The Mighty Ant

Ants are strong - really strong. Check this thing out:

That large ant that you see there wasn't actually moving. Well, not by itself, anyway. We saw these two much smaller ants dragging the larger (and quite dead) ant across our driveway. Which was an awesome thing to witness after our short lesson on ants and ant behavior this morning!

Today we started our second week of homeschool. I'm happy to report that last week was a success - not only did we survive, but Daniel finished the week on a high note and was ready to get started with week two today. 

Ants. I wanted us to get up close and personal with ants this week for a few different reasons.

1. Maureen Spell has included nature journal pages for ant study in her amazing ebook, available here. 

2. "Ant" begins with the letter A, which is the second letter of the alphabet that we're studying. I wanted Daniel to learn all the letters in his name first, and then we'll move on with the rest of the alphabet.

3. Ants are everywhere. There are plenty of opportunities in our yard for easy observation, ha ha. 

4. And last, but not least, ants are super hard workers. They are (say it with me, Daniel) diligent. The ant provides the perfect opportunity to help Daniel understand what that word means. 

If you're curious about our plan for the week, you can visit my planning page here.

Today we read Ants are Fun, by Mildred Myrick.

We bought our copy of this book a few weeks ago at a consignment shop and I'm so glad we did. Not only is it an engaging story that held my 3 year old's attention the whole way through, but it's loaded with all kinds of facts. Also, it doesn't hurt that Arnold Lobel drew the pictures. And since we can all agree that he's one the greatest authors/illustrators of all time, we should also agree that this book is worth checking out. 

From this story, Daniel learned that ants start out as eggs, then hatch into larvae, grow into pupae (which he loved saying over and over again...three guesses why), and finally become adults. We also talked about some of the things that ants eat (sugar, honey, and other insects) and that two colonies of ants can end up fighting each other. 

Which is what made those ants on our driveway this morning so exciting! Was there a fight? Did the small ants kill that larger ant somehow, or did they just find him? Were they taking him back to the colony to be eaten? 

I asked Daniel all these questions, but his eyes were glazed over at that point. I'm pretty sure he was in beach mode already. Fair enough. He'd been a good student that morning. Time to play.

The beach! It's always fun to go to the beach, although it felt a little weird to be there without Natalie. 

I let the kids play for a little while. Here's Silas working on his own little nature study.

Look, mom!

After some play time, I gave the boys snacks and sat down with Daniel to do what we came to do (other than play): letter practice. So I grabbed a handful of sand and put it in the lid of a plastic shoe box. At first we reviewed letter D.

Good job! I'm so glad I caught his "Aren't you proud of me?" face.

Then we worked on letter A.

Not bad! I had to help him with this one. I drew the first line, then he finished with the other two. This was definitely a second or third attempt; the first couple tries were a little crazy. 

I love how school for Daniel is turning into a natural part of his day...starting with a very short lesson and story in the morning, then moving on to some sort of activity and snack (outside if possible). And that's it. It's not too much or forced. And he's practicing skills (and lessons are being reinforced) as we go about our day. It just seems like the best - the easiest - way to do things. It's working for us.

We didn't stay too long today since we had to get home, get cleaned up, and get to Natalie's school to pick her up. So after about 45 minutes to an hour, we packed up. Not a bad way to spend the morning!

Have a great Monday and a great start to your week, everyone!

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Discovering Natural Florida

The other day I took the kiddos to a nature park.  It was really quite beautiful.  I do love where I live and I never get tired of seeing our marsh.

And it was educational.  We found tracks.  Sort of.

And discovered what "made" those tracks.  Well, you know.

And generally had a great time hiking.  Kind of hiking.  Soft core hiking.  On the concrete path.

My point here isn't the awesomness of this activity or the game changing tips I'm going to give you.  My point is that even the most normal activities are pretty amazing for young kids.  Sure, we walked along on concrete.  But for my city kids, we were in the forest.  The for-real forest.  If you live somewhere more rural, you'll have to get your feet a little dirtier to impress, so to speak, but even then, it won't take much.

The tracks we found?  They were the real deal as far as my kids were concerned.  And we did learn a thing or two about the animals that made them.  Or would have made them if we were actually walking along on dirt.  

We learned that our home is also home to the largest rattlesnake in north America (Diamondback Rattlesnake) .  They both loved that idea.  We talked about what to do if we came across that snake in the path (thankfully not a part of our day here).

We had a pretty good time watching the fiddler crabs crawling around the marsh grass in the wet sand.

And running along the boardwalk.

And then it got hot.  Really hot.  Summer is here, folks.  And when summer hits Florida, you'd better be ready.  With lots of water.  We weren't.  So after this shot, we made our way back to the car where our lunches and waters were waiting for us. 

But not before taking this picture.

Why, yes, that is my son picking his nose.  You're welcome for that.

If I was a little more prepared for our field trip, I might have made little books for the kids to "draw" the animals they saw today (which included cardinals, woodpeckers, lizards, and squirrels along with the fiddler crabs), but I didn't.  And you know what?  That's okay.  

Sometimes all it takes is a quick trip out of doors.  Are you guys getting outside lately?  What fun things has your family been up to?

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Getting Dirty in the Garden

Materials:
plants or seeds
dirt and/or potting soil
spade
water

So, baby elephant ears.  

My kids love gardening, especially my daughter.  If she's allowed to dig holes, get her hands dirty, shower the new plants with water...she's a happy girl.  Daniel likes it, too, but his attention span is a lot shorter.

I don't think my kids are very unique in that way.  I think most kids delight in getting outside and getting dirty.  And if they can be a part of watching a new thing grow, all the better.  

There are also so many teachable moments when it comes to gardening.  Everything from root systems, to photosynthesis, to the insects and worms in the dirt can become a new lesson.

Exhibit A:

Earthworms are such friendly little guys.  Quietly, blindly, going about their business in the dirt.  

"Why are they slimy?"

"Why are they blind?"  

"What do they eat?"  

"Is it okay for them to get on the elephant ears?"

There are all kinds of lessons here...even an extended lesson on how to treat little animals (it doesn't include flinging them across the dirt, in case you were interested).

And then there's the satisfaction over accomplishing a goal.  Our front yard looked like this yesterday afternoon:

What a mess.  But things have to get worse before they get better, right?  If you look at the end of the garden bed over on the left side, you'll see a large clump of elephant ears.  Our plan was to spread them out to fill out the whole bed.  So we spent some time digging up the babies.  I dug them up and Natalie and Daniel spread them out.

And Silas helped.  Sort of.  Really, he just crawled around in the dirt.  

And ended up like this:

Sigh.  He's definitely been my dirtiest baby.

Then we dug new holes and planted them!  Natalie loved this part!  

We still need edgers and mulch, but this is looking so much better already.  And my hope is that by this time next year, we'll have some beautiful elephant ears to hide the old, stained concrete porch.  

All right now, get outside!  Go plant something -- and get your kids involved!  Tell them to observe as many bugs as they can find!  Start digging holes and those bugs come flooding to the surface.  And then go look up what earthworms eat...we still need to figure that one out ;)

Experimenting with Surface Tension

Materials:
one cup filled to the brim with water
one cup filled with pennies
(optional) abacus
(optional) hypothesis and observation sheet with pencil

Water tension is defined by Merriam-Webster as the property of a liquid surface that causes it to act like a stretched elastic membrane. Its strength depends on the forces of attraction among the particles of the liquid itself and with the particles of the gas, solid, or liquid with which it comes in contact. Surface tension allows certain insects to stand on the surface of water and can support a razor blade placed horizontally on the liquid's surface, even though the blade may be denser than the liquid and unable to float. Surface tension results in spherical drops of liquid, as the liquid tends to minimize its surface area.

Um...that's a little wordy for my 3 and 4 year old scientists!  I decided not to go into any kind of formal definition and instead point out various examples of this phenomenon and give them a name for it.  

Surface Tension

We walked around our yard and noticed drops of rain on the slide and leaves from the night before.  

"Why doesn't the rain just slide off?"

"I don't know.... Look, there's some more!"

"What is it doing instead?"

"It's making bubbles."  

The kids had a good time finding all the examples of surface tension that we could.

Then it was experiment time.  Before going any further, let me say that this experiment is definitely more appropriate for the 2nd-5th grader.  If you're trying this with younger kids, I would keep things pretty simple.  And expect that at least half the point will be good practice in following directions!  My kids were aching to throw a bunch of pennies in at once...and I do mean throw.  

Okay, back to the nuts and bolts.  Set up the experiment.  Have your pennies handy (we put ours in a cup) and fill a second cup to the absolute top with water.  We also used an abacus to help keep track of our counting.  If your kids are older, you may find this unnecessary.  

Ask your kids, "How many pennies do you think we can drop into this cup of water before the water overflows?"  Write down everyone's answers on your hypothesis sheet (we just verbalized our hypothesis since my kiddos are so young...which, by the way, they loved.  Thank you, Dinosaur Train).

Start dropping pennies!

Careful!  Notice the water everywhere.  That was due to throwing a bunch in at once and starting over.  Patience. 

With preschoolers, it's important that everyone gets a turn ;)

As soon as you start to see the water overflowing, stop.  Write down your observations.  You'll be amazed at how many pennies can go in the cup before the surface tension breaks!

This would be a good point to explain to older kids why so many pennies were able to fit (the definition behind surface tension). It's also a great time to try to think of other examples...water bugs walking across the water, small objects floating on top of the water even though they sink when placed under the water, etc. 

Overall, a super easy and fun experiment!  

Thanks for reading!

Everyday Learning

Yesterday was a busy day.  We impulsively (not so impulsively?  Is it impulsive if you've been planning on it for the last five years?) started ripping our bed of ferns out of the ground.  Dave's not a fan of them and I'm indifferent.  But having the ground cleared of all those pesky ferns will leave a giant spot in which we can replant our Philodendron.  Oh, Philodendron, what a trooper you are.  Surviving happily in a pot even though I know you'd love to grow into a tree...in the ground.  Patience.

Dave also did some major tree trimming.  He cut a trunk into several pieces, giving us an inside view of the rings.  We brought one piece over to the front porch for the kids to explore.

Natalie counted the rings.  We discussed possible reasons why the tree appeared to have grown more on one side and less on the other side.  I also helped the kids to notice that some of the rings were fatter than the others.  Why?  With a little guidance, they came to the conclusion that the amount of sun and rain the tree gets will affect how well it grows.  I pointed out that this tree was in a spot that received a whole lot of shade on one side and a whole lot of sun on the other.  

While ripping out all those awful ferns, I found this:

 Butterfly cocoon, maybe?  I need to do a little research.  But it was cool enough that I didn't want to just toss it to the side.  I would love for the kids to be able to watch this little guy emerge (if it is, indeed, a butterfly).

We ended the day with our first sprinkler fun of the season.  Long live summer!

(Notice the ginormous pile of ferns in the background.  Yeah, we're not done yet.)

Always a superhero...

New things to explore!

She was dancing in the water.  It makes my heart glad to see them so happy.

Rinsing off. 

I think this little guy approves!

Thanks for reading!   

Identifying Seashells

Materials:
Seashells - We found ours at the beach, but these can be purchased at craft stores.
Shell Identification Cards - We found our cards here at Homeschool Share, listed as Shell Memory Game Cards.

We've been working on an undersea unit.  I use the term "working" very loosely.  Basically, we asked a bunch of questions, and the plan is to go to the library to get some books and find some answers.  But the other day, we were at the beach and the kids collected some seashells.  When we came home, we used our shell identification cards, found here at Homeschool Share, to categorize the shells we found. 

Some were easy to identify, like the cockle shells and the scallops.  

Some were a lot more difficult.  

There were lots of broken pieces.  In that case, we just gave it out best guess.  We've been talking about the word "hypothesis" lately.  

Natalie loved this activity.  Daniel loved watering the plants while Natalie and I identified shells. 

And Silas loved the water ;)