Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

With the tragic events leading up to the large oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, I felt it was important to teach my children what is so terrible about the situation.
Oil experiments really get the point across easily to younger children. Pour a cup of oil in a small bowl and add a few drops of food coloring. Then pour colored oil into a big bowl of water. The children can place a few toys (or if you really want to proove a point use a small stuffed animal) in and see how difficult it is to get the oil off. You can also experiment with different means of getting the oil out of the water!

Here are some of the resources I've used:

Big list of resources - Earth Scouts
Oil & Pain Contamination Activity
Effects of Oil Spills on Birds
Oil, Oil Everywhere - a book on the Exxon Valdeze with worksheets and lesson plans
Fossil Fuels, Facing the Issues
Impact of Oil Spills on Our Oceans

Local Boy w/ Cancer is Turned Into A Super Hero

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Mike The Monkey & World Geography

Geography We've started a 2 year journey around the world. We made a little monkey out of felt as well as some clothing cut outs. I also made a cut out of different types of transportation (a car, bike, plane, boat).


Each month Mike the Monkey goes to a new location. First it's a continent. My youngest - who just turned 4, has to find whattype of transportation carried Mike from his last location to the new one around the globe. Then he needs to find out the climate of his new location and select the appropriate clothing.

Utilizing http://www.enchantedlearning.com/ we find worksheets and continent coloring books like
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/books/africancountries/instructions.shtmlg.com
To learn more about the location.

The next month. Mike travels to a country on that continent. We look on-line to find what type of animals live there and the climate. Then My youngest colors pages of those animals. My oldest learns more about the country - it's people, food, etc.

Another Great unit on Geography - http://www.trumbull.k12.oh.us/teachers/resources/Themes/geography.html

The above came from my Preschool Plans *found on my other webpade KickbuttHomeEducation

Older & Younger Learning Together -

--- I ended up changing this plan slightly - as I'm somewhat lazy and want the kids to learn together as much as possible..lol...so my youngest would spin the globe and select the continent/country. He would then 'pack' the luggage and 'book' the transportation. Then the two of them together would research and put together a lapbook on the country in the form of a brochure. My oldest - DJ - would find out information on the population, the language, the money, and government. My youngest - Xman - would find out about the animals, clothing, traditions and tourist sites  - they would put them together in a lapbook to tempt my husband when he got home from work. It would take anywhere from a week to a month for each country depending. Sometimes we'd find out about religious practices, sometimes historical events.
 
Our Lapbook/Brochure answers these questions:

• How long would it take to get there? And how would we do it?
• What is the climate like?
• Why do people travel to this area?
• What would we do if we were there?
• What type of money do they use, what is the difference between American money and their money?
• What language do they speak? (we would usually make a pocket for small index cards with translations of easy phrases).
• What do the people there look like?
• If I were raised there what would my life be like?
• What bodies of water are near by?
• What countries are near by?
• What major landmarks are found in this country?
• How long has this country been there, what is it's basic history?
• What is the traditional attire of the people like? (we would usually try to make costumes and take a pic of us in them)
• How do their beliefs differ from my own?
• What famous people/inventions/war/etc. came from there?

get creative. This is a very fun way to learn about the world!

Happy Water Day!

As today is National Water Day we focused on the water cycle and water conservations!

http://www.filefolderfun.com/SubjectWeather.html
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycle.html
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/mearth.html
http://lapbooklessons.ning.com/notes/Water_Cycle_Lapbook_Links
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/kids/kids_k-3.html
http://www.kidzone.ws/water/bactivity1.htm

Crazy Science Bday

Awwww my baby boy is now 6 years old! Xman turned 6 this past Thursday and yesturday we had his party. He requested a Mad Science party - he had seen a flyer of a company that has an employee dress as a character and conduct funny experiments...I thought, sure, but why pay them to do it? So we researched some fun, easy experiments and made our own crazy science party.

Each child got a Science Kit goody bag:

• Safety Goggles
• Plastic Gloves
• Ruller
• Compass
• Lifesaver Wintergreen Mints
• Mentos
• Rock Candy wooden stick & clothes pin
• Lab Notebook (with each of our experiments explained in each one)
• 2 unblownup balloons

The Experiments:

• Sparking Candy (and other electricity experiments like with balloons)
• Planting Fun (learning about plants and soil)
• Rock Candy (learning about sedimentary rocks)
• Fantastic Foamy Fountain (we compared 6% & 3% solution hydrogen peroxide, and leared about exothermic reactions)
• Color Explosion (we compared the grease breakdown strengths between Joy & Palmolive dish detergent).
• Exploding Soda (we learned about gas pressure)

To see the printout for the Lab Notebooks and the descriptions/explinations of the experiments view Birthday Experiments {username: kickbutttidbits password: kickbuttmama }

{Bday Scientist!}


Lil' Scientists!

Planting Fun

Soda Explosion (it was pouring rain...so I got toally soaked! The kids stood on our awning covered porch screaming a countdown to me then cheering wildly as the soda exploded!)

Fantastic Foamy Fountain

Color Explosion

March Madness

Whew, February was definately an...er....experience. I haven't really posted much - my grandfather passed away, we ended a 4 years friendship with a toxic person, I started a new job, etc....but now we're totally on track and kickin' it! We're so excited for this November. Last year we went to OH (to visit said toxic friend) but this year I'm driving the kids to Washington DC - what a learning experience it will be!!!

We led a learning team (our Earth Scouts team) a few weeks ago on - RESPECT - I thought it was appropriate. THe kids had fun writing on a big posterboard all the things that equal respect - honesty, integrity, being polite, being nice, etc.

MARCH -
This month we're learning a lot as well (with last month focusing on the Olympics).
Right now we're learning about the Iditirod and Alaska (as the race is tomorrow). Then we're moving on to a Pirate Lapbook - I've been reading Treasure Island to the boys every afternoon. The kids LOVE IT! And the love to laugh about the parallels between the old book and one of their favorite flic's - Treasure Planet. My youngest will be 6 next week (I'm totally depressed!)

Week 1 -- (ending 3/6)
Iditerod
Global Warming/Green House Gases
Alaska
Dogs

Week 2 -- (ending 3/13)
Xman's Bday - we're designing a Mad Science party, I'll post all our experiments later.
We'll be finishing our Polar Animals lapbook (from Alaska)
We'll be doing A Fish Out of Water lapbook for Xman

Week 3 -- (ending 3/21)
Spring, wonderful Spring! This week ends with the Spring Equinox - so we'll be doing some more work in our solar system
Honey Bees & Lady Bugs Lapbooks
The life of a Plant (lapbook I'm almost finished designing I'll post it when I'm done. Here's a great list of Plant Resources) And we'll be doing our Spring Lapbook


Week 4 -- (ending 3/29)

Daily Drills - Fun

I got this idea from my BFF Dani. She has her kids do a daily drill sheet each day as a sort of warm-up to homeschool. Each day is a different theme (math, puzzle, reading, etc). Well I wanted to hook the kids with something fun each day - and I found a free site to do it (of course!) So I printed several books of the following, and each morning my kids grab their binder and do a sheet (or two or three). They're fun and help us transition from normal day to school day.

http://www.crazydad.com/ is a fab site filled with great vid clips and such
For his 50 books of mazes - Mazes
For his Kiduko puzzles - Kiduko
For his FAB Slitherlink (one of my fav games) - Slitherlink
For his great Karuko puzzles - Karuko

More daily fun:
Printable Mazes for Kids (themed)
Word Searches
Connect The Dots
Color By Numbers
Family Fun Printables (word searches, memory games, mazes, puzzles, etc)