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Lately, my 7 year old is really into how things are made. Today’s question was “How is a Light Bulb Made?” And so we headed over to Google’s Video search to see if there was anything good available. Here are two 5 min. videos that pulled not only my 7 year old’s attention but also that of his older siblings. One is for an incandescent light bulb and the other for a flourescent bulb. Enjoy! …Shannon How An Incandescent Light Bulb is Made How A Flourescent Light Bulb is Made
 Experimenting with water flow It’s Spring in our area of the world and full of life – trees are leafing out, seedlings are emerging, flowers blooming, and the kids really don’t want to be inside. So we are spending more time outside. One of the things I love about homeschooling is the flexibility we have to change our location. We can homeschool from anywhere – even outdoors. Charlotte Mason is well known for her stance on getting kids outside and observing the world. And I agree with her. I’ve intentionally set up our days so the kids spend as much time outdoors as possible. However, that doesn’t solve the need to get some schoolwork done. We incorporate gardening, butterfly and bird watching into our school days during spring time. But I’m also known to send the kids outside with their reading or lay out in the grass with them reading aloud. And – to just play and follow their creativity, which in itself often leads to more schoolwork than I could ever assign them. Another way to incorporate outdoor time into schoolwork is with notebooking. Spring science notebooks cover art, science, and language arts in a way that is a lot of fun and easy to do. And the Kids love to show them off to others. This year instead of doing full science notebooks, we are just doing notebooking pages in a blended notebook, but it works and the kids love it. If you are new to notebooking, here’s an article from Cindy Rushton, aka the Notebooking Queen, on what you can include in spring science notebooks. Enjoy! …Shannon
It is Spring! Why Not Begin a Science Notebook? 11 yr old working on a notebooking project Today being inside just tortures me! It is STUNNING outside! Even the little birds are begging us to go outside. Are you like me, dying from “cabin fever” and ready for spring? This is the perfect time to begin Nature Notebooks! Not only will you have an abundance of treasures awaiting your exploration, but these are perfect days to try something fresh. Ready? Let me help… Chances are you already have many things that could be included in a Science Notebook around your home. Look for those “goodies” that do not have their own special place and add them to your Science Notebooks. This is the perfect opportunity to develop “a place” for those “goodies” while developing a nice product for displaying all the growing knowledge of nature all while your children are keeping special memorabilia! One of the things that I like about using supplies intended for scrapbooking is that there are so many products that enable us to keep bulky materials safely inside of our notebooks. Not to mention, scrapbooking makes EVERY notebook so much cuter! And,to imagine that we call this “school!” Want some ideas of things to include in your notebooks?
You can add a lot of life to your Science Notebooks with special supplies you find along the way! I have found that the little touches have made our notebooks so much more fun and in the process hooked my children. Encourage your children to use die-cuts, frames, stencils, shapes, and edgings galore to make their notebooks fun and beautiful! My children now beg each weekend to work on our binders/scrapbooks. We have taken these simple skills into other projects for our Science studies such as creating books or booklets, making cards with pressed flowers, sketches, poetry and Scripture verses, and displaying our collections. The key is to just have fun and enjoy making your notebooks all yours! Happy Notebooking! Cindy About Cindy Rushton Cindy Rushton is the hostess of the Ultimate Homeschool Expo, the very first online homeschool convention. Grab your set NOW and receive her awesome A Quick Start for Notebooking Mini-Set FREE today! Check out all of the details here.
Life is definitely a journey. We aren’t born knowing all and we certainly don’t learn it all during childhood. As a wife, a mother, a homeschooling teacher/parent, a worker, and a child of God I’m constantly growing and learning. For me it’s not really about arriving at a destination, but enjoying the journey as I go along it. If I waited until I was the perfect wife or perfect mother – I just would never have the privilege of being a wife and mother. And so many things I would miss. I ran across this article by Kimberly Eddy recently and wanted to share it with you. It’s from her e-book, “Momma’s Guide to Thriving on One Income”, which I also own. There are nuggets of insight and encouragement for those of us on the journey. I hope you enjoy. …Shannon Joy in the Journeyby Kimberly Eddy This article was excerpted from “Momma’s Guide to Thriving on One Income” by Kimberly Eddy One day, twelve years ago, after a few hours of labor, someone handed me a baby, and sent me on my merry way, home from the Family Birthing Center. I remember, in one of my first days as a mother, standing in the bedroom, looking in the mirror at myself holding this precious little bundle. This child belonged to me. That thought scared the daylights out of me. What do I know about raising babies? At that point in my life, there were many things I excelled at, and the practical stuff like raising children and keeping house were not on that list. Growing as a wife and mother is not always as easy as people make it out to be. When I was in school, I was an honor student. I think that really means, “Book smart but common sense stupid.” Though I passed the calculus placement test for college and could to the higher math required for a college astronomy class, I did not know how to balance a checkbook. No one ever told me how. I was a chess-playing champ, but I couldn’t keep my room clean enough in college to keep a roommate longer than a month. In my first year of college I discovered credit cards. No one ever told me how to budget money, how to use credit wisely, how to maintain a checking account, or any of those other important life things. You would think someone who knew how to do calculus and who spoke three languages could handle something as simple as a budget, right? After college I could not find a job in my field, so I went back to Austria for a sabbatical of sorts, working as an Au Pair. I am a smart woman. I have a college degree, and passed the Mensa Exam. You would think that with an IQ of 140, I could handle being a mother’s helper, right? Well, they say it is the simple things in life that are the hardest for some of us. This has been the case in my life. Talking to other moms new to the “simple life”, I am realizing that I am not the only modern woman out there that finds it not so simple. In school, we are trained for college, and for future careers. Few of us received practical training for running a household and raising children. Home Economics, in our school, involved making the worst-tasting pizza I ever ate in my life, and goofing off for an hour. Motherhood is a journey, and we can have joy in that journey. The Bible says that God “…maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children.” (Psalm 113:9). God usually gives us children at a time in our lives when we still don’t know nearly enough about raising them. Then, after giving us children, He teaches us one step at a time. He includes training in running a household, budgeting money, living frugally, loving our spouses unconditionally, slowing down, respecting our husbands, and any other area needing work. Our families are like being in God’s school. We can either listen to our Teacher and learn something, or we can goof off, do what we want to do, and flunk. As our children grow, God teaches us through them. My own children have been an amazing source of encouragement and inspiration to me, especially as they have grown. We have a close bond that many parents don’t have with their children. I enjoy them, and they enjoy me. The other night as I worked some more on this website, I had my oldest daughter sitting on the edge of the bed reading poetry out loud to me. The most fun part of being a mom is getting to get back into things I laid down in the busyness of adulthood. Things like taking time to read poetry, make snow men and snow angels, going star gazing, and smelling the flowers along the way. Joy in the journey? It’s ours for the taking. All that is required of us is to not rush forward or lag behind the leading of the Lord in our lives. As we rest in the knowledge that God is a good God, and He is the one in control, the sweet peace that passes all understanding will reside in our hearts and minds. We truly can have that “joy unspeakable and full of the glory” (1 Peter 1:8). To Order “Momma’s Guide to Thriving on One Income” or to find out more, click here.
 Carving a bear out of soap As part of his cub scout “Whittling Chip” requirements, my 9 year old son had to crave a bear out of a bar of soap. Having never craved soap before, this ended up being a grand adventure that my 11 year old thought looked fun, so she joined in.
Since there is an art to carving soap, after the second discarded bar of soap, we finally found the Ivory website’s tips for carving soap and how to create their own bars of soap from the discards.  We had a LOT of discarded soap  Making Green Soap from the discards
I think we’ll try it again in the future – just for fun.
 Green beans ready to plant Gardening is therapeutic. It helps soothe my spirit and reconnects me with the miracles of this world. In each little seed is everything it needs to grow and flourish, given the right temperature, moisture, and soil. Gardening connects me with God and with life all around me. The ground is teeming with life. The birds twitter in the trees around me. The sun warms my spirit. Even the process of composting renews me – as everything breaks down, becomes food for the worms and for my plants. Whatever problems I may be mulling become insignificant in the cycle of life that happens out in my garden beds. Even when I didn’t have garden space, I have always grown something in containers – usually tomatoes (you can’t beat the flavor of a vine-ripened tomato!).  Spinach & Peas in my Garden I prefer to garden in containers or raised beds, for simply the ease. There’s little weeding, or hoeing, or anything else to do. Simply plant, water, and grow. Then when that plant is done throw in some more compost and start again. I love to go out to the garden beds and graze. Pick off a fresh pea or broccoli stalk, pick a spinach leaf and munch on it. Even my pickiest eater will eat from the garden. I don’t grow all of our own food, but I grow enough during harvest time to be able to pick fresh veggies and herbs for dinner. It connects us with the earth and with the knowledge of where our food comes from.  Kids preparing their new garden beds The kids each have their own garden beds and are free to grow what they want in it. In our last house my oldest son grew the largest artichoke plant we had ever seen. Now they are planting their new beds.  11 yr old planting Marigolds in her garden Each brings their own personalities and likes/dislikes to their gardening. My oldest has eight watermelon plants, and the rest is herbs and flowers. My youngest son is planting only “Food”. While my youngest daughter is planting mostly flowers. My oldest son is mixing both flowers and veggies, eagerly consulting the gardening books for inspiration. I love this adventure with them. Their creativity combined with the opportunities to observe and discuss all the life we see – at each stage of its growth. On the basics of Gardening from another Mom’s experiences: “Momma’s Guide to Growing Your Groceries” by Kimberly Eddy (Note: until April 30th, 2009 this e-book is on sale for $5.95. Normally, it’s $7.95) On an easy, no-fuss method of gardening in raised beds: All New Square Foot Gardening On container gardening: Movable Harvests: The Simplicity & Bounty of Container Gardens
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In the end, this was lots of fun and we came out with a carved bear, a carved pig, and two bars of green soap. All for the price of 4 bars of ivory soap (about $1.50)
by Mel Bartholomew (Note: if you borrow this from a library, be sure it’s the “New” method not the original.)
by Chuck and Barbara Crandall. (Note: This book is out of print, so you’ll need to find a used copy. But it is a wonderful book on how to grow different types of veggies and fruits in containers. I love this book and have used it for my entire adult gardening life.)
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