Eggspactular Science Activity

We did this great homeschool science activity at the beginning of the summer and life has been so busy that I am just now getting around to showing ya'll.

We decided to take an EGG and place it in vinegar and watch how it changed.

Here is our fresh from the fridge egg.

This was minutes after we placed it into the vinegar.

Over time we saw foam. 

After a few days we ended up with an EGG WITH NO SHELL

Some people call it a naked egg. We where able to squeeze it to a point.  

When it broke we ended up being a very soft slimy 

Here is the vinegar egg and a regular egg side by side. 

It was a very neat experiment for the kids they really enjoyed it. 

Lil Momma Strouse

Scientific vs Spiritual

Homeschool science review usually leads into a discussion between creation and the big bang theory. I am not talking about the TV show either. We at least in our house it leads to this type of discussion. With the resurrection celebrations coming up this weekend. We talked about scientific belief vs spiritual faith.

We are reminded that just because we can not see it, does not mean it is not there or real. Went trying to explain God and our belief to our youngest children we use the example of air. Air is all around us, we don't see it but it is there. We can feel it in the form of wind but we can not see it. You don't see God, but he is there. You can feel him in your heart. Another example would be history. We did not live in the medevial times, were kings and queens, knights and castle where the normal. The same goes for the time when Jesus walked the earth. We did not live it but it still happened. The bible is our history book.

How do you explain or review the not seen but it exist to your young children?

Lil Momma Strouse

Elementary Science Series: Week 4

As I have said over the past few weeks hands on activities are great for my children to learn about science or anything. We have been enjoying a youtube channel called Art for Kids.  

Not only have the kids learned some hand eye coordination and art skills they have also learned about different features in animals. This would go great with second grade science worksheets. Some examples of this are…

This is an owl that Honey drew.  She learned about eyes and feathers while drawing this owl. It also lead to more conversations and research on all kinds of owls.

This is a Raccoon that Honey drew. This lead to conversation and research on why raccoons have the mask look on their face along with raccoons being scavenger animals. 

Lastly, Moose got in on this art/science fun but he fell in love with drawing a dragon. In the video the man states draw lines on the belly like other lizards.  That lead us to look up all kinds of lizards and see how those lines are actually scales on their belly. 

Art is a great way to incorporate other subjects like science. What subjects do use art with? 

Lil Momma Strouse

Elementary Science Series: Week 3

This weekend I went to a Ministry & Technology Expo.  

This was an expo held to help people, like pastors, church technical staff and volunteers learn about the latest in worship AV and get to see what is out there available to help optimize the worship experience. It was offered at my favorite price, FREE!

As I sit in the first seminar, I am thinking of my kids.  I know strange right. The speaker kept saying listen for the frequency. As a homeschool mom all I could think of was how could I teach my kids frequency. Is there away to incorporate things this speaker was telling us about sounds in our daily lives and music. I can incorporate this into our science for elementary school and high school. It is all physical sciences; sound, light, electrical energy and electrical transfer. I can't wait to share what I have heard and learned with my kids. 

Love being able to turn everyday life into school.  Well, this is everyday life for this homeschool mom who is a volunteer AV tech.

Lil Momma Strouse

Elementary Science Series -- Week 2

Most of you know we have chickens. This has been a great learning science lesson for us.  It has fit right in with 1st grade science curriculum and life science.  This past week we got to experience some strange egg production. When I went to collect eggs I found this warm strange shaped egg.  

This egg also had some strange lines on it. 

We did a web search looking for the why this might have happened. (It has only happened once) This is what we found.

FLAT-SIDED: Can occur in new layers due to stress or disease. The egg is kept too long in the shell gland, resulting in a flat side with wrinkles. Can also occur when a mis-timed, second egg proceeds down the oviduct, bumping into and resting alongside the first egg.

Grit.com

This is a great website full of information all about the different things that can happen to eggs as they are laid. My kids really enjoyed reviewing it with me. 

Lil Momma Strouse

Elementary Science Series - Week 1

In the month of February I am going to bring you a simple series on Elementary Science Series. 

This week I am going to feature Kindergarten Science. 

I found that kindergarten homeschool science (just like public school science) it was best to use our surroundings when learning.  Going outside and using our 5 senses. 

1. Feeling the weather -- is it hot, cold, wet…
2. Seeing the weather -- is it bright, dark, foggy…
3. Hearing the weather -- is it quiet, thunder booming, rainy… 
4. Smelling the weather -- is it wet smelling, dry smelling… 
5. Tasting the weather -- is it wet (raining/snowing), dry …

 Weather has been a great science lesson this year. Even here in Florida. We had snow in north Florida!!!  

Lil Momma Strouse

Co-op 2014 Spring Semester

Co-Op started this week!!!

YAY!!!

My kids love co-op.  Biggun takes 5 different classes.

1. The Book of James
2. The 20th Century: From Gaslight to Google
3. Lamplighter Book: Robbers' Cave
4. Jane Eyre
5. Movies as Literature

4 of the 5 classes are about books/literature.  This is a big thing for him. He is not big on free reading even though his reading comprehension is great. He just does not like to read.

Honey is taking 1st grade. They do not change classes.  The theme this semester is building Godly Character, by learning Bible stories of Jesus life from the New Testament.  The timing of this is perfect cause it will take us right up to Easter. When we talk about Jesus and the Resurrection. That is when we will also talk about different thing being alive and asking the question "is it living or non living?" Honey loves her teacher. It is such a blessing for her to be in her class.


Lil Momma Strouse

My Mom's Special Day

The first weekend of the October, my sister, mom and I went up to my dad's grave site for my Mom's birthday.  I know that sounds strange but when we asked my Mom what she wanted to do for her birthday she said "I always spend it with your Daddy." We made a long day of it, just us girls. It would have been nice if my Oldest Sister had been there, too. After we had shared some chocolate in honor of Daddy, my sister and I had a surprise up our sleeve for our mom.

My sister told my Mom that her husband had programed in a "back roads" way to go back home into her GPS.  This sounded like something my brother-in-law would do, so Mom did not question it.

What we where actually doing was going to a Butterfly Farm called The Greathouse Butterfly Farm

Since my Mom LOVES butterflies and she had mentioned in passing that Daddy was supposed to take her to one for her birthday this year. My Sister and I decided to surprise her.  Boy was she surprised, even had tears in her eyes. 

(look close my sister has a butterfly on her head)

The Greathouse Farm is a very educational place. It is great for field trips for those new to homeschool or the veteran homeschooler.  They have a great educators programs. 

We even saw a butterfly with HEARTS on its wings. This was a sign that Daddy was there and approved of our special day together. 

Lil Momma Strouse

Rain, Mud and Science

Oh my goodness.....

That is all I can say....

After all the rain we had in the past few days. Our back yard is full of mud and anything that can hold water is well... holding it.

People ask me how I teach science in elementary, it is not hard to teach science when you can have the HANDS on exploration like my kids have had this week.

This week we have had aq weather lesson. Watching the rain from all kinds of different places.

We looked at rain up close...

Then when it all stopped and it had collected in different places in our back yard we looked closer at how much water had collected and talked about how much rain had actually fallen.

Then as I had my back turned and my two sweet loving children chose to do their own experiment and well  this is what we ended up with....

Yep, a wet muddy puppy. 

We also covered dog bathing and grooming. That is a science in it self....

Lil Momma Strouse

Publix Flowers Last Forever!

If you live in Florida you probably know the grocery store "Publix." Have you ever purchased flowers at Publix? If not I highly recommend you purchase a bouquet.  They will last for at least 2 or 3 weeks. Honey picked a bouquet of "BRIGHT" flowers when she was grocery shopping with Daddy.

  That is their thing ever Saturday. This bouquet of flowers was a wonderful science lesson and nature games. Since she chose the flowers that where dyed that meant the water was going to change colors. The funny thing is the only color that came out in the vase of water was blue. I wish I had taken a picture of the water.

Even when we changed the water it would be blue again with in a few hours of putting fresh water in it. My kids where amazed. We need to do a white carnation experiment. One where you 

or maybe this cool one with 

I have to remember to purchase the items to do this science experiment. 

Here are some other pictures of flowers we have gotten over the past few months...

This rose bud came from Gamma's rose bush!

Lil Momma Strouse