Homeschool Engineering

Today we worked with our motor generator kit, his Aunt gave him for Christmas. It is a great kit, there are about 12 experiments on magnets plus the instructions to build different motor and generators. This kit can be easily adapted for younger kids or used for older children.



Today we did a few of the magnet experiments. The instructions are well written and easy to follow. There are a just a few household items needed such as string and thumbtacks, most everything is provided.

Experiment #1 - Finds the Earth North Pole

You use the magnets to observe the effects they had on a compass. Then you suspend magnet from a string and the north pole of the magnet will turn to face north, this shows the north pole of the magnet. Label the north and south pole of the magnet.




Experiment #2 - How magnet poles attract and repel
Use the magnets by putting the north and south poles together and apart to see how they attract or repel.





Experiment #3 - Why Magnets Attract
You try different things around the house to see what works with the magnets and what will attract or repel the magnets. A dollar bill is a great one for this because the ink is magnetized.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.

We will be starting our second semester of school next week and I am looking forward to getting back on schedule. LittleBit is not excited about starting back, he mentioned he really does not like handwriting. I did tell him if he worked hard next week, on Saturday we would go the the Adventure Science Center. He told me he would try his very best.

We have several new projects to do this semester, he received several very cool Christmas gifts that will fun to do. We have electronic snap circuits, a tin can robot and a motor generator to work with. These will be great science projects for us.

Wordless Wednesday - Helping

Melted Snowman Cookes

Today we made Christmas cookies, melted snowman sugar cookies. They are so easy and cute. I got the idea from http://staceyssweetshop.blogspot.com/2009/12/melted-snowman-cookie-tutorial-part-1.html
You can get detailed instructions on her blog.

We used sugar cookies and I let him form and smash down the cookie dough. The more misshapen they are the better. After they baked and cooled we added royal icing and one slightly melted marshmallow. After the icing set up, we used orange sprinkles for a nose(I just picked out the orange ones from a multicolor bottle of sprinkle) and then with a food writer pen, I let LittleBit add eyes and hands.

It was so easy and a fun time for him. This could be used all winter long since it is snowmen. I am sure we will make them again this winter.

Small Update and Birthday

I am sorry I have not posted in a couple of weeks. Hubby and LittleBit were in a small wreck, nobody was hurt, but it totaled the car. Right before Thanksgiving the alternator on our other car went out, and it took a few days to get it fixed with the holiday and all. I have been trying to plan our vacation and the weather is not working with me at all.

I am working on an end of first semester update. We have finished our first semester this week. We will officially start back after the new year. This month we will do several craft projects for Christmas, work in our math books and read. I will try to get the post up by early next week.

In the meantime, it is LittleBit's birthday. Happy Birthday!

Deconstructing

Singapore Math Practice Books 1A and 1B

This week we started working from the Singapore Math Practice books. We have been working with the Singapore Workbook 1B and we came to point in the textbook where you begin to add 3 or more numbers together. I feel he does not have a completely solid understanding of basic math facts and want to have more of them memorized before we move on. In order to help, I ordered the extra practice books from amazon.com. The books are 9.99 and are part of Amazon's buy 4 pay for 3 promotion. I ordered the 2 practice books plus a book for Christmas and the book Bible Heroes and Bad Guys for less than 25.00 with free shipping.

So far, I like the extra practice books, they have perforated pages so you can tear out the number of pages you want to use for the day. We are working through book 1A, we have finished Unit 1 and he enjoyed the sheets, there was adding, matching, coloring and writing involved. Between the extra practice and his new Cosmic Math game on Leapster he is getting a lot of extra math practice.