Astronomy - The Moon

We have taken quite a while to get through our first Science book.  We use Apologia for Science and are working through Exploring Creation with Astronomy.

This is the main book that I read from.

These are the kids notebooking journals. 

 

 M (10) uses the regular book and E (8) uses the junior book.  G (5) I have a three ring binder that I put his work in.  In hindsight I wish I had just bought him a Jr. edition, but we started this....ahem...a year ago.  

There really isn't that much of a difference between the two.  My girls could be using either of the books.  The junior has fun pictures to color in while I'm reading, while the regular journal doesn't.  There are mini books, vocabulary flip books and puzzle throughout, along with some word hunts and vocabulary crosswords.  We will be using Apologia's books for all of our science and I did buy the Jr edition for those for G who is almost 6.  

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We are teaming up with another family who just happened to be in the same chapter of the same Science book at the same we were.  Getting together once a week to review the chapter, fill out the journal, work on the lap books and do some science experiments. 

Last week we tried to work but none of us were "feeling it."  The moms were beat and the kids just wanted to run around.  We were so tired we didn't care! We were fine with it then, but not this week.  We moved the "party" down to the living room.  (Amazing how the lack of toys distractions helped their attention spans.)  Even the two littles (both 3) did fairly well with some busy bags and a coloring book.

We read the chapter, filled in the journal and had the kids answer some questions.  Then we moved to the counter for our cutting and gluing.  We did do a little bribing with a special treat at the end....which of course was part of the experiment.

I found this great printable on pinterest about learning the moon's phases from education.com.  And we combined it with Oreo cookies (this was our bribe!) to make the moon's phases.  

Its amazing how quickly these kids listened and behaved with the lure of cookies in front of them!

This experiment was a success!!!

We will continue to chart the moon this month.  We have a blank calendar in our journal that we will draw what to moon looks like each day.  Luckily, on the 23rd, we are having a supermoon.  Could that timing be any better! ;)  And yes....I will be waking my kiddos up at 6:30 to view this.  Bonus...we should be able to be on time for church too!