Twinning at MotherHood

Author Archives: Wendy

Homeschooling Y and Z!

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Annnnnd we’re almost done!

Y

Today is “Y” day! Had yogurt for breakfast and then learned why leaves 🍁 turn colors in the fall and what makes them yellow (carotenoids). We took a walk and identified different types of deciduous trees and collected 🍂 to make fall wreathes. Making the wreaths was really fun!

Drink of the day – Yellowtail Chardonnay.

Z

Our final day is “Z”! We watched videos about zebras, learned about Zimbabwe, and discovered what zoologist do. We learned about all the bones in the hand and then made “Zombie X-ray hands” by tracing our hands, cutting them out and then gluing on Q-Tips. Finally we went back through the alphabet and thought about our favorite letters and what we learned.

Drinks of the day – Zombie!

Zombie hands

Hope you enjoyed your trip through the alphabet with us. Never stop exploring!

Homeschooling V, W and X

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Welcome to V, W and X week!

V

Today was “V” day!!! Volcanoes 🌋, vectors, velocity ↗️ and viscosity, OH MY! First, nana made V biscuits. Then we used different kinds of slime to learn about viscosity, or the resistance that a fluid has to deformation. You can also think about it as how “runny” something is. Toothpaste has a higher viscosity then a milkshake and a milkshake has a higher viscosity than water. We looked at different types of slime and had “slime races” to see which had a lower viscosity. Once we mastered that concept we explored how the viscosity of magma influences volcano type. Volcanoes that have higher viscosity magma are more explosive – imagine blowing bubbles in a milkshake versus a glass of water. We watched videos on how scientists use GPS to measure volcano deformation and finally we learned about the careers of women in volcanology. We also explored the concept of vectors, or motion that has a direction and a magnitude. Then we applied that to our slime races, as you can see below.

Drink of the day – very cold vodka martini, very dirty, hold the Vermouth.

Visocity and velocity with slime

W

“W” day! We ate waffles for breakfast and then learned about weather and the water cycle! We explored the question, Why are some places wet and some places dry? One highlight from this conversation was learning about how deserts are dry but not always hot – some deserts are cold! After that we watched videos on water buffalo and wildebeests and then practiced doing subtraction and telling time.

Drink of the day – Waborita!

X

“X” day! We made “X marks the spot” treasure map pancakes and then learned how we make and use maps and then we practiced reading topographic maps. Then we watched some videos and did some experiments on using GPS to navigate. Next, we learned about Xerus, found their home on the 🌍 and learned about X-rays. And spelling & sight words etc.

Drink of the day – Dos Equis XX.

See you next week for our final letters, Y and Z!

Homeschooling S, T and U

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Hello again and thanks for following along! This week we’re covering S, T and U!

S

Today was “S” day. Ate sausage and scrambled eggs 🥚, did subtraction, spelling and sight words, practiced our Spanish (counting, colors and household objects) and found a snake on our hike through the swamp.

Drink of the day – Sangria!

T

“T” day! Ate toast, explored tectonics 🏔 and the parts of the body that start with T (like teeth and tongue 👅). Learned about Japanese 🇯🇵 printmaker Hiroyuki Tajima and used his work as inspiration for our art. 🖼 We also watched civil rights Brain Pop videos and talked about equity, racism and MLK. None of that starts with T, but conversations about justice and equality can’t wait. Going to work on telling time ⏰ later this afternoon.

Drink of the day – Tequila!

U

“U” day was tough, so we went with an Under the Sea 🌊 theme. We learned about urchins & watched videos about sea creatures. Then we made sea animals out of modeling clay & colored a seascape. And the usual sight & spelling words, etc.

Drink of the day – Undercover Mink!

Sea cucumber, plankton, jellyfish and sea star.

See you next week for V, W and X!

The “Abby Invents” book series!

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Let’s be honest – the routine of homeschooling can get really boring, so lately I’ve been trying to liven things up with books and experiments. What could be better than some books about experiments!

child looking at 2 books

I had heard of the book “Abby Invents Unbreakable Crayons“, written by biomedical engineer, patent holder and If/Then Ambassador Dr. Arlyne Simon, but I hadn’t had the chance to read it until last week. When I learned that there was another “Abby Invents” book coming out I knew this was something that I wanted to incorporate into our curriculum. I’m extremely fortunate to know the author (I’m a total fangirl!) and she sent us a copy of the books, which she signed! (You can also get a signed copy, which is so so cool!)

signed book

The 1st book in the series is “Abby Invents Unbreakable Crayons”. In this book Abby is frustrated that her crayons always break, so she sets out to make unbreakable crayons. Despite experimenting with lots of different ways to make crayons Abby isn’t successful until she goes out and makes additional observations about things that are strong and don’t break. She then takes this new information into the lab and, after more experiments, is successful in creating unbreakable crayons.

The 2nd book, which has just been released, is “Abby Invents The Foldibot“. In this book Abby and her friend Miko want to invent a device that folds clothes. They go out to their community and survey people to see if this is something that would be useful and wanted. Then they make lots of observations about similar types of machines in order to decide what their folding machine should include. They build and experiment but can’t get their machine to work! Instead of giving up, Abby and Miko continue to observe things in their surroundings to get new ideas. They keep trying and trying and eventually they successfully build a Foldibot! (Um, Abby where can I buy a Foldibot – that would be so helpful with all this laundry!)

The writing in both books is accessible and understandable and the illustrations by Diana Necsulescu are bright, colorful and fun. The boys were enthralled. Their favorite part of both books was actually the last page where the author shares a photo of herself as a child and says “You can be an inventor too! Yes you! If Abby and I can do it you can too.”

I love this series.

I love that Abby keeps trying even when things are hard.

I love that these books show the iterative process of invention.

I love that the hero of the books is a Black girl. Representation matters.

I love that these books inspired my kids to get creative and try to invent things of their own.

I love these books, and you will too.

child pointing at a picture in a book showing children in a classroom

Homeschooling P, Q and R

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This weeks letters are P, Q and R!

Piles of pancakes!

P

Today’s letter is “P”. For breakfast we had piles of pancakes 🥞 with bananas and chocolate chips and then spent some time learned about Peru. We watched some videos about Peruvian culture, explored the Peruvian Andes on the map and read a story about Machu Picchu. For our art lesson we learned about the cubism of Pablo Picasso and then drew pictures 🖼 using Picasso as inspiration. After art we read some Beatrix Potter 🐰. Then we did our usual spelling, sight words, math, etc. They’ve also been doing Kodable, which is teaching them how to write computer codes.

Drink of the day – Pumpkin Porter.

Q

Today is a “Q” day. We took a spelling quiz and they got piggy banks as a reward for getting their 💯 . Well, once you have a piggy bank you need something to put in it, so we learned about the value of quarters (and nickels, dimes and pennies) and then we practiced counting coins. Whenever they correctly named the change and the amount they go to put the 💰 in their 🐷 bank. They were very excited about this particular lesson!

Drink of the day – QUARANTINI!

R

“R” day! Today we had Rice Krispies and red apples for breakfast. Then we went exploring in the backyard and found rosemary, rose bushes, and red spider plants. All plants that start with R! They liked learning about the different parts of the plants and how they can identified. They were also very impressed that rosemary can be used as a spice! Finally, we did math and spelling and then went exploring in the woods with Nana and Papa. 🌲

Drink of the day – Red wine 🍷.

Stayed tuned for S, T and U!

Homeschooling M, N and O

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Hi there! This week we’re working on M, N and O!

M

Today is M day!!!! The best day! We ate Mini Wheats and got 💯 on spelling & sight word tests so they got mineral sets!! First, we spent some time examining the minerals and deciding what properties we thought might be important. Then we learned about Mohs hardness scale, which is how the hardness of minerals is classified (talc is the softest at 1, and diamond is the hardest at 10) and also explored other mineral properties like streak color and shape (habit). The mineral sets came with lots of tools for experimenting with the minerals, like a nail, a streak plate and a magnifying glass. What’s a streak plate? It’s a small ceramic tile that you scratch minerals across. Many specimens will leave a distinctive color streak behind, which we can use to help ID the mineral!

We also learned how to count money. 💰 We’re starting with just identifying the coins and their values and soon we’ll work on adding up the value of the coins.

Day of the day – MARGARITA!!!!!

N

Today was “N”. We had Noosa yogurt for breakfast, learned about Narwhals, put together a US map & found all the states that start with N (there are 8 – can you name them without looking it up?). Then we did spelling & sight words, skip counting and workbook exercises doing adding and subtracting 2 digit numbers.

Drink of the day – Negroni!

O

It’s “O” day! We started our day with oatmeal and OJ and then learned about owls – how they hunt, special things about their wings, and identifying them by the calls that they make. We also watched videos about the amazing octopus, master of disguise. For art today we looked at paintings by Georgia O’Keefe. We saw how her work evolved with time and talked about the way that she drew her pictures and the colors that she used. Then we did watercolor drawings 🖼 using O’Keefe’s paintings as inspiration. And of course spelling & sight words and Dreambox blah blah.

Drink of the day – Old Fashioned.

See you next week for P, Q and R!

Homeschooling J, K and L

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This week we’ve covered J, K and L!

J

Today is “J”. We ate jam on bagels, learned about Japan and located it on the globe and learned how to count to 30 in Japanese. Then we practiced skip counting while doing jumping jacks. Skip counting is where you count by 2’s, 5s, or 10’s. I’ve found that having kiddos do this along with physical activity, like jumping jacks, hopscotch or trampoline jumping helps them with the counting. And obvious it helps manage their sky high energy levels! We also did our usual practice with spelling and sight words, did math workbooks and played on Dreambox.

Drink of the day – Julep (in this case basil)!

K

Today’s letter was “K”. We ate Kix, learned about koalas and kangaroo rats on YouTube Kids and explored kinetic energy by playing with rubber bands. We’ve spent a lot of time recently talking about kinetic and potential energy by rolling balls down inclines and building structures using marble mazes. And of course we did the usual other stuff (math, sight words, spelling words).

Drink of the day – Kentucky rye, on the rocks with a squeeze of lemon.

L

Today is “L”. We ate “Leggo my eggo” and learned about lions and lava (their choices). There are lots of cool online resources about lava, and slime is a good hands on tool for teaching about the way lava moves and flows. As usual, we practiced handwriting and then we practiced writing words that rhyme. We practice our spelling and sight words every day, and they opted for some math on Dreambox. L is for losing motivation and wanting to lay down and cry.

Drink of the day – Lynchburg lemonade.

Stayed tuned for M, N and O!

Homeschooling G, H and I

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Today we’ll talk about using the letters G, H and I to guide our homeschooling activities!

G

Today’s letter is “G”. We had green apples for breakfast (they passed on the Greek yogurt), looked at the globe and learned about glaciers and GPS in Greenland. Here’s a great video from UNAVCO that I narrated about how we use GPS to study glaciers. We also talked about geology (plate tectonics), and watched some cool videos from IRIS about the history of plate tectonics and the different types of plate boundaries. And of course we did our spelling words and Sight Words and worked on our ABC Mouse assessments.

Drink of the day – Gin and Tonic!

Drawing showing geology (fossils under the ground and things “getting ready to die and become more fossils”.

H

Today’s letter is “H”. We ate Honeynut Cheerios and Honey Bunches of Oats for breakfast, and learned about hotspots and Hawaii. We watched this short video and then drew the basic “plumbing” of a volcanic island. We got 💯 on our spelling tests and practiced skip counting by 5’s and 10’s on the trampoline.

Drink of the day – Hurricane!

I

Today is “I” day. Ate instant oatmeal and ice water, learned about Iceland and found it on the world map and the globe, found all the states that start with I on the US map (Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Idaho), did spelling and sight words, made cards for their aunts birthday (and also kind of Halloween?) and played ABC Mouse and Dreambox. One kid is already sneaking magazines during class.

Drink of the day – Irish coffee!

Stay tuned for J, K and L, and to start at the beginning of the alphabet go here!

Rocks and states

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As a geologist and a mother one of the things that brings me the greatest joy is sharing my passion for science with my kids, so we work science topics into most of our homeschooling lessons. Recently, a Twitter friend published a book called “The 50 State Gems and Minerals: A Guidebook for Aspiring Geologists” and I knew it would be a great resource on this crazy homeschooling adventure! I agreed to review it for him, and we all waited eagerly for it to arrive.

When it came I opened it and flipped through the book to make sure it would be an appropriate learning resource for my 1st graders. While the text is intended for somewhat older kids (and curious adults), the pictures and general information is perfect for my guys. Each page is dedicated to a state and has a map of where the gems and minerals can be found along with beautiful pictures of samples. There is also a short paragraph discussing the properties of each gem and mineral as well as a description of the historical and geologic significance of that resource. I left the book on the table to see if they would be interested, and at least 3 times that day I walked in to the kitchen to find one of them flipping through it. Success! The trap was set.

The next day after spelling and sight words we pulled out the new book as well as our mineral collection, rock collection, and map of the US (similar to this). The goal was to learn more about rocks and minerals and to get some US geography practice. For the activity we picked a state in the book, located that state on the map, read about the gem and mineral, and then examined our hand samples to see if we had an example of that type of mineral. If we did we placed that mineral on the state and moved to the next state. If we didn’t, we discussed why we might not have that type of sample in our collection. They were very disappointed that we didn’t have any emeralds in our sample bag! Hey, me too kids, me too.

Which mineral goes with which state?

The whole activity lasted for about 50 minutes and they were engaged the entire time. In fact, later in the day one of them came in to my office to let me know that he had discovered another piece of pyrite in our collection bag, and then reminded me that pyrite is called “fools gold” and can be found in Montana. I’m calling this experiment a success!

Homeschooling D, E and F

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Welcome back! This week we’re going through D, E and F.

D

Today’s letter was D! We talked about foods that make up a healthy diet and then made (mostly) healthy cranberry orange muffins, which we called dessert for breakfast. We read “Danny and the Dinosaur” and wrote down the names of all of the animals that we could think of that start with “D”, like duck, dinosaur and dog. Then we drew pictures of them. After that we did Dreambox, < =>, and practiced vertical addition.

Drink of the day – Daquiri!

E

Today is “E” day. We had Eggos and scrambled eggs, wrote cards to our dearly departed cat Ella, watched some videos about elephants, did the ABC Mouse assessment and practiced our spelling and sight words.

Drink of the day – Elderflower cocktails!

F

Today’s letter was “F”. We had fresh fruit, learned about France, practiced counting to 10 in French, then did handwriting, spelling, sight words and math. I have not yet uttered a certain “F” word, so I’m calling today a win (so far).

Drink of the day – Frozen margarita!

Stay tuned for G, H and I!