Geography studies and where they lead

Robert and I have finished up our study of the Galapagos Islands. Now he has chosen Greenland. Thinking I could not possibly find enough to learn about with Greenland I suggested we add Iceland to the mix. Well, turns out there is more than enough to learn about. What I love about doing this is it can easily turn into so much more than just geography. Here are just some of the many side roads we can take:

Vikings - because of course they settled in Iceland and Greenland. There is so much to learn about Vikings from legends to reading runes to longboats. So many opportunities for learning fun with this one.
Inuit - because they inhabit Greenland. Again, more legends and how they live, what they eat, what they wear, how they travel. No links for this yet as I haven't had time to look into it yet - too busy with Vikings at the moment.
Glaciers and Icebergs - I can see a few science experiment possibilities here.
Polar Bears - all about polar bears and how global warming is affecting them.
Musk Ox, caribou and narwhales. Did you know there is a Galapagos shark and there is a Greenland shark?
Volcanoes - although we kind of covered this when we did Hawaii.

I may have to extend this one beyond a month!
I am having a bit of trouble though with selecting a representational food. For the Galapagos Islands we selected a food from Ecuador. We learned that one of their traditional foods is "cuy", also known as Guinea pig. Turns out that the Icelandic diet is very heavy on the dairy products which won't work for Robert at all. I am pretty sure we are not going to be able to get a hold of any seal meat. One of the very traditional foods of Iceland is ................pickled ram's testicles. Guinea pig is starting to look not so bad! I will leave you with this little video to tempt your taste buds, mmm!

Happy Pi Day!

Today is pi day (3/14). A day to be totally irrational. We are celebrating with a pi pie that Jamie helped make.




We will be reading the following books:

1. Sir Cumference and The Dragon of Pi
2. Sir Cumference and The First Round Table


Check out some of these videos just for fun. We particularly like the mathematical pi song (3rd one down). Who knew that pi could make such beautiful music in the pi(ano) song (5th down)?


Search pi for your birthdate here.

And of course we will be measuring everything circular and playing with pi. By the way it is also Albert Einstein's Birthday. So Happy Birthday and Happy Pi Day!

Upcoming excitement

Here is a list of some of the things we will be doing in the next few weeks. Starting with February 20th, if the weather co-operates, we will be able to witness a lunar eclipse between 7:01 and 7:51pm PST. March 1 will be the Young Naturalists trip to Neck Point Park for some marine exploration. Also on March first, is the start of the Iditarod. We will be following with the eIditarod project (my link to this just doesn't want to work). We have picked our musher - Paul Gebhardt. Follow along by clicking here. Then, on March 8th is the big Easter food sale for the Ukranian Cultural club. Since Jamie has joined the Vesna dancers group, I guess we will be doing something with that. Then there is St. Patrick's Day, Easter and March 29 the big switch off. A lot coming up. Along with the usual gymnastics, karate, farmschool and dancing, we should be fairly busy.

WHOOO!!!!

I am so proud of myself. I finally figured out how to post books! I just hope I can remember next time.

Back to school

Back to logging anyway. We have had a very busy week. Over the holidays we set up part of our weather station. We have a wind sock and weather vane, a wind gauge and a rain gauge. I am hoping to build an anemometer and a barometer sometime soon. We have been doing lots of weather experiments and watching some weather videos.
We are also doing some projects from a great book called "120 Great History Projects". We have done some cooking and are in the process of making Roman Centurion costumes. For read-aloud stories Jamie and I have been reading a lot about the crusades and knights.
Tonight we read about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. I have some more library books coming soon about Martin Luther King Jr. One of the voluntary assignments sent by our facilitator was for Jamie to think about what is important to him and write an "I Have a Dream Speech". This is what he dictated to me and he said it would be ok for me to include it in my blog.


I Have A Dream - by James

I have a dream that in Germany kids can homeschool if the want to. And Africa will be fed clean water and healthy food. I have a dream that the whole world will start eating nutritious. I have a dream that people will soon know how they make the chicken Mcnuggets at McDonald's. I have a dream that people will start riding to work on their bicycles in the summer. I would like the Natives to be treated like everybody else. I want the birds and animals to have their own space in the mountains or the forest.

What real learning looks like

I've been doing some thinking (never a good thing for me to attempt). Since recieving a digital camera and starting this blog I have learned a lot of new things. I still have much to learn. I am motivated by my own interest. Nobody is telling me I have to learn this. Nobody is grading me (although you may have your opinions) and nobody is testing me. I probably could have taken a course at the college on how to work my camera, but it would still be my choice and I don't think I would have felt quite the same feeling of accomplishment if someone had shown me how to post pictures as I felt when I finally figured it out on my own. In my opinion, this is what "real" learning looks like. This is part of why I wanted to homeschool my children.
Today, we finally recieved the flashmaster I had ordered for Jamie for Christmas. Over the course of the day he must have spent at least one hour playing on it. He even sat down with his base ten blocks and worked out some of the 12 times tables. All the while he kept commenting on how much he liked this present and thanking me for getting it for him. Nobody told him he had to use it. Nobody hovered over his shoulder and praised him for getting the right answer or corrected him if he got the wrong answer. Nobody was going to be testing him. He just did it because he is interested and because of the sense of accomplishment he felt in being able to figure it out for himself in his own way. That's "real" learning!

Welcome to my blog

I am very new to this and am somewhat technologically challenged, so please bear with me as I try to figure this out. The purpose of this blog is to share a little bit of our lives with family and friends. I hope to be able to include pictures and at some point videos and of course links to some of the fun and maybe even the not so fun things we do.