Explorers in the Making - Free Science Printable

Science is a favorite subject around our house.  Inventions, animals, plants, weather, we love it all.  Our new attempt at child-led learning is going well, and I am on the lookout for free resources.

Our studies started off this week with snowmobiles, since we watched the X Games.  We have looked at the first snowmobiles, the inventors, where snowmobiles are used, what people used before snowmobiles, and the weather and animals in those areas.  We pulled out our Birds, Nests and Eggs book.

My kids love this book.  We looked at the different birds and tried to pick out the ones that could live in the colder areas.  Then we went to the internet and googled bird range maps of Alaska, the arctic, northern United States, and other cold areas.  The boys wanted to see what birds are in Texas, so we looked at that map as well.

I found the San Antonio Audubon Society webpage.  It was a great reference and had a "Just For Kids" link.  In it, I found lots of free printables and a link to a kids magazine called "Wild Times" which is published in New Hampshire.  You are able to print off the different issues for your own use.  My boys loved it!  They are very age appropriate for lower elementary.  My first grader was able to read the majority of it and could complete all of the activities.  My preschooler loved the pictures, maze and matching in the first issue.  I am definitely adding this to my list of science add-ons.  Have fun exploring science!

Amanda

Unschooling with the Wild Kratts

The latest craze at our house is Wild Kratts.  And I love it too!  It's a great show on PBS that teaches my kids about animals, and that is simply putting it.  I am always amazed at what they learn after one episode.  They learn about geography, weather, conservation, migration, botany, animal habits, food chains, camouflage...I could keep going, but you are seeing the point.

While deciding to move towards unschooling, I did a couple weeks of "school" based off of Wild Kratt episodes.  I let them start the day by watching an episode and then playing in their Wild Kratt outfits.  They have Creature Power Suits (that were a birthday party favor) that are awesome!

They also play with these Creature Pod Communicators I made for them.  You can get the print out for Aviva here if you want to make your own.  I attached elastic on the back so they could wear them around their wrists.  It's fun to hear them yelling "Aviva! Koki! Jimmy!"  They also affectionately call each other "Bro" and "Bro."  

After they have some creative play, I reel them in to make their own Creature Power Discs.  We started by picking a type of animal they wanted to learn about.  On this particular day, BG chose snakes and Jman chose sharks.  So we started looking through our big Wildlife Explorer Book of animals, among others.

This is Jman's creature power disc of the King Cobra.  We had to find out the following information about each animal: color, size, where it is found and what it eats.  Then I let them tell me the special creature powers they would gain while using the disc.  They had a lot of fun!

BG's Black Mamba creature power disc.  We added speed to the important information since it is the fastest snake.  

Lul's creature power disc: purple with a princess sticker.  That about sums her up!  

For the sharks, I printed off a hammerhead shark coloring page at Handipoints and asked the boys to design a Hammerhead Shark Submarine and then tell me what special functions it would have.  You can easily add in copy work of dictated sentences about his submarine or facts about the animal, creative writing, and math games.

They are requesting scorpion power next, so I have found myself a scorpion power disc, along with many others at It's All Fun and Games that I can print off to add to their collection of power discs.  I have VERY excited boys! 

I am going to be coming back to the Wild Kratts theme many times in the future.  It is a winner for us!

Go "live free and in the wild" with these fun ideas!  I hope you find them useful!

Wasp Nest Removal 101

We have recently become aware of some unwanted guests at our house: wasps.  We had noticed a few buzzing around while we were outside in the afternoons, but I would just wait for them to land and smash them with my sandal.  Standard operating procedure at our house for many pests.  

We did ask our landlord to take care of them for us since they were already there working on our dishwasher.  I showed the workers where the 2 nests were, yet they still managed to miss one.  Not all that surprising.

After talking to Nate, we decided we needed to go to battle.  This could only mean one thing: a Home Depot run.  I love Home Depot.  They have a Garden Center!  It is almost heaven for me.  Not only do they have LOTS of plants, containers, landscaping and gardening projects just waiting to be tackled, but they have SPRINKLERS!!

Who needs a pool membership when you can go to Home Depot on a hot Texas afternoon??

Lulu and BG were testing the waters

Jman stood back and prodded his younger siblings to go try out the sprinklers.  "You'll have fun!"  Then he'd watch them go through while staying nice and dry.  A regular salesman. :)

They had a lot of fun!

But, the fun couldn't last for long.  We had a job to do.

We had to prepare ourselves.  Nate put on his game face and I grabbed the camera and a fly swatter.  Isn't that what everyone grabs?  :)   

Game on.  We were a little nervous.  Nate's first spray forced a wasp to fly out.  My video documentary was ruined since I decided to "quickly move away."  (I wasn't too bummed.  I'd rather have a bad video than a bad wasp sting!)  That was the last wasp to fly out.  Nate doused the nest after that. 

This is the post spraying picture.  He was pretty happy with himself.  I was pretty happy too!  

Lots of spray foam on the light!  We wanted to make sure we got it all.

We are hoping this will keep the wasps away for good.  We don't want to see them back ever again.

Adventure awaits us at every turn.  We choose to enjoy it and embrace it all!  You never know how much fun you may have!

Blessings,

"Not in School" for the Summer Part 2

In my last post, I mentioned walking around in your own backyard to find lots of goodies for "non-school."  Apparently, our yard is FULL of interesting things!

I was already aware of a few of our "fun" spots, but the rest were something of a surprise.

We have mushrooms.

 We have moths.

 We have 3 mysterious holes; home to a snake or moles?  Unknown since we haven't seen either yet...

We have a wasps nest in the light on the back of the house.

(This is my camera work while trying to avoid looking into the bottom of the light!)

And another wasps nest in the light by our sliding door.

Surprise!!

Needless to say, I am going to be a little more careful in the backyard until those nests get removed.  Maybe not even be in the backyard!  And I'm especially not thinking of pulling any Duck Dynasty moves to acquire the comb, whether there is any sweet honey or not!  Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog - Wasp Nest Removal 101.  Yikes!

Summertime, sweet summertime.  Full of fun and adventure!  What have you found in your backyards??

Blessings,

"Not in School" for the Summer

Summer school, or non-school, is what I should call it at my house.  I don't do a particular curriculum over the summer.  We learn through play and exploration.  Just yesterday, my 5 year old found a butterfly in our backyard.  It was no longer living, so we got to look at the eyes, wings and body up close.  The boys wanted to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and asked if we were going to have butterflies again in our house.

We had caterpillars last year during our bug week.  I'm planning on doing the same this year with our very own butterfly garden.  If you buy the garden, you get a voucher for free caterpillars inside the box.  You only have to pay shipping for them.  It was exciting to watch them grow and turn into cocoons and butterflies, even for me.  :)
 

When we're outside, we'll talk about the sun and why it's important to wear sunscreen.  I am constantly reminded that we need to put it on before we go outside now.  I'm working on getting them to wear sunglasses next.  :)

When the grass starts to turn brown, I'll ask the boys if they know why it turned brown.  We'll dump the water from our inflatable pool onto the grass to see if it will make a difference.  Sure enough, the grass will turn green within days and then we'll talk about what the grass needs to grow.  We may comment that "Daddy needs to cut the grass" as well.

Walk around the neighborhood, park, even your own backyard and you'll find something you can pick apart, take a closer look at, admire and talk about.  The best part is teaching your kids about the wonder of creation and showing them God's vivid imagination!

My kids are already getting the itch to start school.  It makes me happy to know they enjoy learning!

Have fun exploring and learning while NOT in school this summer!

Blessings,

Our New Pets

We have been entertaining ourselves with our new pets, butterflies! I bought a Butterfly Garden and got a certificate for 5 free caterpillars. After redeeming it, we got 5 caterpillars in the mail in early February. They were tiny and Jman thought the mailman was the coolest! The caterpillars had to grow in the cup for about 10 days (first picture). They tripled in size and devoured the food that came with them in their plastic cup. Then, they became cocoons/chrysalises. They climbed to the top of the cup and attached to a paper disc inside the cover. After they all became chrysalises, I had to carefully open the cup, remove the paper and attach it to the inside of our butterfly garden. The garden is a big cylinder made out of mesh with a clear plastic zipper top. It was tricky to get the disc pinned in. I ended up having one of the chrysalises popping off of the paper and had to set it on a paper towel on the floor, as recommended by the instructions (second picture). They were chrysalises for about a week and a half and then the butterflies emerged! We didn't notice the butterfly at first, because we kept them in the boys bedroom and the first butterfly emerged while we were sleeping. The second one came out during breakfast a couple of hours after the first. Jman was super excited! We did end up getting all 5 butterflies to emerge. The last picture shows one of the butterflies with it's wings open, sitting on the carnation. They are painted lady butterflies; orange, black and white in color. The one that fell off of the disc, however did not get to expand it's wings so it sat in the bottom of the garden for a few days before we took him out. We keep fresh carnations in the bottom and feed them sugar water everyday. The boys love watching them fly around and they keep them on their toes with occasional tip overs and some curious poking! It has been fun!