noe schooling

All about bones!

The library downtown had a special activity all about bones around Halloween! We went with some friends and had a great time. We dissected some owl pellets, made a spinal cord out of candy, and colored in some day of the dead masks! I need to look into more of these activities!

ky nature spots - veterans park

When I first heard about this place, I couldn't believe it existed!! There are some amazing trails, but you would have no idea because it's in the middle of many neighborhoods! But this place is a hidden gem! (or maybe it's only a hidden gem for me because no one ever told me about this place) The trails are perfect for little people while offering a lot of places to explore! We loved the large oak they had here (one of my two favorite trees in Lexington now!) and the creek was a fun place to play. We were actually surprised to find some shells! I don't know why I didn't think creeks would have shells... but I guess, why wouldn't they? (Don't think I'm strange for not knowing things such as that!) We also had fun observing puddle jumpers in the creek! 













We learned something new that day. All my life, I thought those large green balls were called crab apples. But I also doubted myself, so I looked it up. They are actually called Osage Oranges! They discourage you from eating them ( there is still some debate on whether or not they are harmful) but they smell amazing and have been used to repel bugs, apparently! People would plant the trees all along the edge of their property to repel pests. Good to know!

KY nature spots - Yuko-en on the Elkhorn (Japanese Garden)

This little park/garden is located in Georgetown Kentucky. 

Didn't take a whole bunch of pictures this day, but this is definitely an easy field trip that we love. The garden is small and beautiful- and there are also some trails. This place is beautiful in the fall and spring- so we will for sure be going back!

Nomads/Ancient Egypt

For history, we have been reading a couple of chapters of The Story of the World each week. I try to find a few fun activities on pinterest that go along with the chapters we are reading. These were a while ago, but I thought it was worthy of posting. 

My kids loved the chapter on the nomads where they talked about eating lizard stew. I joked about making it for dinner quite a few times! We looked at tons of pictures of cave paintings and then made our own!






We made the double crown of Egpyt and wrote our names in Hieroglyphs on a clay tablet. I would post the recipe but it wasn't all that great... they ended up breaking a few days after we baked them! It was still a fun activity though! 

university of kentucky geological open house

I can't remember when the obsession first started, but one day Joselyn started to get really into rocks. Landen likes them a lot too. On our trip to the east coast, we did a lot of rock collecting and we love finding cool rocks on our nature hikes. One of the homeschooling groups we belong to posted about a Geological open house at UK and everyone was saying really good things about it, so we went as a family. SO GLAD we did. It was a very neat experience for us! There was a lot of hands on fun and they even gave us all some fossils and amethyst/fluorite to take home! We will for sure not miss this next year! (the volcano demonstration- first picture- was really really cool!)

nature pal exchange

I love the instagram community! It's so easy to find others who are just like you and who are doing the same things you do. As I've followed some of my favorite feeds, I have found some amazing things. When I discovered nature pal exchange, I was so excited. Basically, they set you up with another family in a different part of the US and you exchange nature finds! We were set up with a cute little family from New Jersey. During all of our nature hikes and such, we would collect as many cool things we could find. 

We included all sorts of leaves, seeds, pinecones, acorns, feathers, and a few fossils and some amethyst that we got at the geological open house at UK. (that will be my next blog post!) We also included a few FUN things- that a leaf garland and a bird house to paint and information about Kentucky!





When we got our package from New Jersey there was all sorts of fun stuff!! We spread it out all over the table and touched, explored and read all about the cool nature finds they sent us. 




It's so fun to have new shells, snake skin and all sorts of other treasures to add to our collection!! I'm so glad we discovered nature pal exchange and we are sure to do it again!!

kentucky nature spots - uk arboretum

It's been a while, right? Sometimes I get so caught up in what I am doing and what NEEDS to be done, that this little blog takes a back seat. I'm kind of ok with that. There is much more on my priority list that is higher than this blog at the moment. Bust still I want to catch up. I like having a record of the things we are doing at school. 

Fall is my FAVORITE season and this year was glorious. I made a commitment to go enjoy as many of the Kentucky parks or sites as I could to enjoy the beautiful fall weather and foliage. It was my FAVORITE! We hit quite a few spots, although there are many more to explore! So I decided to start a little series called "kentucky nature spots". I'm so excited to continue finding amazing places to visit in Kentucky throughout the different seasons.  I'm sure we will have our favorites that we visit often, but I always want to be searching for beautiful new places. 

The arboretum is not really a new place. It's one of our favorites and we go there often because it's not too far away. They have a walking/running trail as well as some nature trails. They also have a children's garden which we love... it closed on October 31st for the season. We can't wait until it opens again in March! On this particular day we explored some of the nature trails. We had gone down a path a couple of years ago, but decided to take different route. This route took us to some amazing bur oaks that had fallen over during various storms. It's actually a LITTLE sad because they had been alive for so long! 







This particular bur oak had a sign that accompanied it... it gave perspective on how long it had been there. It's crazy to think it was just a tiny little thing when Kentucky first became a state!





The trails are so beautiful at the Arboretum. We went in the morning and took a little lunch and ate by one of the fallen trees. The light was amazing coming through the trees. Also, you can go one way and there is a little place where they hold classes (I am guessing) with benches and a podium. It's kind of a fun place to play school, if you ask me!









Since it was approaching Halloween, they had a few fun fall features including a small maze made with hay bales. Another treasure... someone had left a little RAK (Random Act of Kindness) and now I have a new keychain that reminds me to look for the beauty and fun in the world!

What's the MATTER?

Today started out with tears and pouts. It's hard to do school when that happens. The mood usually sticks. And I will admit- it kind of did. It was hard to get through morning studies. I was so glad I had this science experiment planned for today. It lightened up the mood quite a bit! 

These past two weeks we have been learning about states of matter. As usual, we've watched lots of fun videos on the subject, and today we tried an experiment I found on Pinterest. All you need is vinegar, baking soda, balloons, and water bottles!





We filled 3 of the balloons with water and put them in the freezer over night on the day before our experiment. (I had to have 3 of each because I have 3 kids and I wanted to avoid any potential conflict) That's our SOLID!

The LIQUID is pretty obvious... we filled 3 balloons with water. 

For the GAS, you could technically just glow up the balloon, but why do that when there is a REALLY fun way to do it? And it was really easy. We made a little funnel with some paper, and filled 3 of the balloons with baking soda. Then we put some vinegar in each of the water bottles. 




Then we carefully put the baking soda balloon on the water bottles filled with vinegar. When we were ready, we lifted the balloon up so that the baking soda would fall into the vinegar and then we just sat back and watched the balloon fill up with GAS!!! My favorite part of science experiments is watching my kids faces. Chemical reactions are just so fun to watch and to them it's like watching a magic show! 

 

Next we compared the balloons in their liquid, solid and gas states. 

After our experiment, we took the balloons outside and how more fun with them. Opening them up, throwing them etc. That's about it!! Just basically a lot of playing. Definitely helped their moods though!




Here's our little balloon throw/drop. The water balloon didn't pop like I was hoping! Ha ha. 

 

And Joselyn here to tell you the differences between liquids solids and gases. 

 

kentucky nature spots -raven run

Raven Run is always a favorite. They have a short little loop perfect for kids, and with the beautiful cooler weather, we decided to take our learning outside. Kids learn so much from nature as the observe the natural laws in place around them. I love how their eyes are so easily opened to all of the small details. It wasn't long before all 3 of my kids were finding some amazing things! Rocks, fossils, feathers, caterpillars and even a little frog who they wanted to take home with them. We came home with many treasures and even more memories and stories to tell. 

Raven Run has a pretty fun little nature center where we were able to learn a little bit about the natural history of the area. The kids loved the fossils and the touch table. 




We took a backpack filled with plenty of water, snacks, a pocket microscope and some plastic bags to collect things. The kids also found some hiking sticks before we set out on the trail!




It wasn't long before we reached a little stream to cross. There wasn't a lot of water running since we haven't had a lot of rain, but there was still enough to play in. When we go on hikes like this, I like to make sure that the kids get plenty of time to explore and I try not to rush them. They very soon get into imagination mode and start their little pretend explorer games- or ninja and princess games. 





The water was a little cold, but it was refreshing to take off our shoes and dip our feet in. I loved seeing the small collection of fall leaves starting to gather at the bottom of the water. 











I would say we spent a good 30 minutes to an hour just at that little stream. Then we got back on the trail and went a little further down the stream where there wasn't a lot of water. We found a few fossils there including a fossilized shell which was really neat. I spotted a cute little frog trying to camouflage itself, but once Joselyn caught sight of it, it couldn't escape her loving grip. She begged and begged to take it home and keep it as a pet... but of course we eventually let it go free. But not until after she gave it a big kiss! Outside the edge of the stream, we found a caterpillar and watched it for a bit, too!







Toward the end of our hike, the kids always get kind of tired and the complaining gets a little more frequent, so we take a lot of sitting breaks and sing songs to pass the time. The little breaks give us more time to observe too... we saw an amazing butterfly (which I failed at capturing on camera really well), another caterpillar, and a tree trunk that looked like a dinosaur foot. 







YAY for a hiking success!! The kids were so proud of their finds... we took a picture of them when we got home.

Mapping Out Our Trip

Last week, we used our East Coast trip as an opportunity to learn a little bit about Geography! As we were traveling, we talked about each of the states we went to, and surprisingly, the kids remembered most of them. So we found each state on a map and colored in the states we visited on our trip. We counted 11 states! (including Kentucky)  Granted, we didn't get to visit all the amazing things in each of those states, but it's still pretty neat. 

Our of curiosity, I colored in all the states I have ever visited. The only states I've never been to are Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Idaho! Looks like I have a few more trips to plan!  Instead of taking us to amusement parks, my dad loved taking us to historical sites growing up, and we took lots of road trips. Must be why I love them so much! I have so many fun memories of our trips together. I get kind of giddy thinking about planning future trips with my kids. It will be much easier as they get older, of course, but it's going to be so much fun!