Flowers, Worms and Fun--Homeschool Wks 3 and 4

The last two weeks Joe and Jack completed a unit study that I planned for them on flowers, worms and the seasons. Since flowers grow in the soil and worms live in the soil, I figured worms would tie in great with flowers, and I threw in the seasons for Joe. Also, with Hanna's science course being Botany this semester she included Joe in some of her reading and projects. We enjoyed all that we did for this unit study. It was fun, and I can't wait for our next unit--we are going to cover insects the whole month of June.







I dyed several different types of pasta for Jack to use for a couple of his tot trays and to include in a rainbow themed sensory bin. Joe had fun with the pasta tray and sensory bin too They pulled these out lots the last couple weeks.

Dyed abc pasta and sensory bin including pom poms, dyed pastas, silk flowers, flat glass stones (all from Dollar Tree)

Here are pictures of the boys working, and some of their finished crafts from our unit study.

Here are the above pictures described in order:

• paper plate rain craft--I had Joe color a paper plate all over with markers. We waited for a rainy day and when it began to rain he went outside running around in the rain with the plate. He came back in and let the rain drops swirl around on the plate. He LOVED this!


• Jack enjoying his ABC pasta tray.


• Jack painting with dandelions. He was so cute to watch. He thought painting with the flowers was funny:-).


• Jack making the cotton ball cloud for his rainbow after we read Barney's Rainbow.


• Jack's flower letter "F" picture made with flower stickers.


• Jack's finished rainbow.


• Joe doing Singapore math. He is measuring using legos as a unit of measure. Estimating the answer first, then finding out the actual answer.


• Having fun with the sensory bin.


• Dandelion painting on a paper plate. This could easily be made into a flower by fringing the edges and adding a green stem and leaves from construction paper--I intend to do this.

Joe completed another fun Science Experiment in a bag. After reading books about worms we went out one afternoon after it rained (thanks for the reminder Hannah), found some worms, placed them in a plastic cup and watched them tunnel into the soil. Afterward, we wet the soil and waited to see what the worms would do. They quickly came to the surface for air (you can see one little worm poking his head up from the soil below.) We transferred the worms to another cup of soil that wasn't overly saturated with water and observed them for just a couple days. Joe loved watching the worms and had a blast with this experiment.

Joe made a dandelion picture by blowing a puffy dandelion onto a black piece of construction paper. He first took a glue stick and rubbed big circles of glue onto it in different spots so the seeds would stick.

After the dandelions dried, he used oil pastels to draw on stems, leaves, clouds and sunshines. This was a really neat art project! I actually ran it through my laminator and it looks super.

finished danelion picture

Joe made a cute flower pot craft using construction paper, paints, play doh and a section of a cardboard egg carton. He thought the finished craft was really "adorable" as he put it, and I think it is very sweet and pretty.

I found a neat idea for a seasons book that included printables for each season of the year. We read books that included seasons of the year and Joe completed a My Book of Seasons. This is a really fun learning activity.

Joe and I are studying Benjamin Franklin in history right now. I have a couple science and art based projects centered around Benjamin Franklin that we will do over the next couple weeks.



Hanna worked on Science projects centered on flowers as well. The first was a flower dissection complete with a diagram (top two pictures). She also placed two fresh flowers (from my birthday bouquet) in a container filled with a layer of Borax powdered laundry detergent. She then completely covered the flowers with the Borax and put the lid on the container. She will remove them next Monday, and the flowers are supposed to be dried out, but look fresh (bottom two pictures).

Hanna is studying middle ages this year in History. She worked on reading The Door in the Wall, a book about a crippled boy living in a monastery--she said it was good, but sad--over weeks 3 and 4 of our homeschool. She also completed two maps, a timeline she made (as well as working on her Classical Timeline), and sketched a drawing of a monastery of her own design.

Hanna has almost completed her first Life of Fred math book. As of right now her average is a 93. I hope it stays this good or even better for the final grade in a few weeks. She has completed another unit in grammar and is doing very well with our new grammar curriculum. We both really like it.



So far our school year is off to a very good start. So much more relaxed and slower paced than last year. I am not feeling pressured at all like I did last year. I am moving at the kids' pace and feel a sense of peace that this will benefit us all. I have lightened our load in the arts and crafts dept. and this is making us all happier. Our curriculums are so fun. I am happy with each of them. Jack is still doing very well with his "school". He asks every single morning to do "cool". I love being able to include him.



I can't wait to begin our insect unit! I've found so many ideas, books and crafts/projects. The only problem will be deciding which ones to include without including too many:-).



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