I've fallen behind in blogging our homeschooling weeks. So many interesting, new things have been going on in my life here in the hills (will blog about that soon), so forgive me for the lull in blogging about our organic homeschooling lifestyle.
So, science. This happens to be such an easy subject to learn organically that I almost didn't blog about it. Science is EVERYWHERE, so it's pretty simple to pick it up anywhere we are and almost everywhere we go. It's better shown in photographs, because I cannot think of a good how-to-learn-science-naturally message to share with y'all. Just be open to it, and it will inevitably fall into your lap.
When fall rolled around, instead of getting beautiful colored leaves in our trees (I miss you, woods of Georgia!), we were surprised with these gorgeous purple flowers (Texas, you're beautiful!). So, we need to dig out our resources about flowers and plants and find out what this particular plant is called. Then we need to look up how to prune them. See...science right here in the front yard!
And once fall's mild weather began, the walking path began to be filled in with clover. Bring out the magnifying glasses and nature journals!
Lately, my youngest son has taken to making inventions all the time. ALL. THE. TIME. In just the past couple of weeks, he's been really intrigued with the workings of everything. Like how does the remote control work? How does the griddle get hot? How does an engine make a truck move? And he is into taking things apart and repurposing parts into "inventions."
This is a memory scanner. Yes, I donated my oldest colander. Sometimes homeschooling moms have to sacrifice! :)
Cute fall-themed muffin liners, right? Well, this day they became headphones.
Comfortable headphones, no less.
He was thrilled with his final product.
And little sister got in on the action. She sat down in the middle of the invention do-dads and went to work creating her own thing. (And, yes, she is dressed up like a hobbit! Did I mention that we have a costume designer/creator in our home? Yep...we have costumes for all kinds of things!)
Here, our resident hobbit is busy busy busy. She may not be able to hang with a textbook that rattles on about science, but who needs a paragraph about inventions when you can try your hand at making one yourself?
Learning science organically is not without its messes. In fact, it often resembles the aftermath of an explosion. But, it's always fun (until clean-up time!).
And sometimes we run across huge doses of science when we take day trips. Here we went exploring Pedernales State Park.
Okay, could you possibly think of a more relaxed, enjoyable way to learn??
Little Miss overcame some sensory issues as her feet met rock, so this was great for her on many levels.
Ahhh, the freedom to learn and play right there in the middle of a beautiful state park (awesome classroom, right?)!
In this natural classroom, we observed all kinds of interesting things...like cool rocks and slippery algae under our toes.
Sand and rocks were unearthed from the water...
And some really beautiful shells lay under the water.
We've studied science in some really beautiful places across the country, and this was definitely one of those.
Even teenagers retain their natural love of learning and exploring if it's nurtured. Nature is a good teacher if we still ourselves long enough to simply look.
Oh, and what is a current? Well, a paragraph in a textbook might miss the punch that our lesson on currents had. If you click on this photo, you might be able to spot the Croc (as in SHOE, not the creature with teeth!), floating away from the boy who is trying desperately to catch it.
The shoe is GONE! Currents are pretty powerful and quick! Bye-bye Croc. Sad boy turns around, while big sister (and her momma) finds the humor in the situation.
Ahhh, but then boy realizes that someone must be downstream. He signals a woman, who sees the shoe riding the current. Got it! Shoe is returned, and currents are experienced.
Another beautiful shell is discovered. Look at the intriguing colors.
And little creatures were spotted. Can you see this one?
And prickly pears were discussed as we hiked back up the trail.
And we also cover science topics as we move along through our timeline of history and the accompanying books we are reading. We just finished Johnny Tremain, an amazing historical fiction account of the Boston Tea Party and other events leading to the American Revolution. The related science we have discussed is ocean-themed. We've covered a broad range of ocean-related topics. Yesterday, in particular, we discussed the diving bell that was invented in 1690 and Alvin, the submersible. This reminded my children about the Titanic documentary they watched a couple of years ago, so watching that again is now on the agenda for today. See...it's a rhythmic flow from one related thing to the next, always in context, always coming from an interest in the subject at hand...and many times, it is experienced in addition to reading about it. Science is absolutely grasped at a deep level when it happens organically.
