se7en

It’s Thursday and How Se7en Do Science carries on with Science Observation and Nature Note booking.

Obviously all these note booking ideas can be spread across the range of observational material, but I had to start somewhere… so I spread them through our list of se7en things we observe.

This is basically a list of things that are easy to paste, copy, or stick into journals.

• Plants - Watercolor prints are a brilliant way to observe plants and leaves especially.

  

  

• Animals - Collecting little things and using contact plastic or ziplock bags means you can store the remnants in their notebooks.

  

  This found snake skin has been incorporated into a picture of a snake and an arachnid.

  

• Rocks - Lend themselves to rubbings, just like bark and leaves. But going on a rock hunt is one of our favorite activities and it sure beats carrying all those rocks home.

  

• Space - Printable calendars are great for this… here is a lunar month stuck onto a calendar, day by day. You can use calendars to plot almost anything: the shape of the local river; the growth of a pet; silkworms - whatever. And they can be as complicated or as simple as the level of the student dictates.

  

• Human body - A magnifying glass or microscope is great for observing the human body. Little bits of skin cell, fingernail, not to mention snot!
  

  

• Technology - We see lots of helicopters flying by. There are little bits of technology all over the place and always good for a great drawing event.

  

  Just the other day we saw a submarine and that sparked a surge of observational activity.

  

  

  

• Weather - Print out a calendar and let them fill in what they see. Little people may only report sunny or rainy, but the older they get the more detailed weather reports become. A great visual weather idea is a weather tree: at the beginning of the year draw a tree with twelve branches and pop 30 or 31 leaves on each branch (depending on the month). Color a leaf green for sunny and blue for rain and you will get a beautiful tree showing off the seasons. (Sorry this is a poor photograph, but we don’t have a weather tree at the moment and I had to grab this from an old photograph).

  

That’s it and finally, Se7en Easy Science Observation Activities to Follow.

Gifts from the kitchen - who can complain! I love a consumable gift, they don’t take up space! And who can begrudge something yummy made from the heart. So here we go: Se7en Gifts From the Kitchen that kids can make themselves…

Cookie Jars: I got this idea years ago from Family Fun and I have made them every year ever since - a hugely popular gift… not only is it yummy but it is a gift that offers something to do and after all the hype of getting ready for Christmas and all the energy going into preparation it is nice to have a small project waiting to be done in the post Christmas flatness.

Olive Jars: These are a great savory gift in a season of overwhelming sweetness. If you don’t have an olive tree and you haven’t spent months pouring salt water and olives from bucket to bucket to get olives ready and edible for the big event… never fear! Buy some olives and jazz them up. This is what you need: Olives, olive oil, garlic, lemon, rosemary or any herbs you have on hand. Pop the ingredients into a suitable jar and top it up with olive oil. Add an olive spoon to this and your gift is done.

Sweeties like coconut ice and fudge: Coconut ice we definitely do, and it is quick and easy and looks lovely - a great gift. The celebrity Chef shows you how here.

For health reasons I have banned the making of fudge in our house - simply because I can eat an entire batch on my own and not share one crumb, and to make it worse if I planned that as a Christmas gift for someone else - well lets just say it would never reach its destination.

Colorful Fresh Pasta: I appreciate any kind of instant meal at Christmas time when you lurch from feast to leftovers and back again. It is easy to lose the routine battle in all the excitement and nice to have an instant meal to fall back on. Fresh pasta is yummy, quick and a great instant meal - so yet another perfect gift. Here’s how to make fresh pasta from start to finish!

Garlands: Popcorn always looks so pretty on a string - but it can be quite tiresome to put together. Here is a garland that looks pretty and my kids love making these. Who can blame them! You need a bowl of pretzels and sweeties with holes through them, like lifesavers. And away you go threading and munching along!

And while we are talking about threading… well then there are always sweetie necklaces, you can use any sweetie but we used licorice all-sorts for a fun stripy effect. Make a hole through the sweeties (we used huge nails) and then thread them onto scooby doo thread (it is quite strong and so easy even for little hands to thread).

Baking: Jelly Bean Biscotti and Brilliant Chocolate Brownies. We usually have a huge baking day two days before Christmas and bake batches and batches of these. Package them up and spend the morning of Christmas Eve delivering them to friends.

Cookies: These make a great gift, they are quick and easy to make a batch is never far away! All you need is a basic cookie mixture… and away you go! Sprinkle on them, pop yummy bits in them, make stained glass windows with them,… a bazillion things to do with them - and give them away before you eat them!

Happy Cooking!!!

Tuesday Art Task Time: How many brilliant art projects haven’t been inspired by the brilliant Eric Carle and his wonderful papers. Our favorite book of his, well there are countless - but the one we are enjoying at the moment is:

So we started out with paints and blank paper.

And we got painting…

And before you know it we had quite a collection… of brilliant papers… great for a heap of potential projects.

Then what to do with it? A collage, with tearing (no scissors) and lots of watered down cold glue.

A debate ensued: animals? bugs? beasts? buildings? vehicles? Rockets won - and here they come:

Plotted, planned and stuck. We painted over them with the watered down cold glue - it makes a nice shiny finish… and if we had had any glitter left over from The Venetian Carnival Masks in plaster of paris, then now would have been the time to sprinkle. Anyway, here they are - some taking a little more poetic license than others… but trust me: Se7en Rockets:

And finally trimmed them down for intergalactic travel…

You are ready for take off! Have fun!!!

The Celebrity Chef is back in action. This is a great recipe for kids: super quick, super easy, no cooking, super sweet and super sticky! Take a look at what you are aiming for:

If you want to take a look at his other online recipes then please take a look at his Celebrity Chef Page.

Meet the Players:

• 1 regular can of condensed milk
• 340 g icing sugar
• 340 g desiccated coconut
• A dash of food coloring

Lets Play the Game:

Step 1: Pour the condense milk into your bowl.

Step 2: Measure your icing sugar and pour it in.

Mix away.

Taste away.

Step 3: Pour in the coconut ice.

Mix away - it is hard work, but worth the effort!

Step 4: Put half the mixture in a bowl.

Step 5: Add a dash of food coloring to the remaining mixture, pink is good.

And mix some more.

Step 6: Squash the pink mixture on top of the white mixture.

And place it in the fridge to set.

Step 7: Plate up. Presentation is key. Especially if all your siblings are waiting for a treat!

Yum, Yum You are done.

Hope you enjoy it!!!

This is a basic egg pasta that can be whipped up before dinner. The kids love the whole process. I love that you can add so much variety. I love that from start to eating takes about 45 minutes and everyone is involved. I love that you can introduce new flavors and tastes easily, in a non-confrontational way. Somehow this feels like the correct way to eat pasta.

Meet the Players:

• 200 g white bread flour, you will need more for rolling later.
• 3 eggs slightly beaten.
• 1 tablespoon olive oil.
• 1 pinch of salt.

And if you are planning this project, then I can highly recommend my friend, the pasta machine:

If you want to add a flavor or color to your pasta, then world is your oyster. Beetroot, tomato, herbs… basically if you can cream it you can add it in step 4. In this recipe we added spinach and pumpkin.

Let’s Play the Game:

Step 1:
Place your flour on the table and make a dam.

Step 2:
Then place the beaten eggs, oil and salt into the well.

Step 3:
Mix away. This always looks neat and tidy on the cooking channel and a total mess on our kitchen table. Just mix away until your dough forms a nice ball.

Step 4:
This is when I usually add flavors and you can really add heaps of things. Here is some pumpkin and spinach, good to go. Divide your dough into about three balls. Add about a teaspoon or two to your balls for flavoring. Knead your dough until it is smooth and glistening.

Step 5:
At this stage a number of hungry beasts want to know: Is it ready yet?

No, now it is time to roll and roll and roll…

I keep a bowl of flour next to me and sprinkle lightly after each turn through the machine. Yup, there is indeed flour everywhere.

Step 6: Then you sliver it into strips.

And there you go leave it out on the table until you have processed all the dough.

Step 7:

Cook in a large pot of boiling water for three minutes at the very most.

And yum, yum you are done.

Just eat it!

This is the third time we are doing Grade 1 with Sonlight, and so it is the third time we are reading:

This is one of those books that I am so not allowed to read if anyone is out of the room. We absolutely love the story of George Muller, a family favorite!

George Muller lived from 1805 until 1898, although he was a German he spent most of life in Bristol. This man had a rough start in life, stealing and manipulating people for his own gain. As a young man he liked the good life and didn’t worry who he stepped on to get it, forfeiting friends and family in the process. Amazingly, he goes on to be a great man for God, living a life where he shared everything he owned and totally depended on God for his daily bread. He is most famous for setting up orphanages for homeless and destitute children in a time when their only other option in was the work house. This is the story of God’s provision - and a great lesson to all of us, that he provides abundantly and not just for our needs.

So here is a collection of Se7en George Muller Resources:

• We usually start a biography study with Wikipedia - Who he was. When he was. Where he was.

• You can’t beat the Glimpses for kids worship bulletins on a number of heroes: George Mueller, Orphanages Built by Prayer Part 1 and Part 2. These are great pages to print out for your kids - a short story, with snippets as well. There are also questions and links to word games.
• Of course Christian Biography Resources has a page for George Muller and all the associated links. They also have short reviews and pictures of his wives, something that just adds an extra dimension to the story for Hood #3.
• The George Muller Foundation has a great overview on the life of George Muller and what became of his legacy.
• We first met George Muller in this book, which is a book to read to your children - it has a couple of Chapters per hero. Each Chapter has a comprehension and digging deeper type questions.
  

  

• This book, by Irene Howat, is from the Lightkeepers series, which is a great series of easy chapter books for new readers. Each chapter covers a Christian Hero and is followed by a page with facts, a key point, something to think about and a prayer.
  

  

• This book, is another book by Irene Howat. It is also an easy reader, from the Trailblazers series of first chapter books. Each book in the series covers a different famous Christian. Each chapter is divided into short sections - really nice for the child who would be daunted by a whole chapter at a time.
  

  

Twenty Weeks of blogging and still loving it!

We watched the Veteran’s Day Parade go by.

We did some baking:

We did some arting and made some Go Dog Go silly hats.

All I want to do when I wake up in the morning is read some books.

We went rose gathering for a best friends birthday, Thank you for the opportunity to spend a Saturday rambling around the country side together!

And found the time to go out for ice-cream. The sort of time I am more than willing to find…

Hood #1: Read some books… and wrote heaps of poetry!

The Hummingbird

The Hummingbird doth sing,
as it floateth on the wing.
It flutters from flower to flower,
slowly tiring hour by hour.
Then it goeth to rest,
hoping it will be all for the best.

The Cat and The Rat

There was a cat,
and the cat saw a rat.
The cat ate the rat,
and the cat got fat.

And so on and so on…

Hood #2: Tried his hand at baton twirling - I have no idea why it appealed!

And he also made every effort to teach his little sister a bit of American History.

Hood #3: Read some books.

And made us all lunch.

Hood #4: Nearly died when he discovered he has a loose tooth - the shock, the horror! He made himself a cell phone, why didn’t the wobbly tooth come out with that huge carrot!!!

He read some books and designed some sort of jungle thing.

Hood #5: Read some books and discovered Starfall.

Hood #6: Continued to say “thank-you much” for everything, and I mean everything - what a polite elephant.She did some arting and totally loved making her first hat.

Hood #7: Read some books in the dead of night, while the mother person blogged.

Who can resist something this cute:

The library was closed horrors but we still managed to read some books. Not to mention find a favorite. This one seemed apt with Hood’s #1 and #2 losing teeth, Hood 4 wobbling one and Hood#7 up most nights gaining some - you have to read this for the twist!

Have a great week!