Beach

Beach
Los Angeles, CA 2015

Friday, September 26, 2014

Homeschool: Learning Circus

Some of our activities. The kids really enjoyed working with balloons.

This is a fun unit that the kids really love. The focus of this unit evolves each year with a focus on learning basics. For Degen, this unit is about shapes, colors & patterns. For Kyrie, this unit is about math & reading concepts with an emphasis on geometry. We also spend time this unit doing hands-on science experiments and talk about the joy of learning. 


Some of our books.



Kyrie enjoyed reading some of these books about language arts concepts.

Kyrie made her unit folder into a design for a circus/fair. (For some reason, I forgot to take a pic of Degen's folder.)

The map Kyrie made of her circus/fair.

Degen spent time making amusement park rides with gears.
Some of Kyrie's journal entries from this unit. 


We did multiple experiments in the course of our unit. One of the experiments we did was about surface tension. We observed what happened when food coloring was put in water vs. milk. Then we introduced dish soap to see what happens. The kids had a lot of fun making "tie-dye milk." 


Food coloring drops in water.

Food coloring drops in milk.

Kyrie adding dish soap to her milk & food coloring.



Another project the kids worked on during this unit was decorating 'school' t-shirt. The kids used permanent markers to decorate their shirts anyway that they wanted. They talked about 'school' colors and things that they thought about when they thought about our 'school' day. This included some interesting/funny things like a preoccupation with ice cream. Ha! After they finished their drawings, the kids used droppers to put rubbing alcohol on their marker designs. This caused the colors to diffuse, creating a tie-dye effect. 


Kyrie's shirt

Degen's shirt

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Newport Aquarium 2014


Fall means our annual homeschool field trip to the Newport Aquarium outside of Cincinnati. We are grateful for the aquarium's homeschool days, which offer a reduced rate for admission and some of their special experiences. Every year that we go, we find new things to explore. It was great to hear the kids answer questions and give explanations using information they learned from our lessons at home or other experiences. We spent several hours exploring the large aquarium and enjoyed the hands-on penguin experience. The day was filled with lots of learning and fun! 








I like this photo because you can see Darren & the kids in the background. 


We had never seen this varietal of clown fish before. Beautiful!



My favorite sea anemone! Pretty as a flower!











We loved the new Turtle Canyon.




So cute!


We love all the puffer/porcupine fish!



The kids were hilarious posing in front of the shark tanks!









Love these guys!