Looking into the Sky

"There is no easy path from the Earth to the Stars." - Hard Work Astronomy Quote

This year is the perfect year to do Astronomy! There is so much heavenly activity going on!
Several weeks ago, the kiddos all got up to see the Lunar Eclipse (Blood Moon). We all got up and kept stepping outside in the early mornings to see the Moon disappear slowly until full black with it's red glow.  Then, we piled into the car for a breakfast run.

It just so happened that day was a Wed. We have piano in the afternoons. Ms. Crystal arrived at our house all ready to go but the kiddos were super sleepy.   Ms. Crystal has a lot of students and she says that 1/2 of them are home schoolers. She said, "Don't feel bad. All the home schoolers are dragging this morning. So, far they were all up looking at the moon."  Then, as we began to talk, we discovered that the largest meteor shower is going to be the morning off the Winter afternoon piano recital! She said, "Oh no! My Home schoolers are all going to sleep through the recital! Considering there are 20 out of 40 students that are home schoolers, who knew I would have to look at NASA's calendar in order to plan a recital!" 

Another Astronomy event:
The other night, Oct 28th, We all gathered around on top of the cul-da-sac hill.  With our hot spot in hand which allows us to have Internet almost anywhere, we took our computer outside to watch the live broadcast of the Rocket blasting off that was to rendezvous with the ISS.  We sat down on the curve so we could time it just right  -- Be able to watch it blast off while watching the live feed  and then be able to look up above our horizon to see the rocket streak in the sky!  Unfortunate, as everyone knows, we were able to see it blast off but we also saw on the live feed it blow up.

After watching several clips of Astronauts at the ISS off of youtube  talking about receiving letters and equipment from Earth.  The Little Ones expressed how super sad the Astronauts must feel as they are sure there were letters and special goody bags. 

Apologia Astronomy Ch 1 and 2 with the Boys

"I have loved the stars to much to be afraid of the dark" - Astronomy Quote

The Little Lady has done Astronomy but the Little Gentlman (2nd boy)  have not done it.  Well, the boys "helped" her with her experiments two years ago but did not do ALL the paper work that goes along with it nor did they have to watch long Science movies and clips.  So, the Little Man and the Little Gentleman are being grouped together for this subject. Of course, the little girls will also be in the mix.

Just like with the Little Lady's Swimming Animals we are doing Astronomy in 9 weeks as well.  A lot of the experiment are the same from the last time we did  this subject  but I told the boys we would add on a few other activities and experiments.

The schedule flow for Science is the same too.  Monday we read an entire chapter. Since, the Apologia Astronomy book has 14 chapters.  I will have to double up on a few chapters. Tuesday through Friday the boys are working in their journals, doing experiments, activities, reading short science books and watching video clips and movies. 


1st Chapter:
The First Chapter of the book teaches the planets! And, for some reason as anti-climatic as I think this activity is they like it  a lot!  So, instead of balloons  being hung from the camper which was the last time that we actually did this project, this time they are hung from the walk that leads into my dining room where we are in the middle of some projects.  (We don't eat in that room.)

The yellow balloon is the sun.  Then, each balloon represents a planet!  It goes in order but obviously not to scale!   Yes, they know Pluto is considered a dwarf planet. But, we still put it out there since I was born in the 70's, educated in the 80s! So, we just name the planets and say  Pluto is the a dwarf planet as I find it difficult not to include him!

2nd Chapter:

The Second Chapter is all about the Sun.
So, everyone's favorite is to burn up chocolate and make it smoke with magnifying glasses.   You could do this experiment with leaves but we like to eat chocolate!    And, as you can see it does not matter whose science time it is everyone is not going to miss out on chocolate or an experiment!

In the Sun Chapter they talk about compasses. So, the boys spent some time learning about N, S, E, and W along with everything in between.  And, we so we made a small sundial and checked the shadow markings every hour from 9am to 5pm. 

Movies:

The boys have been watching some of the experiments, activities, and information on living in space by watching Astronaut Chris Hanfield youtube clips.  They will watch a few every week.  The last two weeks the boys (and girls) all gathered around and watched: 

Chris Hanfield: How to Brush Your Teeth in Space?

How to Wash Your Hair in Space?

How to Make a Peanut Butter Sandwhich in Space?

How Astronaunts Sleep in Space?

Can You Cry in Space?

The boys also watched Johnathan's Birds: Blue World Inner Space at NASA.

This youtube clip showed how Astronauts prepare for working on the ISS. The Astronauts practice in the under water, football size pool, in Houston where there is a replica of the ISS under water.

Air/Space Annex

"Space. The final frontier." 

We did not get to hit the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in the downtown area of D.C.  It was a conscious choice on our part because we heard that the Smithsonian Air and Space Annex where they store  their air and space airplanes is more impressive to a Pilot.  So, we spent hours at the three story warehouse. Beloved was so in his element. He remarked several times how much fun he was enjoying everything.

This place is absolutely huge. This is the second story and only one small little area of the building.

 Air photography cameras through history.

Ultra Light. 

There is no way I would get in one of these - ever! 

Although, I know there are many that do fly these little cracker jack boxes. 

The boys were talking about how they could build one in the garage.

Look what we found in the Night Stalker Military section. 

This is the "Balloon section".  It was what was taken up to the edge of space. And, a guy now holds the record for the farthest free fall from it. 

It gives a whole new meaning to airborn!  

 The Black Bird. 

Flew across the US in an hour.

(This plane is huge and as you can see it is small compared to just one little section of one little hanger in the warehouse.) 

Space Suits through the years.

 Headed in to go see the SPACE shuttle. 

The hanger that holds all the Space Memorabilia.

Post Office Box - R2 D2

The next two plane pictures are specific pictures for me. 

 Beloved said,  "When I was a kid, I spent hours drawing them."

It was easy for me to take pictures in the Museum. I probably took over 50 or more. There was so much that was interesting to see. My favorite was seeing the different Pilot watches. I got a chuckle over them.

The Children road several simulators as well. So, that was also a fun thing for them to enjoy. 

And, it was super nice to see Beloved relax. 

He spent several days working plus balancing being a tourist while we did some road Schooling for the few weeks that we were in the area.

Astronomy Notebook Glimpses

"Nourish a child daily with loving, right, and noble ideas... which may bear fruit in his life."  Charlotte Mason, 1842-1923

The Little Man is also doing an Apologia Science this year. He is doing Astronomy which is what the Little Lady studied last year.  When we do Astronomy, I read a section our of the book. We have a little discussion and then the Little Man does some sort of small activity to demonstrate his understanding.  Nothing elaborate but all his own! Here are a few sample pages.

                                              Coloring the Hubble Space Telescope

I print out the blog pictures of the experiments and he puts them in the notebook.

                                                       His picture of a Solar Eclipse

Earth's gravity

Earth's Core :  The Earth Core Play-dough Activity

The Oreo Phase Activity and his picture of the Lunar Eclipse

The Little Man's drawing of what he thinks an ecosystem on Mars should look like...

Mars Rovers

More pictures are sprinkled through the label "Unit: Astronomy"

Oreo Cookie Moons

For the Official Moon Phases you can find them at stargazing.com - Astronomy

The Little Man did a small unit out of his Astronomy book on the Moon.

Just one of the things that he learned about was the phases of the moon. To give him just a little hands-on memory manipulative he did the Oreo cookie moon phase activity.

New Moon, Waxing Crescent, Fist Quarter, Waxing Gibbous and the Full Moon.

Then, the Waning Gibbous, Third Quarter, and Waning Crescent. Back up to the New Moon.

I timed it so we would be done with the activity at our 3 o'clock snack time!

Everyone dunk Oreos in milk until 1/2 the package was gone. 

Play-dough Earth Layers

Earth Layers: Inner Core, Outer Core, Mantel, and Crust - Apologia Science

We are back to roadschooling!  Yes, just because we moved and are having to camp while we find a place to live, all the while Beloved's gets settled at his next duty station, we don't get much time off! Nope, we just carry on like we did when he went to one of his flight school a couple of months ago!  ~   Come on Summer! Right? 

Well, we are still working through all of our subjects. Right now, the Little Man is learning a little about the planet Earth in his Astronomy book. 

To keep the experiments from year to year a little different, we didn't do the layers of the Earth craft last year. This apparently is a big mistake in the eyes of the Little Ones. They get to the next unit subject and it appears that child remembers what the last child did in that unit and wants to do what ever experiment or craft was assigned previously! Then, if I bring out anything new, the child that did the subject before wants to do it because they didn't get a chance to! I suppose we will just call it "reinforcement" or "review".

  

Here is how we layered the play dough for the Earth:

RED - inner core

ORANGE - outer core

YELLOW - mantle

BLACK - crust

BLUE AND GREEN - land and water

The Earth.

Cutting

Inside exposed...

*I printed this out and filled it away several years ago. So, I can't credit the original source. However, you can find it on pinterest and all sorts of Earth Units in which HS have done through out cyberland.

Volcano Experiment again

Theia Mons is the largest volcano on Venus. - Astronomy

The Little Man is doing Astronomy this year.

So, of course, he wanted to do make a Venus Volcano just like sister did last year.

This time we added red food coloring for special effect!

So, our last experiment in the Kentucky house was to make a model and exploded it!

We did school up to the last possible moment before the movers came in like busy bees.

A Closer Look at NASA

Going to space and beyond -- unknown

We spent a day over at NASA touring the Apollo and Saturn V Center. Then we cruised around the NASA Center for a fun day of events. We knew the two older ones would really enjoy this educational experience. The Little Lady did Astronomy last year and the Little Man was studying it this year. I wish we could have spent more time there! We only did one day of tours.

Waiting for one of the NASA tours to take us over to some sites...

Headed up to the look out tower and the place where a Rocket motor is displayed

Rocket Motor

A launch pad

NASA has the tallest one story building in the world.

You can drive a bus down one of the stripes in the flag.

The stars in the flag are six feet wide.

This is the assembly building.

Space Shuttle

Moon Buggy

The Astronauts mechanical helper while on the moon

The  original computers that were used to launch the Space Shuttle into Space.

Capsule

The Astronauts gloves are the most sensitive part of their body

Old Suits

Astronaut's Hands

A 9 ton constellation Sphere that floats on water. 

They are turning it over.

There was so much to do there. We went to the Rocket Garden, the Hubble Telescope area as well. The Children played in the Children's Space Dome too. They have astronauts that give talks daily.

And, the Children did a Space Shuttle Simulation that showed them what it was like to blast in space!

We must go back!

You could easily spend two days doing the tours!

And that is with out doing the wild life refuge that surrounds NASA.