10th Grader's Amazing Butterfly Photography

 Pictures taken from a pollinator garden at a local college.  If you click on the picture, it should enlarge.

More Plant Identification/Nature Study

 For biology, we are familiarizing ourselves with different species of local plants.  Here are some books we checked out from the library:

• Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
• Wildflowers of Texas (Adventure Quick Guides)
• Foraging Texas (Falcon Guides) - this book is very interesting
• Trees of North America (National Audubon Society)

We took a trip to a local college with edible plants and a pollinator garden.  Here's some pictures.

Buffalo Melon (gourd) - this plant was used by Native Americans.  They would roast the seeds and eat them, similar to pumpkin seeds.  They would also make a tea from the root.  This plant grows in semiarid environments.  https://www.foragingtexas.com/2012/09/buffalo-gourd.html

Silverleaf Nightshade.  One of the most dangerous plants in Texas, according to Foraging Texas.

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=soel

These are butterflies flying around the pollinator garden.  The flowers are Fall Aster.   https://austinnativelandscaping.com/plant/symphyotrichum-oblongifolium-fall-aster-aromatic-aster/

Zinnia, I think.

Mealy Blue Sage.  Important plant for pollinators.  

https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=safa2

More butterflies.  We spotted monarch butterflies in this garden.

Wild garlic.  https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=alca3

Standing Cypress.  https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ipru2

Passionflower with a caterpillar, I think.  https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=pain6

Manmade Debris Orbiting the Earth

 For astronomy, we bought the premium version of the SkyView app. 

 https://www.space.com/skyview-review

Just the free version of this app is pretty incredible.  When we looked at the premium version, we could see so many weird objects orbiting the Earth - old rocket launches from the 80s, decrepit satellites, old Russian spacecraft....

I found this article from NASA "Space Debris and Human Spacecraft."    There's about 27,000 large pieces of space trash orbiting the Earth, some of it traveling at speeds of up to 15,700 miles per hour.  It's actually a hazard to the International Space Station and any spacecraft that launches.  The article said even paint flecks traveling at that speed can damage ISS or spacecraft.  

Reading the article, it says there are about half a million objects the size of a marble (or bigger).

PlantSnap - plant ID app

 I just downloaded PlantSnap, an app for plant identification.  Here's the link: https://www.plantsnap.com

The app was free.  I went outside and took a picture of a plant.  The app has you move the image and expand it into a box, then it tells you what the plant is.  It gave me the common name, scientific name, a description, some of its classification (kingdom, division) and then there are options to learn more about the plant from tutorials on PlantSnap's Youtube channel.  Near the description of the plant, you click on the three vertical dots, click "watch tutorials" and it takes you to the videos of that plant species.  

There is an option for a premium version.

Plant Identification Lab

 Today, we went to the park and chose several plants to identify.  I brought along the book Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification.

We also used the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center website.   It has a native plants database put together by University of Texas at Austin.

We were able to identify Texas Frogfruit: https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=PHNO2

Also, a member of the Aster family, which I think was Symphotrichum sericeum. (I could be wrong)

The 10th Grader sketched the flowers in her biology notebook and labeled them.

Homeschool Day 10/17

 2nd Grader

• He did all of his Sonlight reading
• He just couldn't stop playing and riding his bike, so not much got done

10th Grader

Math

• Mathusee Geometry

Bible

• Daily Bible reading (finishing up 2 Kings)

Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate workbook - she says this book is helping a lot

Astronomy

• Smithsonian's The Planets

Fine Arts

• She played classical guitar for a couple of hours
• Ballet class (outsourced)

Foreign Language 

• DuoLingo Korean

Bookshark J History of Science (history and literature)

• The Clockwork Universe
• Ethics in experimentation
• Galileo's trial
• The Westing Game (read-aloud)
• The Giver

I'm Reading *Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom*

 Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom by Kerry McDonald.

I just started reading this last week.  Good read!  I already agree with the fundamentals of unschooling, even though we have always leaned towards unit study homeschooling.  I'm only about halfway through the book at this point, but it's been an enjoyable read.

The comments on goodreads.com are worth browsing.  The second half of the book appears to spend a lot of time talking about unschooling outside the home and institutions like the Sudbury schools, which feels like a hypocritical topic, considering it's a book about unschooling.  I may skim those sections.

Our library had the book, so it was definitely worth it for me to give the book a chance.

STEM Friday 10/14

 2nd Grader

• Lego Engineering class (outsourced)
• Theater class (outsourced)

10th Grader

• STEM 
• She finished soldering the components onto the circuit board (Blink v1.1 Learn to Solder Kit sold on Amazon)
• Everything worked!  All three LEDs lit up when the button was pushed
• This was a great kit!  The instructions are online.  The components and the circuit board are really good quality.  Solder and soldering iron were not included in the kit we bought, though.  Also, buying a good quality heat-resistant soldering mat helped, too.

Homeschool Day 10/13

 2nd Grader

Reading

• All About Reading - we read words from the driveway again (written in sidewalk chalk)

Sonlight B World History 1 (Bible, literature and history)

• Time Traveler
• National Geographic poetry book
• The Year of Miss Agnes (read-aloud)
• Winnie the Pooh (read-aloud at bedtime) - this is our third time reading through this book, I think

Fine Arts

• Ballet - outsourced

He rode his bike outside for a long time

10th Grader

Mathusee Geometry

Bible

• Daily Bible reading (2 Kings)

Writing/Grammar

• Final draft of both argumentative essays from They Say, I Say (writing book)
• Typed out and saved on Word

Astronomy

• Smithsonian's The Planets
• Earth

Bookshark J History of Science (history and literature)

• Newton at the Center
• More Galileo
• The Clockwork Universe
• The Giver
• The Westing Game (read-aloud)

Foreign Language

• DuoLingo Korean

Fine Arts

• She practiced ukulele
• Ballet - outsourced

Homeschool Days 10/11-10/12

 2nd Grader

Math

• We played the Mathemagical Game (addition and subtraction)

Reading/Language Arts

• Handwriting without Tears
• All About Reading
• All About Spelling

Science

• The Good and the Beautiful Marine Biology
• Whales, dolphins, etc

Karate class (outsourced at homeschool enrichment program)

10th Grader

Mathusee Geometry

Bible

• Daily Bible reading (2 Kings)

Grammar/Writing

• Argumentative Essay from They Say, I Say- she spent several days working on this, but she finally finished the final draft

Bookshark J History of Science (history and literature)

• Newton at the Center
• The Clockwork Universe
• The Westing Game (read-aloud)
• The Giver

Korean (DuoLingo)

Fine Arts

• Guitar/Ukulele Collaborative Class (outsourced at an enrichment center)
• She wrote a 12-bar blues song for ukulele

Physical Education

• Gymnastics (outsourced at homeschool enrichment center)

Homeschool Day 10/10

 2nd Grader

Math

• Life of Fred Butterflies
• We read Mice Mischief (a math picture book about adding numbers that add to 10)
• Counted pennies and nickels

Reading/Language Arts

• Reading Eggs (website)

Science

• The Good and the Beautiful Marine Biology
• Cetaceans
• We listened to sounds from different species of whales
• Toothed and baleen whales

10th Grader

Grammar/Writing/Etc

• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate workbook
• They Say, I Say (writing book)
• She spent at least one hour working on an argumentative essay

Bible

• Daily Bible reading (2 Kings)

Bookshark J History of Science (history and literature)

• The Giver
• The Westing Game (read-aloud)

Fine Arts

• Ballet class (outsourced)

Homeschool Day 10/6

 2nd Grader

Math

• We played the Mathemagician Game (addition and subtraction)

Reading/Language Arts

• Reading Eggs - he is really enjoying this website
• All About Spelling

Science

• The Good and the Beautiful Marine Biology

Sonlight B World History 1 (history, Bible and literature)

• The Year of Miss Agnes (read-aloud)
• Usborne Time Traveler
• Henry and Ribsy (bedtime read-aloud)

Fine Arts

• Ballet class (outsourced)

10th Grader

English

• Easy Grammar 10th Grade Ultimate workbook
• They Say, I Say - writing course

Bookshark J History of Science (history and literature)

• Newton at the Center
• The Clockwork Universe
• The Westing Game (read-aloud)
• The Giver

STEM - we moved STEM Friday to Thursday

• BLINK Learn to Solder Kit
• This was very fun and well put-together
• It's a circuit connecting a battery to 3 resistors, 3 LEDs and 3 switches
• They learned to solder and started connecting the three resistors to the circuit board
• Continuing this project next Thursday
• They spent over an hour just connecting the resistors to the board

Fine Arts

• Practicing classical guitar
• Ballet class (outsourced)

Homeschool Day 10/4

 2nd Grader

Math

• We read MathStart's Captain Invincible and the Space Shapes
• He identified which 3D shape matched the shape in the book (the plastic Godzilla helped)

Reading/Language Arts

• All About Reading
• All About Spelling
• Reading Eggs (I started the free 30 day trial)

Science

• The Good and Beautiful Marine Biology
• Pinnipeds

Sonlight B World History 1 (Bible, literature and history)

• The Ology
• Kate and Mack
• National Geographic poetry book
• The Year of Miss Agnes (read-aloud)

10th Grader

Mathusee Geometry

Bible

• She finally finished Mere Christianity (CS Lewis)
• Daily Bible reading

Astronomy

• Smithsonian's The Planets
• Earth

Bookshark J (literature and history)

•    Newton at the Center
• The Clockwork Universe

DuoLingo Korean

Fine Arts

• Collaborative ukulele and guitar class (outsourced at enrichment center)

Homeschool Day 10/3

 2nd Grader - we did school outside today

Math

• Life of Fred Butterflies

Reading/Language Arts

• All About Reading 
• All About Spelling - he wrote his spelling words on the driveway outside with chalk

Sonlight B World History 1 (history, Bible and literature)

• Usborne World History
• Year of Miss Agnes (read-aloud)
• National Geographic poetry book

STEM 

• DASH robotics - we did more programming and he made it play the xylophone attachment
• Here are a couple of videos of him playing with DASH

10th Grader

Math

• Mathusee Geometry

Bible

• Daily Bible reading (2 Kings)

Grammar

• 10th Grade Easy Grammar Ultimate workbook

Bookshark J History of Science (literature and history)

• Newton at the Center
• The Clockwork Universe
• We watched the TED video of Tycho Brahe on You Tube
• We also watched the Crash Course Science video of Newton and Leibnitz (founders of Calculus)

Fine Arts

• Classical Guitar - we bought a classical guitar over the weekend and she's beginning to learn how to play it
• Ballet class (outsourced)