Nature study in November

Last day of November!  I want to squeeze this post in for November's nature study, because we are going on a new theme in December.  Nature study has been a bit of struggle for us, and I am not proud about that.  I honestly believe that children (and adults) benefit greatly by being in nature.  Admittedly, we do nature walks on a weekly basis as a family but I am not sure I would count that towards 'nature study' simply because it is done very informally, casually, and with no specific purpose other than just being out in the nature and being together.

After attempting different ideas since September, I am now inclined to have a monthly theme as a basis of our nature study.  I think having a theme to work on each month will help us to have a more focused purpose in our nature exploration (well, for the ones that I do with Tiger anyway), and for me to organise learning materials more efficiently.

Our November theme was Evergreen.  My jump-off point these days has been a nature book by Enid Blyton.  It is one of the rare living books about nature written for children in the UK.

This book is written has 12 chapters - one for each month of the year.  Each chapter contains descriptions of two nature walks that three children take with their very knowledgeable uncle.  There is a surprising amount of detailed and well-observed nature notes being woven into the stories, so that makes a very good pre-walk reading for Tiger and I.  I read the first part of the November walk at the beginning of this month, afterwhich we went out for a walk to observe what we had just read about: fog and mist.  It was certainly very damp that day!

Our second walk in November, according to the book, was to observe evergreens on a sunny day.

This was easy to do, since by now most of the deciduous trees have shed their leaves.

We didn't have to go very far to find numerous evergreens.

 

 

 

Observating and identifying evergreens is a good start.  We went a little further by taking some samples home to learn for ourselves why and how evergreens have leaves all year round.  The answer is in the texture and shapes of the leaves, compared to those of deciduous leaves.

Along the same theme of evergreen vesus deciduous plants, we did an experiment to see whether we could 'trick' a deciduous plant to hang on to its leaves a little longer than it would have if left out in nature, by placing a branch with a few remaining leaves in a glass of water indoors with good light.  As this experiment was done after our second walk, it took us a long time to find a branch with any deciduous leaf left since nearly all the decidous trees have shed their leaves by then.  The idea for the experiment came from yet another Janice vanCleave book.

Day 0

Day 5 - leaves still intact but going more brown and brittle

Day 13 - leaves are turning very brown, but still hanging on to the branch!

The best part of our nature study efforts this month has been seeing Tiger reading more of the Enid Blyton book by himself after our formal lessons were done.

This post is linked up to several blog hops, where you can visit to see what other homeschoolers have been busy with.  It is also linked to the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival: Music and Composer Study edition.

Spicing up math

I have no complaints about our math curriculum.  We are using RightStart Level C at the moment.  It meets Tiger's needs as a visual-spatial learner with its manipulatives and math games-based lessons, and has kept Tiger's mathematical interest up since day one.  While we are using still this as our main math curriculum now and will continue with it for the next few levels, I feel the need to add another dimension to how Tiger is learning mathematics.  Specifically, I would like to incorporate more real-life applications to the math concepts that he is learning.  It is going to sound very similar to the 'living math' idea that is very popular among many homeschoolers (which even has its own curriculum to be followed).  However, by now I have realised that I like to mix and match different materials and resources to suit Tiger's learning requirements, so a boxed curriculum will not meet our needs.  I suspect I might be a closet unschooler who's giving my son a Classical Education.  Can the two seemingly opposing educational philosophies work together?  Well, who cares?!  All I know is that regardless of the labels we put on ourselves in terms of educational approach, we are enjoying what we do and how we learn.

I've digressed.  Coming back to hands-on math, my approach is to pick a math topic, find relevant materials that are interesting to us, then apply them!  Our first hands-on math topic is place value.  I don't have any particular reason why this is our first topic (you'd think fractions would be our first topic, given that Tiger is working through it at the moment), except that: (1) we are in the 'Middle Ages' period in our history study, which is our spine for the most part; (2) I happen to have the relevant materials at hand; and (3) we need to have a successful first session to want to continue doing this, so place value is an easy topic to start.

I used the lesson plan here to go with the book, Sir Cumference and All the King's Tens.   All the additional printouts can be printed off there as well to support the lesson.  Since we had already covered place value in our main math lesson, Tiger zoomed through our first hands-on math session successfully.  It also helped that Tiger loved the quirky humour in the book.

The main idea to get across in the lesson is that each digit has a different meaning when put in a different place in a number.  This was the first time Tiger had thought about the difference between a digit and a number, so in this sense he has learnt something new from this session.

 

After we have gone through the lesson plan, we did a bit of improvisation with the materials.  Tiger played with the digit cards for while, but he quickly realised that to make the biggest number he possibly could, he had to place the digits in descending order.

The other new thing that Tiger learnt from this session was how to read 6-digit numbers correctly.  I hadn't realised, until this session, that although Tiger knew what a 6-digit number represent mathematically, he did not know how to read them in words.  That did not take long to sort out, especially when we were taking turn 'testing' each other at reading random 6-digit numbers.

It has been a successful and enjoyable way to reinforce a math concept.  We will be doing more of this.


This post is linked up to several blog hops, where you can visit to see what other homeschoolers have been busy with.  It is also linked to the December edition of Math Teachers at Play Carnival.

Yucky-cillin and 3 mouldy experiments

The past few weeks had been a rather slow period in our homeschool, primarily because Tiger was ill with a very severe viral infection, which saw him taking three different dosages of penicillin just to keep himself going in the day.

This was the first time Tiger has taken penicillin in such huge dosages.  He called it 'yucky-cillin'.  I don't blame him.  The medicine had such awful taste that I thought Tiger did really well to swallow it.

Even though he was lethargic most of the time, he was still keen to do science experiments, so I looked through Biology for Every Kid for Zoology experiments (so as not to deviate too far from our current science topic - organisms).  Lo and behold!  The first few experiments in the Zoology section are about moulds, which were very relevant to Tiger's experience with penicillin.  He was not too pleased to learn that penicillin is actually a type of mould. 

Experiment 1: To grow bread mould

Materials we used

Adding drops of water to the bread

Day 0 - damp bread sealed in ziplock bag

Day 1 - no observable change

Day 2 - still no observable change

Day 3 - moulds are becoming visible

Day 4 - obvious moulds!

Experiment 2: Effect of yeast on sugar solution

Materials for this experiment

Making yeast + sugar solution

Day 0

Day 0 - 2 hours later

Day 1 - balloon was smaller than Day 0 but not totally flat

Day 2 - balloon was the same size as Day 1

Experiment 3: Effect of preservatives on bacterial growth

Materials for experiment 3

Day 0

Day 1 - no obvious changes

Day 2 - 'control' was most cloudy (indicates mould growth)

Day 3 - clear vs cloudy becomes more obvious

Day 4 - 'control' (in the middle) is the cloudiest

Day 4 - birds' eye view.  Mould is seen in the middle 'control' glass.

This post is linked up to several blog hops, where you can visit to see what other homeschoolers have been busy with.  It is also linked to the December edition of Hands-on Homeschooling Blog Carnival.

Let down by Grandma('s Special Recipes)

This week being the Thanksgiving week, I thought it would be appropriate for us to join in the fun by having the signature Thanksgiving food: Pumpkin Pie.  I consulted my trusted recipe book and followed the steps diligently.

This was how my version of the Pumpkin Pie turned out:

 

It looked authentic, and certainly tasted like the one I had in UPenn aeons ago (that was my first ever all-American Thanksgiving experience).  Unfortunately, the Englishmen in my household were not too impressed.  Tiger was brave enough to try new, unfamiliar-looking food so he ate two mouthfuls before deciding that he only liked the pastry but not the filing; Tortoise wouldn't even go near it.

Oh well, at least I know to skip this part of the lesson when we study America!

Medieval India

When studying history, it is often easy to just concentrate on the Western Civilisations.  Luckily, with world history, we have been exposed to civilisations of other cultures, which we would otherwise know nothing about.

This week we studied Medieval India.  We had looked a little into ancient India last year, looking into Mohenjo Daro, the Indus Valley, the Aryans and Muryans, and Asoka.  However, apart that from we do not know much else about this very colourful and ancient country.  Therefore, learning about what happened in India during Middle Ages was a much welcomed change from our focus on British/Western civilisations.

The Story of the World Volume 2 introduced us to the Gupta Empire, which followed from the Muryan Empire.  To get a better understanding of the Golden Age of India, we watched the following documentary.  Not only did we gain much more understanding of the Gupta Empire (which ruled the North of India), we also learned about the Chola Empire (which ruled the South of India):

From historical and cultural aspects of this period, we moved on to learning about its art.  The Ajanta Caves used by Buddhist monks during that period contained spectacular Buddhist artwork (frescos and stone sculptures), which we saw more clearly from the clip below:

Initially we wanted to create a fresco that resembled the artwork in the Ajanta Caves, but later I changed my mind and decided upon making a rangoli instead.  The reasons for choosing to do the rangoli are: (1) it is easier, and (2) it gives Tiger a chance to do Sand Art, which he had never done before.

Before Tiger got started, we watched a short clip of how a simple rangoli could be created.  I wanted to emphasise to Tiger the spontanenity of the art form, as well as the beauty in seemingly simplistic designs.

After watching the clip, Tiger got to work.  He started by drawing in pencil the outline of his design on a piece of white paper.  As he wanted circular designs, I showed him how to use the mathematical compass to draw perfect circles.

After the initial design was completed, Tiger applied PVA glue to the areas where he wanted to apply his first colour of sand.  The most effective way to do a rangoli is to apply one colour at a time to the entire picture.  This was a slightly different way to work for Tiger, since he had to consider the full colour scheme of his design before applying each colour to the designated areas.  His usual working style would be to fill in an area with different colours, then think of the next area in different colours.

The supplementary books Tiger read for this unit were:

This post is linked up to:
1) several blog hops, where you can visit to see what other homeschoolers have been busy with;
2) the Carnival of Homeschooling: Homeschool Open House edition; and
3) the Homeschool Showcase #86.

On teaching art: pre-workshop views

How much 'learning to draw' do I want to do with Tiger?  This question has been on my mind quite a lot lately.  Thinking out loud often helps to untangle the problem, so bear with me while I try to resolve this.

This year, I have made a conscious effort to devote time in Tiger's curriculum to art, specifically in the area of artist study.  So far we have made good progress by combining picture study, field trips and hands-on activities to learn about the styles of each artist.  The sessions have been fun, and have increased our exposure to different artistic styles and materials.

The trouble is, I am not entirely happy with the quality of the output produced in those sessions.  I am wondering whether setting aside time to teach Tiger the fundamentals of drawing will help him produce higher quality pieces?

I belong to the School of Realism, or Representational Art.  I admire skilful draughtsmanship; the Old Masters are my heroes.  I can go as far as Expressionism and Surrealism, but Abstract Art is not my cup of tea.  I don't accept people just splashing paint everywhere and calling themselves 'artists', or displaying rotting food with maggots and calling that 'modern art'.  I have a lot more respect for art work that shows skill, thought, and meaning.

That's just me, and what I expect of my own creative pieces.  That's why I put myself through the rigour of Life Drawing classes and workshops.

However, I am not sure whether it is appropriate or necessary to introduce actual drawing lessons to Tiger at this stage, even though I am sure that his art work will improve tremendously with better drawing skills.

The reason for my hesistation is that Tiger is always happy with his final output.  If he were not happy with any aspect of work, he corrects it before it is completed.  While I uphold high quality work, I also believe it is very important for the artist to be happy with his own work.  Being happy and confident about his own work is crucial for him to enjoy the creative process and to want to do more.  Everytime I feel like commenting on his work, I remember how Van Gogh's work never received any recognition during his lifetime.  While I am not comparing Tiger to Van Gogh in any way, I am conscious of not putting his creative efforts down based on my personal preference for a different artistic style.

Also, I did not start drawing until about 3 years ago.  That was because I was constantly told, as a child, to draw or paint in a certain way so as to reproduce the art work in the 'textbooks'.  That killed all enjoyment of the creative process for me for a very long time, so I try not to do that to my son.

Up to now, Tiger has been doodling happily at different times of the day, as and when he feels like it.  I don't want to be a kill-joy.  At the present moment, it is more important that Tiger freely expresses himself in art than to draw like Michelangelo.  If he wants to learn to draw realistically, he will let me know.

There.  I am going to put my copy of Drawing with Children away now.

Incidentally, I will be attending an creativity workshop for art teachers in a few days.  The goals of this workshop are:

• To explore how drawing can encourage more varied and flexible modes of thinking
• To widen perceptions about what creativity involves
• To use drawing as a key to developing creativity across the curriculum
• To enable drawing to be taught more confidently and creatively

I expect my views on creativity and teaching art will be informed/influenced/shaped, or even challenged, by attending this workshop.

Pine Cone Hygrometer

In order to get more out of our nature walks, I am going to add some relevant hands-on learning to our 'nature study' session each week.  Nature journalling just does not work for us at this point in time, so we will leave it for now and try another way that might do the trick -- hands-on experiments.  I will try to incorporate relevant experiments that involve items found on our nature walks; if I can't manage that, then at least we will do some botany experiments from Janice VanCleave's Biology for Every Kid.

Our first nature experiment made use of the many pine cones we collected from our recent nature walk.

The steps are:
1) Observe and record what the pine cones look like when dry.

2) Submerge them in water for 30 minutes.  Observe and record how the pine cones look after 30 minutes.

We found this to be the most intriguing part of the experiment: the pine cones actually closed up!  We have seen closed pine cones on trees on rainy days, but we did not expect them to close up after they have come off the tree, but they did.  Amazing.  This changed our view about whether pine cones are considered 'living' after they have detached from the parent tree.

3) Dry the pine cones, observe and record how they look when they are complete dry. 

I baked them in the oven for 20 minutes.  We watched and saw the pine cones opened again during the baking process.

Tiger recorded his observations and we discussed what caused the pine cones to open and close.  As explained here, it has to do with how the pine cone naturally responds to changes in humidity to protect its seeds that are encased within.

I am sure we can delve deeper into the wonders of the why and how of different plants ensure maximum seed dispersions for continual survival, but this very simple explanation is enough for now to keep us in awe of nature and help us understand a little more about what we often take for granted on our walks.


This post is linked up to several blog hops, where you can visit to see what other homeschoolers have been busy with.