Week 1 in Photos
Aug 31st, 2006 by lapazfarm
Here are some photos from week one of the 2006-2007 homeschool year. I know, it’s only thursday, but I couldn’t wait to share.
This is the Caterpillar we found out in the pasture during our nature walk on monday. Very cool critter, we identified as the Spotted Apatelodes Moth ( Apatelodes torrefacta ). You can’t see them on this photo, but it has the cutest bright red feet!
We studied leaves for nature study this week (I wanted to get that study in before they start falling). I made some flash cards of leaf shapes (ovate, obovate, cordate, lanceolate,… etc) and we used them as a scavenger hunt to try to find as many of the shapes as we could. The past few days we have been pressing and drying them and now we are trying to identify as many as we can to add to our nature journals.
Here JBug and Superboy take a break from mounting leaves to play a quick game of “Where in Time is Carmen SanDiego?” They love this game and I love that they love it!
Here is JBug working on a page for her nature journal. She mounted some pressed leaves and is writing the word “leaves” on the bottom.
Superboy is learning the major ocean currents for his nautical unit. Here he is painting the oceans onto a world map. Once the paint dried he added the currents in glitter glue.
Here is the end product: another beautiful page for his Sailing notebook.
An excellent week so far and still one more day to go! Tomorrow we make a salt dough map of the world. We are very excited about that project. I feel almost guilty…we must be doing something wrong because, after all…should learning be this much fun?
Theresa,
I am always blown away by how beautiful your family’s notebooks are!
Thanks, Elizabeth! I am very excited about this newest notebook. I think Superboy has taken it to a new level this year.
Yes!!! Learning should be that much fun! I cannot wait to get home and start schooling again…Now I’m off to find Marianna in this library and show off Superboy’s awesome work (she’s bound to be reading Peter and the Starcatchers/Shadowsnatchers. I’ll have to check the title, has Superboy read them? Very good take on Peter Pan with lots of Sailing! Woo-hoo!
Mom,the title is Peter and the Shadow Thieves not Shadowsnatchers!
Superboy, your projects are awesome. Especially the Currents page.
He hasn’t read that one yet. We have the first one around here somewhere… I’ll add it to the list!
Superboy says:
Thank you, Sailorgirl! I envy you that you live on a boat!
Warning: I will quiz Superboy on his ocean currents when he visits.
Superboy says: Yikes!
I love all you do and this week looks especially wonderful. I have one technical question — how do you mount your leaves and press them. I know such a basic thing, but I get hung up in the details. Thanks a bunch.
Thanks, julia.
We are actually working on experimenting with different ways of mounting leaves.
First, we press them in a big book for a few days. Then we are trying several types of adhesives for mounting.
The real trick seems to be to use a glue that remains flexible after drying
So far what seems to be working the best is gluing them with a gel-type school glue (usually this comes in a clear blue gel)letting that dry and then spraying with a clear sealant. For a sealant we’ve also just coated smaller things like pressed flowers with a layer of the gel glue and it dries with a nice clear shiny finish.
We usually mount them on a piece of drawing paper and then glue or tape that into our journals. That allows us to mount several leaves at once rather than having to wait for each one to dry before turning the journal page to mount another.
As I say, though, we are still experimenting to see what works best.Let me know if you find something that works well for you!
Good luck!
All I can say is WOW!!! Your nature study and that notebook are phenomenal.
Your children’s work is so beautiful, Theresa! How do you manage to be so prepared for all of it? And do you have any tips on notebooking for beginners? I wanted to start notebooks with the kids last year, but everything fizzled as we were all consumed with twin care. So I’d like to do notebooks this year, only I don’t know where to start! I’d love to read a post on this! (hint, hint
Angel,
I will work on a post about that!