Category: Educational

Posts related to the education field.

A Day in the Life, Educational, Homeschool

Kitchen Chemistry Unit for November

Keira

This is a rough draft post. I’d love to say I’ll fluff it out but… my track record suggests otherwise. If you’re seeing it in this state and it’s not November, my track record holds. What can I say, I’m consistent! haha.

Below, find a schedule for semi-weekly primary-school science lessons for the month of November. A homeschool unit for November about – you guessed it – food.  Note that this could easily be spread out to 4 or 5 days a week instead of 2! But we only do science twice a week in order to have time for social studies and extra curriculars.

  1. Intro to Chemistry
  2. classifying matter:
  3. states of matter: Solid, liquid, gas
  4. What is a mixture
  5. Suspensions vs Solutions
  6. Colloids
  7. emulsions
  8. Adding heat
  9. Acids vs Bases
Educational, Kids Need Play, Life Lessons

Sand dough place values

Keira

Dear Reader,

I know that place values are way above what my preschooler is ready for… but is it, though? I mean, do I actually expect her to understand and grasp entirely what we were talking about? No way. But she is has an incredible sense of numbers that I did not have at her age. And when the opportunity came up, I definitely seized it.

Anyway, I digress… today we played with sand dough. We play with sand dough regularly, but my preschooler got a set of letters and numbers for Christmas, and she is very proud of that ownership. And since she always loves numbers, when she made the one and the zero, she got excited about it making the number 10. And then the wheels started turning and you could see it. “What happens if I add another zero?” So, I told her to do it and see! Then I said, “look, you just made 100!” and it grew from there all the way to one million.

I know this wont be the only time we talk about it, because she’s not ready to completely grasp the concept of place values, but I loved seeing the brainwaves happen. [nerd fact: From a science perspective, it’s called myelination – reinforcing thought patterns in our brains. Basically the more you hear and see something, the more you will understand the concept. And from a teacher perspective, it’s called scaffolding – basically that when you introduce a new concept you need to build up to it].

Keira at searchforseven.com

Age Range

4+

Prep Required

on the fly

Time Needed

less than 5 mins

Supervision

9/10

Educational, Kids Need Play

Mini School Day 2 /s/ sound

Keira

Dear Reader;

I am so giddy at how well these little mini lessons are going! I always told myself that “someday,” I’d do fun letter activities but I just never felt good enough or like I had the time to do such fun things. But I made a goal to spend more time with my kids, and then I made the goal to focus on letters. And it’s been so rewarding.

This activity was about the /s/ sound. And squishy slimy rainbow-colored spaghetti was just so fun to make! My kids wished I would have let them help, but I was the mean mom that did not feel like cleaning up food-colored clothes or kids or carpet.

To make rainbow spaghetti, just cook the spaghetti to done, add 20 drops of coloring and 2 tbs of water into a sandwich bag. mix it up and then add some spaghetti into the bag. It was about 2 pinches full of spaghetti, but really it’ll depend on how much spaghetti you cook.

  • For red, I simply did 20 drops of red.
  • For orange, I did 15 drops of yellow and 5 of red (and I could have favored the yellow even more than I did.
  • For yellow, it was easy peasy. 20 drops of yellow.
  • For green, I did 12 drops of neon green, and 3 drops of true green. it was such a pretty color!
  • For blue I did 15 drops of my cyan from the neon set and 5 drops of straight blue.
  • Purple was made by 12 drops of the neon purple, 5 drops blue, and 3 drops red. Honestly it was dark, so maybe it doesn’t need all 20 drops?
  • I had extra spaghetti so I decided to make some teal (12 drops cyan, 2 drops blue, and 5 drops of green) and some magenta (I only did 10 drops on this one because I wanted it to be more of a pink than a red. 7 drops neon purple and 3 drops red). You can look for them in the picture above if you want.

You’re supposed to only leave the spaghetti in for a minute… but I have kids. Yeahhhh, that spaghetti was in there for more like 5. And it didn’t end up all evenly colored, because ideally I would have at least mixed that spaghetti around every so often. But eh, my kids didn’t care and honestly, I didn’t either.

After it’s been in for the “minute,” rinse each color individually. after rinsing, I dumped them all back into the pan, and I’m telling you not to do that. Keep them all in their own bowl until right before serving/giving to your kids, them to keep the blues from dying the yellows.

Now that that is done, time for our little mini-school! We read the second lesson in our Teach your Child book, the letter S from the activity book, and then we made s shapes and traced them with our fingers. then I just let her and her toddler sisters play in the spaghetti (after they washed their hands… because I totally intended to count the munching I knew would happen as lunch)! Sensory play for the win.

I pulled out a few noodle colors and let them dry in S shapes so she can have something to trace throughout the week. I tried to dry them onto the paper so they’d just glue themselves to the paper but the noodles shrink as they dry and the paper got all curly. So before they ruined the paper and their shapes, I pulled them off and flipped them over to dry the rest of the way. As the lessons progress I’ll have her trace them with her fingers to include kinetic input into learning.

Keira at searchforseven.com
Educational, Kids Need Play

Mini School Day 1 /M/ sound

Keira

Dear Reader,

My preschooler is great at counting! Numbers just click in her head. Letters, however… they might as well be some ancient Hebrew text. They just don’t compute. Although I am definitely an advocate for children learning at their pace, I was curious if we couldn’t aide her a little bit better just by doing a set of activities that were more 3d than just the standard color/cut/glue paper activities. My Family has a history of Dyslexia, and reading is so 2d! So, we made it tactile! And we are focusing on sound and not letter names. Starting with /m/.

I started with /m/ mostly because I’m using Teach Your Child To Read as our baseline. We do the lesson out of that, then we do the Learn to Read Activity Book of the same letter, because they involve movement. Then it’s onto the fun!

This week, we glued pipe cleaners and googly eyes onto our monster! And “teeth” that ended up being horns because they’re above where she put the eyes. When I called to talk to my mom this afternoon, she asked if we used M&M’s and I’m kinda kicking myself for not thinking about that! What a missed opportunity! So if you’re reading this, remember that M&M’s are totally an option.

After the pipe cleaner dried, I had her trace the letters with her fingers. With the pipe cleaners, she’s getting a sensory input while saying “mmmmmm.” Then I kept it handy because we review the sounds throughout the week.

Next lesson will be on the /s/ sound.

Keira at searchforseven.com
  • only involved because of the story. could be free play
A Day in the Life, Educational, Life Lessons

Today’s Adventure Down a Rabbit Hole

Keira
close up of rabbit on field
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

So, there I was, minding my own business (aka cleaning the front room while my children are watching educational television -*cough,* Octonauts, *Cough*), and I overhear that the whale has a sunburn.

So, my curious brain decides to google if whales really can get sunburned.

Turns out they can.

Apparently they can get tanned, too! (Source)

But that’s not all!

black hippopotamus laying on ground during daytime
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Hippos don’t get sunburned because they secrete a red sticky substance that not only refracts the sun, it keeps bugs away. Beauty companies are studying hippos in order to mimic it in makeup. (Side note: when telling all of this fascinating info to my sister, she informed me that The Lion Guard lied! One of their episodes talks about hippos getting burned. Is that not the epitome of mom-to-modern-preschoolers life? Haha, not only are we discussing random facts we learned in one kid show, we are cross-examining it with another kid show. … Here’s where you ask us how much we let our kids watch and we tell you to mind your own kids, thank you very much).

Anyway, you should also know that domesticated pigs can get sunburned and heat stroke, but wild pigs don’t. The fur on a wild pig has been bred out of our domesticated breeds.

But wait, there’s more.

Elephants and rhinos can get burned. That’s why they hang out in the mud.

agriculture cows curious pasture
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

So, hippos nope, but elephants and rhinos, yes. (source)

And cows and newly-shorn-sheep can get burned, too! I asked my mom (dairyman’s daughter) if that was true and she said yes, and she has seen it personally. Lighter-colored cows turn pink when they’re sunburned! I know you were just dying to learn that.

Apparently, researchers are discovering the more plants with chlorophyll an animal eats, the more likely they are to burn (no good source but enough you can see a connection. my best one has since been taken down. Google it, though). But also some research in humans who take chlorophyll supplements have started to emerge). I guess I can see it… chlorophyll collects sun rays. Who knew the plants were getting revenge, amiright?

But that’s not all! Did you know that darker skinned people have a harder time converting sunlight into vitamin D (source)!?! This one kinda blows my mind because this pale-skinned northerner is not so great at having enough vitamin D whenever they take my labs. In fact, I have Seasonal Affective Disorder, so it’s kind of a big deal for me to get enough sunlight. But I checked other sources, and they all agree. The lighter the skin, the better the ability to convert sunlight into vitamin D. So, the ancestors that used to live near the equator had darker skin so they would not burn as easily, but they also get more sunlight, making that the necessity. And the ancestors that lived to the north were paler because they needed to absorb and convert the sun rays into vitamin D because the sun wasn’t as available to them. Bodies are awesome.

I don’t know if I really needed to learn all of that, but it’s fascinating, isn’t it? And now you know all that useless information, too! You are so much better informed, now! You’re welcome.

And, see? Octonauts are educational!

And my floor was clean for a whole 2 seconds while they were distracted, so… totally worth it.

Keira at searchforseven.com
Brag, Educational, Kids Need Play

Read Across America Day: Complete a Reading Challenge

Keira

Dear Reader,

Happy Read Across America Day! Or, happy birthday to Dr Seuss, if you’d rather. In honor of Dr Seuss’ birthday, I wanted to share a great accomplishment we just reached at our house! My preschooler has reached her goal of reading 1000 books! And my toddlers are at 500.

Okay, they can’t read. But they can listen. And they do!

I kinda just said, yeah, sure when the library offered the program, thinking it was a good way to dedicate snuggle time to my then-toddler while her twin sisters were still tiny (read: super time-consuming and attention-needing). They helped me download the Beanstack app and signed me up for the challenge linked to their library (I know a lot of libraries all over the US use the app, check with your library!), and that allowed us to start earning prizes. So far we have earned games, book bags, shirts, simple crafts, and a handprint on the library wall!

My toddlers don’t really care about the prizes, but they love the trips to the library. And they love books! I guess that’s the real benefit to the challenge. To have such a love of books at a young age is amazing. And my preschooler is already listening to chapter books at night. The kid that never.sits.still will curl up in my lap and sit for a solid 20-30 minutes and listen to intermediate-level chapters! It’s her favorite part of the night. Story time has slowly gotten longer and longer, and honestly, even though it takes more of my time, I love it, too.

I hope, in honor of Dr Seuss, you pick up a book today. And I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. And if you don’t… You’re reading the wrong books!

Keira at searchforseven.com

Educational

I made another thing…

Keira

Okay, so I know it’s been too long for this. Isn’t it always? But I’ve been chasing a toddler around. And working on Etsy, and, well, living! But Life is changing a bunch right now. In case you didn’t know, I’m expecting twins at the end of the summer. I’ve had a lot of people ask me if they’re fraternal or identical and they get confused when I tell them I don’t know. For now, I know they’re di/di. That means they have their own placentas and their own amniotic sac. Both are reassuring, because it means they have less chance of getting their cords tangled or having a problem with the placenta not distributing nutrients properly (that is the extremely short answer. Just know that I am glad they’re di/di, since I’m a nervous Nelly). To help with some of the confusion about twins and whether they’re identical or fraternal, I’ve made a chart. I like making charts. Anyway, feel free to share this image. Knowledge is power.

How to tell if twins are identical or fraternal

Educational, Life Lessons

Why Christ Used Stories

Keira

Did you know that Disney movie makers and our brain have something in common? No joke! Okay, I’m sure there are a lot of jokes tied into that revelation, but I’m being serious here. Both Disney movie makers and our brains process things in story-board-like glimpses. That is why stories are so entertaining to us. Our brains are designed to grab new data out of stories. That is why when someone throws facts at you, it is hard to remember them, but when they tell you a story, it is easier to remember. Let’s think for a moment of the Master Teacher. Christ taught in parables; He taught in stories. Whenever Widow's Mite - Ancient Roman Bronze Coinspeople in Sunday School discuss why Christ taught  stories, the answer is usually “so that anyone can understand them.” They are talking about how there are layers of a story for every understanding. There are those who are only  able to take it at face value, there are those who understand symbolism, and there are those that take that story and get out of it a personal meaning just for them. Like the parable of the lost coin. To some, it is just about a woman who lost a coin and wants to find it. To others, it is a story about how our Heavenly Father feels about lost children. And to some, it is the story about a time when they felt lost and didn’t think that they were worth more than a few cents, and they suddenly had a paradigm shift because someone found them and was so excited for their return. Or maybe a person finds personification in the role of the friend. Or as the one looking for a coin. There are multiple connections to be made with each parable. While that is a very good reason for Christ to teach in parables, I don’t believe it’s the whole reason. Christ, as the creator of this world and the co-creator of man, as well as the Son of the Omnipotent would have more understanding of how the brain worked than just because there are multiple levels to a story. He would have known that his disciples would need to remember the lessons he taught long after he was gone. He had a short ministry. Most of our history of Him was written after he was crucified. His stories needed to be remembered in order to make it down the funnel of time to be available to us now, in the last dispensation.

Educational

The Swimming Pool Theory

Keira

I heard this parable in a support group, once. I can’t find any sources, so this is just how I remember it.

Life can be be compared to a swimming pool. Emotions are equal to water and being able to process emotions is the equivalent of swimming. Some people are natural swimmers, born to families of natural swimmers, but some don’t ever learn how to swim. We start out clinging to the wall. It’s safe. Sturdy. But we get bored of that (about the time we turn into teenagers.) and want to learn to swim. There’s obviously more fun going on in the middle of the pool. So we dive in. The natural swimmers just take off and make it to the middle, treading water and having fun. Some people teach themselves to swim. Some get lessons. And some panic and cling onto whomever is nearest. The only problem is, the other person can’t swim when we cling on! At first, they’re excited to have you in the pool. they may even think it’s fun to have you clinging onto them. But once they start drowning, they don’t think it’s so cool anymore. So they push. Gently at first. But when that doesn’t work, they shove. And they shove hard. They will do whatever it takes to get you off of them. And you’ll do whatever it takes to keep hold of them. Because otherwise you drown.

When it’s finally sunken in (ignore the pun) that this person isn’t going to let you cling anymore, you have 2 choices. Cling to someone else, or face your fears and learn to swim. If you cling to someone else, you’re gonna end up drowning again.You need to learn to swim on your own. And that’s when the pool really is fun – when there are others, also swimming on their own. But they all have to know how to swim.

 

Educational

Name That Book

Keira

So… I’m stumped. I’m trying to remember 2 childhood books and I just can’t remember them for the life of me! They were old favorites. One my family owned (but no one but me seems to remember) and one that I always checked out from the library. They were both picture books. If I had any readers I’d create a prize for knowing the titles of the books. Maybe I will anyway. I’ll make up a bookmark or something.

Finger face with a question

Book #1: It was basically the same concept of Love You Forever,
but it was a girl as the main characther. And it didn’t have a mother sneaking into a room. It was a mommy feel-good book about a girl growing up. I remember a few of the pictures. One had the daughter riding through on a skateboard with her friends (yes, a girl skateboarder), and another illustration of the girl hanging (sitting? is it sitting if your feet are on the wall and your head is hanging off where your knees should be?) upside down on the couch talking to her friends via corded phone and eating pizza. Does this ring a bell to anyone? *** update 8/17/2020: I found it! It reminds me of Love you Forever because it’s the same artist! So, I looked up the artist (Sheila McGraw), and then looked for her other works. The name of the book I’m thinking about is called My Mother’s Hands.***

Book #2: This book was about a little girl who did not clean up her house. It never showed her parents at all in the book, and to me it seemed as though the only human in existence was the little girl. I specifically remember that she left the cap off the toothpaste and water in the soap dish. The house suddenly becomes human-like and gets mad at her and kicks/locks her out. Somehow, they are able to converse, and eventually she convinces the house she’ll be a cleaner little girl and is able to come back in the house.

I have Googled and Googled these books and I still get nothing. First of all, they are probably not still being printed. Secondly, without a name of any sorts, Google searching really has limitations. Even for this Google-junkie.