The kids made both English and French-language versions--
--and tried to make one for Luna, as well, but alas, her brain is a different size...
To memorize the parts of the neuron, I had the kids create their own models using their own ideas, although they were allowed to do some research for inspiration. Even teenagers are obsessed with Pinterest! You can see Syd's Model Magic neuron above. Will's beaded neuron was equally impressive, but she built it on a table top and didn't realize that it didn't have any structural integrity until she picked it up and it collapsed into one long, beaded string.
It's a beautiful necklace, though!
So that the kids would have a diagram that they could study, I photocopied some of the pages from this awesome book--
--and had the kids color them and use them as their reference for memorization.
I also like to have the kids get their hands on real artifacts whenever I can, not just models, so although Syd objected and spirited herself away to a friend's house during this activity, Will was happily on board with learning how to dissect a sheep's brain with me.
It's a VERY good lesson in how complicated things are in real life, even when they look pretty simple in a color-by-number diagram!
That was enough neuroanatomy for all of our purposes at the time, but since this topic is one that we do spiral back around to regularly, I've got quite a big list of other games, activities, and other enrichment projects to enhance this study. Here's some of them!
Crochet Pattern. Learning to crochet is absolutely on my to-do list, primarily so I can make lots of nerdy little projects like this one!
DIY Model. This assignment is similar to the one that I assigned the kids for their neuron model--you just have to tell them the parts that must be illustrated and labeled, and let them go off to be as creative as they like!
Fondant Brain. You know how much we love to turn everything into a cake or a giant cookie! One day, we'll bake ourselves one of those and decorate it with a fondant human brain.
Functional Neuroanatomy. This interactive site from the University of British Columbia is as detailed as you could ever possibly need. You can watch videos, look at models, and teach yourself a LOT of brain anatomy!
Mold. We've got a plastic brain mold very similar to this one, which we use for Halloween baking--because of course! However, it's on my to-do list to one day use plaster of Paris, or perhaps my dream material--concrete!
Quilled Neuron. Syd and I have done quilling before, and we thought it was really fun. I'm feeling like a quilled neuron is not beyond our skill set!
By the time you finish all of those projects, you're going to know your neuroanatomy really, really, REALLY well!
P.S. Want to follow along with our handmade homeschool and afterschool adventures? I post lots of resources, projects, and photos of our adventures over on my Craft Knife Facebook page!
We're not exactly lacking STEM studies here in our homeschool, but I thought that the kids might like a change from robotics, so I offered them the opportunity to create something from this fun little book:
Because what could possibly be more charming than a book with a real, actual rubber band on it?!? Or more tempting than a cover that boasts the instructions for a "slingshot rifle" inside?!?
Here is Will's ballpoint pen crossbow, made from paint stirrers, bamboo skewers, a lot of hot glue, and some twine:
I don't have any photos of it in action because I didn't realize that its first shot would be its last! Will suspects that the twine she used was too stiff; she thinks she needs something with the slightest bit of stretch so it can hold a little more potential energy without putting so much pressure on the paint stirrer.
Stay tuned for Version 2!
Syd's wooden pencil catapult was more successful overall--
--but then, she did have an assistant for its construction:
It turns out that a catapult made from duct tape, wooden pencils, and a plastic lid, shooting a cork tied to yarn, is quite the thing to keep a young cat entertained:
An automatic winder would improve the catapult's playability here, I'm told, as much of the fun for the cat involves chasing the yarn as it's being wound up again for another go:
This was definitely a good book for encouraging the tinkering aspect of STEM: the contraptions all worked fairly well, with build instructions clear enough that a kid could follow them independently, and yet they always had the potential to work better, or in a different way, with some overall easy-to-implement ideas that kids can dream up.
In this way, rather than each contraption being the end goal, it's more the starting point (it reminded me quite a lot of the time the kids made paper roller coasters, actually!). A kid uses her fine-motor skills and ability to follow directions to create an instrument upon which her own research, ideas, refinements, and tinkering do the work to teach her the physics, math, and engineering concepts hidden within each contraption.
And if you end up with a ballpoint pen that's turned into a projectile, all the better!
P.S. Want to hear more about paper roller coasters and paint stirrer crossbows? Follow my Craft Knife Facebook page for more projectile adventures as they happen!
Our in-person explorations this summer were supposed to be the Western Caribbean with our Girl Scout troop, southern Alabama and Louisiana with our family, and several assorted camping trips and weekend adventures with just me and the girls.
Honestly, though, at this point I'm so tired of complaining about the pandemic that I don't even feel like complaining about it. We're together at home, safe and sound, making our own fun more or less.
And instead of real travel on a cruise ship with lots of friends, exploring Mayan architecture, taking young people to get soft serve and pizza at 3:00 am just because we can, the four of us are eating popsicles at home and I'm only up at 3:00 am every day because a mockingbird lives right outside my bedroom window.
Whatever. It is what it is.
It's been several years since we took our family trip to Yellowstone National Park, and so when Yellowstone kindly announced that it would allow children to earn its normally park-only Junior Ranger badge at home, I decided that it was the perfect chance to make our own fun and I turned it into a unit study.
The study broadly follows the Yellowstone National Park Junior Ranger badge book, which at least right now Yellowstone is still offering on their site, still with the possibility to earn the Junior Ranger badge from home. The subheadings for this study match the activity titles for the Junior Ranger book, although you could complete this study without referencing it.
SUPERVOLCANO
Naked Science: Supervolcanoes is a terrific documentary about the Yellowstone supervolcano, although it scared the snot out of Syd and I have somehow managed to inform everyone that I have seen in person since we watched it (being that we watched it about 6 weeks ago, that number amounts to Matt, two socially-distanced friends, and the physical therapist helping me with my rotator cuff tendinitis) of exactly how long we in Indiana can expect to live after it erupts, and what we can expect to die of.
The documentary speaks quite a bit about calderas (there's a great Jurassic Park moment in which the scientists are frustrated because they know there *should* be a caldera at Yellowstone but they just can't find it, and then one of them is flying over the park in a helicopter and realizes that they haven't been able to see it because they've been IN it--it's that large!), and so this DIY caldera project makes a great hands-on activity to accompany it.
HYDROTHERMAL FEATURES
It's a shame that we're not really at Yellowstone, because these were the sights that I enjoyed most when I've gone! Here are a couple of decent virtual tours of various hydrothermal features at Yellowstone, and here's a fun little PBS documentary entitled Yellowstone and Their Steaming Acid Pools of Death:
It's an apropos title!
It's very easy to model hot springs and fumaroles, at least--here's a handy tutorial, as well as a list of hydrothermal features and good definitions for them. I had the kids memorize the types of hydrothermal features, but our modeling didn't go quite as well. The hot spring and fumarole were fine, of course, but my idea that perhaps the kids could engineer a way to DIY a stovetop geyser (got to practice those STEM skills, don't you know?), was unsuccessful:
Well, at least we now know a good half-dozen ways NOT to make a stovetop geyser, so that's something!
Will was interested in the difference between a fountain geyser and a cone geyser, so we found videos that illustrate each one. Here's a fountain geyser:
And here's a cone geyser!
RECIPE FOR A GEYSER
The kids and I had a LOT of fun with this lesson. Geysers are a great subject for a YouTube rabbit trail!
We started off simply trying to find a YouTube video that had a model or demonstration of how a geyser works, but got interested in this video about Yellowstone's largest and just about most sporadic geyser, Steamboat:
This got us looking for other videos of Steamboat Geyser erupting, and we found this great video from a YouTuber named David Schwartz, with lots of angles and good captions:
It was such an interesting video that we checked out his profile to see if he had filmed any other geysers.
He had!
Clearly, someone who has filmed several geyser eruptions must be interesting, so we Google stalked him.
And that's how we learned the term GEYSER GAZER! That's what you call people who've made watching/studying geysers into a hobby!
You know what else we found while cyberstalking this random person?
It was not great. The kids were beside themselves with how hokey and unfunny it was, in the many lulls I read out loud to them all about Garrison Keillor's history as a workplace sex criminal, and as if we didn't already loathe our listening experience enough, when it came time for David Schwartz's big moment, he got to speak approximately half a line, then Keillor cut him off, made a joke that felt like it was at least partially at his expense (I don't totally remember, and I am NOT going back to listen to it again), and then moved on to something else!
We were livid. Syd had to be talked down from violence. She loves David Schwartz the MOST, and did NOT appreciate some hokey sex criminal denying our favorite geyser gazer his public radio glory.
I did tell you that we make our own fun, right? Ahem.
Since the kids loved studying geysers so much, I gave them the assignment to draw one. They had to find a good geyser eruption video on YouTube, pause it at an appropriate point, and then create a piece of art showing their geyser mid-eruption, making sure to include elements of background and foreground, realistic or creative. And, of course, they had to credit the video's creator, because we don't deny people their glory in our homeschool!
Here's Syd's creation:
LIVING COLORS
This lesson was a great place to add a little more academic rigor for my older students. Yellowstone has an absolutely terrific lesson on thermophiles, and learning about chemosynthesis means that you get a chance both to review photosynthesis AND compare it to a completely different metabolic process!
For a little bit more challenge, I had the kids research and label the possible name of each thermophile represented in the thermophile coloring page in their Junior Ranger books. Everybody likes to color!
I had only intended our Yellowstone study to take up our afternoon project time for one week, and we spent soooooo long on geysers that we skimped quite a bit on the rest of the unit. Here's what we did:
We watched BBC's Yellowstone: Episode 1 and discussed how the presence or absence of wolves would change Yellowstone's ecosystem.
BEAR COUNTRY
We watched Grizzly Cauldron: The Giant Bears of Yellowstone. If you've got older kids who love animals, there's an interesting jumping off point here for another rabbit trail. You can find amateur YouTube videos of people inappropriately reacting to bear encounters in national parks, or read accounts of bear encounters (remember that time that I told you ALL ABOUT all the ways people get killed by bears in Yellowstone?), or watch additional documentaries, like Grizzly Man. There's a lot to study on the topic of animal encounters, especially through the lens of environmental science, psychology, outdoor survival, or animal welfare.
Is your library opened back up again? Ours has curbside check-out of online holds! If/when your library is back in business, here are our favorite library resources on Yellowstone:
Earlier this summer, the kids and I worked through a brief Yellowstone National Park study that had us spiraling back to a favorite activity: modeling chemical processes with Zometools!
As part of that Yellowstone study, the kids and I looked at thermophiles, those heat-loving bacteria and archaea that make their happy homes in the different high heat zones of the park's hots springs. Some thermophiles, including these thermophilic archaea at Yellowstone, have a metabolism that uses chemosynthesis. It's cool and unusual, makes an interesting contrast to photosynthesis, and--just like photosynthesis!--you can model it with Zometools!
For our chemosynthesis model, we decided that our organism would be oxidizing hydrogen sulfide. There are other organisms that start with not hydrogen sulfide, but chemicals like methane or sulfide, and it would be another interesting project to model and compare various chemosynthesis pathways.
Syd used this chemosynthesis formula on the NOAA website as her reference, although when Will, who was reviewing the photosynthesis formula at the time, tried to use that same NOAA site as her reference, she discovered that the photosynthesis formula written there is incorrect! GASP!
You will be unsurprised to learn that I contacted their webmaster to inform them of the error.
One of the interesting challenges in modeling a chemical formula is figuring out the correct way to assemble each molecule:
This is frustrating for students who would rather assemble, say, hydrogen sulfide "their" way, ahem...
Looking each chemical compound up, though, will generally also help you figure out its common name. H2S, for instance, is known as hydrogen sulfide. You probably already know that CO2 is carbon dioxide, but maybe you didn't know that O2 is called dioxygen:
So this chemosynthesis formula begins with hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and dioxygen. The fuel for the change is the oxidation of the hydrogen sulfide. This source of energy allows all of the compounds to convert--
--into sulfur, water, and formaldehyde!
Good thing THIS isn't what plants do--you wouldn't want to try to breathe formaldehyde!
I think it's important, when kids study processes like photosynthesis, to make sure they understand right from the start that there are other ways for organisms to synthesize energy. You don't want a rigid scientific thinker, who can't imagine any other way for an organism to flourish. You want a creative thinker who can look at the surface and atmosphere of an alien planet and immediately start thinking of all the ways that an organism could use those formidable chemicals and that unusual energy to live!
P.S. Want to follow along with all the other ways that I insert the search for alien life into our homeschool? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page for photos, resources, and other bits of the weird stuff we do all day.
I published my first round-up list of our unit study of Hawaii back in 2015. Last year (okay, we actually only finished it up a couple of weeks ago, but we STARTED it last year!), the kids and I accomplished another unit study of Hawaii, and it was just as fun with older kids doing more advanced work.
Instead of making two separate unit study write-ups, I went back and revised my 2015 blog post on our Hawaii study to reflect all of the new activities that more advanced students can do, and the specific areas of interest to older students.
This is that blog post!
This is an overall roundup of two different unit studies that the kids and I have worked through on the topic of Hawaii over the years. The first time we studied Hawaii was in preparation for our first visit there in 2015, when the kids were around the ages of nine and eleven.
The second time we studied Hawaii was in preparation for and after our second family visit to Hawaii, and specifically for the purpose of earning the Girl Scouts of Hawai'i Aloha fun patch. Earning the fun patch is really... well, fun!... but if your kids are older or have studied Hawaii before, then the requirements to earn it may not seem rigorous enough. I adjusted the requirements to be more rigorous and challenging while still fitting the eight themes that the patch program covers, which I'll tell you about below. You still want to follow along in the official patch program guide, because it contains valuable information written by the Girl Scouts of Hawaii to other Girl Scouts around the world, but you can substitute the actual activities.
Here we go, then!
1. Geography and Geology of Hawaii A good beginning goal for a unit study is to memorize the location of Hawaii on a world map, to memorize the state symbols associated with Hawaii, and to understand the geology that has shaped it--and is continuing to shape it!
One of the larger geography activities in this section meets the Kaua'i requirement for the Aloha fun patch.
A. map of Hawaii I printed out a giant map of Hawaii from Megamaps, and taped it together for the kids. They then painted the ocean and labeled the eight major islands:
I put their map on the wall and we used it for daily memory work to help the kids memorize the islands.
When the kids did this project again in 2019 (because yes, giant mapmaking is still fun for thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds!), they were able to complete it entirely independently, and with this list of instructions giving them further locations to map to research, identify, and label:
1.Label each island.
4.Label the ocean.
5.Label the following landmarks:
a.Volcanoes National Park
b.Hawaii’s state capital
c.Pearl Harbor
d.Pipeline
e.Mauna Kea
f.Mauna Loa
g.Princeville (our resort!)
h.Waimea Canyon
i.Ka Lae
j.Wailua River
k.Napali Coast
In both studies, when we read about any interesting geographical feature of Hawaii, or made plans to visit some place such as Ka Lae, the southernmost point of the United States, I had the kids mark and label that site on the map. I think it helped orient them somewhat during our visits.
In preparation for each visit to Hawaii, I had the children look through several guidebooks to see what they wanted to visit. They actually enjoyed this activity more, however, when we were in Hawaii--how fun to look through a guidebook, point to something, say, "I want to go there!", and have the magic tree house rental van take you there right then!
B. Hawaii state symbols I had the children memorize Hawaii's capital, and I printed this Hawaii state symbols coloring page for them to complete, although I had them research images of each of the symbols to get the colors correct, not just rely on the printed legend. And yes, we had to look up the pronunciation for many of the Hawaiian things that we studied! Here's how to pronounce the name of Hawaii's state bird.
In the process of this research, Will became very interested in the Hawaii state capitol building. We'd have gone to visit if it had been in session, because Will really wanted to see the representatives wearing Hawaiian shirts! The state capitol building's web site does have some activity books for children, although we didn't use them.
C. Volcanoes The goal for this unit was to give the children a good working knowledge of the science and geology of volcanoes.
One of these volcanoes activities meets the Hawai'i requirement for the Aloha fun patch.
The kids watched BrainPop videos on volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunami, taking the quizzes and completing the accompanying worksheets. Will and I used my DIY bendy yarn to mark the location of the Ring of Fire on our big world wall map, even though Hawaii's volcanoes are actually not due to the Ring of Fire.
2. Hawaiian culture I knew that the kids were going to see some really inauthentic, touristy versions of Hawaiian culture on our trip, and that's fine, because those are iconic parts of a Hawaiian vacation, but I wanted the kids to also have an understanding of real Hawaiian culture and its value to the Hawaiian people.
If your kids are younger or like paper dolls, there's a Hawaii set in this cute collection. Might as well print all the dolls and explore all their cultures!
A. Hawaiian language It's important to understand that Hawaii has its own native language and native speakers of that language, especially because at one time native Hawaiians were actively dissuaded from participating in their own culture.
One language activity meets the Ni'ihau requirement for the Aloha fun patch.
I wanted the kids to understand that Hawaii has its own native language, one that is still very much alive on the islands, and I also wanted the kids to have a go at learning some words and phrases. To that end, they both spent several weeks working daily through the first lessons in Mango Languages: Hawaiian. I won't go so far as to claim that they're in any way conversational, but it was an excellent way to get them to immerse themselves in Hawaiian writing and pronunciation. Here they are practicing!
It's fun to listen to traditional Hawaiian music, but don't forget the musical artists who are Hawaiian, no matter the genre they perform in. Music is also a good segue into studying other aspects of Hawaii's history and culture.
One music activity meets the Kaho'olawe requirement of the Aloha fun patch.
If you want to make your own music, here's a great lesson on the 'ili'ile and how to use them. The ukulele is also an accessible and fairly affordable instrument. Syd was interested in learning, so I bought her this ukulele and this tuner, and off she went!
C. Hawaiian dance
To begin a study on hula, we found this intro video to be helpful. We then spent most of one morning watching YouTube videos from the Merrie Monarch festival, the world's premier hula dancing competition. Make sure that you watch performances by both women's groups and men's groups! We also did these hula tutorial videos together, and although Syd, surprisingly, did NOT enjoy them and in fact left the room in a strop, Will, surprisingly, LOVED them and happily danced along with me. This was actually really great, because there was a hula tutorial at our luau in Hawaii, and Will happily jumped right in, with the background knowledge that she likes doing the hula! If you're not planning to visit Hawaii, an excellent enrichment activity would be having the kids help plan an at-home luau, complete with roasted pork and hula dancing.
D. traditional foods of Hawaii
Hawaii has a fascinating food culture, not just of traditional dishes but also of dishes influenced by its immigrant cultures, by the crops grown by colonizing forces, and by foods eaten during wartime scarcity.
One traditional foods activity meets the Lana'i requirement for the Aloha fun patch.
Whether or not you get to actually go to Hawaii and eat the real deal--sushi! Spam! shave ice!--making at-home versions is really fun. You could make sushi, play with recipes that include Spam, learn about macaroni salad, or make your own shave ice. Do NOT forget the snow cap!
Kona Coffee is a huge deal on the Big Island. We toured Greenwell Farms during our trip, and I highly recommend it, but their website also has some great educational videos on coffee farming. Good enrichment activities for that would be teaching the kids how to grind coffee beans and make you a delicious cup of coffee, or baking a coffee cake or another treat that includes coffee as an ingredient.
The Aloha fun patch guide has instructions for hosting a luau, including recipes for what to serve. We did this for a family dinner one night and had a delicious time eating crock pot Kalua pork, haupia, and coconut cake.
E. sports and games
Surfing is an important part of Hawaii's history and culture, but there are other games historically played in Hawaii that are also fun to experience.
One sports and games activity meets the O'ahu requirement for the Aloha fun patch.
Syd, in particular, got really into watching big wave surfing videos on YouTube.
We learned how to play two traditional games of Hawaii, konane and lu-lu. If your kids love math, you can use lu-lu to practice creating probability trees!
We used these additional resources to study Hawaii's culture:
2. Hawaiian history The goals for this unit were to understand that Hawaii has a vast pre-colonial history, to understand that it was colonized and its sovereign government overthrown by the United States, and to understand its iconic role in World War 2.
There's a terrific timeline of Hawaiian history in the Aloha fun patch book. The kids used it for a research project in which they picked one event to learn more about and teach to the rest of us.
This tiki mask project isn't super authentic, but the results are fairly similar to the kinds of statues that you see at heiau, in particular. This tapa cloth is also made from paper and not bark, but it's still a fun activity.
The second time we studied Hawaii, we found ourselves interested in Captain Cook, here's a little more about him, and here's a Crash Course video about him:
B. Hawaiian monarchy Unfortunately, this subject was difficult to find ample resources for outside of Hawaii, although once we were there we really did find ourselves immersed in the history of Hawaii's monarchy and were able to explore some wonderful places important to the monarchy and see some beautiful treasures.
I printed out this large infographic of Hawaii's monarchs and had the children put it on the wall under our map for easy reference. I also tried to get the kids to watch this American Experience episode on Hawaii's last queen, but it was super dry and didn't hold their interest. Matt and I later watched it by ourselves, and it hardly held my interest, either, but I wanted the information so I muscled through.
We used these resources on the Hawaiian monarchy:
C. Pearl Harbor We actually incorporated this lesson into our larger study of World War 2, so you'll want to add in your own pre- and post-Pearl Harbor context to this lesson.
I wanted the kids to understand the logistics of the attack, of course, but I also wanted them to be able to visualize it, because that's how they'll remember. Much of our study took place at the actual Valor in the Pacific National Park, where the kids earned Junior Ranger badges and we took at ferry out to the USS Arizona Memorial. Will, especially, also really loved the Pacific Aviation Museum, and I appreciated being able to see some of the actual aircraft models used at Pearl Harbor and Midway. Both of these places have excellent online presences, as well. The kids didn't enjoy Tora! Tora! Tora! enough to watch the entire thing, but they did watch the Pearl Harbor attack, and it's a really, really accurate version.
We used these further resources to study Hawaii's history. In particular, all three of us adored Under the Blood-Red Sun--we listened to it on audiobook in the car, and the entire family was riveted.
4. Biology, botany, and ecology of Hawaii
For many kids, exploring the special plants and animals found in and around Hawaii is the most exciting part of this study. That exploration should go hand-in-hand with learning the importance of conservation.
One biology activity meets the Maui requirement for the Aloha fun patch.
A. ecology of Hawaii
The ecology of Hawaii is extremely important, extremely delicate and, in many places, extremely in danger.
One ecology activity meets the Moloka'i requirement for the Aloha fun patch.
To help the kids understand the importance and fragility of Hawaii's ecology, I used some of the curriculum materials from the Moanalua Gardens Foundations. It's geared to an elementary audience, but since it covers topics that are more familiar to that elementary audience than they would be to children outside of Hawaii, much of it still works even for older learners. In particular, we played Ecosystem Encounters--the kids loved it, and we learned SO much about feral pigs and happy-face spiders!
If you don't have time for an entire lesson plan or even a board game about feral pigs and happy-face spiders, this Ted-Ed video about invasive species is very informative:
I had each of the kids spend a few school lessons looking up native Hawaiian plant or animal species and creating infographics about them using Piktochart. If kids are very interested in the subject, here's an entire lesson on Hawaii's endemic species, or a pdf board game about Hawaii's watershed.
B. seals
I also had Will read this biography of the monk seal KP2. I thought that it might be too dry for her, but she actually loved it, and when we looked up KP2's home, the Waikiki Aquarium, we saw that there's a webcam of him! We still watch KP2 sometimes!
One summer, the kids and I fell down a rabbit hole and spent three months studying sharks. It was AMAZING!
Fun stuff
Here are some fun, non-educational resources that have Hawaii themes:
My favorite thing about a Hawaii study is that the subject is so rich that it adapts itself to all levels of learners and a wide variety of interests. Kids who love animals have so much to study in Hawaii! Kids who love volcanoes, too! And kids who love history, who love music and dance, who love storytelling... a study of Hawaii is a great way to engage any learner.
P.S. Want to know more about our adventures in learning, and the resources that we use to accomplish them? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page!
We just never got around to it last summer, though, and once autumn hit we had so many autumn things to look forward to that it was less tempting to dive back in. Now that we're spending so much more time on our property, however, and ESPECIALLY now that Will's AP exams are over (yay!), we actually do have the time to dive back into some of our unfinished business... and finish it up!
This activity was loosely based on the time that we drew life-sized dinosaurs all over a local park's basketball courts. My dream *had* been to go back to the basketball courts and draw life-sized whales, but we obeyed our governor's strictest stay-at-home order to the letter, and so to modify the activity to be able to be done on our own property, I wondered if we could measure life-size whale lengths on our driveway, and then just draw models of the whale next to its measurement.
Reader, we COULD!
I swear, these Smithsonian Handbooks are some of the best homeschooling resources that I own:
We have a whole stack of them. We used them constantly from the time the kids were toddlers... to today!
The kids each chose a couple of whales that interested them (fighting over who got to pick the narwhal, because OF COURSE), then I helped them measure that whale's length on our driveway.
Once they got the length measured, they focused on drawing a good model of their whale and learning its gross anatomy and some facts about it to share with everyone.
Here's Syd working on her blue whale, which does, indeed, just fit in our driveway!
I think everyone's favorite part of homeschooling is how we can interact with and love on our pets all day. They seem to know when the kids are doing something especially interesting or unusual, and they always want to join in!
Both kids really enjoyed this project!
Ah, here's one thing that I do NOT so much appreciate about homeschooling. Guess who's fighting again?
Someone threw a piece of chalk at her sister, and someone else kicked her sister. It's fine.
I also like homeschooling because generally, we're pretty chill about distractions here. Want to take a break from memorizing whale anatomy to chalk your father's freshly-washed hair?
It's art!
Spots also participated in Homeschool Art, which is what she gets for lying down on somebody's chalk rainbow:
Eventually, the kids remembered their whales, and finished their whales, and we all took a whale walk along the length of each whale, and then listened as each kid explained interesting facts about that whale's life and significant details of its anatomy:
And that's how we finally finished our unit study of Hawaii!
