October 30, 2016

Science Is Fun!

Ok. Let's face it. Science is not my thing. I didn't excel at in school. I don't excel at it now. (Did I mention I majored in English Literature in college? The Canterbury Tales. Now THAT is my thing.) But... I digress. As a homeschooling parent/teacher, I am determined to give all subjects the attention and enthusiasm they deserve. I do have a science program that goes with the curriculum I am using for Flynn.  It is The Catholic Heritage Curricula and I love it.  I wanted to supplement it with monthly activities and decided this month to do apples, leaves, and pumpkins.  The Pumpkin Unit was by far our favorite! Pinterest was a huge inspiration and with a little planning, I discovered Science can be fun! Flynn knew it all along. : )

We started each lesson with one of our favorite books from the October Bin...

We studied the cycle of a pumpkin from seed to pumpkin...

And then planted our own little pumpkin seeds. : )

We read and recreated scenes from our favorite book Big Pumpkin...and we studied a little pumpkin and learned about all of the parts...inside and out. Then we did a Pumpkin Investigation...

We made a hypothesis of how many seeds were inside.
And we were surprised with the result!

Another hypothesis...
Would her little pumpkin sink or float?
Well, it floated.
And we discussed why.

And in an effort to give my baby girl the "Exploding Science" she was waiting for...

We added vinegar to baking soda and watched it go!
Then we discussed why.
Then we did it again!

And it wouldn't be school here without baking!
We finished the unit with some yummy Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

So there you go.
Science is doable.
Even for an English nerd like me. : )









9 comments:

  1. You are amazing! You make homeschooling an art. I'm sure Flynn stays interested and, in that way, learns.

    Have a blessed day and week!
    xo
    Pat

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  2. Oh that makes me miss miss miss teaching first grade... the pumpkin unit! I looked forward to it each year. Maybe again someday. Flynn, you did an awesome job! And Mom, you too! That's a lot of planning and getting materials ready... you rock at science!

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  3. Wow - I love this! You are such a great homeschool mom. I love all the fun learning activities! Have a great week!

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  4. What a shame you weren't my science teacher, I am sure I would have enjoyed it and learned more if you had been! Well done you on making science interesting!

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  5. Love this so much Billie Jo! Great job Flynn!!
    I swear I'm "double-brained" as I always loved English and literature -and excelled at that and even at 4 years of French!

    But I also absolutely LOVE sciences - I had physics and advanced bio in high school, and chemistry in both h.s. and college. I also started out in nursing in college so I had a whole year of anatomy and physiology with full cadaver labs .... and I found it FASCINATING. Plus I took astronomy for fun. Go figure. ;)

    So rock on Flynn and love it all! xoxo

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  6. Oh! I bet she LOVED those science experiments!

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  7. How fun!! Looks like you are doing great with homeschooling and enjoying it too, which is great!!! I have a question! As you know I have always homeschooled my kids. This year I decided to give Catholic Hertiage, I only ordered it for my 2 girls who are in 4th & 5th grade and I LOVE it!!! So now that I see how I am loving the curricula & the well laid out lesson plans! I want to order it for my 5 yr old. I noticed that the preschool & kindergarten lesson plans come together. Did you do the preschool books with Flynn or did you just dive right into kindergarten with her? I am undecided cause my little guy has always been home & am not sure if the preschool work will just be too easy. Was wondering what you did? Thanks! Lisa for instagram (hot_coffee4lisa)

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  8. Hats off to you! It's not easy to make science fun (my John will attest to that!). You have succeeded! This is wonderful!!!! :) I like the cookies the best ♥

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  9. I'm with you! Teaching science would be much more of a challenge for me, but I do love this pumpkin lesson! Including the baking!

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Thanks so much for saying hello!

Billie Jo