Serendipity

definition (n.)
things that you can't plan, but fit so well into your homeschooling.

...Things like offerings and explanations to the kids about places we go and people we meet.  The science of relations.  The living people full of stories of their lives.  Random

This year we have been reading The Mystery of the Periodic Table.

Recently PBS put on a special "Hunting the Elements".  I just happened to run across it on a late night stupor after the normal struggles of training myself to be a mother.  (You know those evenings when you can't handle one more "mommy" call.  You just need to sit and be.)
And wow.  Serendipity.

Today we finished the read aloud and for fun and enjoyment...we watch the two hour special.  And what does God give us today?  Rain, rain, rain.   Providence.

A week in review in our homeschooling house.

Nature journal meets handwriting and botany collection.

Gross motor skills and mommys fine motor skills (picking up those stray beans).

Animal discovery.

A girl and her horse.

Little ones can play on the empty hay rack.  (what lovely days we've had!  Indian Summer day after day.)

Starbucks Pumpkin Loaf in a Bundt Pan as part of our Industry program. 

Best braids in the house.  a 9year old has learned the art.

Pony rider.  I saw him riding with his hands up in the air...just couldn't get a photo.  

A unique cat and toddler relationship develops in the barn.

Book review: Secrets of the Universe: Liquids and Gases ie Principles of Fluid Mechanics

This book by Paul Fleisher is making our homeschooling so fun!  I am using it for our 6th grade science reading and our complete homeschool experiments.  I must admit it has a boring cover and the principles included are not in various colors to excite the eyes, but when we turn the images into actual work in the kitchen or bathroom or school room....look out!

We've been studying some of Archimedes' works and reading various biographies about him aloud since the Great Lessons earlier in the term.  So we went off into Pascal's laws, Boyles work and lastly Bernoulli's principle.

Water pressure increases with the depth of the water column.  Can you see three streams of water?

Make that Cartestan diver go!  

when pressure on a gas increases, its volume decreases!

and when you let up, it rises again.

air in the bottle expands with heat making the balloon expand

WOW.  It really worked!  

Now to try another kind of balloon.

and it contracts with cold air!  Neato!

I think we will try out some of his other books next term.