Making Blood

For the past two weeks we have been learning about blood and today we tried our hand at making our own.  We followed these instructions - http://www.education.com/activity/article/Components_Blood/

First we poured in our plasma (corn syrup)

Then we added our red blood cells 

Next came the white blood cells so we could fight off infection

Finally we added the platelets so our blood would clot

Trying desperately to get our white blood cells to sink.  Marshmallows didn't work so well.

The finished product.

The great books we have been reading.

Showing Compassion

In the past 10 years I have been many things.

A full time working Mom.
A stay at home Mom.
A Mom of publicly schooled children.
A homeschool Mom.
A part time working out of the home Mom.
A work at home Mom.

I just finished reading a blog post that made homeschoolers sound like they are leaps and bounds better than those that do not homeschool.  It really made me pause and contemplate why we as a society feel the need to think we are better than the next person?

I am currently working 2 part time jobs, one at home and one out of my home, as well as homeschooling my 3 children.  I do not have what you would call a traditional lifestyle and I know many of you would look at me and think I am nuts but why does it have to be that way?

Everything that I have been and done has been because it's what was best for myself and my family.  Isn't that why 99.9% of us make the difficult decisions and sacrifices we do?  We are all in this together, why do we break each other down instead of supporting and building each other up?    The world would be a very different place if we could just muster up a little compassion for and a little less judgement of the people in our lives that have chosen different paths than we have.  

Heart Dissection

In science today we dissected a sheep heart.  It was a really great learning tool (after getting past the freak out!) to be able to see the parts up close that we've been learning about for the past two weeks.  Here are some pictures from our adventure.  :)

Freaking out before we started

Mom making the 1st cut

Megan decided to check it out

Getting braver

Actually cutting!

So proud of herself

Pointing out the ventricle

Michael begrudgingly decided to check it out

Pointing out the ventricles

Weekly Wrap Up - Week 20!

So it has been brought to my attention that I've been neglecting my blog, and here I thought I was the only one who read it.  :)

This has been a week of getting back on track.  We seemed to have veered from our path some in the past month or so but this has been the week spent righting the ship, so to speak.  We got back into a groove and actually accomplished everything I had set out to do, every day.  Thank God for small miracles.  :)

In history this week we learned about the Phoenicians;  how they were great sailors, famous for making glass, and were the first to invent glassblowing.  We also learned about how Ashurbanipal and the Assyrians conquered the Babylonians and stormed up and down the Tigris and Euphrates rivers taking over all the cities in their path.  We learned that while Ashurbanipal was cruel to the cities he conquered,  he created the first library and made his home city of Nineveh a beautiful, wonderful place for those who lived there.

In science we learned about the heart.  We created our own models of the heart and learned about all of the different parts and how blood is pumped through the most important muscle in the body.  Next week we will be dissecting a heart to see the different parts first hand!

Heart models

 In math both kids are working on area, volume, and fractions as well as continuing to practice the skills they've been taught so far this year.

We've been learning about lines of latitude and longitude in Geography, possessive nouns in Language Arts, and have written some pretty great paragraphs and stories for Writing.

My wheels have also started spinning for next school year.  The big decision I'm facing is do we move on to Story of the World - Volume 2 or do we alternate years with US History.  My concern is Megan not getting US History again until 7th grade if we follow the 4 year world history program.  I'm not quite sure which way the cards will fall with this one but luckily I have some time to figure it out!

 The cupcakes are baked, we've practiced our signing, and we are looking forward to a great weekend full of family and friends for birthday celebrations as Megan will be 10 tomorrow!!

I'll leave you with a picture of the birthday girl doing her favorite thing in the world, cooking!  :)

Have a wonderful weekend!