Wild and Wonderful Weather: Thunder and Lightning

This topic was fun to learn about, and these thunder and lightning experiments were two of our favorites from the entire unit.

Making thunder with a balloon...Did you know that the sound wave that is created when you pop a balloon is thunder on a teeny-tiny scale?



Making Lightning...I staged these photos for the blog because you actually have to do this in a completely dark (or as dark as possible) room. You rub the balloon on your head for at least 30 seconds and then touch it to the end of a flourescent lightbulb. The static electricity that is discharged causes the lightbulb to glow. It took us several tries to get the hang of it, but we all thought it was worth the trial and error...very cool experiment that got lots of oohs and ahhhs.




Reading List
Thundercake by Patricia Polacco (This one's going on our All-Time Favorites list.)
Flash, Crash, Rumble and Roll by Franklyn M. Branley (Let's Read and Find Out Science)
Thunderbolt: Learning About Lightning by Jonathan D. Kahl (good pictures of lightning and storm clouds)
How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning by Rosalyn Schanzer

The Weather Wiz Kids site has lots of good info. on thunder and lightning, as well as other weather topics.

Just a couple more of these weather posts, and then I'll be done - I promise. And in case you're wondering, we finished with weather weeks ago. Now we're onto gardening...more on that soon. :)

HomeWork: Juggling Home, Work, and School Without Losing Your Balance: A Review

I recently had the opportunity to review this E-Book from the The Old Schoolhouse, and I was pleasantly surprised at how applicable it was to me.

In the current economy, I imagine that there are a lot of Moms who are considering earning extra income without leaving the home, and I'm one of them. However, as a homeschooling mother of three young children, I never really believed that it was do-able for me. How in the world could I manage my family, my children's education, our home, and everything that a business entails?

This book answers that question through the stories of several different homeschooling, work-at-home families who not only manage this kind of lifestyle, but enjoy it and have grown closer together through it. The families in this book cover a wide variety of home-based businesses and offer lots of practical tips and advice on getting started and succeeding in your own business venture. You'll read about a family-run farm and B&B, a direct sales consultant, a travel-agent Mom, a t-shirt printing business, online companies, and much more. You'll also see how many of these families involve their children in their businesses and the many learning benefits that they reap from that experience.

If you're looking for encouragement and advice on starting a home-based business and incorporating it into your homeschooling lifestyle, then HomeWork would be a great resource for you. You can check it out at The Old Schoolhouse Store.

The Old Schoolhouse WeE-Books: A Review

I also want to share with you another great product from The Old Schoolhouse that I have been enjoying - WeE-Books. The WeE-Book line is comprised of almost forty titles written by various homeschooling experts, most of whom happen to be seasoned homeschooling parents. WeE-books are priced at $1.95 each and are instantly downloadable. These little gems are packed with useful information, as well as encouragement and wisdom from veteran homeschoolers. And since they are short and sweet and can be read in a single sitting, they're perfect for the homeschooling Mom who doesn't have a ton of extra time for reading. WeE-Books offer a wide variety of topics to choose from.

Here is just a sampling of the titles:

Beating the Summertime Blues
Getting to the Root of Writer's Block
Is Your Homeschool Ready to Collapse?
Science on the Wings of a Butterfly
A Light Unto My Path

These are the titles I've read:

Time Flies While History is Written
Homeschooling the Rebel, Parts 1 and 2
The Real Hummers

Each one of these provided me with ideas and inspiration to fuel my homeschooling journey, which is something I can always use - but especially at this time of the year!

So if you need a quick read to refresh and enliven yourself and your homeschool, I encourage you to head over to The Old Schoolhouse and check out WeE-books for yourself.

Carol Barnier: Don't Miss the Gift in Your Child

Here are my notes from Carol's encouraging talk...

1. My children are gifts.
-When Christ lived on earth, children were often viewed as disposable and lowly. His attitude toward them was radical - they were precious to Him!

2. How do I miss the gift in my child?
-As a homeschooling Mom, I'm with my children 24/7; this can cause us to lose sight of God's vision for our children.

3. Why I cannot let myself lose sight of the gift:

-If I continue to hammer my child all the time and/or constantly put my expectations on him, them he will eventually redefine himself in his eyes as the bringer of all the frustration in my life.

-I need to be the grownup and set the tone for the family.

-When I mess up (get angry, frustrated) and hurt my child's feelings, I need to start with an apology (with no buts or justifications). No matter what the child did, I didn't respond well, and I need to be responsible for my behavior. End the apology with "Will you forgive me?" and "Have I hurt you in another way that I'm unaware of?"

-I must change my perspective if my child is going to be all God planned for Him to be. I must view my child the way God sees them.

4. Pitch...
-Expectations:
a. of myself being a supermom (housekeeping, perfect kids, etc.)
b. that I've placed on my child. Accept him the way God created him.

-Teaching methods that aren't working with my child (If I have a non-traditional learner, I'll need to think outside the box to help him learn. Don't keep pounding away with any method that's not working.)

5. Final Thoughts...
-I have to work at opening the gift that is my child to understand his strengths, interests, learning styles, special qualities.

-Don't be arrogant. Don't get stuck in my child's current condition. Don't diminish the glorious things that God has in mind for my child.

-Realize the value that God places on my child and then share it with them.

-Share with him how God has a divine plan and vision for him. Tell him about all his gifts and special qualities that God has given him.

-A regular, consistent, habitual quiet-time for me is a necessity.

-I have to point out the stuff my children need to change, but I must also counter-balance that with the positive...They must have hope!

-Find and focus on the positive side of each of my child's negative qualities. Make a list. (Ex. - likes to argue/a great quality for a lawyer. Maybe he'll defend homeschoolers' rights someday!)

-Use The Love Sandwich: Precede any negative criticism with a positive comment, and then end with another positive observation. Positive/Negative/Positive

-Make it a habit of affirming my children by pointing out their positive qualities: "You bring me peace." "You make me laugh." "You give me new perspective." She's given her children nicknames like, "my doer", "my feeler", and "my thinker".

-Again...I must view my children the way that God sees them. He has awesome plans for each of their lives!

These notes do not do Carol's talk justice. She is such an honest, real, encouraging, and humorous speaker. I hope that these notes will encourage you to check out one of her books or take the opportunity to see her in person if she's speaking near you. You can hear samples of her talks and purchase her books at her website, Open Gifts.

Home from Convention: What Spunky Had to Say

I got home Saturday night...barely. Some of you might remember that I had just healed up from a nasty cold early last week before leaving for the convention. Thursday night in the hotel I began feeling like I was battling allergies. Friday late in the day I began to think maybe I had a sinus infection, and by Saturday afternoon I had to ditch the last workshop I wanted to attend and drag myself home. Sunday was a feverish blur, and Monday I went to the doctor to discover that I have walking pneumonia. I'm on antibiotics and praying that I heal up soon. The good news is that, according to my doctor, this stuff only likes to attack folks who are already sick with a cold or something, so I'm praying that I didn't give it to any of the sweet ladies I was with at the convention.

In spite of my not feeling that great, it really was a terrific weekend. I'm still processing everything I heard from the speakers and saw in the exhibit hall, but overall I was inspired and charged up to finish out this year and get ready for the next.

I had the opportunity to hear three amazing speakers, Karen "Spunky Homeschool" Braun, Carol Barnier, and Mark Hamby. Unfortunately I did not make it to Amanda Bennett because I was running out of steam, but I've heard her in the past. She is wonderful, and I plan to order CD's of her sessions. There are several other speakers I'd like to order CD's of because I heard that they were not to be missed. I really needed three of me to be able to hit every session and booth that I wanted to! :)

I wanted to highlight some things from Karen "Spunky Homeschool" Braun's session:

ART: Attitude, Relationships, and Teaching
Her message used the acronym ART to help us remember to keep our priorities in the proper order:

1. ATTITUDE: Affirm your children and give them JOY.
-Mom's attitude permeates the home.
-Contentment is the key to having a joyful attitude. (I Timothy 6:6)
-Joy killers: comparison, impatience, fear

2. RELATIONSHIPS: I should focus on my relationships in this order:
-My relationship with God...Time spent with Him each day is absolutely essential.
-My relationship with my husband...Don't give him my leftovers
-My relationship with my children...Don't make their education more important than my relationship with them. If I want to point them to Jesus, they need to see me being Jesus to them.

3. TEACHING:
-Traditional teaching methods: If something isn't working, ditch it, and find what does work for your child's learning style.
-Housekeeping: As a homeschooler, I will not have a perfectly kept house. Let go of those expectations.
-"Don't sacrifice Heaven for Harvard." The education is NOT the most important thing.

Karen also read several passages from the book A Mother's Journey by Linda Dillows. This encouraging story tugged at my Mommy heart, reminding me that this journey is so worthwhile. I have to get a copy of it!

This brief outline really does not do Karen's talk justice, but hopefully it will give you an idea of what she was communicating. I loved her talk because she was not afraid to be real and share straight from her heart. Hearing her really helped me to put some things into perspective in my own life.

I hope to share my notes from Carol Barnier's talk in my next post.

Happy Friday!

Midwest Homeschool Convention

Woohoo - I made it! After a very long day, and jumping through lots of hoops at the front desk, I am so glad to be sitting in my comfy hotel room here in downtown Cincinnati.

I walked by the vendor hall on my way to check in, and it was huge! I can't wait to get in there tomorrow and do some exploring. :)

Here are a few things I hope to accomplish while I'm here:

Visit the Vendor Hall and look at and/or purchase from the following:

-Apologia's Exploring Creation Series
-Pathway Readers
-Rocket Phonics (I want to look at their readers.)
-Rightstart Math
-Maestro Classics
-Mantle Ministries (Richard "Little Bear" Wheeler - he usually has lots of historically accurate toy weapons, clothing, coonskin caps, etc.)
-Nature's Workshop Plus
-Rainbow Resource
-Relaxed Homeschooling
-Gravitas (publisher of RealScience4Kids)

And I'm looking forward to hearing some awesome speakers for some much-needed inspiration and encouragement:

-Amanda Bennett (one of my faves!)
-Richard "Little Bear" Wheeler
-Mark Hamby (Lamplighter Publishing)
-Carol Barnier
-Karen "Spunky Homeschool" Braun
-Dr. Mary Hood

...to name a few.

Finally, I'm going to sleep late, hang out with my homeschooling friends, and get some much needed R&R!

(Thank you, Honey, for making this possible.)

Quick Notes

Busily trying to get everything ready to leave here tomorrow for the Midwest Homeschool Conference. Kurt and my Dad will be taking care of the kids, so I have no worries. (Please pray for Kurt...he's got the cold that the kids and I just finished with.)
I've cooked a ham and a pot of vegetable soup, plus I've got the ingredients on hand for two meals that Kurt enjoys cooking.
Now I just need to finish folding some laundry and pack. (I can't remember the last time I only packed for one instead of five!)

I'm taking the laptop with me, so I'm hoping to blog at least once from the conference and spend some time replying to all of you kind folks who have left comments in the past week.

Did I mention that I'm excited? :)

Wild and Wonderful Weather: Rain, etc.

We're battling lots of nasty colds here, and I'm trying to get everything ready to head out to the Midwest Homeschool Convention - yippee! But before I go I wanted to get this third weather post finished up. So here you go...

Our focus during the first two weeks of our weather study was rain and everything to do with it:

•the water cycle
•temperature
•evaporation
•condensation
•cloud formation
•fog
•hail
•dew
•rainbows

I know this looks like a lot of information, but we gently touched on these topics by reading several books and doing some fun experiments.

Our main story for the first week was Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car by John Burningham, and we used the Five in a Row lessons for it each day. This story is set in England and takes us on a lovely automobile ride with Mr. Gumpy and his friends. When the story opens it's a beautiful day for a drive, but soon storm clouds appear, and the passengers, both people and animals, have to learn a bit about cooperation to get themselves out of a bind. They get sopping wet in the process, but all ends well and the sun comes out once again. I've said it before...all of the Five in a Row books we've done so far were hits, and this one was no exception.

Each day after Mr. Gumpy, we read one of the following:

•Rain by Kristin Ward (easy reader; nice, gentle introduction to how rain is formed)

•Down Comes the Rain by Franklyn M. Branley (Let's Read and Find Out Science - a great series!)

•Why Is It Raining? by Judith Williams (really neat pictures of raindrops and good explanations of rain and cloud formation)

•Rainbows by Dana Meachen Rau (nice pictures and explanation)

Experiments
Evaporation:
1. We placed 2 tbsp. of water into each of two saucers.
2. We placed them outside - one in the sun, one in the shade.
3. We checked back later to find that the water in the sun had evaporated while the water in the shade was still there.
Explanation: Heat evaporates water. Since the air in the sunny spot is warmer than the air in the shade, the water in the sun evaporated faster than the water in the shade.

Make a Rainbow:
1. On a sunny day we went outside and turned on the garden hose.
2. Standing with our backs to the sun we adjusted the nozzle so that it produced a wide spray of water.
3. After gradually adjusting our position and the position of the hose a few times we finally saw a rainbow! Everybody loved this one and wanted a chance to try it for themselves.
Explanation: When the sunlight hits the drops of water, the drops act as a prism and bend the light into the colors of the rainbow. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.
Afterwards we drew rainbows for our nature journals.

Make rain:
1. We filled an aluminum pie pan with ice cubes and some cold water. We filled a glass jar with hot water. Then we placed the pie pan on top of the jar and left it for several minutes.
2. After awhile we gently lifted the pan to look at the bottom of it.
3. Raindrops had formed and eventually grew heavy enough to rain back down into the jar.
Explanation: The hot water in the jar is evaporating and turning into a gas called water vapor. The cold surface of the pie pan cools the water vapor from the jar. The water vapor changes back into water, collecting in drops. As the drops get bigger and heavier, it “rains.”

In case you're interested, here are my first two Wild and Wonderful Weather posts:
Making a Backyard Weather Station
Our Book List

I'll be back in a few days with some more weather activities!

A Hymn for Good Friday

At the Cross

Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For sinners such as I?

Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, Thine—
And bathed in its own blood—
While the firm mark of wrath divine,
His Soul in anguish stood.

Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died,
For man the creature’s sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face
While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give my self away
’Tis all that I can do.

Refrain
At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!

~Lyrics by Isaac Watts, 1707

Wild and Wonderful Weather: Our Book List

I just came from the library where I turned in the huge pile of books we read during our weather unit. There were so many good living books and informational books on this topic. All of the picture books were a hit, as well as the Let's Read and Find Out Science titles. (Even my 3 year old liked these.)

I'm posting our list here for future reference, and I hope it might be helpful for you too. :) (I'm including Amazon links to a few of our favorites, but I recommend everything on this list.)



General Weather
A Pair of Red Clogs by Masako Matsuno
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi and Ron Barrett
Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car by John Burningham
Weather Words by Gail Gibbons
What Will the Weather Be? by Lynda DeWitt (Let's Read and Find Out Science)
Sing a Song of Popcorn ~ a wonderful poetry anthology that has an entire section of weather poems

Rain, Rainbows, Fog, and Hail
Down Comes the Rain by Franklyn M. Branley (Let's Read and Find Out Science)
Why Is It Raining? by Judith Williams
Rain by Marion Dane Bauer (easy reader with a simple explanation of rain and the water cycle)
Rainbows by Dana Meachen Rau

Clouds
The Little Cloud by Eric Carle
The Man Who Named the Clouds by Julie Hannah

Wind
Gilberto and the Wind by Marie Hall Ets
Feel the Wind by Arthur Dorros (Let's Read and Find out Science)

Thunder, Lighting, Severe Weather
Thundercake by Patricia Polacco
Flash, Crash, Rumble and Roll by Franklyn M. Branley (Let's Read and Find Out Science)
Thunderbolt: Learning About Lightning by Jonthan D. Kahl (good pictures of lightning and storm clouds)
How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning by Rosalyn Schanzer
The Magic School Bus Inside a Hurricane by Joanna Cole

Experiment/Activity Books
Science Alive! Weather
Wild Science Projects About Earth's Weather by Robert Gardner
Discovering Nature: Weather by Sally Hewitt
Fun With Science: Weather by Steve Parker
The Kids' Book of Weather Forecasting
Wild About Weather: 50 Wet, Windy, and Wonderful Activities by Ed Brotak

Blooms

Daffadowndilly

She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,
She wore her greenest gown;
She turned to the south wind
And curtsied up and down.
She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbour:
"Winter is dead."

~A.A. Milne

We've been enjoying the daffodils for almost two weeks now. They're always the first herald of spring in our backyard. The children like to pick some to put in a vase in the kitchen, and the rest we leave to enjoy outside.

Also, our Bradford Pear trees are in full bloom. Sweet Pea is really noticing these this year and gets excited whenever we're out and about and she spots one. "Look, Mommy, there's a nudder one bwooming."

And just to keep life interesting, it's supposed to snow tomorrow. :)

Making a Backyard Weather Station

We just finished up what turned out to be a really fun study on weather. In our area March is a great time for this unit because we have so much variety in weather during this time of year. For the past three weeks we have learned so much, and I've found that I have some budding meteorologists around here!

This one is going to take a few posts to cover because we did a bunch of activities and experiments, but I think I'll start with our main focus for week one - building our very own weather center! I had not originally planned to do this, but after persusing some of the weather activity books from the library, I realized it wouldn't be that difficult.

Wind Vane - This turned out to be an unexpected opportunity for a little father/son woodworking project! The directions came from Wild About Weather by Ed Brotak, but these directions are similar.
According to Kurt, it was pretty easy. I think it only took them an hour or so to complete.


Rain Gauge - I googled and printed out a paper ruler and taped it with clear packing tape to the plastic container. Kurt wired the container to a short plant stake, and stuck it into some soft dirt. Each day that we had rain we just pulled the whole thing up, stake and all, recorded the measurement, emptied the water, and put it back in the ground. Oh, you wouldn't have to do this part, but we also found a funnel that was the same size as the mouth of the container and taped it into the opening. (I also saw a version that used a clear soda pop or water bottle with a funnel glued into the bottle opening.)

For measuring wind speed, we used a copy of the Beaufort Scale.

Barometer - This was the easiest of our weather instruments to make and probably the most fun to read! Knowing if the air pressure is high or low helps one determine if rain is on the way, and the children really enjoyed making these kinds of weather predictions. To make our barometer, we took a large rubber ballon and cut it to fit over the mouth of a glass jar. We stretched it over the jar, completely covering the opening, and secured it with a rubber band. (This part took two people - Superman and me.) Then we taped a drinking straw to the center of the balloon. You can also tape a toothpick or something similar to the end of the straw to make the measurement more precise. Then we made a little chart - Giggly Girl drew the pictures - and taped it to the wall above our kitchen counter. We placed the jar next to the chart, and we were ready to check high and low pressure. When the air pressure outside the jar is higher than the pressure in the jar, it will push down on the balloon, making the straw go up. When the air pressure outside the jar is lower than the pressure in the jar, the air in the jar pushes up on the balloon making the straw go down.

Our weather station also included our already-existing kitchen window thermometer, although I would like to eventually purchase one that we could attach to the fence post near our other instruments.

This is the weather log I made for recording measurements and predictions. You can download a copy here. I've also linked it under my Shared Files in the right sidebar.

On the first day of our unit, Superman and Giggly Girl decorated covers for their weather journals.

Even though we wrapped up our weather study this week, we'll continue using our homemade weather center and recording observations in the journals. After three weeks, the children are still really getting into being weather forecasters, so we'll keep it up until their enthusiasm wanes. ;)

This was a fun family project and a great way to kick off our weather adventures. If you decide to give this a try or already have a homemade or store-bought weather station, I'd love to hear about your family's experiences with it.

More weather posts to come...