Homeschooling Again...Joy!

Ancient Humans - Watercoloring Stonehenge

Geometry - Pentagons and pentagrams

We have decided to homeschool at least one more year with our son Wilson.  He is currently considered a 5th grader, so we are joyfully jumping into all things ancient, while continuing to deepen our understanding of botany that we started at the end of last year. We are using Earthschooling, Teaching Textbooks (math), Story of the World, and an eclectic mix of books, field trips, and our own projects. Some highlights from our first couple of weeks.

Botany - Growing seeds indoors and then transplanting into the Fall garden

Botany - Identifying plants during a hike to Boiling Spring Lake in Drakesbad within the Lassen Volcanic National Park

PE - Tap dancing with siblings and Mommy

Art - Watercoloring a scene from our camping trip to Lake Almanor

Botany - Crayon drawing the stages of plants

Mystery Trip!

This year, we started a new homeschooling tradition...going on a Mystery Trip! 

Mommy plans the trip with 3 destinations.  At least 2 of them are places that none of us have been to before.  Locations are selected so that they are not far from each other, and something about them relate to what we are currently learning (in parentheses, below).

The kids are told how to dress in the morning, but not where they are going!  We have a Mystery Trip song that we sing while we drive, too.

Our first Mystery Trip included:
* Eating a snack at a European Bakery. Yum! (German, French, Spanish, Italian)

* Visit to American River College and lunch on campus.  (We like to visit college campuses and eat there!)

* A stroll through the Jensen Botanical Gardens, including the new scented herb garden for the blind.  (Botany)

Our second Mystery Trip included:


* Attending the play "Much Ado about Nothing" (Reading Shakespeare).

* A walk through the downtown Cathedral in Sacramento (Ancient Greek, architecture, geometry and rose windows).

* Visit to University Art store -- what fun! (Picked up some citrus oil for wax painting project)

We plan to continue taking Mystery Trips this summer.

Spring Flowers and Geometry

We've been inspired by the beautiful daffodils blooming in our yard!  To celebrate this sign of early Spring, we sketched the daffodils for a while when the sun was out....

Daffodils have 6 petals, so we drew 6-pointed stars and hexagons to help us with the symmetry.

Our wonderful neighbor loaned us an amazing Waldorf book that is no longer in print and is all in German.  It features forms and shapes of plants, animals, minerals. 

Next, we drew triangles, squares, 5-pointed stars and 6-pointed stars.  Based on the drawings in the book, we sketched out flowers that follow these 3, 4, 5, and 6-petal/leaf patterns. 

 

Then, it was time to color the flowers.  If the flowers were blooming outside, we observed them (mostly pansies and daffodils right now!).  

Joey

We discussed the color variations of each flower as we drew. 

Ricky

We wrote the numbers in Arabic and Roman numerals and the names of the flowers in English.  Next week, we will add the names in Spanish and German. 

Wilson

Mycology - Mushrooms!

The magic of mushrooms has touched us at Syrendell this year. Mycology is utterly fascinating...are they plants, animals, neither? So many varieties, colors, shapes....fabulous fungi.

Our own backyard is filled with different mushrooms throughout the year. This week, we noticed that with the warmer, drier weather, the mushrooms are beginning to curl up and disappear.

We dissected a mushroom, observed a curled-up-dried mushroom, made a mushroom spore print, did a mushroom form drawing, read books on mycology, and did block crayon drawings. Two of our cousins came over and joined us in creating beautiful, crayoned fungi! We also read an adorable book that features a sprite who lives under a mushroom is Naming Renick by Mamaroots (which you can purchase in her Etsy shop).

Botany - Bulbs

We love watching plants grow! We attended a wonderful bulb-planting workshop for homeschoolers at the Loomis Flower Farm back in October. Each child planted daffodils, tulips and hyacinths in a pot. On top of the layers of bulbs, pansies were added for color. We learned about bulbs and how to plant them successfully.




Our bulbs starting peeking out their little leaves in January!


We watercolored two sheets of paper, made twizzlers out of yarn, and created our own botany books. We selected one of the bulbs to watch and sketch over the weeks to come.

Now, the daffodils are done blooming, the tulips are beginning to fade, and the hyacinths are showing the last of their vibrant lavender color.

Our bulb learning culminated with a trip to Daffodil Hill in Volcano, CA. Over 300,000 daffodils and 300 varieties! We met our uncle and cousins there who live near the hill. We had fun trying to count the varieties of daffodils.

Here is a song that we are singing during circle time right now:

Little Bulbs (sing to the tune of Frere Jacques)

Are you sleeping

Are you sleeping

Little bulbs

Little bulbs

Springtime is a-coming

Springtime is a-coming

Time to wake

Time to wake

Vernal Equinox

vernal: of or pertaining to spring, from the Latin vernalis (www.dictionary.com)


vernal pools: Vernal pools are seasonally flooded depressions found on ancient soils with an impermeable layer such as a hardpan, claypan, or volcanic basalt. The impermeable layer allows the pools to retain water much longer then the surrounding uplands; nonetheless, the pools are shallow enough to dry up each season. Vernal pools often fill and empty several times during the rainy season. Only plants and animals that are adapted to this cycle of wetting and drying can survive in vernal pools over time. (www.vernalpools.org).

vernal equinox: The word “equinox” derives from the Latin words meaning “equal night” and refers to the time when the sun crosses the equator. At such times, day and night are everywhere of nearly equal length everywhere in the world. It is important to note that while the March equinox marks the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere, it is the start of autumn in many parts of the southern hemisphere. (www.timeanddate.com)

To celebrate the coming of spring, we took a vernal equinox hike at some beautiful, vernal pools at Phoenix Park in Fair Oaks, CA. We saw geese flying, insects hopping on top of the pools, and beautiful flowers. We couldn't get close enough to the edge of the pools to see any fairy shrimp or frogs. We started sketching flowers in our botany books, but then it started to rain. We'll have to return and sketch some more!

We've been to vernal pools in Yolo County (near Davis, CA) and at the Santa Rosa Plateau (near Murrieta, CA) in the past. Each one has interesting flowers and wildlife. Here is a great website with lessons and information about vernal pools: http://www.sacsplash.org/mather.htm.

Short Video of our Vernal Equinox Hike