I'm bugging out...

While watching Meagan at her tennis match, Jacob happened to see an ant trying to carry off a dead bug carcass. He got super excited, and we began watching this ant try its mightiest to carry off food for his home. We spent the next 20 minutes watching Mr. Ant, and began talking about ants in general. We talked about how he could carry something much bigger and heavier than him. We talked about how ants live and what they eat and the various different jobs that each ant has. He was fascinated, and so was I, just talking and exploring life. One of the best things about homeschooling is just that: talking and experiencing life and learning all about it.

After all of this, I found a documentary on ants called Ants: Nature's Secret Power (In case you want to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-gIx7LXcQM). They watched it and wrote a paper on what they had seen. When asked what they thought of it, Jacob said, "So cool!" Meagan on the other hand said, "It was so gross.....yuck!" I guess you can't please everyone.

-Sarah 

Unit Study: Patience

The next Unit Study we did was on Patience.  First we learned about Photosynthesis, and the Oxygen-Carbon Dioxide Cycle of Plants.  

For their exam, the extra credit question was to write the chemical reaction for Photosynthesis.  Jacob got it exactly correct.  Apparently, he takes after his father, who has always been good at that sort of thing (He also understood it and could explain it all perfectly).

We looked at a leaf under a microscope (the one we got for Christmas) and were able to see the different parts of the leaf up close.  We also wrote papers on plant protection and how plants use different methods to attract or keep away bugs.  We watched a documentary on Neflix (also available on YouTube) called "What Plants Talk About" and it was VERY interesting.  It talks about how plants help each other to survive and how plants actually can talk to each other in ways.  There is a forest where the forest is so dense that the sun never reaches the ground, so in order for seedlings to grow, the "mother" plants share their glucose so that their seedlings can actually grow.  The whole system works together to help each other flourish.

Next, we discussed a section on cooking and talked about yeast.  We made bread and pretzels.  

Naturally, Meagan made hers with flair!  If you don't know what this is, don't feel bad.  It's the cutie mark for Rainbow Dash, one of the ponies from My Little Pony.

The pretzels were cheesy garlic and the bread was honey bread.  The pretzels were made with the supervision and assistance of a master chef (One of Sarah's best friends), but the bread was made with Meagan teaching Jacob since Sarah had already taught Meagan.  This gave her a chance to be the "teacher" for a change.

We also did an experiment where we captured the Carbon Dioxide gas that is emitted from yeast as it reacts with sugar and used it to inflate a balloon.

Then we started talking about molds, fungus, and bacteria.  We have a friend who has Celiac's disease.  We discussed how any kind of gluten reacts differently in her body than in that of a healthy human body.  We talked about Alexander Fleming and the discovery of penicillin.  We talked about the different kinds of microorganisms.  First we talked about bacteria and how it is essential in our bodies. They help break down food, release nutrients, and recycle dead plants and animals into useful chemical compounds for living plants and animals.  Without them, we would not be able to effectively digest food.  One of the things that I learned (and Josh too) is that E. Coli can already be found in the human intestinal tract.  The danger is not in the bacteria but in the location.  It is only a problem when it leaves the intestines and enters another part of the body (for instance, the stomach or blood).  Bacteria form the majority of the biomass found on earth, which means that the total mass of all the bacteria found on earth is greater than the total mass of any other single species.  Next, we talked about fungi (yeast falls under this category).  Next, we talked about protozoans.  They live in water.  They can produce their own food (which makes them a plant) or they can consume other food sources (which makes them an animal).  Jacob describes this as being a "planimal".  Last, we talked about algae (of which seaweed is one type).

We were going to go into human development, but we started going to a new co-op (see the post on that HERE) and picked up where they were.  Because of that, these unit study style posts are going to shift in their format/frequency/content a little bit.  Change, though, is often a good thing, and we're hoping that this is no exception.

- Sarah                         

Classification Unit

As part of our organization trait unit study, we did a section on animal, plant, and rock classification.  The first part of the unit was on animals.  For one of the activities, King Phillip Came Over For Good Spaghetti.  No, we do not personally know any regents, however, this one can be used as a mnemonic device to remember the classification parts of all animals (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species).  We learned about the 5 characteristics that an animal must have to be classified:

1. Must have many cells
2. Cannot make it's own food
3. Must have eukaryotic cells (they have a true nucleus)
4. It must move about
5. It must digest food

We went deeper and talked about the 9 different Phyla of animals

1. Porifera (sponges)
2. Cnidarians (jellyfish, coral, anemonea)
3. Platyhelminthes (flatworms)
4. Nematoda (roundworms)
5. Annelida (segmented worms)
6. Mollusca (clams, oyster, squid)
7. Arthropoda (insects, spider, lobster)
8. Echinodermata (starfish, sand dollar)
9. Chordata (vetrabrea)

Then we talked about all the different areas and aspects of each of those 9 Phyla. We talked about how they were different from each other.  We talked about specific animals and fish.  We would look at pictures or go on walks and look for animals and the kids would classify them.  We discussed how the animal classification system came to be with it's origin in Aristotle, through LaMarck, and finally to our current system started by Linnaeus.  We even classified stuffed animals.

For plant classification, we started with flowers and what each of the different parts were and the 5 sections of a tree which are:

1. Heartwood
2. Sapwood
3. Cambium
4. Phloem (Inner Bark)
5. Outer Bark

This is a poster that I made to help the kids review that material.

We talked about vascular v. non-vascular (water distribution systems) and gymnosperms (no flower) v. angiosperms (flower).  Then we went into leaves and their classification.  There are three types of leaf edges:

1. Lobed
2. Serrated
3. Smooth (or Entire)

There are also two types of leaves (simple and compound).  Then we talked about how there are two types of veins a leaf can have: parallel (moncot) and palmate (dicot).


Then we went to the Lubbock Memorial Arboretum and collected plant specimens.  Once home, the kids created posters displaying their specimens and the classification characteristics of each specimen.

I had never thought the kids would be excited to learn such things, but on one of our later trips to the Public Library for more source material, the kids were pointing out the leaves on the trees in the Library yard and talking about their characteristics, completely un-coaxed by me.  It impressed me how I didn't have to quiz them, they were applying the learning all on their own.  It's not much, but it was one of those moments you look for as a teacher to tell whether your students are "getting it".

For the rocks portion of our study, we talked about igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks and the difference between rocks and minerals.  We discussed mineral properties which are:

• Luster
• Streak
• Hardness
• Cleavage

We discussed Mohs hardness scale.  We went into the layers of the earth's crust and finally the rock cycle (shown below).

Luckily, we have a son who likes to collect rocks, so I was able to go into his collection and pull out samples to use to teach with and for the kids to examine and classify.

With me being the perfectionist that I am, I wanted to make sure that they were indeed learning the concepts that I was presenting so when I tested them, I did so several grade levels above where they are in order to see if they had picked up the advanced concepts that we had discussed.  The kids both exceeded all expectations.

We also incorporated other subjects into our study.  For example, during the plant unit, I had the kids write a persuasive letter to a deciduous tree to try and convince it to not lose it's leaves in the winter.  We also did a celery experiment where we put a celery stalk in water with food dye and watched the progress as the celery "drank" the colored water and how it changed.  In our rock unit, the kids did an oral presentation about a specific type of rock, and Meagan created a song to help us learn about rose quartz.  In the animals unit, the kids wrote a fictional story about animals.

The kids learned a lot of information, and even now (a month later), they still seem to retain much of that information.  I truly believe that it is due to the hands-on approach we are taking with their schooling rather than just learning from books and paper.  They get out and actively engage with the world around them and it helps them to remember and appropriately apply the information that they have learned.  Even though they still frustrate me with the frequency which they are unable to focus to my standards, I am incredibly proud of them and the work they are doing.

- Sarah