science with magnets

as we continue in our study of magnets in our SL curriculum, i thought i would post a few pics of our fun.

we had fun learning about poles and how we can push and pull things with our magnets.  the boys took up the challenge to see how many train pieces they could push with the big cow magnet in the science kit.

we also had a lot of fun with our fishing game as we used some magnetic fishing poles from a previous car trip to match up some paper socks.  this didn’t work as well as i would have liked.  the poles had strings that were waaaaay too long and i had to really manipulate the socks onto the magnets for the kids.

 

flying the butterfly was really hard for the younger ones.  tic tac managed to master it after only a few tries.  but stinkerbell and bonobo could not make it fly without having the magnet directly in contact with the paperclip attached to the butterfly.  it became a lesson in perseverance and maintaining composure in light of disappointment.

we also had fun finding north on a homemade compass and then made our own magnets with needles.  the kids have really enjoyed this unit. 

we are looking

changing it up…

well, we have had to make some adjustments here to our homeschooling curriculum

my husband, bless his heart, had noticed that i was really struggling with our choices for the year.  especially the FIAR studies.

i was getting really stressed over planning and implementing the activities that would span across the ages of our children.  working outside the home full time has been much more energy draining than i thought it would.

i was unable to put into motion the ideas that would form in my head when trying to plan out our rows.  what ended up happening was that i would struggle through a school day trying to get crafts and read alongs and other activities together, and then the whole thing would get scrapped because we ran out of time, or needed to run errands, or needed to do laundry, or whatever.

when i finally owned up to the fact that i wasn’t SuperMom (nah, really?!?!?) and poured out everything to my KISA.  well, let’s just say that when you bottle things up for a really long time, the thoughts come spewing forth like a wild volcano in the midst of a typhoon topped off with a huge tornado. 

it wasn’t pretty.

so, we changed things up.

we are the proud owners of SonLight 1.  we had done their K curriculum a few years ago, and then i was overwhelmed because i always felt behind.  to be honest, it was just because my oldest, at age 5-6, just wasn’t ready for workbooks and sitting down to do school.  we have come a long way since then, and now that he is reading, things are much smoother!

our plan is to finish 6 weeks of SonLight and then row a book for a week.  and that is because i love FIAR so much, i cannot give up on it totally.  i am hoping that planning for one week of FIAR won’t be as daunting. 

we did have a slow start to the new schedule, mostly because february was so hard on our house.  we are finally healthy again, so we seem to be back on track.

as i adjust to our new lifestyle, i am often frustrated by how little time i have to devote to the children.  i am becoming more creative in how we spend time together, and i hope to write about it soon. 

happy schooling!