Stormy Weather, Stormy Times, Weather Experiments

Stormy weather hits many areas during March and April, largely due to changing weather patterns in the spring. There’s warmer weather, trying to work its way into our lives, clashing with chilly temperatures, still lingering from winter.

This skirmish between warm fronts and cool fronts results in rising updrafts of warm, moist air and downdrafts of cool, dry air. Add in the varying winds from one direction of a warm front interacting with winds from a different direction of a cool front, plus rapidly changing temperatures, you’ll often get thunderstorms or even tornadoes.

But as spring continues marching forward, and as winter finally concedes and gives up the fight, the stormy weather soon settles down. We’ll still get some rain showers in the summer. But the severe, turbulent storms of spring thankfully calm down.

Just like in life, we might have some clashes and disagreements with others at times. Tempers – like temperatures – might rise. Cooler attitudes – like cooler weather – can calm things down. And always, there will be sunnier days, gentler breezes, cloud-free skies, and beautiful rainbows.

Even in the face of storms – in weather or in life – we can be brave, we can be calm, and we can find beauty and peace.

Here are Fun Weather Experiments on making storms, thunder, lightning, tornadoes, hurricanes, clouds, rainbows, paintings, and more!

1. Weather Wiz Kids: https://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-experiments.htm

2. Science for Kids: https://www.science-sparks.com/weather-science-for-kids

3. Science Fun: https://www.sciencefun.org/kidszone/experiments/weather-science-experiments

4. Make Rainbows Outdoors: https://bigbangeducation.com.au/make-a-rainbow

5. Paint a Stormy Scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrfXSWJh-I8
This is a video I did of my Stormy Sea and Sky Painting (shown above). View the video to see the techniques, then try a stormy painting or artwork of your own!

Note: Subscribe to our Newsletter, using the Subscribe area at the top of the column on the right. Just enter your email address, and you'll receive our regular newsletters.

Happy homeschooling!

Changing Seasons + Nature Studies

As Winter slides into Spring, we see remarkable changes all around us. Winter snows and chilly temperatures are behind us, and warmer weather and sunny skies are ahead of us.

The same is true for our homeschool experiences. We can open ourselves to remarkable changes, to sunnier times, easier days, and spectacular studies and learning.

We need only look to nature to inspire us. Everything around us looks brighter, cheerier, more colorful. Follow Mother Nature's lead and live in the excitement of spring, of flowers blossoming, birds singing merrily, and beautiful new changes outside our windows almost daily.

From our observations of these things, we find peace and hope. From our interactions with nature -- up close and personal -- we learn new information, acquire vast knowledge, and keep these wonderful experiences in our memories indefinitely.

This week, I spent time reviewing my experiences painting nature scenes, mainly winter scenes, and recalling the falling snow -- probably the last snowfall of the season. And I treasured those experiences. I've shared them through a video here on YouTube -- Nature Inspired Art -- from my art studio, Misty Glow Studio.

Take time to paint your experiences from this past winter, or sketch or draw or create your memories in some way. And plan ahead for the spring months to come. When you can take your learning experiences outdoors, into nature, a park, a playground, or a forest, the learning becomes much more real and profound.

Here are just a few inspiring books to read for the spring months ahead:

* Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring
* The Hidden Rainbow: A Springtime Book For Kids
* My Forest Is Green
* Make Art with Nature: Find Inspiration and Materials From Nature
* Backpack Explorer: On the Nature Trail
* Big Book of Nature Art
* Science in the Wild: Explore, Discover, and Learn from Nature

Happy homeschooling!

Ease Back into Homeschool with Art, Creativity, Writing, Fun, and Learning

After the winter break, it's helpful to gently ease back into your homeschool routines.
We started by taking time for art and creating the painting shown here. Not only was the painting fun to do, but we created stories inspired by the painting.

Art incorporates many different skills: creative thinking, critical thinking, reasoning skills, compositional skills, experimentation, decision-making skills, self-expression, and more. These are important skills that can be applied to all areas of a person's life, regardless of age or ability.

Encourage your children to play with paint, create with crayons, make marks with markers, as a way to express themselves. Sketch the views from windows, inside restaurants, or outdoors. Try keeping a Nature Journal or an Urban Sketchbook. Daily or weekly sketching can expand the mind in many ways and improve self-esteem.

Create stories from the art, too. Imagine scenarios that might be taking place within the artwork, and write a story about it. Writing is another form of self-expression, plus uses language skills, communication skills, spelling and vocabulary skills, boosting writing abilities and creativity.

Fearful that you won't be covering math, science, and social studies while creating art or writing stories? Art and writing include reasoning skills that math often requires, experimentation that science can require, critical thinking skills that social studies often requires.

Art and writing help to strengthen these skills. Your children can even compose "math stories" or "science stories" inspired by artwork, paintings, or illustrations they've created.

Have fun and enjoy experimenting! As always: When you enjoy what you're doing, the learning naturally occurs.

If interested in seeing my Nature-Inspired Paintings, please visit:

My Website: MistyGlowStudio.com

My Etsy shop: Etsy.com/Shop/MistyGlowStudio

My YouTube channel: YouTube.com/MistyGlowStudio

Happy homeschooling!

New Year + New Interests = New Learning

It’s another New Year with New Opportunities for New Interests and New Learning! Take time to enjoy the things that truly interest you this year, as a family and individually. We learn the most when we enjoy what we're doing, regardless of age. So, rather than focusing on the things we "should" be doing, let's focus on the things we "could" be doing!

Here’s a few thoughts to keep in mind as you begin your New Year:

1. “Imagination is more important than knowledge,” said Albert Einstein. He felt that imagination opened up an entire world of possibilities. He believed that imagination was a major factor in scientific research. How do you use your imagination? You can imagine a make-believe world, imagine a new world, imagine a new story, new song, new artwork, new adventures, new ideas. It’s all possible, because you have imagination! Imagine and create new things this year!

2. “Creativity is intelligence having fun,” Albert Einstein said. When you are having fun creating things, you are using your intelligence. Create clay objects, create wire sculptures, create twirling mobiles, create with construction kits, create a building, create a model, create art, create whatever interests you. As a result, you’ll be using your intelligence, creating, learning, and having fun!

3. “The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled,” said Plutarch, a Greek philosopher. By kindling a fire or sparking an idea in your mind, you are filled with excitement, curiosity, new interests, and new learning! When an idea excites or interests you, learning naturally occurs. This is because you are inspired and motivated to learn all you can about it. Be excited and curious, and you'll naturally learn more!

4. “Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning,” observed writer William Arthur Ward. Imagine this: Without a wick, a candle can’t burn very well. Without curiosity, one can’t learn very well. Find ways to spark your own curiosity by asking questions like: “What if? How? Why? Who? When? Where?” Regardless of the topics you might currently be studying, be curious about them. Ask more questions! Go further! Learn more!

5. “Ask questions and you will gain new knowledge,” many have observed. If the tower you built collapsed, ask why and how you can keep it from collapsing the next time. If the clay sculpture you created didn’t turn out as expected, ask how you might improve it next time. If the story you wrote isn’t as exciting as you’d hoped, ask what characters or situations could liven it up. If this week’s history lesson, or math lesson, or science experiment is confusing or dull, ask what activities could make the lessons more exciting, more real, more fun, more clear. When you ask yourself, or others, you will find answers, every day and every week!

Remember to Explore! Experiment! Imagine! Create! Read! Write! Play! Build! Ask! Seek! Research! Be Curious! Be Innovative! Be Adventurous!

Resolve to make your New Year an exciting one filled with fun, imaginative, creative learning!

If interested in seeing my Nature-Inspired Paintings, please visit:

My Website: MistyGlowStudio.com

My Etsy shop: Etsy.com/Shop/MistyGlowStudio

My YouTube channel: YouTube.com/MistyGlowStudio

Happy homeschooling every week of this New Year!

Hundreds of Fun Creative Writing Ideas

November is “National Novel Writing Month” – but your child doesn’t have to write a novel to enjoy the process of creating a story!

Creative writing activities help children:

* Develop important thinking processes
* Expand inventive and imaginative skills
* Communicate ideas to others
* Convey feelings and emotions
* Organize thoughts and sequencing
* Exercise reasoning and problem-solving skills
* Practice analytical and cognitive skills
* Enjoy learning and retaining knowledge longer

The age of your child is no barrier to creating stories, either. Even if she or he isn’t yet writing, children are still very adept at imagining stories and sharing them with others. You can write down the stories for them, illustrate them together, then create booklets containing their stories.

Reading their stories aloud, re-imagining them, or developing new stories sparked by their previous stories can establish a lifelong love of reading, writing, and creating.

Older children can create stories based on Writing Prompts such as those shared on the sites listed below.

Here, kids will have hundreds of writing ideas to keep them creating over the coming weeks, months, and years! Not to mention the spin-off learning that naturally occurs when children read and write! Enjoy!

* 300 Writing Prompts for Kids (PDF):

https://shakeragalley.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/300-writing-prompts-for-kids-list.pdf

* 300 Fun Writing Prompts for Kids:

https://thinkwritten.com/writing-prompts-for-kids/

* 225 Creative Writing Prompts for Kids:

https://www.prodigygame.com/main-en/blog/writing-prompts-for-kids/

* 140 Creative Writing Prompts for Kids:

https://www.squibler.io/learn/writing/writing-prompts/writing-prompt-for-kids/

* 100 Writing Prompts for Kids:

https://www.3plearning.com/blog/writing-prompts-for-kids/

For More Leaning Activities, see A Year's Worth of Learning Ideas, 500+ Science Experiments; Hands-On Math Activities; 40+ STEM/STEAM Activities; Free Worksheets for Math, Science, Language Arts, Social Studies; Unschooling Activities; and much more here on our blog.

If interested in seeing my Nature-Inspired Paintings, please visit:

My Website: MistyGlowStudio.com

My Etsy shop: Etsy.com/Shop/MistyGlowStudio

My YouTube channel: YouTube.com/MistyGlowStudio

Happy homeschooling!

31 Learning Ideas + Art Fun

Inktober art fun -- and learning fun -- is here! If you’re not familiar with Inktober, it’s a challenge to improve one’s drawing skills. As the name implies, it’s drawing with ink each day in October, following 31 specific Inktober prompts. (You can quickly find the prompts by entering "Inktober 2024" online.)

You can also create your own Inktober prompts, and find loads of learning ideas through them, too.

If drawing with ink is too messy or intimidating, use whatever medium works for each of your children, be it crayon, pencil, marker, watercolor paint, etc.

Sketching each day is a great way to create a daily art habit that results in fun, joy, and a sense of accomplishment for everyone.

Plus, many educational ideas can be gleaned from the daily drawing prompts, as well.

For instance, Inktober prompts for October 2024 include topics such as Backpack, Discover, Hike, Horizon, Journal, Rhinoceros, Expedition, Scarecrow, Violin, Landmark.

As children sketch these topics, think of the educational ideas that can grow from them!

Here are a several learning ideas:

Using the “Backpack” drawing prompt, what “educational materials” might be inside the Backpack your children sketch? A Math Book? Draw a Math Book along with the Backpack. Then, from this idea, have fun with Math -- such as Online Math Games, or play Math Board Games, or engage in Mental Math Challenges with each other. What other learning ideas might be inside that Backpack?

With the “Discover” Inktober prompt, your children might draw a picture of something new they Discovered recently, thereby sketching and capturing that new knowledge on paper. Or maybe they’d want to draw an illustration of a Discovery made by explorers or inventors. This could lead to a world of learning and perhaps even encourage them to try their own inventions.

The “Hike” drawing prompt could take children anywhere in the world. This could involve educational subjects such as Geography and Social Studies (hiking to different areas, learning about mountains and forests or different cultures). Plus Math and Science skills could be practiced, by using logic to map out the time required for making the Hike, along with math calculations for determining the distance covered in the Hike.

With the “Expedition” prompt, research “Famous Expeditions” or “Historic Expeditions” (see Historical Expeditions). These are full of learning ideas for Social Studies, Geography, History, Science, Math, and more. Or plan the logistics of your own Expedition as field trips or day trips in your area. Then sketch your local Expeditions and discuss how much you learn through these trips.

For drawing prompts like “Rhinoceros” see photos of Rhinos online, read any of the many books about Rhinos, and learn about why some species are endangered. Go on an Expedition or field trip to your local zoo to see the rhinoceros and learn about their habitat, savannas, and grasslands. Make sketches of their environment, too, or sketches of any other animals or areas in the zoo.

Whether using the specific Inktober prompts – or using 31 or more of your own family’s ideas – imagine the numeours ways you can expand learning opportunities, simply based upon the fun, engaging activity of drawing, sketching, and creating!

It’s a form of daily learning that your children will enjoy and always remember! And imagine how much fun and learning your children would have if you created prompts like this for each day of every month!

It’s so enjoyable that I've set up my own Art Studio (see Misty Glow Studio) for embracing art inspiration and experimenting with creativity. Perhaps your children can, too!

If interested in seeing my Nature-Inspired Paintings, please visit:

My Website: MistyGlowStudio.com

My Etsy shop: Etsy.com/Shop/MistyGlowStudio

My YouTube channel: YouTube.com/MistyGlowStudio

Happy homeschooling!

Year’s Worth of Free Learning Ideas + Weekly Lessons and Fun Activities

August is often the beginning of the homeschool year for many families.

If you’re not quite ready or you’re struggling for ideas, this “Free Curriculum Guideline” can provide a year’s worth of educational ideas for the coming weeks and months.

Subjects Areas, Topics, and Sub-Topics are all outlined in an easy-to-view format for each grade level from Kindergarten through Elementary, Middle School, and High School.

For weekly lessons based on the subjects and topics outlined, you and your children can select books from your local public library. The more interesting the books are to your children, the better they’ll learn, too!

Online resources, activities, and experiments are also plentiful for complementing the subjects and topics outlined. The more “hands-on” the activities are, the more your children will enjoy learning. We have hundreds of activities listed here on our blog for weekly learning, too.

The “Curriculum Guideline” is provided by World Book and is titled "Typical Course of Study."

You’ll see all the core subjects areas (Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Science) plus Arts, Technology, and Health and Safety, with topics and sub-topics listed for each subject area on the guidelines. It's a great resource and is available free at this link:

https://www.worldbook.com/typical-course-of-study.aspx

We’ll be providing learning ideas and educational activities once again in the coming weeks. Be sure to check the labels below for Math, Science, Language Arts, Social Studies, Weekly Homeschool Lessons, and more!

If interested in seeing my Nature-Inspired Paintings, please visit:

My Website: MistyGlowStudio.com

My Etsy shop: Etsy.com/Shop/MistyGlowStudio

My YouTube channel: YouTube.com/MistyGlowStudio

Happy Homeschooling!