Homeschooling on the Go

I took the kids to my inlaws' lake house this week while my DH was on a work trip. I had planned to not do much by way of formal school since it wasn't practical to haul all those school books along. But seeing as how we were in the middle of a unit study on water, I just couldn't resist using the lake right out the back door and the various rivers all around us to help explain the concept of the water cycle. Of course, the rain we got also helped explain the water cycle:)

I took the kids to see Lake Michigan on a rainy day to observe the crashing waves on the pier (we stayed in the car for safety reasons). We had learned about the erosion power of water so the crashing waves definitely provided a great example of the power of water to erode things. We noted the entrance of a river emptying into Lake Michigan and the area that would sort of be a delta (the piers pretty much keep the sand from collecting). I put a pot of water on the stove to boil to demonstrate water vapor. The kids had a lot of fun putting their hands in the steam to make their hands wet.

We also went to visit a local fish hatchery to observe the fish. We were fortunate to arrive just as they started the automatic fish feeder so the kids had a blast watching the fish jump to get their lunch. We then had the unique privilege of seeing a baby turtle on the sidewalk--his shell was still very soft. We'd learned about turtles a few weeks ago so this was a real treat. Even momma had never seen a baby turtle without a hard shell.

The final lesson of the trip was a lesson on the power of a wind storm when the driving wind knocked out the power to the entire county. We ended up cutting our trip a day short because without a working furnace, water, toilets, or a way to cook food, it was just best to go home.

I bought the kids notebooks and glue sticks to start a "Field Trip Journal" with cut up brochures of the places we visit interspersed with pictures they draw of the things they observed. Natalie drew her own rendition of a rainbow trout while Frank drew a map of the hatchery (the kid is officially obsessed with maps). It will be fun to look back at the end of the year at all the places we have visited and seen.