Our spring break "staycation"

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Oven roasted veggies

 

The past couple of weeks I've really been working on eating a lot more veggies and we've been trying them different ways like steamed, roasted, grilled and raw.  One of my all time favorites is to pour on a little EVOO, salt, pepper and pop the veggies into a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes.  We've had cauliflower, broccoli and asparagus this week.  My family devoured all of them and next week will be zucchini, mushrooms and squash.  What's your favorite way to prepare veggies?

 

This was taken from The Pioneer Woman and were amazing!

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Benjamin Franklin and the glass harmonica

This week in homeschool we've been studying and learning about the life of Benjamin Franklin.  I've been fascinated, he only went to school until he was 10 years old, he was one of the Founding Father's of  the United States and he invented so many things.  We also learned that he didn't patent his inventions because he wanted to share them with everyone and didn't want anyone to have to pay for them, quite a man of integrity.  I'm sure most of you know about him flying a kite with a key attached to it so he could see if electricity and lightning were in fact the same thing but did you know he also invented the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, a carriage odometer, and the glass harmonica.  I had never heard of the glass harmonica before and was mesmerized by the beautiful sounds it made.  Here's a video so you can check
out the glass harmonica or glass 'armonica as some people call it.

We worked on a lapbook about Benjamin Franklin, click on the link and it'll take you straight to it.  Now, we're ready to dive into The Revolutionary War.  Do you have anything interesting you'd like to share with us?  If so please be sure to leave a comment! I was pretty bummed when I realized that I didn't have our Time Travelers CD for The American Revolution by Homeschool in the Woods, it must be packed and in one of our storage units.  BUMMER!!! We just love the Time Travelers CD's they are so packed full of activities.  No, I'm not reviewing the Time Traveler products I just love them and wanted to share with you!

Thanks for reading,

 

Supercharged Science Review

      Have you ever wanted to take a class taught by a real rocket scientist?  If you answered YES then Supercharged Science would be perfect for you.  Aurora Lipper is the brains behind Supercharged Science and yes she's an actual rocket scientist!!  We were chosen to review the e-Science course which can be used with any age, K-12th but we are specifically reviewing the K-8th subscription. e-Science will run you $37 a month for the K-8 plan, or $57 for the K-12 plan.     Everything in this program has been so fun and amazed us.  We could spend all day every day on science because our family enjoys it so much.  Aurora has wonderful videos (over a 1,000) and fantastic customer service.  If you have questions about an experiment just email her and she's right back to you very quickly.  Have you ever tried an experiment and it didn't work?  With e-science you can easily figure out why it didn't work by watching the step by step video that accompanies each and every science experiment.    I was a little apprehensive about starting a new science program in the middle of the year and wondered if I would have to buy a bunch of things that were hard to find but no that hasn't been the case at all.  Most items were things we already had laying around the house.   The e-Science programs includes:

Self-guided lessons that kids can complete on their own

Unlimited support for teachers and students

  Amazing video instruction taught by Aurora who is a real Rocket Scientist

Exercises and Quizzes

Step by step videos so you know exactly how to get your experiments done

Parent/teacher guides

Textbook readings

Goes beyond most K-8th State Standards

How we used the program:

I let my 5th and 7th graders look through the e-science website and write down what they were interested in the most.  We had some subjects that overlapped between the two of them so we started with those first and watched the videos, worked on some worksheets that we printed off and of course did some fun experiments.  After a couple of weeks working together the kids went off in their own directions and worked on projects separately.  I would print off worksheets for them and make sure we had supplies but they basically took over science each day.  Several days I found them discussing how fun this program is and that they don't really think it should be called science, it's too much fun!  I LOVE to hear that. 

Both of my kids loved the Hidden Carbon Dioxide experiments that can be found in Unit 8: Chemistry Part 1 in the Molecules Unit.  Of course this unit was fascinating to them because it was all about burping!  They laughed and laughed and burped and burped some more...crazy kids!  Then, we used the CO2 like a fire extinguisher and "poured" it onto a lit candle and the candle went out! If you try this at home make sure you don't get any liquid on the candle just the gas is enough to extinguish the flame, this is a great experiment to drive home that you can't see gas but it's still there!

Fun fact:  If you burped in Antarctica in the wintertime, it would begin to freeze as soon as it left your lips. The freezing temperature of CO2 is -109^oF, and Antarctic winters can get down to -140^oF.

If your child is a visual learner then this would be a wonderful science curriculum because of the videos, pictures and simple step by step lessons.
We are so excited that e-Science also offers Summer e-camp (June 1-August 31, 2013) we are thinking about hosting a science camp for some of our homeschool friends.
  Next year when it's time for the Science Fair with our homeschool group we've got it covered because with Supercharged Science, they have a whole section on science fair experiments.  Whew, that's going to help me out so much because as most of you know mom and dad have quite a hand in the science fair projects (at least we do).Like I mentioned before, the Supercharged e-Science program is a complete online curriculum for children in grades K-12 and retails for $37.00/ month for the K-8 section and $57.00/month for the 9-12 section.


One thing I really appreciated about this program was the fact that they didn't mention evolution or creationism and I mention this because I know it's important to many of my readers.       


Thanks for reading,

Sassy water

My goal for this year is to be healthy so I'm taking baby steps.  I try to walk 1 mile every day, eat healthier and drink plenty of water.  My next step will be to get more sleep...that's a doozy for me!  I'm a night owl and stay up until 2:00 or 3:00am almost every single night and then get up and teach the kids school.  I digress, that's another story for a different day! 


Back to the the water.  I'm pretty sure it was my friend Dawn that pinned some sassy water on pinterest and at that very moment in time I was struggling with my daily water intake.  I wanted to drink it because I'm trying to stay healthy and everyone knows you need plenty of water...but I just couldn't do it.  I was lucky to get 2 cups or maybe 3 down in a day.  I saw the Sassy Water picture and it looked so refreshing.  I went out and bought everything but the ginger to make me some sassy water. 





Over the past 2 weeks I've drank almost 2 quarts of water every single day!  I've added lemons, limes, oranges, cucumbers and mint to my water.  I think my favorite combination is cucumber lemon!

Thanks for reading,

 

More Buffalo in Bartlesville

We like to head up to Bartlesville for a couple of hours and grab some Murphy's and then hunt down some buffalo (they are actually bison, I grimace every time I type buffalo).  Anyway, I've linked to them many times in the past and here are the current Bartlesville Buffalo (bison) that we found.

"Hi Ho Silver"

Sponsor: Washington County Sheriff's Office

Artist:Kerri Fleming

Located at Washington County Sheriff's Office, 420 South Johnstone Avenue

"Sit(el)ing Bull"

Sponsor: Sitel

Artist: Kerri Fleming

Located at Sitel, 3001 East Frank Phillips

"Hands-on Fun"

Sponsor: Kiddie Park

Artist: Erin Rakes

Located at Bartlesville Kiddie Park, Corner of Cherokee and Hensley

Last time I talked about Patch, he's the Boy Scout Buffalo and he's a cutie!  That post has links to all of the buffalo that we've found so far.  Click on the link to go check them out!

Thanks for reading,