Ashy’s Dolphin Mask!
This past week was SO MUCH FUN! We studied the most amazing and smart creatures, dolphins, all week in preparation for seeing our movie: Dolphin Tale which, by the way, was a beautiful, precious story…a true story! I suggest all of you to take your children to see it! We also got to see it in 3D which made it even more fun!
We learned all about how dolphins use echolocation to find their way around the ocean. We demonstrated this with our own way of “echolocating” to show how dolphins used echoes to not only find things in the ocean, but to identify things in the ocean. We played a silly game!
We also demonstrated how the saltiness of water affects how easily objects float or sink.
Probably our most interesting and FUN project was our BLUBBER EXPERIMENT! We made a blubber glove with crisco shortening and ziploc bags to show how mammals keep warm in the water. We compared how long we can keep our hands in the ice water with and with out our blubber glove!! It didn’t take the kids long to realize why God gave the dolphins blubber!
Even daddy got in on it too!!!
We also played a game where one person was the dolphin trainer and another person was the dolphin to show how trainers use different techniques like “scanning, and shaping” to train a dolphin. This game was a lot of fun, and it was very SILLY!
And, after a FUN week of DOLPHIN studies, the kiddies are naturally wanting their own dolphin! Sorry kiddos, don’t think that can happen!! LOL
Oh, I almost forgot…we took a small break from our Dolphin learning to add a new state to our state studies. We learned about Georgia and tasted peaches and made a rainbow sprinkles peach cobbler together! YUMMY!
As I look back at these pics, especially the one above….I am so thankful to be able to stay home to teach my kiddies. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t all roses, all day…every day…..hahaha, I laugh at even the fantasy of that image! We have our hard times of disobedience, tiredness, grumpiness, and un-motivatedness (that includes me!). But, when we do get those moments of “rosey-times”….. of those “STOP AND TAKE A PHOTO TIMES”, I think to myself, “I am so grateful to be able to have the extended time to stand back and enjoy it, to take the time to be IN THE MOMENT”….realizing that we are creating memories together. I am holding on tight to these young years that are know for “fleeting by so quickly”. Essentially, we just found that homeschooling is our way to stop time, be flexible, enjoy learning together, and just enjoy taking our time (together). I am thankful for it……well, most days. 😉
Confession!!!! JUST Being real here: SOMETIMES, yes……somedays, I do fantasize of that yellow bus coming by taking four precious cargos and giving me the day off so I can stay in bed all day and watch TV! 😉 hee-hee