Solar System Study

The kids are incredibly interested in outer space so we study it in many ways.  First we visit the planetarium at Mystic Seaport often.  (Treworgy Planetarium)  We even planned a field trip there late last year for our Southeastern CT Homeschoolers group and everyone enjoyed it.  The kids at this point can identify constellations and asterisms before the presenter even mentions them.  They love sitting outside at night and studying the stars and planets.  To further their love and interest in this we have put up a scale solar system on the ceiling.  Along with some not to scale constellations.  All the planets and stars glow in the dark so we have spent many a snowy evening just laying on our backs studying the glowing features of the night sky.  We even bought them a calendar for the school room that has glow in the dark constellations.  We also have a bin of space toys and books that they use all the time.

 This was how we got the constellations up on the ceiling.  It was a little nuts with both of us on stools taping papers together and to the ceiling.  But our hard work means that they are as accurate as can be :)

 This lovely calendar has a different contellation every month with a lot of great information.

This is poor Pluto alone in the kitchen.  In order to put the planets to scale Pluto didn't fit into the school room.

We are looking forward to studying more about the solar system and universe this year, going to more planetarium shows, studying images from the Hubble telescope, and watching all of Cosmos.  Any great book, show, or activity suggestions for studying the cosmos?

January Recap

We have had a fun and fulfilling January.  We had a blast at our Winter Southeastern CT Homeschoolers party, where the kids all exchanged the cutest valentines, decorated t shirts, played up a storm, and ate like linebackers.  The kids learned to ice skate, which I unfortunately do not have pictures, as we were on the ice helping them.  We unearthed rubber fossils in a kit, grew prehistoric water animals, are studying Pompeii and volcanoes, the Mayflower, watching Liberty's Kids learning about the American Revolution, done a ton of painting, crafting, clay and play dough work, made bread, cookies, muffins, and eggs.  The kids made three dinners almost without help.  The kids have loved their Star Wars workbooks, playing with slime, and reading everything.  We have studied geography, physics, chemistry, algebra, and geometry.  CJ is loving piano even though the weather has kept us from several lessons :)  We have learned about the metric system, animal classification, Martin Luther King Jr, Presidents' Day, human body, spelling, writing, technology, building, and composers.  We studied the water cycle in more depth, and really studied snow and winter weather.  We studied the rock cycle and dinosaurs.  The other day they were doing a Human Body crossword from a coloring book, and didn't know an answer, so they took out all their human body books and searched for the answer using the index and table of contents.  I was crazy proud of them.  The kids did a demolition lab kit with their Daddy, and today they made an igloo out of sugar cubes and studied about the Inuit people.  Tomorrow we will try and build a snow igloo in the yard, and learn about the Aleut people and the Aleutian Islands.  We will make snow ice cream, make and paint with snow paint, do a salt and watercolor painting, make borax solution pipe cleaner snowflakes, make inukshuks, an important monument type of the Inuit people, and do a lapbook about Arctic peoples.  We will also do some more blizzard baking, as we did some during THE BLIZZARD, and are expecting another storm tomorrow.  Today during the Superbowl we even did some mental math converting yards to feet, and practicing other math skills.  I have been focusing on decluttering and cleaning the entire house while letting the kids follow their school interests with limited input from me.  I have noticed a lot more creativity coming from CJ, and Eliza is in her glory being allowed to create as much as she likes.  I have also started planning the lessons I will be responsible for when we begin our McWeeds classes in March.  We are all excited to start classes, and for there to be some sun and spring in the air :)  We keep trying to get to the aquarium but it has been too cold and snowy to go.  Hopefully this week we will go, in addition to more ice skating.  I hope I can get some pictures this time to share! Stay safe and warm, and enjoy your snowy journey.