A Little Bit More Space

I didn't plan on doing any space day stuff today, since Jaymi was in school, but we ended up doing some anyway.
Today we talked about constellations, and made our own sky picture with stars & made-up constellations.

















We also made a cool black paper/pinhole sky to cover the end of a flashlight with, turned off all of the lights and lit up the wall with our starry night sky.


















And finally, Jaymi did a worksheet with a space word scramble.












She is so excited that tomorrow we are going to be astronauts!

Oh, and totally off topic, in the mail today we received Jaymi's membership package to the Young Naturalists' Club of British Columbia.
It's pretty awesome - includes:
a tiny magnifying glass on a cord
1 of 4 of this year's editions of "Nature Wild: Magazine for the YNC"
a pamphlet on wildlife viewing tips
a membership letter
newsletter
membership card
local group leader's card
a laminated bird & insect anatomy card
checklist of Victoria birds
info on making a bird-friendly yard.
The best part is a YNC Participation Passport. Everytime you go to an Explorer Day, your passport gets signed. When you complete 2 passports full of signatures, you mail it in to get a certificate and a YNC hat! You can also do other activities to earn Bronze, Silver and Gold certificates and pins.
It's all in the name of young people learning about, caring about and learning to protect nature & wildlife in B.C.

Check it out!
www.ync.ca

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Blast off!!

We have declared it Space Week at our house, and we are learning everything about space that we can.
Today was all about the space shuttle. Jaymi has been interested in rocket ships lately, so I thought that this was the perfect homeschooling topic for her right now.

We made a paper rocket ship (with construction paper and a toilet paper roll), found of lots of cool facts about the space shuttle, made a rocketship salad (I know, I know, Mark says it looks a lot like something else...), and Jaymi even made a section of her bedroom into a rocket station.
She even has a big plan for it...she has laid out some 2x4's, drawn areas on them, like 'Jaymi's rocket land', 'parked rocket ship', 'rocket blast off area', and even 'screwed in rocket ship' (her plan for a paper shuttle that is permanently screwed into the wood).

Of course, no study of the space shuttle is complete without watching some video of the shuttle blasting off and landing. That was the best part!

At bedtime I thought it was perfect to read her a non-fiction children's book about the stars. The only part I didn't anticipate (and thought it was not quite bedtime material), was the part about the American woman who was actually hit by a meteor that crashed through her roof one day! Oops! Too bad she can read - I tried to skip that part but she saw it.

Tune in later this week...we still have a study of astronaunts coming up, and the solar system!

Fun Stuff

Since I have just started this new homeschooling blog, and we've been homeschooling for years, I decided to list off a few of our favourite homeschooling topics & field trips that we have done.

1. ANIMALS
When Jaymi was 2, she LOVED flashcards with animals on them. She loved to name the animals as well as how many there were on each card. (Usually she did this while potty training on the toilet :))

2. HOTELS
Last summer we went to the Delta Victoria Hotel (for an in-town vacation) and it was so much fun! A hotel to a 4-yr-old is a whole new experience!
She learned about:
- ice machine (she even made up her own experiment involving filling 5 glasses with ice and warm & cold water and seeing which ones melted faster)
- steam on mirrors
- float planes landing
- room key
- swimming
- Happy Feet movie
- people-watching
- Johnson St. bridge (the one that lifts)
- bathroom light timer

3. CAR SAFETY
Last summer we also had an unexpected experience that taught Jaymi some new things - a car accident. A guy ran a red light and hit our car. She learned about:
- safety (being buckled in)
- tow trucks
- police/paramedics/fire fighters
- all about a car being fixed
- rules of the road (the importance of them)

4. BIKING
Pedalheads (last summer again) taught Jaymi how to ride a two-wheeler!

5. READING
She participated in the library reading programme this past summer and read a TON of books every day to earn her rewards each week and her medal at the end of the summer.

6. CAMPING
Camp Pringle was a fun experience as well.
- kayaking
- campfires
- making friends
- horshoes
- climbing wall

7. BOATS
Boat Ride (on a friend's whale watching boat)
- seals
- Fisherman's Wharf (feeding seals, seeing houseboats)
- boating & boating safety

8. CONSTRUCTION
- safety signs
- visiting construction site
- tool names

9. HEALTH
- dental health (we made a pretend apple mouth, looked at x-rays, visited the dentist)
- eye health
- food nutrition (food groups, reading ingredients, baking)
- heart health

10. TREES
- deciduous, coniferous
- pretend tree game
- making a presentation about trees
- tree rubbings

11. RECYCLING
- recycling methods
- where do materials come from? (paper/glass/metal/plastic)

12. RAIN FOREST
- who lives there?
- games on rainforestheroes.com - fun!
- what's happening to it?
- how to save it

13. SOLAR SYSTEM

And of course, last year we did one letter per week, when we did the following things that began with that letter:
-ate food
-wrote a word list
-did activities & worksheets
-drew/coloured pictures
-went places
-made a sticker picture
-created a letter (e.g. purple 'p', eggshell 'e', etc.)

Save the Rainforest!

Last year, in preschool, Jaymi did a rainforest presentation to her class. After learning (at home) all about the rainforest, who lives there, what is grown there, how to save it, why it is disappearing, etc., she wanted to tell her class all about it.
So this year, she wanted to tell her new kindergarten class about the rainforest. Today is her presentation day.
We learned all about things that we can do for the rainforest, like:
- eat less beef
- use recycled or reusable containers
- reuse paper - use both sides
- buy locally
- tell everyone about it
- donate to the save-an-acre fund

We found this great website with a fun kids' video, lots of printable activity sheets, and even a couple of kids' games like "Salmon Sally's Upstream Sprint".
The website is called http://www.rainforestheroes.com/ - check it out!

Introductions

Welcome to my new homeschooling blog!
I plan to share my homeschooling/learning adventures with you, hopefully providing ideas & inspiration for some people, interesting stories for others, and I would love to hear from other homeschoolers & anyone who wants to comment on my page!

Me: I have always had my own business teaching piano. I became a stay-at-home mom when my daughter was about 9 months old. I have homeschooled her since, well, forever, and am continuing to partially homeschool her. She attends kindergarten now, a few days per week, but we do lots of learning at home.
I love to homeschool and I also love photography. I also volunteer in the kindergarten class once a week.

Her: My 5-yr-old daughter is very curious about the world around her, with special interest right now in history, books, math, spelling and grammar, and photography. She absolutely LOVES cats, Disney Cars, Hello Kitty, Garfield and Littlest Pet Shop.
She is an amazing kid - has been reading since age 2 1/2 (now reads at a Gr.6 level), does Gr.1 level math and Gr.3 level spelling, and just thinks in a different way than most other 5-yr-olds.
She taught herself to swim and is a total fish in water. She is interested in synchronized swimming and my plan is to work her towards that goal.

My challenge is to keep her challenged. She is at her best while learning, and, while being labelled as gifted, does not have access to any enrichment programmes right now.

Her personality can also be challenging. She can be quite introverted and also very stubborn. She catches on to quite advanced thought processes, but we often need to remind ourselves that she is only five years old, especially behaviour-wise.

Every day is a great adventure, especially when we are learning. I say 'we' because I love to learn along with her.

So, come along with us and watch our partial-homeschooling adventures each day!