First up: by Betsy Harvey Kraft.

I found this an interesting book to read, filled with great illustrations, about daring and persistence and faith in his design.    George Ferris tried time and again to get funding for his invention, and finally got it.   His observation wheel went up in Chicago for the World's Fair.    So many skeptics until acceptance came.

I can just imagine the wonder, the excitement and the fear that such a large invention would have rendered.   The first of it's kind.

People have copied his design since that day.   It's exciting to see all the different ones that have gone up throughout the world.   It's unfortunate how Ferris' wheel ended up but his invention lives on in Ferris wheels everywhere. 

Illustrator Seven Salerno did the Ferris wheel justice in his rendition of it.

This is a wordy picture book, so not one to hold up to read for story hour, but it's an excellent book to set with if you want to start a study on Ferris Wheels as it gives a good grounding into the determination needed by George Ferris to get it erected and used by the public.  A book study could easily be written for it as well and I'm contemplating doing that as it's a solidly good book.

Published by Henry Holt and Co. it is 9.45 x 11.24 · 42 pages and geared for ages 5-9 years.

Next, let me introduce you to a book ALL about Coyotes.   Coyote Moon by Maria Gianferrari.

Coyote Moon is book that to my 51 year old eyes need to be read in a well light room.  The books' colouration FITS really well in the life of a Coyote and when they are most active.   In this book we go with coyote mom as she heads out to find lunch for her brood of youngsters. 

Can she get a rabbit or a goose or ?????

I have to admit I was disappointed at what the coyote ended up catching.   As I read the book I was fascinated learning about the coyote, the lyrical sentences drew me in and caused me to want to know more about them, and then to basically have the coyote be called a chicken thief at  the end. 

I grew up on a farm.   And coyotes don't exactly have a good rap growing up, and I guess I just expected more from this book.   It's good to have that realism and I appreciated the end note by the author pointing out how very adaptable coyotes are to living in all sorts of environments.   Coyotes will make do wherever they find themselves.

I just wanted more.

It's a wonderfully illustrated book, the coyotes are portrayed realistically.   I don't want to leave you with the impression that I disliked this book because I liked it.   I just hoped for a different prey to be caught at the end.  Momma coyote took care of her family and this is what the book was about, could she find prey, could she use all her skills, knowing that she'd miss at least once, maybe twice until finally she achieved her goal.. food for herself and her younglings.

Good job momma coyote, excellent job in illustrating by Bagram Ibatoulline, pleasant and informative lyrical verse by Maria Gianferrari.  This book would be an excellent introduction to the study of Coyotes as it shows them in fine detail and in their environment, living their lives.

Published by Roaring Brook Press, it is 10.89 x 10.24  and runs 32 pages, geared for children ages 4-8 years.

These books were generously sent to me by Raincoast Books.

Want to see a NEAT book on the human body?  You must check out this book from Silver Dolphin Books.  It's called 3D Explorer: Human Body, discover the fascinating secrets of the human body.

It's a hands-on, check out the human body book!   5 different pop-ups of different aspects of the human body WITH a key to understanding them!   Full colour illustrations. Images to help define harder to understand terms.. like the drawings showing the different types of joints we have.  Complex 3D images, Easy to read. 

My lad is always interested in learning things about the world around him, and that includes how we work.  He will frequently come to me with new stuff that he has learned and that has amazed him.   Take for instance this one on how the immune system works.

Or about a month ago, I was browsing in one of the thrift stores and we came across a technical book.. I think for doctors to learn all the parts of the body... EVERYTHING was broken down so we could look up how the ear works and we could see the tendons that are not working right in my feet and legs.  It helped both of us gain a better understanding of what is going in our bodies.

NOW.... This book doesn't have that technical detail (neither should it) but it has a ton of interesting facts to amaze and delight, not only your children, but you as mom and dad as well.   My son's response to the 3-D images was "oh wow, look at this mom!"

For those to whom it matters it does contain some evolutionary stuff in, but not much and could be easily bypassed (or used as a talking point).  

The book starts off with "What is a Human" and proceeds from their to different aspects of the body, pulling up 3D images of Bones and Muscles, The brain, the eye, respiration and digestion.   It closes off with a page on the human life cycle and what it takes to grow well (ie. a balanced diet).

Each 3D image is presented with a section inbetween them, thereby adding strength to the pages.   They come with a Key to help you know what you are looking at.

I appreciated the full colour illustrations, as well as how they used colour to delineate different areas of the book. 

As I read through this book I could see myself using it to teach a co-op class.   The text was informative which makes the job a whole lot easier, having the 3D models makes it so handy to view and understand.  My lad enjoyed going through the book, I have to admit, he focused on the 3D pages more than the rest (less reading you know) but he overall liked the book.    "It gives good details mom" and "I like how the pop-ups show more than one layer mom".

Raincoast Books generously provided with 3D Explorer, Human Body to review, I found it VERY interesting, and if purchasing it would find it good value for the money.   It is suitable for ages 7 and up, but the technical language may need to be read as it does talk about endrocrine, pariental etc.  Using the correct terminology it's a book I will pull out again next year with my lad as we cover some specific aspect of how the human body works.

Do you have a child who likes robots, or even have a child you would like to inspire to like robots???   Build the Robot by Steve Parker might be just the kit for you.  :)  

A book with robots to build!

The first part of this book/kit is loaded with information about robots, from what they are to what they have been used for to possibilities for the future.   The information gave us ample opportunity to discuss ideas such as what it would have been like to perform surgery from 3800 miles away using a robot...and therefore saving a person's life.

It gave me ideas for doing a class on robots with children for my co-op.. would just be fun to do some different things with them (making a robotic hand and what not)

At the close of the book there are three robots that one can make, a wiggle bot, a walk bot and a wave bot.  All pieces are cut out heavy board that just needs to be punched out.

Three motors are included which unfortunately for us were not well labeled.  The instructions called for motor A to be used, but the motors looked so similar to each other, we ended up using the wrong motor and had to take the whole thing apart again. (I would really recommend these motors be clearly labeled).  It was a bit frustrating, but in the end we managed to get it to work.

Interestingly enough, since the robot tended to fall over abit, it got my lad to thinking (based on knowledge gained)... if we could give it a knee, do you think it would work better?   How do you think we could do that?   What if we made it have heavier feet so it was slower, think that would work?   What if it had to work harder? or we could slow it down???

We did manage to try out the following
1. adding weight to the feet... it was hard to secure and seemed to not make any difference.
2. running it on carpet (didn't work)

But it was a fun activity and got my lad talking and thinking, so I'd be calling this a successful book.  

We have, as of yet, not found time to make the remaining two robots... perhaps next week when Dad is away for a few days.

The build a robot kit contains a 32 page book, three wind-up motors and the pieces to make three robots.

The material to make the robots is a very heavy cardstock?  Bookboard?  not quite sure what to call it, but it's quite sturdy and can take some abuse.   Some of the cutouts required the use of a toothpick to get the smallest pieces out.

We thoroughly enjoyed the end result of making this robot, my lad has brought it out a couple of times since making it to test it out.   We've learned it runs best with NO cats around, on the hardwood floor in the living room, with a relatively clean running area. 

He walks, he tumbles a bit, but we made him and it's all good.  :)

Reviewed for Raincoast Books.   A great book made by Steve Parker and published by Silver Dolphin Books.  Get it, inspire your children to be creative and think more about robots... it'll be fun!  :)

I've developed a reputation for doing hands-on interesting classes with my co-op, having this reputation isn't always a good thing.... means I need to think about what I want to do!

This time around I wanted to do hands-on STEM type stuff but didn't really have a clue about what I really wanted to do with it.    Week two has me doing earthquakes.

What types of Earthquakes are there?    Four Kinds

• A tectonic earthquake is one that occurs when the earth's crust breaks due to geological forces on rocks and adjoining plates that cause physical and chemical changes.
• A volcanic earthquake is any earthquake that results from tectonic forces which occur in conjunction with volcanic activity.
• A collapse earthquake are small earthquakes in underground caverns and mines that are caused by seismic waves produced from the explosion of rock on the surface.
• An explosion earthquake is an earthquake that is the result of the detonation of a nuclear and/or chemical device.
  

If you want to know more about how earthquakes form check out this page.

What kind of faults are there?

•  Normal faults form when the hanging wall drops down. The forces that create normal faults are pulling the sides apart, or extensional.  (Divergent)
• Reverse faults form when the hanging wall moves up. The forces creating reverse faults are compressional, pushing the sides together. (Convergent)
•  Transcurrent or Strike-slip faults have walls that move sideways, not up or down.  (Transform)
  

Check out this site to see an easy way to demonstrate.   This site talks a bit more about the different types of faults.

How are earthquakes measured?
The Richter scale is used to rate the magnitude of an earthquake -- the amount of energy it released. This is calculated using information gathered by a seismograph.

The extent of damage is rated on the Mercalli scale. Mercalli ratings, which are given as Roman numerals, are based on largely subjective interpretations. A low intensity earthquake, one in which only some people feel the vibration and there is no significant property damage, is rated as a II. The highest rating, a XII, is applied to earthquakes in which structures are destroyed, the ground is cracked and other natural disasters, such as landslides or tsunamis, are initiated.  (source)

Some Activities we are going to do.

See how FOLD mountains are made because of the earth moving.
Earthquake waves.
This on-line seismic simulation.
Watch a seismic shadow simulation.
Build towers to see how well they survive our shake Table.

If I was doing this for a longer period of time I'd make this seismograph.
I thought this activity looked cool but couldn't figure out how to make it.

After two weeks of not getting much done in the way of schooling due to cold/flu running through the house, WOOT WOOT.. today I woke up with energy!     (granted that energy ran away quickly and by 1 p.m. I was barely function and by 330 was shivering in a warm house).  :)  BUT HEY!!!   Got some schooling done so YEAH!!!!!

Anyways, what did we get done?

The lad worked his way through Veritas Press History and Bible.
Then attacked his A+ Interactive Math.. he loves the short lessons.   As long as he gets 80% or higher I don't require extra work.

After this we worked on our Homeschool Copywork.  Took a bit of figure out what was wrong with my printer (hubby needed to help) but finally printed off enough sheets for the next bit.   The lad is really enjoying the copywork for the Dragons in the Bible book.

Math, reading, science all done.  YEAH!!!  
To end our time as I was running out of brain power we did some reading.

The Natural World book had us reading about eels today, so we looked up garden eels on Youtube.   They made us laugh.

Isn't God amazing with some of the creatures he has made???   Just amazing.  :)

It is March break here in Ontario, and though most years I just push things through with my lad and ignore it, this year I decided we would do things differently.

We would do review materials, bible, and history.  The lad would do his private reading but I would cut him slack if he was at the end of a chapter.   We would also do outside the house stuff.  Drama day, lego, mad science, a movie etc...

Within that I would scatter in other things.... like planting seeds.  :)

This year I decided to mix things up abit.  Three different ways of starting seeds.   The green one was a dollarama purchase it has three layers.   The second is a holding tray that I normally put cups into, but decided to just straight plant, and the third a planter I picked up late last fall somewhere....all different ways to plant seeds.

The question is.. which method (if any) will work best.

We will be rotating which is closest to the window and which direction they are facing.

Another thing we are trying differently this year is how we labelled our seeds.  Normally I do styrofoam cups and we either stick a popsicle stick in them OR we write on the cup.   Then I just layer saran wrap over top and the seeds manage to come up just fine.

This year we wanted to try covering them with the plastic lids so the popsicle stick didn't work (too tall).  We problem solved for a bit but weren't coming up with a good solution until Dad came along and said "why not cut down the skewers and use address labels"?   Therein a solution was found.

We have learned it is not a perfect solution as the labels are splitting on us, but we hope it'll do until the plants are big enough to tell what is what and then we can put in popsicle sticks if needed.

 Next week I am hopeful to plant some seeds outside under our plastic wrap.. things like lettuce and radishes and what not.  Good for the bunnies, good for people too.  :)

What did we start?
Tomatoes - cherry and beefsteak
Peppers - hot, small bells, red bells, green bells
Five different types of flowers: cosmos, marva, marigold, zinnia and snapdragon
Yellow Cucumber
Dill
Chives
and one other thing that slips my mind.

We aren't done.  Friday we'll plant a few other things like cabbage, broccoli and the like.  The lad sells them in the spring for 50 cents each plant.  Styrofoam cups make them easy to transport.

Have you started seeds indoors at all this year yet?   If so, what are you growing?

Delight-filled cries of "WOW...Mom, come see this"!      We've been using Rainforest Journey , a fun online science program from EdTechLens as part of our school day.  Our focus has been on grade five materials.

EdTechLens is a life science program targeted at the Kindergarten through grade five levels.   This is an on-line science program for elementary aged children.   Their delight is in creating supplemental programs that are creative and engaging for their students.   They want to help students learn as much as they want to help teachers track what their students are doing.  When you sign up you will have a teacher page, and each of your students will have their own page.  

On the teacher page you will find a host of materials to help you with your students.

On your page you will find such help as managing your class, hands-on activities, course outline, how to teach and the pedogogy of the course.

For my student his start up page looked like the picture below.  As you can see five units of study.  The primary sources section has a large number of videos (as does the blog) as well as interviews with the various team members.   Each unit of study is further broken into chapters and assessments.

You can set up the class so the student can do the course in whatever order they want OR that they have to complete one set before they can move on to the next.   As you can see my son mostly does the lessons in order, but occasionally skips ahead.   He can easily see which lessons he's completed, and which ones he has yet to do.

One of the interesting things about the program is how multi-faceted they have made it.  They have audio options.  As well as the option of printing off the entire lesson as a PDF.   Each lesson has a quick question answer review.

It has so many little options to make it a really handy program.
One of the quirky things my lad commented on...the audio program spoke too slowly and wasn't the same as the written version.

How did my son use it?
I set him up.   Had the computer remember his name and password.  So all he had to remember was "B" and it filled in the blanks.   YEAH  for auto remembering.  :)

He did one lesson a day, usually right after breakfast, sometimes before depending if it took me longer than usual to come in from doing chores.   He would tell me what he learned about and we called it a day.   I actually didn't even KNOW there were unit reviews until I did up the pictures for the review because well.. he never told me and I trust him to do his lessons.    Has he done them?  Haven't the foggiest, but does he know the material?  Yes, so to me.. it's all good.

What did my son think?
"I like it."
"It's easy."
"The lessons are short."
"I like the pictures".

What did I think?:
The photography is stellar.   It was really neat to see the clear, concise images.  My lad particularly enjoyed the animals, and on the odd occasion we'd look up more information up about them.

They had so many photos as part of this science program.   It was really good to see them as pictures are so worth a 1000 words.  It was an excellent opportunity to good photography of the Rainforest biome.  I loved how my boy would say, when I came in, things like "Mom, come see this... isn't this caterpillar funny"? 

I particularly like that it's a safe program that has a logical run to it.   Each lesson follows a similar format.   Each lesson builds on the one before it.

I like that it gives alerts, so a student can see how they did on a quiz

In a nutshell what do I like about Rainforest Journey?    My son seemed to enjoy it.  He learned a few things (which is the point right?).   He has no hesitations about loading it up and doing it, it worked equally well in all browsers and computers.   I like the dual formats for doing lessons.. so if you can't do it at home and want to take a lesson on the road.. just print and go.   They make it so easy.   Great photography along with audio if you don't feel like reading.  For how we used it, it is a great program and I'd happily recommend anyone else use it.  :)  I plan to have my son finish out the journey.

Product Details:
Vendor: EdTechLens
Product: Rainforest Journey
Received: One Year Subscription
For grade levels K, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5
Price: $50 per grade level for one year
Type: Supplemental Digital Science Program.

EdTechLens can be found on Social Media.

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/edtechlens
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edtechlens
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/edtechlens/
Google +: https://plus.google.com/+Edtechlens
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/edtechlens

The Virtual Curriculum Fair is still going on.  The theme this week is: Exploring Our World: Social Studies and more Science---includes history, geography, world cultures, worldview, biology, botany, geology, etc., etc., etc.

Full Definition of social studies

1. :  a part of a school or college curriculum concerned with the study of social relationships and the functioning of society and usually made up of courses in history, government, economics, civics, sociology, geography, and anthropology

First Known Use of social studies1926
noun plural Definition of social studies

1. :  the studies (as civics, history, and geography) that deal with human relationships and the way society works
   

This year for geography we are studying Europe.  We started with a course called Drawing around the World: Europe.   It was a fairly simple study that my son wasn't keen on doing due to the repetitive nature of the program so we morphed it into something else.   We watch videos, we learn some facts, we ask questions, and we make a meal.   We make the meals for the most part as fun as we can, inviting friends to come and join us and help create them.   It's GOOD to do these things.     We've done Finland, Sweden, Georgia, Russia, Iceland and Azerbaijan.

Studying Europe is fascinating because each country teaches us something new about the people.  For instance in Azerbaijan, a predominately muslim country, they are open to other faiths practicing, while in Georgia they often have toasts when friends and families gather.   Different things capture me and my son's attention which is good.

sci·ence
noun
noun: science
the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.

For science we do a couple of things
God's design series by Answers in Genesis.

We do at least one lesson a week, we strive for more, but often other things intervene like.. gardening, yard work, feeding the birds at the local provincial park, nature walks, learning about air movement with a fan, or whatever.   It's all good.  As long as somehow he's learning about the world and how it works from a scientific point of view it's all good. 

On Fridays we do things a bit differently around here.
We learn about Canada.   As we engage in our Canadian Studies we are doing art, watching videos. doing some geology (digging up gems/minerals and talking about them), science, math, history and whatever else I can squeeze into a morning.  We try to combine as many things as we can on Fridays.  Anything we can't work into our Canadian studies we do differently than the rest of the week (and sometimes (oh horrors) skip it completely).  :)   Newfoundland pt 1 and pt 2.   Nova Scotia pt 1 and pt 2.   It is by no means a speedy process but we'd rather enjoy the journey eh?  :)

So that's a bit of a touch on what we do here for social studies and science.  It's by no means the end all and be all, but it's a least a glimpse.

If you would like a glimpse of what others do as well, check out the links below (when I get them added!).   :)

Over the past couple of weeks my son and I have been learning about Temperate Forests.  We used this book "Temperate Forest Habitats" as our base of study.   We learned that temperate forests include both deciduous and coniferous forests.

Temperate forests are those that experience temperature fluctuations throughout the year.  They have a spring, summer, fall and winter.  

As you can see from this map, they are spread across the world, predominately in the northern hemisphere, but also in the southern hemisphere.

They have an abundance of wildlife which changes dependent upon the season.   Some animals and birds that live in these regions change their behaviour depending on the weather as well, some animals moving to warmer climes, others hibernating, still others change the colour of their coat.

Since it is winter in Canada we were able to look at the pros and cons to deciduous and coniferous trees.   Seeing how easily coniferous trees shed snow as opposed to deciduous trees.   It's been great to talk about how God planned for broad-leafed trees to lose their leaves in the winter to prevent water loss and reduce snow load.    It was interesting to extrapolate the knowledge that due to the shape of tree, if you are caught in a mixed tree forest in the winter, it is easy to build a shelter with snow and the trees branches, to make a hidey hole to wait out the bad weather.   (This brought to life some of the lessons Will learned in the Ranger's Apprentice).

This was an interesting book to read and provoked lots of comments from my boy and random discussions throughout our days.   I love reading non-fiction books with my lad and using the information we learn in informal discussions.    Makes the learning more natural and thus more easily remembered (at least one hopes so).  :)

If you would like to know more, here's a PDF on Temperate Forests.

The theme for this weeks Virtual Curriculum Fair is: Discovering Patterns: Mathematics, Logic, and Science---includes anything to do with mathematics, mathematical thinking, numbers, arithmetic, symbolic logic, critical thinking, and math-y sciences (physics, chemistry, etc.).

I find math easy to do as an adult, loved it in school, but teaching it to my lad is not what I would call easy.  

It's either too easy, or too hard, or they explain it wrong, or they.. whatever... Its just been a touch of a battle for far too long.   I've bought curriculum, reviewed curriculum pieced things together.. Done the gambit.  He's learned a few things along the way, but it's a battle I don't wish to fight any longer.

About a month ago I won a curriculum fromEducents called Matholia.   Now the battle is gone.   See those yellow stars?   My requirement is that you simply get yellow stars on everything.  Doesn't have to be perfect (three stars) but you need to at least attempt the material.   NOW sometimes they don't explain the math concept well so we then turn to Khan academy, but all the basics for grade five math are here.

The advantage of doing it this way is that he can choose to easier or harder topics.  He can jump around if he wants, it does not matter to me.  I am still there as a support system and to offer advice but that's all I am.  He can argue with the computer all he wants but it's a computer.. it doesn't answer back or get frustrated.  :)  It's taken the pressure off both of us. 

For practicing his different math operations we have these neat pages of minecraft characters that he colours in.  He has the fun of making minecraft pictures while practicing his math...though apparently we MUST FIND a dark grey pencil crayon.

To make math different on Fridays we do one of two things.. work on his interactive math journal or play math games.    Click images below to learn more.

Science on the other hand is a win-win in this household.  Exploring, trying new things, playing with life and watching what happens.

From a lad learning about wind currents using a fan, string, paper and popsicle sticks to a more formal program of learning about machines in motion with God's Design curriculum.  It all works here.   It's fun, it's hands on and is just a great subject and SO easy to incorporate throughout our day.

So that's some of how we do math and science in our classroom, How do you do it in  yours?

Read what others have to say as well.  :)