Gardening Home School Style

So today begins our adventure into the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Although most historians believe that they were probably terraced and not actually hanging we'll be doing hanging gardens. This is part of our summer schooling program. We'll be able to get a lot of things in with this one project: reading, math, science, social studies (or History), writing, home economics, art and probably some other things if I think about it a bit more. I love being able to put everything together, it's more realistic. After all when you want to know information about something it usually isn't separate from other things. We don't research about gardens just because, usually it's to benefit our lives in some way (help provide food for our tables, cut costs, etc). So we used some of the money we got from our tax return to get both the girls their own hanging garden. Each will be hanging their own choice of two tomato plants and two cucumbers. Then the tops will be up to them. I'm doing my own garden in the back using the square foot gardening method that my sister-in-law introduced me to. I was lucky enough to see the one she had in Virgina and was fascinated by it. Now I'm actually going to be able to try one myself this year finally. Okay so I know that I'm trying to share the thrifty side of things that we do. We did save some money on the gardens by getting them at our local Sams for $50.00. We are also saving the recipts since our accountant said that we can claim many things on our taxes for education costs. I'm not sure what all we can claim but I'm keeping all the receipts of everything we spend on the girls schooling with a short note on the back of what it was used for. We'll see how much we get back when we file next year. This year we were able to claim a little over $600 on hubby's college expenses. Hopefully later today I'll be able to figure out how to post pictures on here for everyone to see!

Until then.........

Science Report

Well yesterday we did your science project of slime. Only it didn't quiet turn out as slime. Instead it was more like putty. So if you are looking to do a project to make silly putty try the second slime recipe at Science Bob. The kids still had fun and we all learned that even though it didn't go as we had hoped we still learned something. Perfect chance to let kids know that most science comes from things not working out quiet the way we thought it would. One of the mom's made a comment about it being a failure. I was quick to point out that it really wasn't, just because something doesn't work out the way you thought doesn't make it a failure. Not learning something from it is the failure. I really wish there was a way of just completely removing that word, "failure" from our language. Think about it, how many things in this life can your truly say is a failure, that absolutely nothing is gained from it? Can you actually name something? I know I can't! Now I know that some will argue that's not that actual definition of the word. I know that, the definition is (the primary) an act or instance of failing or proving unsuccessful; lack of success. There are more definitions listed as well. When you look closely to the actual definition it simply adds to what I say, can you name an instance when there truly is a "lack of success". So something doesn't work out the way you thought, at least now you know something new. You are still able to move forward and try again looking for a result. That is why today I recommend everyone check out their local library(s) and borrow the movie "Meet the Robinsons", that family has the right idea! Remember to return it on time so you don't have any costs added. Grab one the numerous books for a bedtime story too!

Fun with Science!

On Tuesday we will be meeting with our home school support group. We meet every Tuesday to do things together and since this Tuesday is St. Patrick's Day we decided to do something special. We'll all be bringing food to share but I offered to do a science project too. I let them (the kids) vote on either a slime science project or a color splitting activity with candy and coffee filters. Well needless to say slime one out. Maybe next time I should poll the parents instead, lol. I found a nice site for experiments at ScienceBob. In doing the research for the lesson I came across a group of websites that I hope I will get to use a lot of. Chem4kids, Biology4kids, Geography4kids, Cosmos4kids, Physics4Kids, and NumberNut. The last one is math not science but I want to check it out more maybe I can use it if we need some extra work. Trying to remember some of the information to teach it is difficult sometimes. I know the information but trying to gather it together so that it makes sense for that lesson, it can be hard sometimes. These sites seem to help. I only really used Chem4kids for the slime project information. I also didn't want to use all of the information either. There's enough there for a lot of different lessons. There are a number of different age groups that I have to consider. So I have different levels of knowledge already known for some but I don't want them to get bored. But then at the same time I don't want it to difficult for the younger ones either. I wanted something fun for the kids to do and we can make it green for St. Patrick's day!! Hope you have fun on St. Patrick's day, I know we will!!

Spring is in the air?

With the first day of Spring being the 20th of March this year we're looking forward to the warmer weather. Although it looks as if mother nature is making sure to get the cold weather in one way or another this year. We have a week of nice warmer weather only to have it turn cool again. We are getting ready to start our seeds since they are saying this will be our last cold spell. I decided this year to spend the money to purchase two Hanging Gardens from Sams this year. They don't have them on their website and I'm still looking for a link for them. I will add the link if I ever find one. If I can get the camera charged I will put a picture of them on here for everyone. They are nice since we will be able to put up to six plants hanging and then smaller plants on top. We'll be hanging tomatoes and cucumbers and we're not real sure what we'll be putting on top just yet. I decided this would be a good science project to add to the curriculum also. We'll be doing a simple journal made out of plain white paper folded in half with a piece of construction paper on the outside. The children can decorate the outside cover as they like, hopefully with some encouragement it will be themed towards a garden. Might have a princess added too since they are girls. Then we will be able to draw pictures and do our copy work on each page as the different stages of plants grow. I'm also considering doing a lapbook. A member of our homeschooling group was kind enough to show us these at our last meeting. I really like the idea of them. You can do a search for them and find lots of information on them. This may be better for our oldest child, I'm not sure if our youngest would have the patience for this. I may consider doing it as a group activity too. Since the youngest would like the cutting and pasting, the oldest the reading and finding of facts, and I could help with the writing since some of the areas to write in are small. One thing I find hard is there are so many really good ideas out there that I want to try them all sometimes. We've tried some things and although they are good ideas they just don't work for us so we put them aside and move on. We've also found that some things work for one of our girls but just isn't right for the other. I'm learning that sometimes pushing through just isn't a good idea. Learning is taking on a new meaning in this house, and we're loving it!