~I have to laugh at myself~

I am definitely the queen of coming up with 
crazy ideas.

I've been trying to really back off the "public school style" approach to our schooling this year. I feel as though it's had us in a real tizzy the last few years; but because it's what I grew up with, it's the only way I'm familiar with. We don't often sit in on other people's home school experiences, but over the last couple of years I've watched and learned from other people in the "business". Hopefully I've gained some wisdom, and hopefully I've passed some on. We'll see.

So, back to laughing at myself. With my last post, I shared that our oldest son has an infection on his cheek. With my un-schooling approach, I thought it would make a fun learning experience. Then, I thought, why not do an art project to go with it!? Oh, I'm so silly. But, I did it anyway.

Here are the results:

GERM MODELS!! 

Staphylococcus  looks like a bunch of grapes. To create this look, we used stretchy string (usually used to make bracelets) and small pom poms.

Tie three (or more) strands of stretchy string together on one end.

Using a needle, thread pom poms onto each individual strand.

(Use a different number of pom poms for each strand.)

When finished, tie loose ends of string together to keep pom poms from falling off and cut excess string.

When finished it should look like a bunch of grapes. Because the string is stretchy, it creates a nice tight bunch. If it's too tight, just pull pom poms back away from each other slightly before tying it off.

Streptococcus looks like a long string of pearls.
Using one strand of the same stretchy string, tie a knot at one end and thread a needle at the other.
Thread pom poms onto the string, pulling each one snuggly next to the one before it.
When you're satisfied with the length of your strep, knot the end and cut excess string off.

Viruses look like hitchhikers.

Use a Styrofoam ball of any size as the base.






Dip plastic headed pushpins into craft glue (dip only the metal pin part).






Push pins into the Styrofoam ball.
Allow time for the glue to dry.
Remember that it's not a toy.
Push pins and feet are not a fun combination.

The finished virus model should look like this: