One of the things I am starting to fully appreciate about homeschooling is how I can adjust activities depending on my mood. The weather has been so nice the last few weeks that the kids and I both found ourselves having a hard time being indoors - so I decided to have school outside. At first, Amita was worried about physically moving all of the furniture outside (she is very type-A), but she became excited once I explained that we don't have to actually move everything to have school. We did compromise to an extent when I agreed with Amita that we simply could not begin without ringing the school bell, so I grabed that and we began! Our neighbors probably thought we were crazy standing outside ringing a bell but it was actually kind of fun.
This unit we have been learning all about water and the water cycle. I tied it in with our trip to Florida a few weeks ago and it is still going strong. So far we have read over 20 books about water, made a cloud in a jar, decorated clouds and water, learned about the ocean and ocean life, tides, and many other things. This has been one of our favorite units. I originally planned for it to be just a couple of days but it has gone over a month now.
So, last week I decided to teach the girls about absorption. We gathered various a things from the house and outside, made predictions about the things that would absorb water, and, following the scientific method, did the experiments and recorded our results. Amita and I also verbally summarized our findings. It was an really great activity that kept both kids engaged all morning. We also got to be outside and enjoying the warm spring air. It was such an enjoyable day I thought I would share.
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| Amita ringing the school bell. It just wouldn't be school without the bell. |
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| Arranging the books on the blanket |
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| At one point Ashima got a little bored with the experiments. I looked over and she was quietly reading. My heart was happy! |
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| I used a baby medicine dropper and Amita could drop the water on our objects to see if they absorbed the water. |
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| Amita examining the crayon to see if it is absorbing water or not. |
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| Amita recording her findings. I made the table, but she completely filled it in herself. At first she made Xs and then thought it was really funny to make other shapes too. |
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| Our results |
