Studying the Stars

The little girls are currently studying our universe. Peanut is especially excited since this is the topic she chose about this time last year. I do not know why I am surprised since she is the one that gets excited over anything new she is learning about. She is truly a homeschooling mom's dream.

We are using God's Design again and have only just begun. We have discussed rotation and revolution and how that determines our seasons and this week we began discussing the stars. I found an amazing book at the library titled, The Glow in the Dark Night Sky Book by Clint Hatchett. As its title states, the stars glow in the dark. The book has the night sky divided into what you should see at various times of the year - early summer, late summer. In addition, each season uses 2 pages to show the constellations. One page shows the constellation with its names and the stars connected like a dot-to-dot, while the other page shows the constellations drawn inside the mythological creatures they represent.  The girls loved "charging up" the pictures and then running down to the school room to turn off the lights and look at the images.

I found a cute constellation book on Pinterest that I decided to try.  the book was made with white card stock cut about 3 3/4 x 5.  I scored the pages at equal intervals and made an accordion book.  The girls then used the glow in the dark book to choose several constellations to make in their own book. 

Sweet Baby used star foil stickers for her pages....

She is so goofy!

Peanut wanted to punch holes in her page so she could see the sun shine through.  It SOUNDED like a good idea.  A regular hole punch would not work so I thought we could use my eyelet hole punch that was not getting much use.  I went through the rules of proper usage - specifically that you MUST always keep the mat underneath it.  After all, the punch can take a chunk out of a dining room table if not used correctly.  After doing several together, I handed over the hammer and the reminder about the mat.  Here she is giving it a shot.

All was going well until, when I was working with Sweet Baby, the sound of the hammering changed.  A sound that was, louder.  Needless to say, the mat was no longer under the place she was punching, so at this point, it became apparent to me that we needed to do Peanut's book a bit differently.  **There was not a chunk taken out of the table, just a small circle indented into it.  And, I kept my cool.  I'm pretty proud of that.  :)  **

We decided to use Stickles.  This is a glue/glitter combo that if handled correctly is neat and not at all dangerous.

Peanut worked on a poster board for American Heritage Girls that shows the various colors of stars and how it relates to their size and how hot.  In addition to our regular God's Design program we are adding just a couple activities so the little girls can earn the Space Exploration badge.  Peanut will present her poster to the troop next week.