Trekkie-Whovian Solar System

I love homeschooling.  I like age integrated studies, which is what we've used for many years now; it just works for me.  This does mean that we kind of recirculate our lessons.  We've learned about the solar system three times now.  Once when Kay and Ri were young(er), once when they were older and the other three were small, and now we've come back around to it again.  Part of our study includes making a model of the solar system and this time I let the girls choose how they wanted to represent it.  I love the way they personalize their projects, but I must admit to some surprises with this project. 

This was T.Lynn's.  

It's hard to tell from this shot because there is nothing to use as a reference, but this is pretty big.  It isn't mounted to anything because of it's size.  The sun is about the size of a softball, so she had to arrange her project on the floor.  She is now using them as you would carpet balls.  I was rather surprised that she included the moon; that was not a requirement, and she did her best to mimic the colors that are on one of our solar system posters.

**I have been informed that when I set T.'s planets up to take this picture, I put Mercury, Pluto and the moon in the wrong places.  T. informs me that the one in the photo behind the sun is actually Pluto, the one I have in orbit around the Earth is actually Mercury, and the last one should really have been the moon.  Sorry for my mistakes T., though she did tell me that I at least got Mercury close to the sun when I put it in orbit around the Earth. :).  And for the record, when she brought it back down to show me my errors, I relized the whole thing is even bigger than I originally stated.  Jupiter and Saturn are the size of a softball and the sun is larger.**  

This was Beenie's.  

I was amazed at the detail she put in these because they are not painted.  She used clay for her's, so every color you see in there are different colors of clay she added in before smoothing the planet out, except for the land and the clouds on Earth, which she deliberately left higher than the water.  The rings were made of pipe cleaners.  When she mounted it she discovered the clay was too heavy and it was tipping the foam board over so she placed a representation of the asteroid belt in front as a counter balance.  I just loved it.  She also included our moon and the dwarf planet Eris.  I don't know if you can see it, even if you click on the picture, but the moon, Mercury, Pluto, and Eris have craters on them.

And last, but not least, this is Bree's.

As usual, I love her painting, but wait...what is that in the solar system?

The Enterprise?

And the Tardis?

Yep, that's right.  I mean, after all, you just can't go traipsing through the solar system without an adequate  means of transportation.  And yes, the Tardis is tipped on purpose.  Have you ever seen the way the Doctor drives it?

Have I mentioned that I love homeschooling?