An Abstract Lesson on Snow in Florida

After my post on homeschooling in Florida winter last week, this week Samantha's science lesson was about weather.  She learned about the many ways we can describe weather and the effects of weather on people, animals and plants.  She also learned that weather can be observed, measured and recorded using our senses and tools.  There are so many instruments that are used.  I think the ones she probably understood best were thermometer or thermostat because we use those on a regular basis at home, and our own senses.  Again, because we use our senses daily. 

Some of other things that were covered in the lesson may not be things that she understood or retained, like how climate varies from place to place and is influenced by factors such as the proximity to bodies of water and the equator. Some concepts that are abstract are difficult for her to grasp. But the more we talk about it and the more we watch videos and visual explanations of it, the easier it will be for her.  So we will continue to read and talk about this for the next week. I'll be looking for some videos to watch together, like videos about weather balloons. I think she'll find them interesting.  

Another part of the lesson that is hard for her to grasp is the topic of snow.  She knows what really cold weather is now that we've been camping in 36-degree weather. What's the point of having such cold weather to sleep in if we don't have the snow to go with it and enjoy, right?  Haha. That's what my kids said that weekend after sleeping in that bitter cold weather. Anyway, I did find some short video clips, in addition to the ones in our lesson, that showed snow falling and how it's formed. I even found some suggestions on how to make fake snow using a clean disposable diaper, water and a bowl.  After cutting the diaper open, we shook the contents into a bowl.  Samantha added water a bit at a time until it started to look and feel a little like snow as the material absorbed the water. The directions also said to add salt if we wanted more of a drier snow rather than slushy snow and to put the bowl in the freezer for about 10 minutes to get more of a 'snow' feel to it.  Since Samantha hasn't seen or felt snow, she had nothing to compare it to. I, on the other hand, thought it was a poor imitation. But at least Sam got to do a little bit of a hands-on project and got a little bit of an idea of what it's like.  Oh, if you try this at home, do not flush this down the toilet or the drain. Dump it in the trash!  Not that we did either, but I thought I should mention it. 

We're really enjoying this science curriculum.  Whether it's kindergarten science , first or second grade, this is a wonderful interactive program for the kids to practice science. Especially if you don't like doing messy science projects. And if you do, you can always add something simple like I did. :)