MOLD!

Sweet Pea is studying Apologia Biology this year. Those of you who have studied with this curriculum know how intense it is. It is listed as a college prep course but in my opinion it is even a notch above that.
Sweet Pea is doing most of her labs & discussions with a friend in our co-op/family group. She enjoys this interaction & sharing of information. Today after the class was done she & I decided to keep learning & exploring on our own. She had never guessed mold could be so fascinating!

THIS is OUR pantry?

Sweet Pea had set aside a blueberry muffin & allowed it to grow mold. This is a sample from it that she put on a slide.

Studying hard!

Writing up her labs

Yummers!

My future scientist.

A figure of what we were observing.

It was really cool because we could see exactly what was drawn in the figure. Wow!

I love learning with my kids!

It really was fascinating. I'm very grateful to my Mom for purchasing this amazing microscope for our family. It is a treasure, a blessing & a valuable learning tool. Thank you, Mom/Grannie for investing in Sweet Pea's, Boo Bear's, Elvis', Bugsy's & Princess' educations! We love you! And a thank you to Jody too for lending us her Apologia books! Another big blessing! Thank you, friend!

Loving That Biology!

We finally have our wheels chugging along in Biology. The kids were hesitant at first asking, "What's Biology, Mommy?" & "Do we have to study that?" but now that they have been introduced they are having a grand time. I decided to skip the cell lesson for now and start with something fun & hands on. I chose birds. So far we have categorized them and talked about the different traits. Presently Boo & Elvis are cutting pics out of magazines, coloring them from print-outs & looking them up in our bird fact books. They are making their own bird book. The first thing they do is get the picture. Then they label it with the name of the bird and their category. Next they are to find facts and write those down too. Elvis only has to write 1 fact while Boo writes 3. The neat thing is even though they are only writing down 1 or 3 facts they are learning more b/c they are reading the information in the bird books to find these facts. They can hardly wait for Biology each day. Wow! Next after our fact books are completed we will move onto bird watching & journaling. I hope the excitement continues on!

Boo & Elvis color & label a print-out from the Internet.

Reading facts together from one of our books.

Looking up specific birds.

He was proud that he found the cardinal all on his own.

Pictures cut from magazines and ready to be glued.

Another book we are using.....

And yet another of our reference books.

These belong to us but this past Saturday we checked out some from the library.

This is my favorite of ours.

See the concentration?

Working hard!

We'll add some pics of their finished work soon. I know they are anxious to share. =)

The Incredible, Edible Cell

In Biology the girls are studying the parts of a cell. Can I tell you I'm loving this curriculum? It is a wonderful combination of hands on & book study. And I love the way it guides the teachers. I really need that right now while trying to balance a 2yo, kindergartner, 4th grader & 6th grader. Dave & the girls made a model of a cell using Jello & fruit. How fun is that?

Here is the Jello. They chose lime.

The Nucleus

Add in & label the Cell Wall, Cell Membrane, Lysosome, Nucleolus, Vacuole, Mitochondrion, Cytoplasm, Centrosome, Ribosomes, Golgi Body & Nuclear Membrane.

The girls took turns naming the different parts of an animal cell. They also labeled an animal cell diagram.

Daddy consulting the Biology book.

Off to the Refrigerator!

After the lesson was done the cell was put in the frig to set. Later on it was dessert! Lol.

Sorry there weren't any pics of the girls. Sweet Pea took the pics for me & I guess she forgot to get some of them in action.