Microscopic Exploration

This afternoon, we have been using ... *drum roll* ...... our microscope!

About a week ago, Kole had an assignment in Science to put some dry grass or hay in a jar and fill the jar with water. He was to leave the jar sitting for several days, then examine drops of it under a microscope. We were looking for tiny animals - he's been studying all kinds of animal families.

So, today, we ventured into the unknown. And boy, did we find some cool stuff! Little snail shell shaped creatures that swim around with seemingly nothing propelling them, inchworm type organisms that shrunk and stretched their way across the slide, and tiny little tubular racers that darted across so fast you might miss them if you weren't careful. It was fascinating for us all.

So then, the wheels in my head still turning, I decided that I'd like to examine a couple of drops of our tap water. See, we live out in the country... WAYYYY out in the country. Nearly 10 miles from the nearest small town. So, needless to say, we're not on city water supply. We have our own well, from which we get a generous supply of cold, fresh water.

We have never added anything - including chorine - to our well. It doesn't need it. We have it tested on a semiannual basis at the local water conservation district office just to be safe, but it's never needed anything except perhaps a reduction in the mineral content.

So, I got curious. Before I placed my droplets under the lens, I did stop to realize that depending on what I found, I might never take another bath here or ingest another sip of our well water again. Not that I actually would know what I'm looking at, but if there did happen to be something in there, squiggling around, the least I would have to do in order to maintain my sanity would be to run and have it tested as quickly as possible. I can't imagine drinking little squiggly things.

You can imagine my enormous relief when, after thorough and multiple examinations, I did not see anything squiggly in my tap water.

Homeschool is quite the adventure, I must say.

Man’s surprising laugh

The following was sent to me by a friend from Mom and Dad's church. It is quite possibly the funniest video I have EVER watched. Please, do yourself a favor. Sit back, relax, click play and get ready to laugh. I do advise that you not try to eat or drink anything during the viewing of this video. You WILL make a mess.

Man’s surprising laugh

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Home Sweet Homeschool

After spending Tuesday through Friday of last week at my parents' house, I am happy to report that homeschool travels well. It travels very well.

We had a wonderful time with Grammy and PaPa, and the kids all accomplished a lot in their school work as well. Mom and I divided and conquered, so to speak - Mom worked with Riley and I worked with Kole and we both gave needed guidance to Nathan, too.

Kole does so much better with the one-on-one attention. His focus was infinitely better, as well as his attitude and enthusiasm for accomplishing his assignments every day. Riley just loved having her Grammy at her side to lovingly guide her and answer a question here and there. Thanks, Grammy :)

Nathan made real progress with his cutting skills - he can cut circles now !! Yay, Nathan!! The SnipIt book I mentioned previously has been such a blessing and helped him to overcome his previous angst with regard to using scissors. He's not afraid to attempt it now and is making big strides. His letter-writing (individual letters, not correspondence, of course) is coming along , as well as letter identification.

This week, we're catching up on some science projects that we had to put off from last week because we didn't have all the things we needed to complete them. We'll be using our microscope with a digital camera for the first time - plankton party at our house!! We also have reports on honeybees and saltwater communities to do and dioramas to make. The break from paper "work" is going to be nice I think.

All in all, things are going along swimmingly. We're off to the library to study stillwater life and gather our materials for our pond excursion. We're supposed to catch and study as many life forms as possible. I've put a moratorium on catching any members of the reptile family except turtles. I'm sure I'll have stories to tell about this one. Bottom line here, though - We Love Homeschool. And it seems to love us back.