Snow Days

Within the last few weeks, we’ve had several days of ice & snow that have caused the local schools to shut down. In fact, there was one week when we had mail delivery only three days out of six.

We continued to have school here on all those days. We had to reschedule a field trip because the place we were planning on going was closed due to the weather. So, we did a complete day of school that day, too.

We’re doing half-days this week and next (not including Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Years). Math is every other day. Spelling is every day, although a shorter lesson each day. Science is every day (since we need to get through more lessons in that than any other subject).

Speaking of Science, we’ve had some fun experiments lately in our God’s Design for Chemistry book. We made whipped cream and butter one day when we were studying milk. We dissolved LifeSavers (TM) yesterday (cold water vs. room temperature water vs. hot water, crushed vs. whole, and still/moving tongue around in our mouths) as part of our lesson on ‘solutions.’ We made mayonnaise today as part of our lesson on ‘suspensions.’

The two kids took a quiz on Monday on mixtures, elements, and compounds. After they tried it by themselves, we used it as a review activity instead of a ‘grading opportunity.’ So they both got all the questions correct after going over everything three times.

The kids have gotten plenty of opportunity to go outside to play in the snow. They climb snowdrifts, throw snowballs, slide down various hills, play with the neighbor kids (who are out of school either on a snow day or for Christmas break), and get themselves cold & wet on a regular basis.

I found some snow pants for the older two at a local resale shop and had some just the right size for Child #3 already. Only Child #4 lacks them although he tends to stay out just as long no matter how cold & wet he is. The only time he comes to complain is if he lost a glove. It appears to be his Achilles ‘hand’ (so to speak).

Science Quiz

After much deliberation, I choose to purchase Answers In Genesis’s God’s Design for Chemistry series for our science this year. As it is designed for Grades 3-8, it is a bit of a stretch for our young family. I figured my (young-for-her-grade) 3rd grader would grasp most of it and my first grader would be along for the ride. They both love experiments and the texts (Properties of Matter & Properties of Atoms & Molecules) have a fun activity or experiment almost every single lesson.

Both have really struggled grasping the concepts. I didn’t realize how much trouble they would have. The first quiz (Lessons 1-4 in Properties of Matter book) didn’t go the greatest. But the second was really dismal. The older child grasp the concepts as shown in the short answer portion of the quiz but doesn’t have a clue on the terminology. The younger child can figure out the terminology as shown by her fairly decent score in the matching portion of the quiz but doesn’t get the underlying concept.

But that’s not why I’m posting about this. I just wanted to share Child #2′s answer on one of the “short answer” questions because it had me rolling with laughter. I must set this up by saying that 1) we studied astronomy last year and 2) the chemistry text discussed the concept of buoyancy with examples of swimming in a pool filled with rubbing alcohol (where we would likely have issues staying afloat) and a pool filled with mercury (which would be a bad idea, obviously, but where we would easily stay afloat) due to the different material densities.

Quiz question: “If an object floats in one liquid but sinks in another, what does that tell you about the densities of the two liquids?”

Child #2 answer, “The one that sinks is probably rubbing alcohol and the other is probably Saturn or Uranus or something you can float on.”

[Obviously, she was trying to think of the word "mercury" and substituted names of two other planets instead.] Is this funny to anyone else or is it one of those “you had to be there” moments?

Chemistry Curriculum Decided!

As I wrote about previously, I was wondering what to do about science for next year. I ultimately decided I could not spend such a huge amount of my homeschool budget on science at this level (1st & 3rd grade), so I crossed NOEO off my list, reluctantly. Pandia Press will have their Chemistry curriculum out this spring. They have some of the new book available via Adobe Acrobat pdf to preview. I checked it out and . . .

I’m going with God’s Design For . . . series. I got the two book set on close out at R&D Education’s site. I believe Answers in Genesis is coming out with a newly revised set of books starting in 2009 and that is one of the reasons (another being that R&D Education is going out of business) I was able to get it so cheap.

I thought the R.E.A.L. science Chemistry program looked fine, but I’m good with my decision. I hope the kids will like the different format with so many experiments (something they really enjoy). I plan to ‘beef up’ the curriculum with other books from the library on the topic we are studying each week. The authors actually recommend that.

Of course, we’ll see what life has in store for us this fall! God laughs when He hears me planning things. For now, we’ll finish up Apologia Astronomy and start into my eclectic earth science curriculum made completely of books and experiments of my own choosing! Crazy stuff.