Weekly Wrap-Up: The One with A LOT of Science

That's right we did a lot of science. In the form of experiments.

Mackenzie

We're finishing up the last lesson in our Apologia Anatomy from last year as well as finishing our first lesson in Apologia's Swimming Creatures.

In anatomy we were studying growth and development and all of that. Including DNA. So we made an edible DNA strand that we saw all over pinterest.

It was simple. It was fun. And tasty.

The directions are HERE. (P.S. We are now done with anatomy. So only one science lesson for us.)

We also worked on our Try This! and project activities from lesson one of Swimming Creatures of the 5th Day. We did them co-op style with our friends who are studying the same thing. They didn't get to do any of their science experiments last year so we're making them this year. lol

One of their projects is to make an Ocean Diorama. Each lesson they will add examples of the types of animals they studied. This week they created the box and put in some animals from the abyss.  They also had a demonstration of how water pressure effects your body using a ballon and a 2-liter bottle. They made "wind currents" using a tub of water and mini fans. The book suggested using hair dryers for that. Water and hair dryers? LOL No thanks. Lastly they demonstrated how water temperature can effect currents.

She has 3 more lessons left in MUS Epsilon and one more in Growing with Grammar. Then she can start her next level. Yay! IEW continues to go well. She's loving those keyword outlines. We'll start lesson 2 next week.

In the world of home ec, she baked my husband and I some yummy carrot cake cupcakes. From scratch. Cuz we both turned 41 this week. I'm a day older. And wiser. lol

Kayleigh

The first thing I want to share is this: Progress. We are off the dreaded "starter level." Thank goodness. We were so happy we thought about throwing a party in celebration.

I'd like to say that she made some great reading progress but I can't. I'm not sure what they're trying to teach them other than typing skills. And maybe spelling. I'd kind of hoped to teach her to read before we tackled spelling. But at least there were no tears. But that might be because she only did one round of the new level. lol But I'm choosing to remain hopeful.

Naturally, we read a lot. Which is good because we like that. Sonlight had some fun suggestions to go along with some of our stories. When we read The Greedy Farmer from The Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book she was comparing liquid volume by pouring milk into cups of different sizes. I'm not going to lie and tell you that she gave a hoot about the mini-math lesson. She was only into the pouring and the drinking of the milk. When we read Tiger Tries to Cheat she had a blast acting out the story with some of her stuffies. She also built the Tower of Babel with blocks but I didn't catch a picture of that. Sorry.

We worked on lowercase b in All About Reading pre-1. She did her little craft, practiced blending with the puppet, and I finally got around to making a salt box for letter tracing like I've been planning in my head for months. Because it was so hard to to find the 30 seconds that it took to prepare. In my defense, the real issue was remember to by a box for it. A 97 cent pencil box from Walmart did the trick. She loved it and used it to draw every letter except for b. lol J was a favorite for this activity. Who wants to place a bet that when she gets to J, she won't want to write it? The odds are in your favor.

We had a blast with our Language Lessons for Little Ones this week. We read a poem about caterpillars and butterflies so I decided to turn it into a little science lesson. (I told you we did a lot of science.) We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and talked about the life cycle of a butterfly. Then we made a life cycle craft using various band aids. How cool is that? Pinterest rocks!! And now I have a lot more band aids in the house.

This week in Handwriting Without Tears , we learned about Mat Man. And body parts. And counting. So versatile. lol We sang the song, built Mat Man, and then she drew him. Everybody loves the Mat Man song.

We did do math. I just didn't photograph any of it. =o)

Oh, I forgot to share our Bible verse for this week. Colossians 3:20. I love it! It's never a favorite of the kids though. I can't figure out why. lol

So how did your week go?


Linking up to: Weekly Wrap-Up, Collage Friday, Preschool Corner, and The Homeschool Mother's Journal.

Brain Fluid...We Like It!!

Mackenzie has been studying the nervous system these last few weeks and we've been wrapping it up by focusing on the brain. The topic of the brain has been fascinating. The brain is truly a testimony to the perfection and intricacy of God's amazing design of our bodies.

Some interesting facts that we learned:

**The brains neurons cannot repair themselves.  Uh-oh!!!!

**While recent evidence shows that people can add a few neurons to their brains over their lifetime, the neurons that you have at birth will be the large majority of what you have to sustain you your entire life.

**The skull, while an important part of God's plan for protection for this fragile organ, is rough on the inside.  Rough enough to cut the brain.  (Who knew?  Well probably Derek Shepard. lol)

Wow!  This organ is vital to our daily lives, clearly it's important to take care of it.  It just re-enforces our stance on the importance of wearing helmets when participating in activities involving wheels or flying down a mountain.

Thankfully, our skull is only our first line of defense for our almighty brains.  God, in His infinite wisdom, also carefully packaged our wonderful brains in cerebrospinal fluid.  Or as I refer to it, brain fluid.  This amazing fluid, between the brain and skull, cushions and cradles the brain and keeps it in place.  It also helps to distribute the force of an impact on our brains when we take a blow to our heads.

Have you ever hit your head so hard that you can feel your brain sloshing around in there? Not fun but thank goodness for that fluid, now that I know about the rough inside of my skull.

So today we did an experiment to show just how important that fluid is. We used 2 eggs, a plastic Easter egg slightly bigger than the eggs, and corn syrup.

This is your brain.

This is your brain inside a skull without cerebrospinal fluid.

This is your brain experiencing an impact of the unpleasant variety.

Awww Snap!!!
And the inside of this skull was smooth.

This is your brain inside of a skull with cerebrospinal fluid.
(If there are holes in your egg, tape them up.  You don't want your brain to leak.)

This is your brain experiencing another impact of the unpleasant variety.
Poor brain!

Hooray for brain fluid!!!