Science Experiment 1.3

So, now we are to accomplish another science experiment. The goal is to see how a Tums tablet can neutralize vinegar... Pretty cool. First you take 3-jars. In the first, you put 1-cup vinegar, the second, 1/2-cup vinegar, and the third, 1/4-cup vinegar... then drop a Tums into each jar. The chemical reaction causes the Tums to begin fizzing... Doesn't sound interesting? Well, it actually is... especially if you tend to have acid stomach. You begin to understand what happens in your stomach when you down a Tums.

The second part of this experiment is to do this experiment again, but this time you add enough water to make it 2-cups of liquid in each jar. So to the first jar, you add 1-cup water, to the second you add 1 1/2-cups of water, and finally the third jar gets 1 3/4-cups water. So as you can see, we're diluting the acid. Now you drop a Tums into each jar... Again, you see fizzing and bubbling, but this time it is not as much. This time the third jar hardly bubbles at all. In fact, it pretty much neutralizes in minutes... but the first jar.. fizzes until the Tums disappears.

Hmm, next time I have an acid stomach, should I drink more water?

More later,

Heidi

School Starts Again

So the saga continues... School begins again... 2007-2008 Yeah!

Well, this year "seems" to be off to a great start. I don't mean to sound negative, not even to the smallest degree... It is really easy for me to get all gloomy when the new year starts, however this year feels different. Both of my boys have an excitement about this school year that is so different than before.

My oldest son is now in 8th grade. This year he begins Algebra 1 and Physical Science and he is really excited about it! He jumps to his new found love almost immediately. He loves all the science experiments that he gets to put together on his own. He has set a goal for himself to complete his science modules done in under a week. (The modules are suppose to take 2 weeks...)

My youngest son, well he has, for some reason, set a high goal for himself. He is determined to pass his brother up in Math. He's in 6th grade right now. I have tried to impress on him that I don't expect him to put that pressure on himself.

Our core curriculum is a unit study called Weaver and we are on Volume 4. It is hard to believe that we made it through four volumes. Well, I don't mean that the curriculum is difficult... Not at all... With all the ups and downs of home schooling, it is interesting that we have pulled through all these years.

Well, hopefully more later...

Heidi

Science Experiment 1.1

So, my 8th grade son now has Physical Science in his scheduled curriculum. He's lovin' it!

The other day, we did an experiment that involved mixing water with baking soda and then taking two copper insulated wires and attaching each wire onto the positive and negative posts of a 9 volt battery.

We all know what happens to copper when it is allowed to be outside in the elements. It turns green. The statue of Liberty is a perfect example of this... but what we found interesting was the pretty color of bluish green that happens to the water.


We also found that the positive wire turn blue green while the negative wire turned black. What’s with that??

We had a lot of fun with this experiment. Wait til you hear about the next…

More later,
Heidi

Science Project

Our home school has been exciting. We have recently been studying Time, Space, and the Solar System. However, before we got to this unit, we studied the Brain.

This was an exciting unit for all of us. We got to dissect a brain and study the various parts of the brain. Here are some pictures of our experience.



Obviously this is not a human brain! This is a sheep's brain. Our curriculum called for a cow's brain. It also suggested that we get a fresh one. Ugh! All I could imagine was this slimy blood covered brain. No thank you!

Well, I called every butcher I could to see if they had a brain. No one had one. All the better for me. I found a place online that has preserved sheep brains and all the tools and instructions to help with dissecting a mammalian brain. You can look here for any supplies you need at Home Science Tools. I love this web site. It has tons of information that can help you understand just about any science project. I am now thinking of purchasing a new microscope from them. The one that we currently have, one person has to hold a flashlight under the slide while the other looks at the slide. Not fun!

After examining the cells under the microscope (see the flashlight?), we drew a picture of what we saw. Being that this was our first time slicing a sample to put under the scope, I don't think we did too badly. However, let me make a suggestion... if you decide to do this project, don't skimp on supplies by not buying a microtome. A microtome is designed to securely hold specimens and expose them in tiny increments so that they can be thinly sliced for slide preparation.

You guessed it... I don't have one, so I had to slice as thinly as possible with just a scalpel. Not easily done. I think by the third try I had a thin slice...yet we found that it was not thin enough.

Here is what we saw. Now remember, only a flashlight to light our slide... Although our sample was too thick... I think gave my boys a really cool show. In fact, they drew out what they saw...

This was an interesting experience for all of us! We learned all the different parts of the brain. We still have the brain! It is preserved in formaldehyde. My boys want to slice it in quarters and in every other direction... not to be sadistic, but learn about other parts that connect to the brain. I am not ready to "slice 'n' dice" yet.

Well, I hope to write more soon about our next adventure in home school.

See ya soon!!

Heidi

Homeschool Fears

I started this blog for two reasons. One was to journal all my home schooling successes or failures and the other was journal things that I have learned in web design.

You see, I am a home school mom and I teach a 10 and a 12 year old… both are boys. This in itself is a challenge. You see, when it comes to planning school, I could use some pointers. You don’t realize how much a student has to learn in one year. It is mind boggling!

You have to plan for Math, Reading, Writing, History, Social Studies, Language Arts, Health, Arts, and so much more. I mean, you really want the best for your child. You want them to have good careers, good lives… right?

You figure that as a teacher, all you really need to do is to teach reading, math, and writing… for the most part this is correct. You really do want your student to have the ability to teach himself. No, I don’t mean that is really all you do, but that is the biggest responsibility you have as a teacher.

If you can teach your child to read, write, and do math, they CAN do the rest. All you would need to do is to plan what they are to learn. Like the old fashioned water pump, you need to prime them. However, that is not all I need to do. When you make their lessons completely out of a book though, you create a mental boredom. There is no interest in reading all the time. You have to put some action into their learning.  For instance, when we studied topography, we created a topographical map out of clay. When we studied the crossing of the Jordan River with Joshua leading them into the Promised Land, we took 12 stones and painted them and labeled them after each tribe. We stacked them as a memorial on our front porch. We were studying memorials and this was one that was a memorial to God.

So, now my 12 year old goes into Jr. High (a.k.a. Middle School) this next fall… I am petrified. I know he needs more Science and he’ll learn more Algebra… but am I teaching adequately? Do I spend quality time preparing lessons for him…? These are fears that I have.

The only way I, or any home school parent, can overcome these fears is to take it to the Lord in prayer. Only He can guide you and give you peace…

I have blogged before on how I ended up here, home schooling our children. I won’t go through that over again. You can read it on my Homeschool Journal.

Now, more than ever, I seem to be more anxious over this next year than I have been in a very long time.

In my next blog, I will discuss curriculum decisions.

Happy Schoolin!

Our Vacation

Well, we finally did it. We finally took a vacation. It has been 6 years since our last vacation to California... It is such a long drive to go to CA... Now, since we live so far north, it is a 3 day trip to drive.Let me ask this...Is it still a vacation if you can't really afford it? This has been our dilemma for 6 years. There just has been no extra cash to make the trip. Then when Marty lost his job, it became impossible.Well, we finally took time and left for California and I thought I would write about our excitement.We spent months trying to decide how we were going to go to California. We were meant to go to Lompoc to visit Marty's parents, whom we have not seen for 6 years at least... Marty's mom had a car that she wanted us to have... so we knew we were going to drive home. But, now we had to decide how to get there. If we drove there, it would be a 3 day drive. Then when we came home, again it would be 3 more days and maybe two vehicles to get home. NOT FUN!

We made the decision to fly this time. Our boys were more than excited… for they had never been on a plane (except for Matthew when he was 6 months old). The days were counted down and finally we get to the day when we are to fly out.

Our itinerary was to fly from Moscow/Pullman airport, to Seattle (SeaTac), and then LAX, and finally to Santa Barbara Airport.  This was exciting, scary, and long. We planned for everything… at least we thought so.

Since this was the boys’ first plane flight, we knew they were too excited to know safety facts like, stay on the plane until the plane came to a complete stop, and stay close to Mom & Dad NO MATTER WHAT!! There was so much I stressed over as a Mom… Perhaps you understand.

I digress… O.k. we board the plane in Moscow/Pullman… boy this was a surprise… sort of. The plane is a prop plane. It seats probably 60 people and it has two large props to it… It looks safe enough, but we watch the engines just the same. Now, remember, this plane is supposed to fly direct to SeaTac. At least, that is what we understood on the ticket information. But NOOOO … we fly to Lewiston first. This was idiotic to us. You see, we live right smack in the middle between Lewiston (to the south), and Moscow/Pullman (to the Northwest). It is cheaper to fly out of Moscow/Pullman, but we still took a stop off in Lewiston… this is all of a 15 minute flight. On the ground in Lewiston, we had a delay. Apparently, the pilot was called out of the cockpit to take a look at the right engine. It was leaking. We were right next to the right engine. After his inspection, all is fine… Finally, the plane taxis down the tarmac and we take off for Seattle.

On this flight, the boys got to sit together, but Mom & Dad had to sit separately. Mom sat behind the boys and Dad sat several seats ahead of them. So, the boys were, more or less, on their own to do what they wanted. They were in heaven!

So, we land in Seattle…boy what a HUGE airport! We deplane and head into the terminal… we had a bit of a layover so we take time to visit the restrooms. We found the gate that our tickets say that we’re to be at… and we sit there… Marty charges his Palm, I watch the kids… the kids beg to run off and look at things. It all seems relaxed and calm. One thing I really didn’t teach the kids, but they figured out on their own was the arrival/departure board. You know the one you’re supposed to look at for all flight information. Yeah, well, Matthew goes over to that board and begins reading it. He comes back to me and says … “Mom, what time is the plane supposed to be here?”

I looked at my watch; it time for the plane to be boarding… So I look up to notice there is NO PLANE! I explained to him that the plane should be there… He told me that I should take a look at the board. So we go to the board… You know what we found out? Our plane was at a different gate! I am panicked now… I run to the counter to ask one of the attendants… Sure enough, we’re supposed to be at another gate that is clear across the terminal and it is loading now. Yikes, do you remember I said that SeaTac is really big?? Yeah!

So, I get instructions on how to get to the gate… I send the boys after Marty who is charging his Palm… and we bolt for the gate. We had to catch a tram to get there… We finally made it and got seated. The plane took off shortly after we boarded.

We flew for quite some time before we got to LAX. They gave us food and drinks and the boys each had a window seat… they could see forever!

Now this last plane was excitement in itself. LAX is just as large as SeaTac, plus there is always construction. We had to go to a different terminal but couldn’t get there from where we landed. We had plenty of time to eat dinner, so we did. After dinner we headed toward our gate, only to find out that the terminal that we had to be at was clear across the tarmac! We had to catch a bus to go over there.

The last plane we had to get on was smaller than the first. It had really big props on it… It only would seat like 20-25 people. The boys’ seats were right behind the prop and when the engines started, it looked like the propellers were going to slice right through the fuselage. The engines were so loud we could barely hear the flight attendant on the P.A. system. Boy, I was so glad to get off that plane.

After three planes and five airports, we ended up at our destination without any real problems. The boys were exhausted by the end of our flights. We started our adventure at 2 pm and finally got to our hotel in Lompoc, CA by 12:45 am.

I’ll have to write more to describe our drive home!

More later!

Heidi

Catching Up

It has been a very long time since I have blogged. So much has happened… Since my last post, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita released their fury on the Gulf Coast. Many have had to recover from all this tragedy. Luckily, as I see it, the hurricane region doesn’t snow much… Here we are in Northern Idaho experiencing, what I have heard to be, the earliest winter in a while.

Hurricane Rita reunited me with a couple of cousins that I have not been in contact with for over 20 years. The last I remember, I think I was 16 years old. That is over 100 years ago you know… <sheepish grin> Anyway, that was only a short visit in passing… The time before that, I think I was 12 years old.

When I had heard she was and her mother and her brother, and all their families combined were now refugees, I began to be a little concerned. So, I contacted my cousin. We spent HOURS on the phone catching up with each other. It was so much fun.

My cousin is a Professional Storyteller and author. This hurricane was devastating to her business. Her main area of business is Louisiana, Texas, and Florida. She loves kids and telling stories. She is such an animated person, even over the phone.

One dilemma I have with my homeschool is getting my boys to write. I feel like I am battling a monster sometimes… I am sure you can relate. I get anything from, “Momma, do I have to write a paragraph?” to “Momma, will you write for me?”

The main point to THEM writing is to ignite their creativity! My boys are very animated. They LOVE to tell stories, but the don’t like writing. It doesn’t matter that writing is another form of telling a story… it’s writing! BLECH!

Well, I decided to talk to my cousin, ask her what she would recommend. She gave me some really neat tips. “First,” she said, “have them write in a journal daily. Anything they want to write.”

Well, we do that already. I have my boys read a chapter a day in the Bible and then write about that chapter. This gives them something to write about.

“Secondly,” my cousin suggested, “don’t make the write book reports. Instead, have the write book reviews. When one is really good, have them submit it to the local library for posting so that other kids can see if it was good or not.”

Well, I did ask my librarian, and she said that would be a great idea. She would start up a board. After speaking to her, I went poking around on the Internet. I remembered that Blogger.com had free blog spots online… So, I talked with my boys… I get really excited. They love the Internet. Anything that they can do on the computer or the Internet they would love. I told them that I no longer required ‘book reports’ of them, but I would like them to write a review for me to put on their own blog. This blog could and would be read by family and friends. They could share their work, or their opinions with their loved ones.

Anytime we do Creative Writing, or a language arts assignment that really is a job well done, I ask them to post it on their blog. Anytime they read a book, watch a movie, or play a computer/Playstation game, I ask them to post it on their blogs. They like using their blog.

My cousin, as I have said is a Professional Storyteller and Author. She has her stories on CD and one day, decided to send a copy of her stories to us to hear. My boys are going to wear them out, I think. They love both CDs. One day, my youngest, he’s 9 years old, came to me and told me he wants to write a story. He even told my cousin on the phone that he wanted to TELL her his story…maybe she could write it … (this was his thinking.) My cousin encouraged him to write it and email it to her, then she would proofread it for him and return it. If it was really good, she might help him publish it. He was so excited that she was interested he got busy writing! Yes, my son… WRITING… well, until he was hit with writer’s block.

Well, they do have their own blogs and I think they are terrific. Take a look at them. http://matthews-review.blogspot.com/ and http://nikolas-info.blogspot.com/ …

Well, thank you Dianne for encouraging my boys to write!

You can check out my cousin’s web site to learn more about her stories. You can find her at http://www.storyconnection.net .

More later…

Heidi

Remember when...

Do you remember when you were a kid and you just had a vacation day or week? Do you remember what it was like to go back to school? Oh man, do I ever remember! I hated it.

Well, it is the same here, today. Neither my boys nor I really wanted to start school after having 3 days off for Labor Day. Oh the drudgery. However, like every other school day, we started. It was s-l-o-w. Time ticked as we marched though.

Finally, around noon, the boys completed their math tests, grammar, and journal. My oldest son, currently in the sixth grade, has made his first post to his own personal blog. He has titled it “Matthew’s Review.” He intends on writing reviews for books, movies, & games that he has divulged in.

Nikolas set up his blog today, but has not posted to it yet. He hopes to write for his tomorrow.

Basically, my goal is to have my boys just write about stuff they like. Yes, I will edit for punctuation, capitalization, etc…but not for content. I hope it works!

We’ve been studying Pre-American History for this past week. More specifically, we’ve been studying the Renaissance Period and the Reformation of the church. We found that Johann Gutenberg had an important part in the timeline toward our American History. Because of him, we now had the printing press. The printing press plays a big part in the reformation of the church as well. Not only was the Gutenberg Bible printed, but also many other documents that were needed by the Cardinals for the church were printed too.

We had fun carving potatoes to make letters and then using paint as our ‘ink’ to print our initials.


We learned about the struggles between the Catholics and Protestants, and how King Henry VIII established the Church of England. This was a big break from the Catholic Church.

We studied Prince Henry the Navigator who sailed from Portugal to discover a new way to China. His mapmaking and encouragement set the mood for more discovery missions later on. We studied other explorers too, like Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, John Cabot, and Vasco de Gama. It was because of these that we have our country, America.

We had a lot of fun!

Now, for this week we continue our trek through time by studying James VI & I. In case you don’t know, James VI & I was the first-born son of Mary Queen of Scots. He was crowned King of Scotland when he was 13 months old. Thirty-six years later, he was crowned King of England. James VI & I ordered the translation of the Bible from Latin to English. It was the only Bible that was authorized by the King and the only version allowed in the church at that time.

Tomorrow, we’ll learn about the monopolies that England was involved in. Just a subject I am not familiar with… Guess I’d better go study.

One thing we will do for fun tomorrow is to draw a map of England. We were suppose to do that today, but ran out of time. Maybe I’ll post pictures of our maps.

More later.

Curriculum Choices

After making our decision to homeschool, we were now faced with the big decision of what curriculum to use. I have found this to be the dilemma of every homeschool family. We had a lot to think about. We had some questions that we needed to face, such as: Why did we start homeschooling? What do we want the boys to learn? We almost had to ask, what do we want them to be when they grow up?

I have already shared one of my reasons for homeschooling in the previous post. Now, for what I wanted them to learn… well, our number one thought was that we wanted our boys to know God. We wanted to make sure that the Bible was included in whatever their actual curriculum was to be.

My girlfriend and I discussed several alternatives and finally went to a homeschool convention that was held in our area. We knew of two different Unit Studies and we wanted to review them at this convention. One was studies was “Weaver" and the other “KONOS.”

When we looked at “Weaver” we really liked it a lot, but it looked so intimidating. There were five binders that were bundle together and truthfully, this was my first year and I wasn’t ready for something so complex. So together, my friend and I chose “KONOS.”

“KONOS” was an interesting character unit study. I used “KONOS in a Box.” Each box you bought was another character trait that you would study. The box contained all sorts of projects that taught different aspects to the character trait. For instance, we studied Kings and Queens and made crowns. We studied horses and made one out of paper and brads.

The only trouble we had been, understanding how the Bible was tied into all of this. They had a Bible study, but it was disjointed at best from the rest of the unit. I have always said that I don’t have a creative bone in my body… so this was hard for me to put it all together in an understandable method.

The following year, even though my boys loved “KONOS” and all the fun stuff in it, I went to the next homeschoolers convention and my friend and I sat at the Alpha Omega Publisher’s table for two hours or more reviewing the binders of “Weaver.” The AOP representative took time to explain to us how to use the binders. From that moment on, I was sold and I have been using “Weaver” as my main curriculum ever since.

“Weaver” has the lessons all laid out for me with the Bible lesson tied right into the whole Science, Social Studies, Creative Writing, Art, etc. thing. It is so much fun for all of us. Even I am learning stuff I never knew or considered.

We are now working on our fourth year using “Weaver” and we’re still going!

Our Homeschooling Decision

I am the proud mother of two very special boys. First there is Matthew, whose name means "Gift of God." Let me tell you, he is a Gift of God to us. Secondly, there is Nikolas, whose name means "Victorious Spirit." He too, is a gift from God, but with an extra ounce of "spirit."

I have always wanted children and dreamt of staying home to raise them. I expected to be the "Block Mom" where my kids would come home from school and bring their friends home to swarm my refrigerator and rampage my home. My kids would hear how neat their mom and dad were to just let them come and crash the place. My kids would feel safe and know their friends were too. Of course, my house would always be fun to be in and clean all the time! O.K. wake up! I don't clean house!

Sometimes, change is hard for me to deal with and hearing constant noise, screaming, loud T.V, well, I don't handle that well either. Ha-ha-ha! I think God knew I wouldn't be able to deal with that kind of a lifestyle. What am I saying??? Of course He knew!! He formed me in my mother's womb, right?!?!

When Matthew turned 5 years old, we put him into public school. He went to preschool and loved it, so, naturally, kindergarten was the next step. Watching him walk to the school around the corner was the hardest thing for me to do. I volunteered what time I could to his classroom, but with Nikolas in Preschool, it was difficult.

During that year, we found that Matthew excelled a lot. He learned to read on his own. He was quick to learn everything. There was no stopping him. The teacher saw what he was doing, and along with two other students, he gained permission to go to the library on his own to get new books while the rest of the class worked on other things. She understood that her class was developing into 3 different levels and she wanted to work with each student to the best of her ability. In my opinion, if every teacher were like her, I would have no trouble sending my boys to public school.

The next year, Matthew went to a different school in the same district. His first grade teacher really didn't know how to deal with above average students. She was excellent with the grade level students, and she knew where to send the below average, but what do you do with above average, but not "gifted and talented?" I did my best, again, to volunteer in his class. She treated me like I didn't know squat about teaching. I was her paper pusher. She would get flustered with Matthew because he would finish his work ahead of everyone else and then distract the other students.

Finally, I got frustrated with it all. So, I went to the Principal and explained to her my frustration. Boy, did I feel like I was talking to a wall! We finally agreed to test Matthew and find out where he actually was, academically. (I pushed for the test.) The school psychologist gave us the report of his scores and told us that Matthew was in the top 18% of the first grade. This was not high enough for the “Gifted & Talented” program; your child has to be the top 2% to qualify. She told us basically not to worry, Matthew would slow down and the rest of his class would catch up to him. So, I looked at her and said, “Why should he slow down? Why should he be bored for whatever amount of time it would take for him to "Slow Down?"” I mean, isn't that how we end up with kids on drugs or with kids in trouble with the law? That was not good enough for us!

During this time, I met a woman with four children. She had a heart for the Lord and, her children, although very high strung, were very well behaved and polite. Her oldest is 6 months older than Matthew, so they were both in the same grade. She convinced me that home schooling was the only way to go, because God gives us as parents a directive. He made our children our responsibility. My friend gave me oodles of scripture to back up the fact that we needed to pray about teaching my own children. So, we prayed! And, believe it or not God answered! My husband, in full support, sent me on a mission to train our children.

Oh Man! This is NOT what I wanted to do either. I mean, I was looking forward to sending both my boys on the school bus and having some ME time! Well, that isn't God's plan for me. That wasn't and still isn't God's plan for my boys either. So, in 2000, I pulled Matthew out of public school and began teaching both our boys at home. It was a hard decision for me because I only have 21 college credits under my belt and a Cosmetology license. I didn't think I could do it. However, God has other plans!