24\03\2015 - This and that

I'm always so far behind updating this blog. I still have to include it in my daily routine.
So let's go back in time to thursday when we got ready for the next day eclipse and equinox and let's go on until today. Enjoy the ride  !

Thursday evening we prepared some tool to observe the eclipse in safety, we cut few pieces from the dark film that you put on car windows and laminated it. They worked out very fine and we could enjoy the total eclipse with no problem for our sight. Unfortunately I couldn't take proper pictures of the event, probably the camera needs a proper filter for it.

Gaia and Seba during the weekend decided to give a try to altered books.

They are making a secret box.

On monday, as we always do, with Leo,Seba and Milla we checked our buds and compared them to each other to check how the cold and the light change the development of the plant ( and comparing them with the trees outside ) and we nature-journaled our discoveries.

Gaia instead has been working on an essay for her history of ballet class. But she will talk more about this in the next days, since she went to see a ballet in Helsinki Opera one week ago.

Today while Gaia was studying hisory of ballet and anatomy ( bones ), with Leo,Seba and Milla we did some worksheet in english.

Then with Leo, Seba and Milla we learned about sheeps and ruminants and wool.

After that Milla and Seba ( and me and Jimmy ) had some sheep fun. Seba carded some white wool for his sheep, while Milla cut tiny pieces of wool from a ball of yarn. Both sheeps look really nice in my opinion.

(Leo doesn't like this 'childish' things, so I respect his feelings of course ).

 

Milla and James today are resless, so after lunch they kept working. Milla started painting (and she still is ) and she involved James with great success.

18\03\2015: the greatest teacher

The last few days gave us proof once again that a book can't rule what a child should learn. Just living makes it clear about what we should talk and discuss and learn.
So on monday we found our ant nest and our Irish friend called and spoke about St.Patrick day and we read about the solar eclipse of the 20th of march. So here our tuesday morning ....

After reading and discussing about St.Patrick ( either the saint and the holiday ) and Ireland we all made this art progject  anout shamrocks.

Then we learned about the eclipses ( this is a book I made for my children few years ago, it's quite useful in many different areas )

 

... And about deep sleep

But then, yesterday night something unexpected and wonderful happened ...

 

Northern Lights ! We saw them for the first time. This is highly uncommon here in the south of Finland as it usually happens only above the artic circle. So this morning ...

Everybody happily dived in the astronomy, learning about the solar system, the northern light and many other things.

It is incredible how learning is easy if it is lead by life experiences.