Concentration science experiment

My 9th grader is doing Apologia Physical Science this year.  We have been really pleased with Apologia products in the past.  This experiment was on concentration.  Concentration is the quantity of a substance within a certain volume.  

Here he is set up and ready to begin the experiment.  His little brother is watching on.

dropping the Tums tablets into the vinegar

Watching the results.  This was not one of the more exciting experiments but it was still a good lesson.

If you are still looking for a science course, I highly recommend this one.  We have done Apologia astronomy, general science and are currently working through botany & physical science.

Apologia Science Project

My 6th grader is working through Apologia's Botany course this year for science. This is the first big project we have made this year (all 3 weeks of it so far).

He had to make a light hut from scratch and then plant seeds to try and force them to grow indoors. He planted 3 different types of herbs which we will use after they grow to make homemade soap.

Here here is in the middle of building his light hut.

Here he is showing the inside of the light hut covered in aluminum foil.

The seeds for planting


Here is the completed light hut with the herbs inside

The cute little pots of herbs

He has been taking such good care of his plants so far. He has to mist them with water several times a day so they don't dry out. I will update when his plants start growing so you can see the results.

First day of school

Even though we actually had our first day of school on August 23rd I decided to go ahead and post these pictures now. I know I know, I'm really late at posting them.

How do you do school?

Here is my oldest, the thinker, reading on the front porch. Something about those rails called to him.


Here is my youngest, doodlebob, putting together a new desk for our laptop that we will use for math (Teaching Textbooks), spanish (Rosetta Stone) and typing.

Where do you do school?

The great Coke experiment

WARNING - If you love soda and don't want to be grossed out then don't read below.

The great Coke experiment

This was the first of one of our fun experiments. I had heard about all the bad things that soda does to your teeth so we decided to see for ourselves.

We started with a bottle of Coke (no offense to Coke, all cola products will do this) my sons tooth that he offered up for experimentation and a small bowl.

Put the tooth in the bowl and slowly pour the soda in.

The tooth sinks to the bottom and starts fizzing at this point.

Here is my son, Doodlebob (his nickname) checking on the progress of the tooth.

What else do you do with the leftover soda but drink it.

The tooth 2 days later. Lots of chuncks of the tooth broke off and were in the bottom of the bowl. The whole tooth turned a nice shade of cola brown. We decided it was pretty disgusting. Maybe we won't drink soda for awhile now. Ah, who are we kidding. :-)

We survived

Hi all. Sorry for all the posts in one night. I love to review books and was a bit behind on that so I decided to catch up.

Well, we survived our first week of our new homeschool year. This is my fifth year teaching but my first year teaching high school. Our work load is really intense. Our week actually went quite well. We did a fun experiment with Coke and teeth. It was pretty gross. I hope to post pics of that this weekend.

I hope all of my homeschool readers had a great start back to school too.

Have a great weekend!!

School has started

We started school yesterday. My oldest started high school. I don't even know where the time went. It really does seem like just yesterday that I was holding that sweet baby boy in my arms. My youngest just started middle school. Again, where did that time go?

We have had a great first two days. We have already had science experiments and fine arts projects. I will post pictures in the next few days.

I hope school is going well for everyone else as well.

Homeschool planning.... Full Speed Ahead!!!!

Homeschool planning is under way here. This year I have a 9th grader and 6th grader. We plan on using the following for curriculum....

9th grade

Tapestry of Grace year 1

Apologia Physical Science

Teaching Textbooks Pre Algebra

Easy Grammar grade 9

Write Start A

Rosetta Stone Spanish year 1

Foundations in Personal Finance - Dave Ramsey

Electives

cooking around the US

logic games

typing

state notebook

6th Grade

Tapestry of Grace year 1

Apologia Botany

Teaching Textbooks grade 6

Easy Grammar Plus

Write Start A

Rosetta Stone Spanish year 1

Foundations In Personal Finance - Dave Ramsey

electives

Alice computer animation software

logic games

typing

state notebook

It looks like we have our work cut out for us. We will be very busy this year.

I will be so happy when all the planning is done. See you again when I am able to unbury myself from these stacks of books.

Busy summer so far

This has already been an extremely busy summer. I don't know where all the time is going. It seems like we just finished school and I am already planning and purchasing books for next year. My kids will be in 9th and 6th. I have alot in store for them. We are going to be slam full with stuff to do.

I will post soon what we plan to use for school. Check back for that.

There are lots of neat things happening this summer. I have more videos coming up using more cute stamps by Victorine Originals. http://www.victorineoriginals.com/ I also have several books to review as I have now become a blogging for books reviewer as well. I also hope to be able to announce very soon about a great opportunity to work with another company. Keep checking back.

I guess this is long enough for now. I will be posting a new video shortly using the new Cricut Lite Block Party cartridge. I hope you come back to check it out.

If you are interested in seeing any particular videos or posts then just send me an email. Go to view my complete profile and then clink on contact me.

Have a great summer everyone!

The Everything Homeschooling Book Review

I picked this book up recently because I thought it would be a good read. I have been homeschooling for 4 years now so I wasn't sure if this book would help or not.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was quite a bit of useful information in this book, even for someone who is not new to homeschooling.

I like that it covers just about everything to do with homeschooling. You can find links to laws for your state, curriculum choices, the different types of homeschooling explained and tons more.

I would recommend this book for an enjoyable read, especially if you are new to homeschooling.

Disclaimer... I did not receive anything for this review. I am not compensated in any way, this is just my personal opinion.

Homeschool Update

Well, we are getting close to finishing our homeschool year. I have a 5th and an 8th grader right now. We had a rough homeschool year this year with my parents becoming ill. Several months were devoted to helping them so we have been really hitting school hard to catch up.

This is one of the nice things about homeschooling. You can take time as a family when needed.

I am starting to think about the curriculum I want to use next year for my kiddos. I'm pretty sure we are going to be using Tapestry Of Grace year 1 and Apologia for science. Other than that I have so many ideas running around in my head but no solid plans yet.

I would love to hear of any great products you use from all of you who homeschool. Just send me an email.

What A Mess Part 2: Update

Wow, I finally got it all done. I think it looks much better. What do you think?

I should be able to get lots of work done now. Homeschool planning should go much smoother as well now that I can spread everything out.

What A Mess Part 2

OK, I can't believe I am sharing this mess. The following pictures are the complete mess that my office is in. I run a business out of the home and plan all of my homeschooling here. How do I get anything accomplished in this mess you ask? I do not have any idea. All I know is I can't stand it any longer.

Thankfully I have a very supportive husband who does not complain about the mess but am I really offering him my best by having this mess around all the time? I don't think so. He deserves better than this and so do I.

I am working on this mess today and hope to be able to post a clean version in the next few days.

Are you brave enough to post your mess for all to see? Put a link to your mess in the comments.

Back from being MIA

Hey friends. I've been mia for awhile. Things have been crazy around here. I'm trying to do too many things at once which is never good. I think I really need to try to focus on one task better until it is done properly.

I wanted to let you all know that I plan on including more stuff on my blog now. For those that don't know, I am a homeschool mom. I also run my own business out of the home. On top of that, I have recently been convicted that I need to do a better job of taking care of my family. Due to some extended family issues over the last year my immediate family has taken the back burner. I am so looking forward to getting us back on track. I plan to be real and post lots of photos of my messes and how I end up organizing them. Basically, I plan on be a better homemaker.

I still plan on posting lots of my scrapbook and stamping projects. I hope you enjoy my new blog and stay around to visit.