It wasn’t quite possible to “make” an authentic astronaut/space meal, so we ventured to the Discovery Science Center to pick up some traditional astronaut dessert…..freeze dried ice cream and ice cream sandwiches.
They were a little broken from the trip through space
The kids still enjoyed them, broken and all.
While we would love to stay and explore space a little longer, we’re blasting off to our next destination: Des Moines. Shifting from the starry skies to fields of harvest. See you soon!
I found this space activity felt pad for $1 and couldn't pass it up!
I saw this little activity initially on Pinterest and quickly added it to my board. Then, for some crazy reason, it was no longer there. Fortunately, I managed to find directions on a couple of other websites (here’s one). One listed the distance of the planets and moon from the sun in inches and another had print-outs of the planets. We combined the two sites to create the activity below.
Planet cut-outs, proportionate to the sizes they actually are.
We used the orange golf ball to represent the sun.
Eventually, as our living room is not 50+ feet, we ran out of room for the neptune and uranus, but did get as far as Saturn (roughly 28.6 feet of toilet paper).
A little science, a little math, a lotta fun, this is what I call home-”schooling”.
I saw this fun book at the library just as we were checking out! So perfect for our study and Tallinn was so pumped to try it out. It was practically easy enough for him to do himself. I just helped track down a necessary ingredient (antacids) and adhered a bit of tape.
The directions suggested using a film container to put the antacid and water into, but, considering it’s been about a decade since I have seen one of those, we used a test strip container. (One of the typically unseen benefits of diabetes, I guess).
First step….insert 1/2 antacid.
2. Quickly add water.
3. Close the lid
4. Stand upright
5. Stand back
And BLAST OFF!!!
*This provided hours of entertainment and Tallinn was thrilled that his went the highest . Loving our week in space!
Our third stop on our trip around the US landed us in Cape Canaveral, with zooming rockets and launching shuttles! And so began a week learning about space and science. I think this might be why I love studying this way, with each week bringing a different focus comes excitement and newness, while still keeping our basic structure. Basically, I think I get bored easily and need to change things up a lot.
So, we arrived in Florida and busted out our space books right away.
After practicing some drawing of different rockets, we lightly sketched our scene on canvas.
Using acrylic paints, we slowly filled in our different planet, asteroid, galaxy and rocket shapes.
Car's finished piece
Tallinn's finished art work, done on canvas.
My finished piece, done on watercolor paper.
I LOVE how these turned out. The whole time we were working Tallinn expressed his disbelief that George Seurat didn’t need to use a pencil eraser to make his tiny dots. His is now up in his room and looks awesome!
Spacey Spelling Words
rocket
planet
shuttle
orbit
space
cape
blast
earth
Bonus: astronaut
*For our weekly verses this year we are memorizing a verse a week from Ephesians 6 on the armor of God. While it was fun last year making the verses somewhat match what we were learning, I didn’t feel like the kids retained them as much as they weren’t related.
This bread was interesting to make, using an old type of Native American technique by steaming it in a coffee can. I should have followed the instructions and fastened the aluminum foil on top using string instead of a rubber band as it smelled like burning tires in our kitchen for quite some time. Fortunately, it didn’t affect the taste of our dinner.
My sweet friend, Amanda, had given me this coffee can awhile back and, as she now lives on the other side of the world, it made me think of her. Miss you, friend!
so fun!
Brian read “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”, which I still had from teaching fifth grade years ago and we all enjoyed the story/poem along with our scrumptuous dinner.
For dessert, we made some chocolate chip cookies as they originated in Boston. I didn’t take a picture of our finished product, but this recipe was most delicious!
Thus concludes our week in Boston. Along with our tea party and day of geography we also did a little bit of currency designing
This site also had some additional resources we used for coloring and word games.
You may have heard of the famous Boston Tea Party that once graced the waters of Boston Harbor. Well, we decided to have our own tea party action, after a cup of tea, of course.
First, we did a brief lesson on taxes, which basically involved me telling Tallinn to collect so much money and then ruthlessly taking most of it away.
Then, we read a bit on what preceded the Boston Tea Party and why the Colonists revolted. Honestly, I had forgotten all about the Boston Massacre so we all were learners today.
Next, we made little boats out of newspaper, copying a sample in a Curious George book we had from the library.
Next we added some British flags to our “ships”, a bit of tea, and some British “soldiers” (a.k.a. Lego men).
Lastly, we tested our ships in the open waters of our bathtub and the tea party officially began.
Since the real Boston Tea Party took place at night, we turned out the lights in the bathroom and lit a few candles to make it a bit more legit.
tea seeping into the water
The boys probably could have stayed in the bathroom for hours and played.
We had so much fun with this little activity and I was reminded of why I love homeschooling!
We left Austin and found ourselves venturing east to one of the first areas colonized in the US…..Boston.
Map and pictures of Early Boston Events
Each week we’ve been filling in the correct city and state on this map, keeping a record of where we have been as we go along. For more printables on Massachusetts we used this excellent site once again as well.
At the library we picked up some helpful books on Boston.
Our week in Texas came to a close with an authentic meal, some fun “kid-inspired” decorations, costumes and an old familiar tune.
Tallinn made some little signs
Austin Week Dinner Menu
Oven Roasted Beef Brisket
Skillet Corn Bread
Texas-style Caesar Salad
We all loved the beef brisket spices and enjoyed dipping our meat into the juice that was left over. We make skillet corn bread quite often, typically with sage and honey, but this standard version, which we adapted a bit, was also a hit. And the salad, amazing! I absolutely loved the cilantro caesar dressing that accompanied it and next time would possibly add some homemade cornbread croutons to the mix.
Tallinn had a soccer game shortly afterward so we didn’t get to enjoy a dessert round, but if we had, a pecan pie would have been a great addition to this delicious meal.
Thank you Austin and Texas for a fun week learning about
cowboys,
This was a fun way to use some leather scraps I’ve been saving for just such an occasion.
rodeos (lots of fun videos to watch on Youtube)
and a lot of Southern fun.
For more learning resources on Texas we found a great site with lots of printables perfect for children who are reading and writing. (Tallinn loved doing these pages!)
We began our US study right in the middle of America, venturing Eastward from our California coziness to the center of Texas….Austin. As we are traveling once again in an alphabetical haphazardness through various cities, regions and national parks, there will likely be no pattern, no rhyme and even perhaps not a striking reason for our stops along the way, but there will be guaranteed learning and fun!
If you followed our journey around the globe, some of what we do will be a bit similar to last year….beginning with geography, adding art and culture and finishing with a dinner focusing on the region we are studying.
Here we go!
After some fun good ole’ fashioned Texas music,
we got to work on our flag craft.
Nothing particularly fancy, but I had Tallinn divide up each page with a ruler which incorporated a bit of math. Then, using chalk pastels, they filled in the correct sections. (I love the stars that Tallinn drew, not perfect, nice and childlike).
Tallinn also colored in a page of the map of Texas as we reviewed it’s location on our US map and learned some facts about Texas.
He's into rainbows right now, probably after a friend's "rainbow" birthday party.
Fun Texas Facts:
2nd largest state
State sport=rodeo
State tree=pecan
State bird=mockingbird
Austin=live music capital of the world
One other element we added to our learning this year is a weekly spelling list to tie-in our theme. I tried to be fancy and add a fun cowboy-bordered spelling page, but I’m not that great at this blog stuff and it has already taken me SO long to get this post out, that my list will have to be boring until I learn otherwise .
