homeschool – Homeschool Science Press

Posted on February 11, 2011March 5, 2011 by esther — 9 Comments

Reviewers needed: Hands-On Science

I’ve been busy this week, but the latest revision of Hands-On Science is finally complete! This book is for K-6, and for multi-grade families it is perfect. It is chock full of experiments and activities on these topics:

Matter
Density
Volume
Thermodynamics
Weather
Climate
Rivers
Oceans
Erosion
Aerodynamics
Four Forces of Flight
Astronomy
Orbital Motion

My favorite activity in the book is The Molecule Game, which the author, Liz Brough, has introduced throughout the text to demonstrate concepts from molecular motion to erosion. Basically it is a bunch of kids running around the room in organized chaos under guided instructions to demonstrate a point. Children careen off the walls with instructions like “heat up!” and “cool down!”.

Folks, its 200 pages of experiments and activities that use everyday materials you already have around the house such as bricks, ping pong balls, balloons, modeling clay, and jars.

And I need 3 bloggers to review the new book!

Do you think you would be a good candidate? Do you have children being homeschooled in the K-6 grades? I need someone who can set aside time enough to do 4 or 5 experiments at least throughout the book in order to provide a review by May 30th. Think about it, because I know we’re all busy with the school year!

[ilink url=”https://homeschoolsciencepress.com/shop/hands-on-science-vol-1-particles-in-motion” style=”tick”]View Product Listing and Sample Pages[/ilink]

Leave a comment stating why you think you’d be the blogger to review Hands-On Science. Head over to the Castle Heights Press store website to look at the product listing. You can follow Homeschool Science on twitter and facebook if you like, but that’s not how I’ll be selecting the reviewing bloggers.

Posted on February 7, 2011 by esther

Resources for Science: Constellation Videos

As we are learning about constellations this week, we ran across this YouTube video you might also find helpful in your science class. ScienceOnline, who produces this video, has an entire series of similar videos.

Posted on February 1, 2011 by esther — 6 Comments

Preschool Science: More on the Moon

Last week I posted about studying the moon in Alpha Omega Horizons preschool. We are still wrapping up study on the moon, and I thought it interesting to point out that right away we went from a fuzzy grasp of the concept of “half of something” to a solid understanding as soon as we looked at half of a moon.

As we have been notating the weather on our calendar, we added a little sketch of the stage of the moon (helpful if you have a calendar that has one on it already). My little preschooler saw a half of a moon on the paper then ran to the window to report that is what he saw! Lightbulb on!

It marks the beginning of an understanding of fractions, something I am not starting to teach deliberately, but which we will start to introduce as we run across it: “Can you eat half this pizza?” “Share half of your cookie with your brother”, etc.

He also right away grasped the concepts of crescent moons and waxing and waning, which we try to use in ordinary speak if possible. Although that’s a tricky one. Try it..

A fun activity we did at Alpha Omega’s prescription was to draw a picture of a suitcase of things to be taken on a trip to the moon. What a great imaginative activity!

Here is what my little guy packed for the moon:

We have:

an apple to eat
some grapes
his puppy to sleep with, and his brother’s bunny
a tent so he can sleep on the moon
some track, in case he wants to play trains on the moon
and a juice box to drink

With suitcase in hand, we pretended to blast off in our space ship, supplemented by a youtube video showing the shuttle cockpit during launch to fuel the imagination. We flipped switches and communicated with mission control.

We flew to the moon, pretending to experience high G forces for launch and then we got out and walked around the moon, experiencing lighter G forces as we bounced along and drove our moon car.

We talked about what gravity was, and that we have 1G here, 1/6 G on the moon (more fractions!) and several Gs during launch if you are an astronaut.

And another fun thing: we ate moon lunch with crescent shaped peaches and phases of the moon sandwiches. Of course, the juice box had to be there because he had “packed” it to take to the moon!

I decided we need to incorporate more crafts in our homeschool. Anyone have any moon craft ideas? Leave a comment and spell it out for us- I’m craft-challenged!

Be sure to go check out the rest of the Hip Homeschool Hop, at its new location at the Hip Homeschool Moms new website!