SPACE: PK-4

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Ana's Week

Space week was so fun, in large part because Aria absolutely loves everything outer space and also because it snowed during the week! We were able to mix fun space activities with snow based activities and playing in the snow, so we couldn’t have asked for a more fun filled week!

The favorite item of the week was probably the space tent that Taegan and Jessica bought Aria for her birthday. Not only does she love playing in it, but she convinced us to let her sleep in it multiple times because she wanted to be like the astronauts out in space. I still think one of my best buys when it comes to the space unit is the planet magnets I first saw at the Coca Cola Space Science Center. Not only did both girls love playing with them, but by the end of the week, Aria could tell me all of the planets that were on the fridge. I was so impressed!

Aria’s favorite activity of the week was making her own foam solar system. She steadily painted each and every planet for her solar system and after we patiently waited for them to dry, she helped me to attach them all to the sun with dowel rods so that she could have her own solar system in her room. She was so proud to show it off and could even tell her dad what each planet was based on the colors we picked to paint them. I thought it honestly turned out far better than expected, and she showed a lot of patience in painting for 45 minutes nonstop.

We enjoyed having friends over this week to do activities space related with us. The kids shut themselves in the bathroom to look at glow in the dark moonrocks, they played with toy rocket ships and astronauts, and they even ate freeze dried ice cream sandwiches just like astronauts in space. As you can imagine, that was a big hit with everyone. We also went to the Coca Cola Space Science Center, and Aria and Skylar loved checking out parts of a rocket ship, picking out space items from the gift shop, and watching a Sesame Street Stars and Moon video in the Imax theatre. Even though it is still a little bit above their age level, the kids love the science center and it is absolutely worth the trip.
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If I could do a space unit every week, I probably would, because I have so much fun when Aria is enjoying learning. Her joy gives me joy and we really thrive in the homeschooling experience more when we are both motivated and happy. I’m so excited that Aria got so much knowledge out of the week and that she knows her planets. Even Skylar now will point and say “moon” and “sun” when she finds them in the sky, so she must also be catching on! Definitely one of the top five units we have done this year…cannot wait to see what will join the list next! ​

Jessica's Week

While still a favorite unit, I was again cursed by the evil overbooking fairy. She always knows when I’ve got a full plate and shows up just at the wrong time with a whole slew of things to cram into the schedule. A looming adoption home inspection, surprise upcoming family trip to NYC, traveling husband, new swim class and start to the t-ball season. I thrive on chaos, thankfully, but even then there’s a limit. Thankfully a lot of what I taught about space last year T has retained with some help from time spent reviewing the subject at her Montessori preschool. She knows the planets, understands basic orbit orders, how gravity works etc. 

This go around I wanted to introduce the galaxy concept and tie God’s role in the cosmos into our lesson. I came across a neat, though very adult, article about all the mystery of spirals. This was one of those there must be a God, look how intricately everything fits together with intelligent design moments for me. I wanted to share my personal excitement with my little so I devised a simple art activity to study spirals. We talked about how God creates everything in meaningful ways (even when we don’t always understand the how or why). We talked about what a spiral is and looks like. I showed her examples of spirals in nature, our dna, and our galaxy the milky way. Finally, I asked her to practice drawing a spiral and for fun we transformed it into the shining misty milky way with a little glue and glitter. Taegan loved looking at space from a broader view than just stars and planets so I shared a little about the northern lights, comets and meteors, and we learned the phases of the moon scraping filling from oreo cookies. Who knew space could be so tasty!

We had fun playing make believe with all the stuff I created and saved from last year and I was pleased to find new simple ways you can adapt old activities into a more advanced curriculum. For example I changed pulling letter stars to saying their beginning sounds and then traced them onto paper for my child to practice writing skills. Saving materials and adapting lessons is a lifesaver, especially on a time constrained week. Ive also gotten pretty good and wandering from room to room in my home searching out games and materials that don’t get a lot of regular use but might loosely tie-in for extra lesson material. I found a great game we’ve had for almost a year in the back of the closet called Laser Maze Jr. It’s a logic and problem solving game but the pieces just happen to resemble a rocket ship with space rocks and satellites.  Perfect homeschool material for space week! We also had a peppa pig in space puzzle and some tanagrams I could work into space shape mats to keep Taegan busy while I made dinner and packed our stuff for an upcoming trip.

I know she learned more and enjoyed last years space week better than what we did this time around…. insert plug for PK-3 space week 😉….but we did what we could with the time available and found some small but new, exciting ways to discover details about a topic that’s already very familiar.