Little House on the Prairie Unit 1 - sprains

The girls are learning how to care for a
a sprained ankle or wrist.

Here is a good video demonstrating how to
wrap a sprained ankle.

and here is one for a sprained or twisted wrist

Did you know that there are several  way to 

treat sprains...

1) Find a position that the foot/wrist is comfortable and not creating pain, keep

the ankle/wrist in that position for about two minutes then ever so slowly

bring the ankle/wrist back into a normal position, if there is still pain then

move onto the next treatment.

2) Find the most painful spot of the injury and start by gently pressing

into it, continue to add pressure till the pain is almost unbearable, then

continue with the pressure on that spot until the pain is relieved or

about one minute, if this doesn't relieve the pain it is recommended

to see a Dr. 
If these treatments were successful then they
would be followed by the third treatment.

3) hot/cold water soaks.  Soak the injury in

a tub of hot water for about 20-30 min then immerse the injury into

cold water for about a minute, continue this for up to two hours.

And then there is the wrapping for support as illustrated in the above

videos and the collage's below

This is AbbiYah practicing wrapping up YahChanna's 

pretend ankle sprain

This is YahChanna wrapping up AbbiYah's pretent

wrist injury, both girls did a lovey job and 

had lots of fun doing it!

Little House on the Prairie Unit 1 - Blood Circulation

Here are just a couple video's and websites we
used while learning about the RBC and circulatory system...
 there is much more to be discovered just Google circulatory system
and don't forget to stop by youtube for lots
of fun videos

here is a work sheet that goes with the information given
on this website about The Life Cycle of  Red Blood Cells

Life Cycle of RBC

and finally here is a song to help memorize the 

the journey of a red blood cell... enjoy, we did!

Big Woods Week 5 & 6

These last two weeks have been packed with fun learning...

Did you know that Yellow Jackets are in the wasp family?
That the queen will live 12 months while the workers only live 10-22 days?
They build their nest in hollow trees stumps, bushes, and underground?
That they are a beneficial insects in that they eat flies, caterpillars, and other pest?
Did you know that they will eat meat, as in your hamburger and drink your soda pop?
And when they feel threatened they will sting and unlike  bees they will live and send out

pheromone to signal others to come and help it attack you!
These are the things my girls learned and witnessed for themselves.

They learned what are the four most powerful antidotes for insect

bites and stings:

• Charcoal - this one can stop 29 out of 30 most common poisons!
• Garlic- the most powerful antidote against viral, bacterial, or fungal infections!
• Vitamin C - helps your white blood cells fight against all kinds of toxic substances!
• Plantain - chew the leaves and apply the pulp to the affected skin area, great against insect bites/stings

They watched a video on how to make cheese, we plan on trying this in the future!

They also watched a short video/cartoon on Louis Pasteur as an introduction

to the Read out Loud, The Germ Hunter. This cartoon has 7 parts.

Books we are reading out loud:

The Germ Hunter

Destination the Moon

Big Woods Week 4

This week one of the projects that PP suggested was

knitting.  My girls already know how to knit, however

they don't know how to spin fiber... 

They've already prepared the raw fiber to be carded.

If you missed that post here it is.

Carding?  What is carding you ask... good question!

Carding is simply brushing the fur so that the fiber

all lays in on direction, which is needed to spin

a nice yarn.

These are carders...

kinda look like poodle brushes, don't they ;-)

first one brush er uh, carder needs to be

loaded.  I found out that it's best to

load in small sections

once loaded it's time to brush, gently, litely like

brushing hair.  Start at the bottom of the 

carder, brushing the fiber then move up

till all the fiber has been brushed through

see how the fiber is starting to all lay in one direction

once all the fiber has been brush it's time to 

take the fiber and load it onto the other empty 

carder.  

I didn't get any pics but after the fiber has been carded

it should be rolled into what looks like a cigar. Then reload
the carder and start again till all the
fiber has been carded.

At this point the fiber is ready to be 

drafted- drafting is gently pull the fiber

out a short length so that what
was once a 6-7 inch cigar is now
a yard of so lite fluffy strip
of fiber similar to a strip of
cotton but much liter, ready

to be spun.

here is my youngest dd trying her hand or should I

say her foot... lol at spinning...

just kick and spin....

the fiber is spinning up to the point of her

where she is pinching the fiber, getting

a good tight spin on the fiber

this last pic is her hold the fiber so that

it spins up to her finger then she'll release

and move her fingers up and hold again

there are more steps to this process, so

we'll finish carding, drafting and spinning 

all the fiber then move on

to the next step... until then

happy spinning!!

Big Woods Week 3

This week the girls were learning about trees, specifically maple trees.

While learning how the trees get their water from deep undground 

with a process known as osmosis, they were able to

perform a fun experiment that demonstrates

this using everyday raw eggs...

but first there was a little preparation to do

the eggs protective shell had to be removed while keeping

the thin but strong membrane intact... plain white

vinegar did the trick within 24 hours

some of the shell was still attached to the egg,

so we ran warm water over it and gently rubbed

it off.  It came of very easily.

here is the egg without it's shell.  The girls described it

as feeling like a water balloon, I would have to agree.

it even bounced, of course if your gonna bounce it

gently must be emphasized :-)

Now for the fun, the experiment.  I guess this would be a good

time to define osmosis, using the girls own words...

...osmosis is the moving of liquids through a permeable

object, such as the membrane of an egg, the most 

consecrated  liquid will draw the less concentrated liquid

through the permeable object, to create an equal pressure

or balance of each liquid...

The above pic is egg A and egg B, both measured before

immersing them in the liquids.

Egg A (7 inches)  is in pure molasses while egg B (6 inches)

is in colored water

24 hours later...

Egg A was measured at 5 inches while Egg B measured at

a one in increase 7 inches!

Egg B had lots of room, it was soft and you could

actually pinch an inch... lol,

while Egg A was tight and felt like it could

burst at any moment!

Unfortunately non of the pictures pass this point took,

but I'll tell you what happened, I know your on the edge of

your seat!  The girls switched the solution, Egg A was now immersed

in the colored water and Egg B in the molasses.  Can you guess

what happened?  My girls got it, Egg A would shrink and Egg B

would increase... thus osmosis in the making!!

The girls loved it!!  And they know what osmosis is!! Yay!!