science

2017-18 School Year–Week Five

It was another busy week, and we never even did go on a field trip!

All of the children have been learning about Abraham and his many relatives in their various religious lessons. Turkey and Bunny have been studying about Abraham in history, as well, so that has worked out rather nicely. I think Ladybug may learn about him in history next week, too…I love when multiple subjects collide!

Math has continued to go well for everyone. Chickadee is a very mathy little girl, and if I let her, she’d probably be halfway through her kindergarten curriculum already. As it is, even with me holding her back a bit, some days she does two (or even three!) lessons just for fun! Turkey and Bunny learned how bisect angles this week (although I did learn that Turkey looked up how to do that some time ago, because he was curious). Ladybug learned how to measure area and volume. This is the least trouble we’ve had with math as a whole for years, and I love it!

The big excitement this week was science. We took samples of water from a pond in our neighborhood, and have been culturing them. Yesterday, we got out our microscope to see what we had caught. In addition to the bacteria we were looking to find, we also discovered paramecium! All four of the children were truly delighted to see those tiny, microscopic creatures moving through the water. It was one of those thrilling homeschool moments! We get to check back in on our samples in a few days, and we’re looking forward to seeing if there are any changes.

Maybe next week we’ll go on one of the several field trips I’ve been considering…we’ll just have to see how it goes!

Third Grade: Week Ten Wrap-Up

(Due to World Series excitement, I completely forgot about this until today!)

Not a lot to report from this week. We’re continuing our overview of American History, this week focusing on Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence, as well as the early American flag. I overheard Bunny reading the Declaration out loud later in the week, so I guess she really enjoyed learning about it!

We’re continuing to plug away at Latin, adding the second declension to our repertoire. Again, the children are learning it much faster than I am–I continue to be astounded at how quickly their brains soak up and adapt to another language. Hopefully, when we start learning French in a year or two, they will continue to take to it so well!

We abandoned our regular science lessons this week for a series of nature walks, complete with magnifying glass. We examined bugs and leaves, berries and grasses, and especially dandelions. It’s amazing how many more things the children notice when they have a magnifying glass through which to look at them! It was fun to take a break from our routine and do something a little different, and it really gave us a chance to enjoy all the beautiful fall colors as well!

 

Third Grade: Week One Wrap-Up

I’m hoping to write more consistently about our homeschool experiences this year, by way of a weekly wrap-up. Instead of giving a summary of everything we’ve done in a given week, though, I’m going to share curriculum I particularly like using, or a good story from the week, or a field trip we’ve had…that sort of thing.

Now that we’ve finished our first week of third grade, I have a better feel for some of the new materials we’re using this year. So far, I’m very impressed with the curriculum I purchased from Beautiful Feet Books.

I really love the History of Science. The whole approach to this program is great. Turkey and Bunny are reading, (and from a pretty wide selection of books, too!), and discussing, drawing, mapping, doing copywork, and creating a timeline. It’s such a great variety of activities that it doesn’t feel boring like some other programs tend to. Turkey and Bunny, (and, I confess, their teacher), have really enjoyed learning about Archimedes and his world this week–we’re looking forward to learn more about ancient Greek scientists next week!

The History of the Horse is very similar in layout. Readings from a wide variety of sources, drawing, (we have a whole book dedicated to learning how to draw horses), copywork, etc. I know it’s kind of a strange topic to study in school, but I thought it would be a fun elective. It’s an interesting combination of history, zoology, and literature. Even Ladybug, who is way too young for the notebooking activities, is enjoying following along in the books, (especially the Handbook of Horses, which has lots of great photos), because she loves horses.

I really wish I could try out some of Beautiful Feet’s general history programs. From what I understand, however, they teach a Providential view of American history, and I won’t be teaching that in our school. I am hoping to use their History of Classical Music program in a few years, though, which I’ve heard is just as good, if not better, than the two we’re using this year!

So Many Books, So Little Time

In revising my long-terms goals for homeschooling, I’ve come to a terrible conclusion: there’s just not enough time to teach all of the things I want the children to learn!

Take science, for example. For the last few years, we’ve done Sonlight science, and I’ve been pretty happy with it. It’s time for a change, though, so for our upcoming third grade year, we’ll be doing Beautiful Feet’s History of Science program. But I also want to use some of My Father’s World’s science in the future (not third grade, thankfully–it’s a repeat of what we did this year, so we’re able to fit in the BF program), and I want to use at least some of the Apologia science that isn’t already scheduled in MFW. But, there are more years worth of science programs that I want to use than I have years left of elementary school to get through. Scary.

Foreign language is another example. Will we have time to study all of the languages I’d like to fit in? Besides Memoria Press’s Latin, I’d like us to get at least a basic grasp of French and German (probably with Rosetta Stone). And then I think maybe we should study Spanish, too. And the children have some ideas of languages they might like to add, including Greek and Italian (I have no idea why). Obviously, we can’t do it all. But how do I maximize our time so that we can learn as much as possible?

Thankfully, the history cycle is pretty straightforward. Every four years, we study the same thing, so I don’t have to worry about us missing any major points in history. I can’t guarantee that we’ll get through all of the extra books I’m hoping to read, however!

Math and language arts are really the only two subjects I don’t have to worry about, because it’s not like you can even try to do two programs at once, and once you find something that works, it doesn’t make any sense to jump around. So that’s a relief right there.

The rest of it, though…well, I’m starting to feel more like a “real” teacher struggling with this dilemma, anyway!

Blast Off!

I’m working on a “summer school” unit for Turkey and Bunny.  We’re kind of doing year round schooling, but I don’t want to start our regular curriculum earlier and earlier every year (at least not until they’re older), so in addition to the special units I do during the regular school year, I’m tyring to come up with some summer units as well.  Right now, my main focus is on outer space, as it’s something that they’re both interested in, and something that has a lot of available resources, and resources that can go beyond science (history, reading, math, biographies, etc.).

We already have quite a few books about space, courtesy of Turkey’s interest, so I have a starting point for my lessons.  We have three DK Readers, which will be useful both for reading practice and learning: Rockets and Spaceships; Starry Sky; and Astronaut Living in Space.  We will also re-read one of our favorites–There’s No Place Like Space: All About Our Solar System.  Although this is written in the style of Dr. Seuss, and stars the Cat in the Hat, it actually teaches quite a lot about outer space, and is just a fun book to read.

We also have two encyclopedia-type books: My Book of Space and the DK First Space Encyclopedia.  These books (especially the latter) have to be read with some care, to avoid the topic of the “Big Bang,” which I do not feel is an appropriate subject at this young age.  When Turkey and Bunny are older, we’ll discuss the theory, as well as why it’s incorrect, but for now, until they can process more fully, we are avoiding the subject altogether.

We’ll also be reading some Magic School Bus titles (The Magic School Bus Takes a Moonwalk and The Magic School Bus: Sees Stars, but not The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System, as that will be a Sonlight book down the road), and I’m hoping to get the Magic School Bus: Secrets of Space science kit, which will provide us with lots of science experiments and projects, including making a telescope (although we’ll be using Turkey’s real telescope in the evenings to hopefully look at some of the things we’re learning about) and  a model of the solar system.secrets-of-space-boxsecrets-of-space-contents

I want Turkey and Bunny to also learn about a person more in-depth, and after seeing an age-appropriate book about him at Moose’s school’s recent book fair, I decided on Neil Armstrong.  Who is Neil Armstrong? (part of Scholastic’s Who Was…? series) is a child-friendly biography of Neil Armstrong’s life, including his famous journey to the moon.

I found a cool book at the library recently that I’m also hoping to use (as long as someone else hasn’t checked it out!): the DK/Google e.guide–Space Travel.  I can’t believe I’ve never come across any of these books before, especially since this particular one is almost five years old, but I find them very interesting.  All of these e.guides have Internet links written into the book for further study.  This will be helpful in learning about space, and in learning a little more about using the computer.

I’m hoping to find The Best Book of Spaceships at the library, as well.  This book was supposed to be a birthday present for Turkey, but it’s “temporarily unavailable.”  I don’t know if it’s going out of print, or maybe is just going through a new printing, but I’m hoping one of the libraries in our system has it. I may also try to find the Usborne First Encyclopedia of Space at the library.  We’ve used several Usborne books in school this year, and I’ve been impressed with them overall, but if this title is too repetitive of what we already have, or focuses too much on the “Big Bang,” I won’t bother checking it out.

I’ve seen some children’s books out there about individual planets (or pairs of planets), but the titles are escaping me at the moment.  If I can ever remember what they were called, I may try to find those at the library, too.  I’d like to learn about a different planet each day for nine days (yes, I’m still counting Pluto), in addition to the sun, other stars, space travel, and all the other things I have planned, and that would be an easy way to go about it, *if* I can find them.

I’m sure we’ll also do the puzzle Turkey received as a Christmas present at least once.  It’s a big Melissa and Doug floor puzzle of the solar system, and even though he and Bunny have pretty much memorized it, it’s a helpful tool for remembering the names of the planets, where they’re located in relation to Earth, and what they look like.

I have a lot of stuff planned for this unit–right now, I’m planning on it lasting two weeks, but I’m sure I could easily turn it into three (maybe even four) weeks of instruction.  It will be something to keep little brains busy in between Sonlight cores this summer, anyway–it’s just too bad they’re not old enough to watch Apollo 13!  Maybe we can sneak an episode of Star Trek in there–even though it’s fiction, it has shaped a lot of the way we view space travel!