Quill Pens

We made quill pens today!
This is something I have always thought was interesting and wanted to try. And thanks to our handy dandy science curriculum, Homeschool Science Adventures, we finally did it!

We are completing our unit on birds right now. We already looked at and learned the difference between "flight" and "down" feathers, and what they are used for. We have also explored our bird handbook to complete a puzzle and find particular kinds of birds and tested our field of vision to see if it is more like a songbird or an owl. Now, we got to use the flight feathers (included in the kit!) to make quill pens. We mixed a small amount of water with powder paint (paint included in kit!), shook it up, and practiced dipping the feather (which we cut the end properly to create the pen) into the paint and writing.
Noah only completed his name, then wrote a few things on a wrinkled up ("old") piece of paper before he decided it was too annoying to use the feather pen. Katie stuck with it. She drew a picture on another piece of paper before pronouncing the entire process "messy" and "hard." ha ha. They agreed that it would be much more difficult for kids to learn to write using a quill pen.

Have I mentioned that I love my "all in one" science kit?!??!