A Child’s World is Full of Science

If there is one thing that is a constant in our lives and our school it is our passion and love for the world around us. What, When, Why, Where, How are all words heard throughout the day, then comes the joy of discovering the answers.

I use to see us doing a lot of work around geography, Selena, however had other plans. While she still loves studying about new places, looking at maps, and our atlas, she is truly into science. Her little world every little creature that creeps, crawls, flies, or inhabits the world around her. She is often found checking every hole or crack in a stump to see what creature may just be making it their home. I love the way she checks every flower in the yard just to make sure it contains pollen for all the bees, or chases ants as they crawl across the path.

She is quick to correct you, should you call a little tree a baby tree, “No, it is a sapling!” Don’t get her started as she will explain exactly what kinetic energy is, how force plays such a huge part in kinetic energy, and exactly what inertia is. She has discovered that science is constantly evolving around her.

I truly enjoy this side of her, and really did not realize how natural it is to teach and study science. I have discovered how much science that I, myself was taught as a child by my parents and how much I have always used in my everyday life. Now come on I have always known that I use science when I cook, but just never really gave much thought to how much I use science when I am looking at the world around me. To see this through Selena’s natural curiosity, and explore every aspect of science together truly has been a blessing. Selena hangs on every detail of science and always recognizes a new concept ready to just dig in and learn even more.

We love how we can incorporate so much through our science lessons, math, reading, and even geography as we reach out to learn where different plants and animals exist. My little girl is very in tuned to science and she is not afraid to tell you her hypothesis but then she expects me to help her do the research to see if her hypothesis is correct or not, if not, then she is on the search to discover the correct path. Her curiosity in the sciences of how her world works truly makes this my favorite subject to teach.

Come on over to the TOS Blog Hop to see what other’s love to teach.

Winter Science

I had some huge plans for this post when I decided to join in the Blog Hop at TOS, but life got in the way. We were really going to dig in and explore what takes place in Winter within the world around us. With this said, I thought instead I will share some of the things we have done in the past to try to explain to Selena all the changes taking place around us this time of year.

I am sure like many of you we have fielded over 100 questions about Winter. With each question I have attempted to have fun while answering them. I think one of the most interesting recent questions I got from Selena was, “Why do we really have to have Winter? Why can’t it be Summer all the time?” This question was a pretty deep one needing a pretty deep answer, as we stared out the window at the snow that laid before us we talked a lot about how important sleep is for us, so why wouldn’t animals, and plants need sleep as well. Selena quickly remembered her little friend Nibbles who hibernates in the Winter.

From this we were easily able to move forward to why other animals and insects who need to sleep in the Winter. We then started discussing plants, and we remembered when we dissected a rhododendron. 

Selena quickly came to the conclusion that plants need to sleep so they are rested up for all the work ahead of them come Spring, of growing buds, producing seeds, all in preparation of being beautiful and bountiful.

Some of the other fun things we have done concerning Winter have been to make clouds, rain and fog. We have done this a few times now, it is one of our favorite experiments, but here is our first time discovering.

Then of course there is no better way to explain to our children about Winter then to take them out and just let them have fun.

While we might look at Winter as being cold, gray, wet, icy, just what do our Children see? Let's see if we can't see Winter through their eyes, as well as take this time to answer some of their questions about why we have to go through Winter. I hope through our examples of how we have learned about Winter have given you a little inspiration to just dig in, get out there and have fun. Oh and please remember it is always fun to bring a little bit of the Winter indoors too, just to dig a little deeper or to see the results of melting snowmen on the dining room table.

Pop over here and see what others are exploring in their Winter World.

A Year of Growth 2012

As the year comes to an end and we are moving forward to a new year I wanted to take a look back on all the growth that has taken place in our home. You can go here to see what other TOS Crew Members are sharing about this past year. I suggest taking some time to go check out these other bloggers, what a great way of finding new families to share our homeschool journey with.

We started the year out pondering if homeschooling an only child truly was in Selena’s best interest or if we should try the public school. We prayed about this daily and really did not have any definite answers. Through all this we also faced many challenges as we watched Selena’s brother removed from his parents and placed into foster care. We had the hard decision to make as to if we would take him, but decided in everyone’s best interest especially his we would instead begin the journey of interviewing prospective foster/adopt families to find a perfect fit for everyone. God was good in the blessings of providing a very lovely family, who has been been attending to all of his special needs, while very open to keeping us in the picture. The relationship we are forming with them has been a blessing all the way around, one that nobody could have planned, but God himself.

Selena tried her hand at T-Ball this past Spring. We were very proud of how hard she practiced her batting, throwing, and catching. She wanted to be out practicing every single day. It was fun to watch how quickly she took to the game and how quick the skills developed. By the end of the season she was one of the better batters on the team, actually hitting the ball into the outfield. She still needs to work on her catching, but let me tell you she has quite an arm on her and can really throw the ball. She found her position that she likes best, probably because it is one of the busier positions on the field.

We enjoyed a warm dry summer and had so much fun spending as much time as possible outside exploring our new home. Since we moved last year, this was really the first full Summer we had to see everything our new home offered. Besides exploring and playing, Selena also enjoyed being right at our side weeding the flower beds and cleaning up the yard. She had so much fun though finding all sorts of habitats for all the different critters we found making their homes in our back yard.

We finally decided to give the public school a try and preparations began to be made for the first day of school. It wasn’t long though that we discovered that this truly was not the environment for Selena and we knew we finally had our answer, that homeschooling was the way we would go. Through her short time in the classroom though Selena was able to make some connections with a couple of girls her age and are now working on forming some first friendships.

Selena has become more confident with her abilities this past year, from reading to writing. It has been fun to even watch the physical changes that have taken place, loosing the little girl appearance and blossoming into a young girl. Loosing her first teeth to expressing her interests and feelings in a much more mature manner.

We look forward to what 2013 will hold for us, as well as sharing it all with you.