Science Movies

During the hot afternoons in the Summer my kids usually want to be indoors enjoying the AC. This is when we put on a movie. They almost always pick a science video. Lately they have been watching Popular Mechanics for Kids. I have borrowed every disk the library has on the shelves. My kids love these! 

They like them even more than Bill Nye the Science Guy. Over the years we have watched just about every episode he ever made. My kids enjoy his antics but don't like the music video he always uses to close the show. The rap song is obnoxious so they jump up quickly and turn the show off so they don't have to hear it. 

The Schlessinger videos about different science topics have always been a favorite too. But usually these are matched up with what science topic we are studying so it isn't as much of a pleasure pick. The kids still enjoy them but they are more academic.







Even though it started as an academic movie Raging Planet has been one show my kids keep visiting even though we aren't specifically studying weather any more. Thank goodness Netflix has a few good science shows on their instant watch! This is one my kids have really enjoyed.

Speaking of Netflix instant watch..... How it's made has been on our queue for a long time. My kids visit different episodes quite often.







I am happy my kids find science so interesting.
If they are going to be watching something at least it is science.

Playdough Science

 Can you tell what this is? It is my model of the Heart I put together while learning about the Cardiovascular system last week. I mostly have green playdough so that is all the kids had to work with. Here are their hearts.

 Since my kids loved the play dough the week before I decided to get it out again today while we discussed the central nervous system and Neurons.  Each kid had clay and each of course wanted me to snap a picture of their creation. So bear with all the pictures.

 This is mine. Of course,  I can't let them have all the fun.

 We then moved onto neurons. These were even more fun to make. We started with the cell body and added the nucleus and added little indentations to represent the mitochondria or power houses of the cell. Can you see the dendrites the axon with the myelin sheath?

 This one is mine.

 Here is Sophie working on not just one but two neurons.

 Ian had to work fast because Molly was busy bashing his dendrites as she gathered more and more of his play dough onto her ball.

 Henry added a a brain and spinal cord to his.

I think these kids got the idea and can name the different parts of the neuron and some basics about the central nervous system. But more important that that is that they had fun doing it.

Levers and Forces

I am really enjoying our change to doing History and Science Units separately. It is so nice to really focus on one subject each afternoon rather than alternate days or try to do both in the same day. Our mornings are spent doing scripture, language arts, reading, writing, math and we have even been doing Latin. (We finally have added it back into our schedule) The afternoon is always devoted to, at the moment, science.

This week I started reading aloud a book about Issac Newton and we have been learning the 3 laws of motion. We have done a number of different experiments that illustrate each of the laws.

My kids can't get enough of these hands on experiments. They ask to do the next one as soon as they have finished this one.

I do make them stop and take time to do the workbook pages so they have to think about the experiments. They all love getting to draw pictures of the experiments.

But the laws of motion weren't enough. We haven't finished our book about Newton but my kids decided they really needed to break out our Knex kit that demonstrates simple machines. So we have added in Levers too. We built the three different types of lever.

A blance or scale is a 1st class lever.

A wheel barrow is a 2nd class lever

My kids really love building these projects. They want to do the whole book in one sitting. I have to hold them back a bit and make sure they understand why each is a lever and where each part is.

They are getting really good at telling me where to find the fulcrum in each lever. And we have talked a lot about where the load is placed and where the effort is applied.  The New Way Things Work book and videos (which we get from the library) have been very helpful in explaining this new vocabulary and elements of a lever.

A fishing rod is a 3rd class lever

Mostly my kids are just having fun.

And because they just couldn't resist we also built an elevator which demonstrates the next simple machine, the pulley.

Science has been loads of fun... maybe we will never head back to History.

Cleaning can be Science

Early in December we put up our Christmas tree. As the kids were taking out the ornaments they noticed that a number of them weren't as shiny as they used to be. They asked about the black stuff on the angels and the baby cradles. I told them it was normal and that they just needed to be cleaned.

Last week we put the tree away and those same ornaments were put away looking just as dingy and still in need of a good polish. This week we returned to our study of the elements and read a book about silver. We learned that silver will tarnish and the book gave us directions to remove tarnish. We don't have many silver things in our house. We don't have actual silverware or any silver dishes, but my kids remembered the silver ornaments. We had just packed them back up into the Christmas ornament box still covered in tarnish. The kids really wanted to try out the "experiment".

At first I didn't want to go dig them out but then I thought. If we don't do it now then I will never get around to doing it. So I went and dug through the Christmas box that I had carefully packed just a few days before and found the box of ornaments. We took out the five ornaments that most needed a cleaning and then followed the directions the book gave us to clean off the tarnish.

This is really very simple. I can't believe I waited so long to do this.
Aluminum foil, a pan, some boiling water and some baking soda is all you need.

All we had to do was dry them off and wipe some baking soda off of them and they looked beautiful again.

Then I quickly put them back into the ornament box and back out to the bin of Christmas items to wait for next December when they will come out and hang on the tree again. I hope they still look this good. But hopefully I won't be so slow to clean they up. The kids sure loved this very simple project. I am glad they thought of it.

Two experiments in one day!

Even though we are studying chemistry, which should be full of experiments, I haven't done nearly as many as my kids would like me to. We come across experiments in the books we read and they ask to do them but I always look at the list of supplies needed and there is usually something we are missing. Well today I finally got around to doing some hands on science. We read a book about Oxygen and then needed to have some fun with it.

The first experiment involved matches and a flame. Fire is always exciting for kids. I lit the candle that was placed in a pan of water. We watched the flame flicker and dance for a bit and tried to keep Henry from blowing it out. Then I placed a glass jar over the flame and we watched the flame slowly go out as it used up all the oxygen in the jar.

We did the experiment a few times and the kids watched what happened to the condensation inside the glass and also the water lever raise inside the jar and take the place of the Oxygen that had been used up.

Sophie and Ian did some great drawings to document the experiment.


Then we tried another experiment which was supposed to go along with our study last week on Hydrogen. I didn't have the 9 volt battery that I needed to do this one until now. For some reason I just kept forgetting to get it. But today all the supplies were on hand and we were able to separate the Oxygen from the Hydrogen.

We couldn't see the Oxygen but we could see the Hydrogen bubbling around the copper wire coming from the negative side of the battery. We could tell that Oxygen was attracted to the copper wire coming from the positive side because not long after taking the wire out of the water it turned green. We then go to talk about what oxygen does to copper. The negative wire which had been surrounded by the Hydrogen looked a bit brownish. Very interesting since they were both sitting in the same water.

They happily did a notebook page for this experiment as well.I love it when the like doing their work.

I sure hope I come up with some more fun things to do. The kids really liked these and even had to do them again for their Dad when he got home from work. They even plan to show these to Grandma and Grandpa when we see them in a dew days.

Our Curriculum - Science - Sorry ended up being really long.

I should be writing a weekly report right now. But instead I thought I would just venture into our next subject and talk about what we do. Today I thought I would talk about Science. Science hasn't ever been my favorite subject. I took as little science as I could get away with in High School and Collage. It just wasn't that exciting to me. Since doing school with my kids I am surprised at how interesting Science is and how much I missed as I grew up. Sure my daughter is only finishing 2nd Grade but already I feel like I have learned so much more than I had learned in school.

Just to give you a little about my science background...... ( I ramble on here so you can skip all this if you want.)

I don't remember studying science at all in Elementary school. I am sure we had a science book and we read through it and memorized facts and such. They obviously weren't that memorable.

In 7th and 8th grade my science teacher was rather strange and that is about all I remember about those years. I don't remember anything we actually studied, just that my teacher, Mr. Umland, was a bit crazy and would sometimes throw chalk at kids when they fell asleep in his class. He was also the only teacher ever to send me to the Principal's office (I was talking to the kid sitting next to me).

In High School most kids took three years of science. Since I took band and drafting every year I just "couldn't" fit in everything so I squeezed in the two required, Biology and Chemistry. Biology was all about copying down notes from the board and then spitting them out again for the test. We did look through microscopes a few times and handled real bones but mostly it was just read the book, outline the chapter, and copy down the notes. The next year I took Honors Chemistry (no AP classes in my school). Why Honors? I don't know, I thought I was smart or something. But Chemistry made not a lot of sense to me. I honestly don't know how I passed it. The teacher would give us partial credit on tests. If you answer wasn't correct but if you at least put in the correct formula you got half right. I think I passed because of this partial credit. I usually could remember the formula but didn't have a clue about why you used it or what information when where. Sad I know. And my teacher worked so hard with me. He had me stay after school a number of times to explain things better to me. He happened to also be my families home teacher and even taught my Sunday School class each week. He must have really been tired of teenagers!

Then off to college I went. At BYU they require Biology, Physical Science and a Natural Science. I took Physical Science the 2nd semester of my freshman year. I actually did well in the class but really had to work hard and lucky for me my roommate took it at the same time and we studied together.
For my natural science I took Nutrition which was very interesting to me and I still think about many of those things I learned in that class. Then the very last semester of my years at college I decided to finally take biology. The teacher was very excited about the subject and his lectures were interesting but they were given in a huge lecture hall with hundreds of other students. Interesting but again mostly regurgitation.

So that is it. My entire science carrier up until learning with my kids.

When Sophie was about 3 1/2 we started doing Five in a Row. We really loved these unit studies based on Children's books. We would discuss the little bits of science that came up in the different books each week. I was often surprised by what they pointed out for us to do. When doing Mike Mulligan and the Steam shovel you studied steam and when the little boy in Ping jumps into the Yangzee river with a barrel on his back you study boyancy. We also kept an animal notebook. All the different animals from the different books we read went into this notebook and we studied about them. I would print out pictures of the animal that I found online. She would cut them out and past them into her notebook. We got an information sheet from Enchanted learning and we either just pasted it in or wrote down some of fun facts that we read on that page or from other books we read. Sophie liked the animal notebook so much we did many more animals than we found in the books. It was a great way to bring science into our studies during preschool and Kindergarden.

When first grade rolled around I decided to follow the 4 year cycle that is outlined in the Well Trained Mind. I like having direction in our studies but haven't bought any set curriculums for Biology, which was the first grade year, and Earth Science/Astronomy this 2nd year. For each of these years I took the list of subjects to study that were outlined in WTM and just got books from the library on those subjects.

Here is Ian's Brain Hat that we got out of the book Easy Make and Learn Projects the Human Body
We do simple projects like lapbooks once in awhile and I have at times bought supplement books or found great lapbook links online to help us along the way. So far it has worked out alright. I can't say it has been great. Science does at times get pushed to the back burner or skipped when we get busy doing other things. But I know my kids are learning all sorts of science. I get a lot of science books from the library and have bought a number of them to keep on the shelf. My kids read or look through them all the time. My kids current favorite is How Science Works. A Great find at the library's used book sale. Maybe they will just teach themselves science.

Next year we supposed to do Chemistry. If you read my science history you know chemistry isn't a subject I am particularly good at. The WTM doesn't give a lot of direction on this subject as far as topics that should be covered and since I need all the help I can get with this subject, I think I am going to actually purchase a program. Kristiana at La Scuola d'Argento has been very helpful and has sent me some links for some great elementary school Chemisty programs. Thanks for all your help! I haven't decided yet what I will follow. I may not follow any and just take ideas and book recommendations from them. Which is what I usually end up doing.
Here are two programs that I am still looking at.
Elemental Science- this one looks simple and easy to use. I am seriously considering it.
Neo Science. I wouldn't buy the whole package but the guide would be helpful. The book recommendations look interesting, I am looking to see if my library has them.

I think a molecular model kit will make its way to our house for next year. I think my kids would really love this.


One of the many blogs I read just had a post about chemistry today and she has also put together a whole lapbook page with all sorts of resources she is planning to use with her daughter over the next year with Chemisty. I bookmarked it and will visit it often during the next few months as I plan more fully what we are going to do.

We also do a lot of Nature Study. I am so grateful for Barb at theHandbook of Nature Study blog who has made nature study so easy, and interesting for us. We love participating in the Outdoor hour challenges and have learned so much about the plants, insects and animals in our neighborhood. They are a great resource for anyone who wants to do more in Nature study and just needs a little direction. The challenges can be adapted to any age level and any area of the world. The actual Handbook of Nature study is no longer daunting but has been so interesting to me as I read it and then point out things to my kids.


Just for fun the kids also go to a science workshop where they can do more hands on Science projects. They seem to enjoy it and look forward to it each week. I tend to call it "Science club" and consider it extra curricular. I figured it was a fun way to spark a love of science.

So that is Science at our house. I am sure as the kids get older and as we get into higher grade levels we will follow a more directed curriculum (Apologia looks great!) but for now this is what we have done and what I am thinking about for next year.