to check out the fossil display. Here is Happy with his favorite pal & his mom.

Downstairs in the classroom area, where it was only slightly warmer than the rest of the museum (it's not heated), the children saw all kinds of different types of mollusk shells and learned some interesting facts about how they grow, their colors, and their patterns.

Miss Serena showing the children how a mollusk (clam I think) would move through the water.

Interesting fact: The patterns on a mollusk's shell (sea shells) come from the animal that lives inside of it. Whatever pattern is on the shell, that is the pattern/colors on the animal. I thought that was especially interesting given the colorful shells we examined today.

As a hands-on project, the children all made a shell collection:

We are really enjoying these classes. It gives the boys a chance to see some friends and learn some science as well. I'm hoping we can put something together for the spring as well. We have one more class in late November. It is going to be cold but hopefully fun.

Day #26/175 Days - LC Bates

Today was our 3rd class at the LC Bates Natural History Museum. It's really a very unique museum for this area of the state. If you live locally, I consider it a must see.

The class today was on insects. We started upstairs viewing some wasp nests. They were pretty impressive.

We also stopped here for a bit to look at this insect collection. This cabinet houses a pretty extensive collection. It was built (the cabinet & the collection) by a woman from Maine (I can't remember her name) who lived in the late 1800's. Her doctor had told her that for health reasons she should spend as much time outside as she possibly could. Thus began her hobby of collecting & cataloging insects that lived near her.

We also checked out some more collections upstairs as well as some photographs. This one is pretty cool.

It's a wasp nest built around an existing bird house.

We then headed downstairs to the classroom. This is where the real fun begins for the kids I think. Serena, our guide & teacher, does a really wonderful job making the subject come alive for the kids. Here is a photo of Conductor & his cousin demonstrating how the wings of a dragonfly work.

There were also a lot of preserved specimens that were handed round for closer inspection.

Dead-leaf moth

Giant Katydid

Serena also does a good job of breaking up the class time so that the kids (mostly boys!) are not sitting for 30 minutes or more. Here is a photo of Lego-Man, Happy & another little boy from class demonstrating how an insects legs move. Can you see how Serena is holding her fingers off to the side? The trick here was that Lego-Man was to move in the opposite direction from Happy & the other boy. I never realized that is how an insect moves. This is another reason why I do enjoy these classes.

Then at the end of the class time, there is usually some sort of hands-on thing for the kids to do - usually. Serena had lots of bug glasses for the kids to try out. Here is Lego-Man sporting a pair.

Then she had rubbing plates of various insects. Even Miss H got to do this one.

Happy showing his ant eye glasses.

Conductor is wearing some 3D glasses. They had some large cards with various insect parts on them that showed up in 3D with the glasses.

All-in-all the kids enjoy the class (even if they have to grumble about going...but we'll leave names out here). I should also mention that Lego-Man took most of these photos (except for the last few). We look forward to our next one in a few weeks.

Day #20/175 Days

Today was our second LC Bates class. It was all about "pond life." The boys & I had actually taken a two hour class of a similar title this summer but it was a very rainy day & we never made it to the actual pond. Today we never made it in to the museum. I'm pretty sure the boys enjoyed this more. At least these two did....

This is Happy with one of his friends. Whenever we get together these two want to play together. They are about 1-1/2 years apart (maybe 2?) but get along very well - usually.

The biggest excitement when we got down to the pond where two large snapping turtles (pretty sure they were of the snapping variety) were, well, um, "wrestling" in the middle of the pond. At least as far as we could tell - they may have actually been fighting but we were too far away to tell for sure which was probably a good thing.

There were tons of little frogs hanging out on lily pads. There were nets for all the kids to share & they went & scooped up some water or mud or muck or all the above & then went through it to see what they found.

I want to publicly thank my sister & Happy's little friends mom for taking on two of my boys as I held Mr. H & Miss H & Lego-Man was my roving photographer (he took most of these photos). Thanks everyone! I couldn't do this class without your help.

A couple small crayfish were also found. One of them (I think the smaller one) actually shed it's exoskeleton while it was in the container & Serena was passing around other critters for the kids to look at. That was pretty neat to see.

We ended the class with all the critters in containers & Serena explained what each one was & what their role in the ecosystem of the pond involved. We had asked Serena what the biggest find might be - that elusive critter that one doesn't always get to see - and she said it was a water scorpion. About five minutes later my nephew caught one in his net. That was interesting to see!

We found LOTS of frogs. That big one in the front is about two years old (according to Serena) but most were frogs hatched this very year. The kids also caught tadpoles, damselfly nymphs, dragonfly nymphs, whirligigs, and more!

The kids left happy and muddy so I call that a good day.

After the class we headed to one of the local parks & let the kids play. I didn't grab the camera & Lego-Man was too busy playing to snap photos. We stayed for about an hour & then headed home for nap time for Mr & Miss H.