We Draw Animals Review and Tutorial

 

I was recently asked by Kathleen Wilson of  We Draw Animals to share a tutorial and a little bit about her great website. This website is a neat place to learn all about different animals and how to draw them. They have taken the time to include interesting information about each animal. There are over 500 different animals!

My girls have recently developed a love of My Little Ponies. When Kathleen asked which animal I would like her to make the tutorial of, I picked a pony. I thought it would be neat to take her original design and add some fun pony accents. You could add some wings or a unicorn horn to make it look like your favorite pony!

 

This website would be an educational place to check out for Art or Science classes. There is even a section about plants.

Have some fun this week drawing and learning on We Draw Animals!

Drop That Egg!

Every year at AWANA the girls get to participate in an egg drop. (If you don't know what AWANA is check out this post.) It's Daddy's job to help them get their egg drops all ready. This is Pie Pie's fifth year participating. Since they don't like to do the same thing, every year they have gotten a bit more creative. This year it was parachutes!



The girls and their Daddy worked very hard on this project. They hot glued and drilled. I also heard there was a lighter involved! Nobody got hurt making this project because I wasn't helping.

The egg went into the box and the parachute helped slow down the decent from the high window. We also surrounded the egg with packing foam. I heard someone else used marshmallows. Pie Pie wants to try that next year.

Both of their eggs made it to the ground in one piece!

 All of the kids love this event!

 It's even fun to hear and see the eggs crack and splatter all over the ground!

 Science and Bible in one night, it's a dream come true for this homeschool Mom!

A Month Into the School Year

I was counting how many days we have done for school recently and was happy to notice that we have 25 days finished already! Pie Pie and I like to know how much we have accomplished! I am also pleased with the progress we have made and would like to share some here.

Reading 

Pie Pie and Pants have done a lot of reading. I love reading and will do anything to encourage them to read. They each read enough books for about 36 tickets (5 books per ticket) in the Library Reading Program this Summer. I'm not sure the actual total because I lost track, but that is a lot of books. We have particularly enjoyed reading Carolyn Haywood books.



We are currently reading

These are some of my favorites from when I was little and I am so glad Pie Pie can enjoy them now. Pants and I are reading through the selections in Before Five in a Row. We have, so far, liked all of their choices.

Math

We are currently in our third chapter in Math which should be finished up tomorrow. We are just getting started with some new lessons, but Pie Pie is sailing right through. Pants is still working on counting and writing her numbers. They both like to build with our Math blocks.

History

For History we are currently in the 1800s of American History. We just finished up the Constitution and learned about the Bill of Rights. We are looking forward to the War of 1812  and then we are going to read about the American Girl from that time period, Josephina.

Science

We started off with a couple of different topics. We learned a little about the Ocean and Butterflies. Now we are currently on The Human Body. We are learning a little more about what our body parts do and how to take care of ourselves. Our next topic will be all of the animals that are in Animal Jam. This is their favorite Internet game. Pants is learning about different animals and the Five Senses.

Geography

We just finished up our second Which Way U.S.A. book. This is Pie Pie's favorite subject right now. Whenever I ask her what subject she wants to do, she always says Geography!

Language Arts

We just started our Grammar book this week. We have also been working on Handwriting. I am also hoping to start a Spelling Program very soon! We are going to be starting a Literature unit all about the Roman and Greek gods and goddess.

Bible

We are doing daily devotions and just started AWANA, which  is a Bible Club for kids. Both of the girls participate and it is at our church. They learn about the Bible, play games and get prizes. This is where they recite their Bible Memory Verse for the week.

Pants

Pants has been very fiesty lately so we have been going really easy with Pre-K. We are reading and I have been trying to get her to focus for longer periods of time on a task. She is going to be starting Ballet next week and I think that will be a good physical outlet for her. She loves to draw, color and play.

There's lots of other things going on for us too. We have been busy! I just wanted to give a little update to anyone who likes to read about us!

More to Come!

P.S. I am linkink up with iHomeschool Network's Mother's Journal.

 

It's Lucky's Day!

In my past two posts I told you a little about Scaredy and Playful. If you read one or both of those two posts you know who they are if you didn't, they were caterpillars. I say were because they are no longer caterpillars. They did their caterpillar thing and one of them made it and one didn't. The people at the Butterfly Sanctuary told me that right before they turned into chrysalises they would attach themselves to the lid of the container they were living in. Well, they did. Unfortunately, I was taking care of them. I went to look at them, being very careful, and I tripped and dropped them.  The next day they turned into chrysalises. I assumed they were already dead, so I poked them. I like to poke everything and make things worse! One of them was okay, but one started oozing liquid, okay insect blood! (Did I mention I was poking them with a sharpened pencil?) I decided to save both of them just in case they weren't dead. It's a good thing I did. I happened to glance over at them a couple of days later and I saw one of them had emerged from it's chrysalis.

 

I was very excited! (Sorry about the dead one in the picture.) If anyone else decides to do this project and they fall, just leave them alone. You do not need to poke them. No matter how much you may want to. I know this from personal experience!  We kept the butterfly for a few days and the girls named it Lucky. Lucky because it lived! We fed it a little sugar water on a cotton ball.

 

 

We set it free outside, but had to take a few pictures of it before we said goodbye.

 

 

 

I got some good close ups because it was a little chilly when we let Lucky go. We checked the next day and it had flown away.

 

 

 

I hope Lucky finds some nice flowers.

Let us know if Lucky visits you!

 





What's That Insect?

Pie Pie's project this week was to identify this insect.

 

We discovered it outside at the butterfly sanctuary. First they thought it was a bee, but I could tell it was not a bee. Then we thought it was a hummingbird, but it was too small. We knew it was a moth or butterfly, but weren't sure what kind. We went on the Internet and found it right away! It's a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth. It was really neat to see and discover what type of creature it is.

In this picture you can actually see it's tongue coming out to drink.

I also wanted to share how big Playful and Scaredy are getting!  Almost time for them to turn into chrysalises.

I hope you enjoyed this little bit of Science in your day!





Cleaning up the Frass!

You may think I misspelled a word in the title, spellchecker thinks I did! However, I did not! If you do know what that funny word in the title is, you are definitely smarter than I was last week! So, what is frass? Here's a hint!

It's caterpillar poop!

Why do they have silly names for animal poop? There's guano, road apples, chips, scat, dung and I'm sure there's more! We actually discussed this over dinner tonight! My girls thought it was very funny.

Now onto the real reason for this post!

We recently went on a super fun field trip to 

I want to thank some of my homeschool friends for letting me know about this wonderful place. It was a bit of a drive, but well worth it. We got to watch a video about the life cycle of a butterfly and hear a nice talk all about butterflies. During the talk they have an audience member dress up like a butterfly which was a nice visual for my girls. Then you get to visit the butterflies in a Flutterarium. 

It was very much like a fairyland. There were flowers and butterflies everywhere. 

You could even hold the butterflies, if they let you. Some were more friendly than others!

The girls could have stayed here all day!

Anyone who know us, knows we don't go anywhere without a friend. 

Don't forget about me! I love butterflies.

Since Pants and Pie Pie loved the butterflies so much we brought home some butterfly babies. Say "Hello" to Playful and Scaredy! 

My girls are very literal with names. Playful is the one on Pant's finger and Scaredy is the one in the container. He tends to curl up in a ball when you pick him up. We are very excited to watch them grow, turn into a chrysalis and become butterflies.

Come back soon to see how our babies are doing!

The Water Cycle

For our final study in Science this year we learned about The Water Cycle.

One of the experiments we did was about Evaporation. It is very simple. You just fill a glass up with water, put a piece of tape where you filled it to, and watch the water evaporate.

The water isn't completely gone, but we will wait until it is.

We learned how steam is water that turns into a gas when heated.

Another experiment was freezing a book and putting it in the steam to see Condensation form.

We made a cloud in a bottle. First you put hot water in the bottle, about halfway. Then you put a piece of ice into spout of the bottle. As the water cools you can see the clouds form.

My girls really enjoyed these experiments. Most of them came from Kidzone. The worksheets were great from there too. Pants, who is four, completely understands evaporation. She thinks the whole idea of the water disappearing is very neat!

Some of the books we used in our study were:

Water Everywhere by Jill Atkins

How Does the Sun Make Weather? by Judith Williams

Water Up, Down and All Around by Natalie M. Rosinsky

What Makes It Rain? by Keith Brandt

A Drop Around the World by Barbara Shaw McKinney

and every body's favorite teacher

Ms. Frizzle!



It's A Bird, It's A Plane.......

It's a Flying Mouse!

We started learning about Simple Machines way back in the beginning of the school year. Pie Pie had picked out some projects way back then. We are finally getting started on them!

The first one is a Mouse-A-Pult. Pie Pie and Daddy spent some time making this project on Sunday. Bonus! Everyday is a school day here! Not really, but I can dream right!?

Getting Started.

Always look at the directions first.

Pie Pie got to use a drill.

All I did was sew up the fabric mouse. Pie Pie decorated it.

Ready, Aim.......

Fire!



I tried very hard to get a picture of the flying mouse, but that critter was just too fast for me! I even allowed Pie Pie to shoot it directly at me! Still no luck.

Super fun way to spend some time together!

Big thank you to Daddy for helping Pie Pie with this Science Project!



Weird Science Fair

We had the opportunity to participate in Lighthouse Learning Christian Homeschool Co-op's Science Fair. (This is a Co-op we joined about two years ago. We always have fun with these homeschool friends!)

First we had to pick a scientist. Pie Pie picked a Roller Coaster Designer. (I whispered it in her ear first!) She loves Roller Coasters so I thought this would be a great topic to learn about. She agreed with me so the next time we went to the library I ordered lots of books and movies. Then we went to the craft store to get a Roller Coaster model. We were on our way!

I already showed a picture in this post of the progress Pie Pie was making on her model so here is a finished picture!

It was very interesting learning all about Roller Coasters. Here are some of the questions we answered while we were learning.

Where did Roller Coasters start?

In Russia in the 1400's or 1500's as ice sledding. They would sled down 70-foot hills that were very steep and covered with ice.

When did the first wheeled Roller Coaster open? 

In Paris in 1804. It was named the Russian Mountains after the country where the sport had originated.

When did Roller Coasters come to North America?

In the 1870's on paper in the form of blueprints. The first one built was the Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway at Coney Island in 1884.

When did Roller Coasters really get popular in North America?

In the 1920's about 1,500 coasters were built.

When and why did their popularity decline for awhile?

In the 1930's and 1940's due to the Great Depression and World War II. They needed the supplies for the war and people did not have money for fun rides. Over 1,000 coasters were torn down in this time period.

When did they gain popularity again?

Walt Disney opened up the first steel coaster in 1955. It was called the Matterhorn Bobsleds.

How many types of wheels does a modern coaster have?

They have 3 wheels. The road wheel, upstop wheel, and guide wheel. They are all important for safety to keep the car on the track.

Why does the first hill have to be the highest?

So the coaster will have enough energy to make it through the whole ride.

What do designers think about when designing a coaster?

They think about engineering, physics, safety and creating an unforgettable experience.

How many types of coasters are there?

The classic, racer, figure 8, inverted, out and back, suspended, shuttle loop, stand-up, trackless, enclosed, twister and launch. 

Some of the resources we used were:

the Internet

Roller Coasters by A.R. Schaefer

Roller Coasters or I Had So Much Fun, I almost Puked by Nick Cook

Popular Mechanics for Kids Rip-Roaring Roller Coasters and All Access to Fun DVD

The Science of Disney Imagineering:Gravity DVD

The night of the Science Fair we had a lot of fun sharing with our friends what we had learned. We also enjoyed learning from the other projects!

I'm looking forward to our next Family Night! Get out your measuring spoons,mixers, and don't forget the chocolate! We're going to be baking up a storm for Top Chef! You will not want to miss that!