Nature Study: Winter Tree Observation

Last year in October we chose to observe a an Oak Tree that resides by our home as part of our Nature Study. In the Fall of 2009, we identified the tree as a Live Oak Tree by leaf identification.Live oak is a large spreading tree of the lower Coastal Plain from southeastern Virginia to southern Florida and to southern Texas.For our Nature Study, we have been looking tree changes from Fall to

Nature Study - Our Winter friends (Birds)

Last month in November, the boys felt left out as our neighbors to the North got vibrant colors of foliage in the Fall while we see only brown leaves and maybe yellow at best. This winter makes up for it when we saw different birds in our area that have migrated from the north.We have been seeing a house wren that sings each morning on our patio’s ledge. The bird’s song is very loud that you don’

Nature Study: Trees

This month we began a Nature study on trees and included it in our our a thematic unit on Fall. Last year in the Fall we spent some time on tree leaf identification of the trees that grow by our home.We will be observing a Live Oak tree that grows next to our patio garden. We’ll be looking at how the tree changes from season to season and hoping year by year.We are observing the leaves, bark,

Nature Study – Fall Bird Migration, plans for study

As our neighbors to the North get vibrant colors of foliage in the Fall, we here in South Texas are not fortunate to see the many colors of Fall except in the Hill Country north of San Antonio. One thing we do get is an opportunity to see the different birds that migrate to the south during the change in the seasons.

With the cooler weather this Fall season, we will be viewing our feathered

Water Density (Science Sunday)

This week we conducted an experiment on water density. We have been learning about earth’s oceans as part of our geography studies so we thought it would be interesting to learn how salt water is heavier that plain water.

We discovered in our research that Oceans make up about 70 percent of Earth’s surface and contain lots of different salts: sodium, chloride, sulfate, magnesium, calcium,

Nature Study: Signs of Autumn

This week with a small break from the rain, we embarked on our first Fall walk outdoors. It was party sunny as we took a walk down our street and enjoyed the cool breeze.

We noticed some cumulus clouds overhead and some darker cumulus clouds not far so we knew that it was not long before it would rain. My oldest son was able to identify the clouds using the Field guide Cloud cards I made for him

Air Pressure (Science Sunday)

This week we conducted a experiment on air pressure. Last week we learned how a cloud forms (particularly fog). We are reading a number of books on weather and clouds and this experiment helped us understand how air pressure affects clouds.
Our Question of the Week… How does air pressure affect clouds?

Items we used for this experiment:An empty jar
water
a playing card or index card

Cloud Cards - Printable

Last week the boys started their study on clouds. My oldest son will be doing a month long study of them as part of his Nature Studies. We are doing a cloud journal and will be observing clouds throughout the seasons.I thought about a creative way to have on hand an easy portable method of having pictures of the different types of clouds for the boys when we do our observations. I came up making

Week in Review: 2 steps forward, 1 step back (wk 2)

August 30th to September 4th
This was our second week of homeschool but it it still felt like our first. The boys are still waking up late (and by late, I mean noontime). Hubby has been staying up late due to restlessness and is keeping everyone up. We live in a small apartment so any noise can be heard throughout our home. I am hoping that these late night antics come to a close soon. I may

Make a Fog (Science Sunday)

This week we conducted a experiment on clouds. The boys were interested in learning how a cloud forms (particularly fog). We had been reading a number of books on weather and clouds and this experiment was perfect for us.
Our Question of the Week… How are clouds formed?
Items we used for this experiment:An empty jar
Hot water
a strainer
2-3 ice cubes


Predictions
The boys each try to predict

What my Children are Reading – Aug. 30 to Sept. 4

Last week was our first week of homeschooling and we spent the majority of that week busy with assessments and showing the the boys to some of the books for our new curriculum.Over the summer I looked at our previous book lists from our weekly reading and tried to find new books that we have not explored. That is not to say that we won’t revisit some of the boys favorites, because I know it would

Nature Study: Perseids Meteor Shower

NATURE STUDY: Perseids Meteor ShowerWe do not start our official first day of Homeschool until August 23 but we could not miss this for Nature study!One of the best and most reliable of summer meteor showers, the Perseids (sounds like pur-see-ids), hit its peak Thursday night on August 12th. We had almost forgot until a close friend called to remind me.During the days before our outing to see

What is an insect?

That was the question we tackled on Tuesday. We have been reading books this week on Insects and wanted to know what an insect is? We looked at our DK First Animal Encyclopedia to find out.

Here is what we learned:



After reading some of our other books, we discovered there are more insects in the world than any other animal. They are invertebrates which means that they have no backbone. They

"Dinosaurs!" Book and fun grouping activity!

This week we resumed our Dinosaur unit study. We read a wonderful book on Dinosaurs and how they are classified.Dinosaurs by Gail Gibbons is a book for that introduces young children to Dinosaurs. It explains what the word Dinosaur means and the time period when dinosaurs lived. Readers learn how fossils are formed and when they were first discovered. Since fossils were discovered,

Partnership in the Coral Reef: Clown fish and Anemone

Pictured above an anemone fish in a bubble anemone.The boys knowledge about the Coral Reef before we began our study on Australia's Great Barrier Reef was from the movie "Finding Nemo." They knew that the Clown Fish lived in an anemone but not why or how.The Clown Fish (also called Anemone fish) are small fish that live in the warm waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans, including the Great

Ocean Cards

Last year in June we did an Ocean theme unit and I made some Ocean Creature cards for the boys to use. We are using some of the cards this year for our study on Coral Reefs.The cards were orginally uploaded to Sribd but I have moved them to Homeschool Launch where you can download them for free. Just click on the thumbnail below.There are 9 pages shown in this set with 6 cards on each the Ocean

Nature Study: Parts of a Flower

A week ago, we began our study on Flowers as part of our Nature Study. We began to identify the types of flowers and plants we have growing.This week used several flowers we had in our patio to learn the parts of a flower. The printout was helpful in learning the flower parts of our flowers in the patio garden.We used our Primrose as our example of identifying the parts of a flower since it was

Nature Study: Squirrels in Spring

This week we began our Nature Study on Flowers but on Monday we could not help but find that squirrels were interested in us during our time outdoors on the patio. We started observing them over the weekend. (we had been studying them in the Fall and in Winter).

It appears there are a total of five squirrels residing between the two trees by our apartment. One of them appears to be a female. She

Week in Review for March 22-27, 2010

Week 23This week took off for our own "Spring break" but the boys wanted to still do our Nature Studies so we started a study on Flowers. We read books on Spring and gardening. We planted our plants and flowers in containers for our patio garden and then had lunch all week on the patio.We grew onion sprouts for science and learned about growing sprouts from fruits and vegetables. We ended our

Science: Make a rainbow

Pictured above, my preschooler's rainbowAfter reading books on Leprechauns and Rainbows, we decided to make our own rainbow indoors!Materials:A shallow pan or drinking glassWaterA mirrorWhite paperA strong light source such as a lamp or a flashlightWhat to do:1. First, we filled our drinking glass about 3/4 full with water.2. Then, place the mirror flat in front of the drinking glass. (when