At our end of the year celebration I always send my kids into the summer with a new book to read and a some project/learning supplies.
Two of my children have been asking to learn how to whittle. So I took that cue in planning for our party this year. They are so excited to learn!
I purchased this whittling kit on Amazon
M purchased a bamboo plant recently at IKEA which has inspired him to learn as much as he can about bamboo. He
A Time Lapse of bamboo growing:
How fast bamboo grows:
How bamboo grows in a garden:
All about how bamboo is harvested:
This was fun to watch some guys build with bamboo. M thought this was fascinating!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DKnwyVR4P88
Surveying
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9sPwFu_fn5w
What questions do you have?
We learned about Granville. T. Woods today and were so impressed by his many accomplishments, which led to us asking more questions about how things work.
I always love starting with a picture book biography when we are learning about someone. We read The Amazing Mind of Granville Woods (Good and Beautiful) and really were inspired to learn more!
Some of the questions we had:
How do you get a patent?
How does a Steam Engine Work?
We got out our The Way Things Work book. Then watched a few videos:
We are getting ready for the Great Backyard Bird Count and are learning about a few kinds of birds.
Today we read the first story in the Birds Nature Reader (Good and Beautiful) about the Barn Swallow.
We have been studying the adaptations of animals for winter...which is perfect because it's Ground Day is right during our study this year!
This video about groundhogs was wonderful! We got to see the baby groundhogs too!
We are looking at the science of winter this year. Animals and their different adaptations are an interesting nature study for winter. Much of our study was inspired by the "Great White North" Nature Study from FortheLoveofHomeschooling.com
One of our questions we wanted to dig into more is where do insects go in the winter?
Another question is: How do the birds know when it's time to migrate?
And how do they know where to go?
We researched the "flyways" that birds used and colored the 4 main flyways onto our bird migration map.
This Song is a fun reminder of the different adaptations animals use to weather the winter.
Where do Bugs go in Winter? Also mentions frogs and snakes.
We have had some gorgeous winter days this year and we wanted to know more about what caused them. That led us to look into Rime Ice and Hoar Frost and what causes them.
We have had a lot of fun learning about how snowflakes are made.
The science of Snowflakes is fascinating! And watching this man and his passion for figuring out how snowflakes form is inspiring! Can he create two of the same snowflake?
Why is Snow White?
Fahrenheit and how it came to be:
For our winter plant study we are looking at conifers.
What is Light?
Our world is ordered by light. Think about that for a minute. Everything we do is ordered by the sun and light. What foods we eat, what we wear, how we travel, the activities we choose, the seasons of the year, etc. It all is because of light. Light organizes and brings harmony to our world.
It makes sense then that our The Light of the world, Jesus Christ would do the same for us.
We are beginning our Christmas trip around the world with countries in Africa and South America and then moving to countries in Europe because that is where our studies have been this semester.
We are also focusing on Light in our science studies as we observe the change in light as we move to the Solstice and anticipate Christmas and celebrating The Light the World, Jesus Christ, As we travel around the world we will be looking for light and participating in the Light the World challenge.
First Stop on our trip around the world: Christmas in South Africa!
We listened to some beautiful African Christmas music first:
We watched Guatemala-Discovering Humanity video to get to know the culture better. There are subtitles.
This Geography Now video told us more about the history and geography and gave us some ideas of things we want to learn more about!
Check out my posts about Chocolate and Corn! for more about the Mayan.
We got a little sidetracked from this study as we moved into our Christmas around the World study.
But we finished it off with an epic chocolate poetry tea time with chocolate tasting from 40%-100% cacao. And Hot chocolate to drink, of course!
"Head Shoulder, Knees and Toes: Language learning (German) for my daughter
"Head Shoulder, Knees and Toes: Language learning (Chinese) for my son.
Questions we had:
What happens inside of bones?
What are bones made of?
How does a bone heal?
What about blood types?
How do human bones compare to bird bones?
How do x-rays work?
What about teeth bones? How are they different than other bones?
Videos that answered our questions:
This video shows what real bones look like and how they work. Very engaging for older kids. (The Institute of Human Anatomy channel is great!)
This video shows how bones make blood and how bone marrow transplants work. It reminded us of this Conference Talk: Be Perfected in Him
Why Blood matters tells about blood cells (Ted Ed)
How x-rays work (Ted Ed)
About Bird bones (Ranger Erin)
Where do Teeth come from? (Be Smart)
Why we brush our teeth (SciShow)--This is perfect because we are learning about bones near Halloween and Trick or Treating time!
About Teeth for kids (SciShow)
How to brush teeth well from a dentist
We noticed that bones are made from elements on the Periodic Table.
Calcium and Phosphorus
We are using a Costco chicken to look closer at bones, using this as a guide.
There is so much to learn about Africa because it has so many nations! We barely scratched the surface but have a greater appreciation, understanding, and love for the people and places in Africa.
Temples in Africa! There are currently 21 temples announced or under construction in Africa! One more was announced while we were studying about countries in Africa during October General Conference 2022!! It was in Eket, Nigeria
We like playing some geography games like this one from Shepherd games that helped us practice where the countries are and get familiar with the continent. There are 7 levels to help you master countries and their capitals!
Here are some of the countries we studied in Africa:
Ethiopia!
We listened to the Fire on the Mountain book.
South Africa!
Egypt: We have been studying the Old Testament this year with its connection to Egypt through Moses and Joseph who forgave his brothers when they found him in Egypt. Both stories show the incredible deliverance of God.
We watched the read aloud of the book, The Spider Weaver, a legend of Kente Cloth
To learn more about what Kente means we watched this video of a tribe leader teaching about it.
We loved this story of Emmanuel's Dream
We were so inspired by the mother love in Emmanuel's Ride: The True Story
We learned more about how Cacao is grown. See "Chocolate" post.
One Hen is about a boy in Ghana who receives a small loan and how it changes his life. Now he is changing the lives of others.
My kids read this one on their own (longer graphic novel): When Stars are Scattered about a family from Somalia that are refugees living in Kenya:
