Homeschool Week 26

~26 weeks completed and 130 full days~

This week we were blessed to have another good week all the way around.  As I type this I can feel a sore throat and congestion coming on, and know this is the case for a couple of the kids too, so praying that the weekend and week ahead will bring good health for us all…on to our school week…

In HISTORY we continued with our studies of the Agricultural Revolution, the Enlightenment, read about Peter the Great and Hanna worked on her bio of Marie Antoinette, as well as added dates to her timeline and did some mapping work.

We also attended a history class for homeschoolers at our state museum.  Hanna got to participate in a skit during class and really enjoyed it.

In READING and HANDWRITING Joe continued with daily lessons from Abeka’s 5K Handwriting and read to me each day a reader of his choice.  I have noticed a huge improvement in his handwriting in the last three weeks.  The extra writing practice each day is really paying off.

In ELA Hanna read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for an upcoming project, completed another assignment in her genealogy workbook and completed the next lesson in Winston Grammar.  She also started a journal.  This is something I’ve wanted her to do for quite some time but she does not share the same enthusiasm about it as I do.  We came to a compromise, she asked if she could write an ongoing story in her journal instead of a daily log.  I figure if this makes her happy and excited to do, then it’s fine with me.  The point is to have daily writing practice, and this works!

In MATH Joe continued with Abeka lessons each day, had fun working in a coin book and we used his play money off and on for different learning activities.

 

Hanna worked away in Teaching Textbooks Math 6 with no problems.

Once again SCIENCE was lots of fun.  We compared/contrasted plant and animal cells using a microscope.

 

I read the book Greg’s Microscope with Joe.  He loved it!  He wanted to look at salt grains through the microscope just like Greg did in the book.  We did, and they looked just like shown in the book.  Joe thought this was so cool.  Next, we wet the salt and let it dry—just as in the book, and looked at it the next day.  It looked like crystals—again, another big hit with Joe.  This is a great book to introduce microscopes and what they do/are used for to young children.

We conducted an experiment to demonstrate the semi-permeability of an egg’s cell membrane.  We aren’t quite through with this experiment.  How-to and results on this one next week.  I’ll just say it is lots of fun so far!

We used an egg, tape measure, mason jar and white vinegar.

 

My little Jack enjoyed playing—this week his fave was puzzles.  He did puzzles all morning most days of the week.  I was impressed by how fast he could put some of the difficult ones together.  He is really good at puzzles!

Hanna attended an ART class at our local art museum.  The class was about sculpture.  She learned about a particular artist, studied their work and then made a fabric and wire sculpture similar to the one she studied. 

The assignment was to make a hand from fabric and wire.  The hand was to hold items that are of personal importance to the sculptor.  Hanna’s hand is holding a book (she is definitely a bookworm! ) and a roller skate (she LOVES to skate and is very good at it!).  She also made a letter “H” out of wire for her name and attached it to the outer edge of the hand.  She did a wonderful job, and had such a fun time in the class.

stART, Read.Explore.Learn, Kids Get Crafty

With my three boys we read, The Mitten, by Alvin Tresselt.  I’d never read this version of the book before, but we all enjoyed it just as much as the one written by Jan Brett.

After we read the book, I helped them all make handprint mittens.  We made handprints on construction paper.  After they were dry I traced a mitten outline, cut it out, applied glitter to the outer edges, glued the mittens onto another piece of construction paper, glued cotton balls on the bottom of each mitten and wrote their names and date on each one.  I love how they turned out.

Hanna and I continued to work together on SEWING lessons in her book.  This is my favorite thing right now.  I am so excited to be learning to sew.  I absolutely love doing this with Hanna.  We completed four lessons this week.  Here are a couple we did—yes, we are still sewing on paper.  I think we have 3 more paper lessons and then we move to some fabric:-).  **I scannned in these images, so they are a bit blurry.**

That wraps up our week.  It was busy and fun.  Weeks like these are so happy, and it’s not often to have two wonderful weeks back to back, so for this I am very grateful and blessed!

I am linking this post to:

• Preschool Corner and 5K Too!
• stART
• Read.Explore.Learn
• Kids Get Crafty
• Homeschool Weekly Wrap-Up
• Elementary Round-Up

Homeschool Week 25

~Week 25; 125 days completed~

I think this may have been one of the most fun weeks of homeschool we’ve had since we began.  It was one of those weeks where everyone got along well, we all learned new things, had fun and got a lot of work done! 

This was the second week of Jesse being awake for our entire school time.   He is doing great being up.  He’s a much happier guy the last couple weeks and cute as ever. I am loving this new schedule.  For the most part we no longer have to break our school time into chunks.  We are getting it all done (on most days) the first half of the day.  This means we now have some free time and space in the afternoon.  This is benefitting us all. 

stART

This week’s stART with the little guys was based on the book Flip and Flop.  A book about two penguin brothers—a perfect book to read with my three amigos.  It’s a fun book about getting along, making friends, and learning to give some personal space once and a while too. I painted the boys’ feet and we made footprint penguins.  They turned out super cute!  My boys LOVE having their hands and feet painted, and I love these keepsakes.

In HISTORY we read about the Agricultural Revolution and touched on several great thinkers from that time period.  Hanna picked out her historical figure for this month’s biography—Marie Antoinette—and began researching her. 

In SCIENCE we studied cells—animal and plant cells.  We discussed the parts of these two cells, their similarities and differences.  Hanna and Joe each made models of an animal cell. 

For Joe’s he used a paper plate, Ritz cracker, colored toothpicks, gumdrops and gummi worms.  **The idea for Joe’s cell came from our curriculum.** Hanna used a doubled ziploc bag filled with Karo syrup. She used a wooden dowel to gently push the parts of the cell into place.  For the parts of her cell she used a balloon, raisins, gummi worms, gumdrops and cereal pieces.  The kids loved making these! **Hanna’s cell idea came from The Gene School.** Next up, we touched on enzymes—this was actually a review from last week’s science material.  We did an experiment to show how our own livers work. (**Experiment from How the Body Works.**)  To do this we used calf liver, hydrogen peroxide, a mason jar, wooden dowel and torch lighter.I explained that our liver is a detoxifying organ and that one of the ways it gets rid of harmful substances in our bodies is through the use of an enzyme called catalase.  We learned that hydrogen peroxide is a harmful bi-product of many of the bodies’ metabolic processes.  The liver uses the enzyme catalase to break down hydrogen peroxide and convert it into something not harmful—in this case oxygen.  (Can I just tell you I am learning SO much as I homeschool!)

Objective

• watch liver break down hydrogen peroxide
• prove that the peroxide was converted into oxygen by having the solution ignite a wooden dowel

I was so anxious to see if this experiment would actually work.  It did!  It was so much fun.  So fun, we called Jamie up from working to do it with us a second time.  He thought it was awesome too.

Procedure

1. fill a mason jar with hydrogen peroxide
2. put a small piece of liver (we used calf liver) into the solution and quickly put lid on loosely--it starts to foam immediately and will make a mess so use towels!
3. watch liver immediately start to break down the peroxide
4. light the end of a wooden dowel and blow out
5. remove lid of jar and insert the end of the dowel that you previously lit on fire and blew out
6. watch dowel reignite due to the conversion of peroxide into oxygen by the enzyme catalase—very cool!

We are still observing our bananas in the jars.  So far no flies—still hoping though!

Lifeskills—SEWING

Hanna and I began what I hope will be a learning process for both of us this year and beyond—sewing.  She got a sewing machine and instructional book for Christmas 3 years ago.  I’m ashamed to say we haven’t touched it since till this week.  Sewing is a lifeskill I want us to learn together—something I’ve always wanted to do and Hanna has been begging to learn for way too long.  We started in her book with the very basics learning the parts of the machine, how to thread it, insert/fill the bobbin and so forth, and completed the first three lessons.  I am loving it and have to admit I am surprised I was actually able to figure out how to use the machine—LOL!  I was super intimidated to try this, but so glad we are learning to sew together.  Don’t laugh, here are some of the lessons we completed this week—learning to pivot, sew “peaks, valleys and waves”.  Yes, we are actually sewing on paper at this point!  Gotta start somewhere, right?! Hanna moved on with daily lessons in Teaching Textbooks Math 6 and we completed the next two lessons in Winston Grammar.  Typing went well for her too.

Joe completed daily lessons in Abeka 5K Math as well as Abeka Handwriting.  I had him read to me from leveled readers of his choice each day.  He also enjoyed counting money and using our Logic Links. It was such a fun week learning wise.  So many fun activities!

I am linking this post to:

• Preschool Corner and 5K Too!
• stART
• Read.Explore.Learn
• Kids Get Crafty
• Homeschool Weekly Wrap-Up
• Elementary Round-Up

Homeschool Week 24

We had “snow much fun” this week!  We never get snow, so I had to get that punch line in there!  Before I get to our school part of this week, first I want to share all the fun we had in the snow.  We had snow two times in two weeks and we are LOVING it!  The first was even the day after Christmas, so for me, that’s the same as a white Christmas.  It’s been a blast and we would love more anytime.  Here are some pictures from our two snow days. Highlights were lots of snowball fights, making a humongously awesome snowman with Daddy and Pop Pop, snow angels and just seeing everything so white and pretty while it was covered in snow.

I made it a real snow day Monday.  I had Jamie gather snow and I made snow cream.  I’ve wanted to do this for years and I was as excited as the kids to make and eat it. What did the kids and myself think of it?  Jamie and myself thought it was good—it tasted like vanilla ice milk.  Here’s what the kids thought.  I had to laugh about Joe’s reaction.  He said it tasted like whipped cream, which he despises, so it was not a hit with him:-). 

Hanna was gung-ho and took it upon herself to shovel our entire driveway!  She spent more than two hours doing it.  And, yes, she is wearing her pajamas under her winter coat—go figure.We read lots of snow books throughout the day, both for fun and one really neat Science related one.  I highly recommend this book.  It is a great explanation of how snow and snowflakes are formed with beautiful true to life pictures throughout.  It is not a fiction book and it was a huge hit with Hanna and Joe.

I ended our snow day with an adorable snowman treat after supper for the kids—donut snowmen.  I made a whole muffin tin last January with snowmen treats, these were in it.  They were so simple to make and the reason I chose to have them again.  Of course, they were devoured in no time and thoroughly enjoyed.

The short one was for Jack and the head-only for Jesse.  When I first put it on his high chair tray he just kept looking at it and laughing—very funny.

Joe and Jack each made a snowman themed craft this week.  Joe made a really cute paper plate snow scene from Kids Soup.  He painted the rim of the plate black and the center blue.  He made a snowman using felt, cut a nose from foam and made eyes and buttons using a whole punch.  Next, he glued it all down onto the plate, and finished it off by gluing cotton ball snow around his snowman.  I love that Joe enjoys crafting so much.  Thankfully so far all my kids do—and I do too!

I helped Jack make a handprint snowman with each of his sweet little fingers being a snowman and his palm a big drift of snow.  (This idea also came from Kids Soup.)  I LOVE hand and footprint crafts!

OK, now on to the “real” school we did accomplish this week.  This wraps up our 24th week of the school year and we have completed 120 full days of school. 

Jack did his usual playing, listening to all that I read aloud to Hanna and Joe, along with the reading I do with him.  The last two weeks Joe has started to read to Jack during the day.  This is at the request of Joe.  Jack loves it and it is so sweet to both see them sitting together and to hear Joe reading to him. 

I printed color matching cards from Homeschool Creations for Jack.  He enjoyed matching them and it was a nice, fun way for him to practice colors. Joe moved along in Abeka math, reading to me each day from our Scholastic readers, and handwriting practice.  I’d been using ETC for handwriting practice, but this week I pulled out our Abeka 5K Writing with Phonics and decided we will go this route.  He needs the instruction in forming letters, writing sentences with caps and end punctuation that Abeka’s handwriting program gives.  I’ve decided that I feel ETC is great for learning basic letter sounds, beginning phonics and three letter words, but it is not a great source for teaching reading or handwriting.  I will continue to use the ETC Primers with my younger boys and books 1 and 2, but that will probably be all before moving on to more structured reading and handwriting programs.  I highly recommend Happy Phonics for a learn to read program.  It is wonderful and goes hand-in-hand with ETC Primers thru book 2.

Hanna completed the next 2 lessons in Winston Grammar, 7 lessons in TT Math 6 and we read our next assignment for family history.  She is moving along in Mavis Beacon and enjoying it.  In Literature we discussed the attributes of fantasy in writing and in novels using Tom’s Midnight Garden as our main example. 

In History we wrapped up our review of what we’ve covered thus far and began our New Testament scripture curriculum.  Next week we will begin our secular history also.

In Science we learned about living things—what they need to live, different types of environments, a little about what types of food/nutrients our bodies need on a daily basis and why.  We conducted an experiment on starches, proteins and fats.  We placed several different foods on a paper plate.Next, Hanna and Joe both blotted these foods onto a brown paper bag to see what type of food they were.  Fats/oils will leave a grease stain, starches will dry white. After this test, Hanna placed a drop of iodine on each piece of food to see which contained starches.  She and Joe both made predictions beforehand.  The foods that turned bluish-black contained starches. We continued to observe our bananas.  We had to can the meat, the snow ruined it.  Still have high hopes we’ll see some flies in our banana jars though. That wraps up week 24 in our homeschool.  It was a super fun week with the treat of snow!

I am linking this post to:

• stART
• Kids Get Crafty
• Preschool Corner and 5K Too!
• What My Child is Reading
• Read.Explore.Learn
• Homeschool Weekly Wrap-Up