Home School Link

We're wrapping up our second year of schooling, just under 4 weeks left. Although I am looking forward to summer vacation, there's an element of enjoying looking at curriculum for next year. In the process, we've decided to use Math-U-See and Five In A Row (and adding in Beyond Five In A Row) next year. Both boys have done well with these and definitely worth using for another year. This just leaves Language Arts as an umbrella term.

Seems like I'm always asking "What curriculum have you used for ________ (fill in the blank for subject)? How did it work for your child? Does your child like workbooks or more hands on? These questions seem help narrow down what I want to research. In this process, I've come across Simply Charlotte Mason. I'm finding, her style works well for us. There's a lot of hands on, a lot of nature, a lot of books, a lot of real life; also, school doesn't have to take "all day". It's one way, of many choices, and it's working for us.

With the help of the above web sight, I've been able to narrow down some of the last thing for next year.

Can't be long now!

I can taste summer coming! I can smell it in the air! I can feel it in my bones! Sure the boys do as well!

Jun 18

2008

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End of the school week

We finished up Roxaboxen and The Little Red Lighthouse and The Big Gray Bridge today. It was another science day for both boys and for a second time in the last few weeks, both lessons were similar in nature. The loose theme was rivers. As it was a nice day out, again, we made rivers with their marble run and had some fun. Turned out to be a lot of fun and they were reasonably dry afterward.






















So ends another good week of homeschooling.

Another hike

To pretty of a day to hang out inside. Could here nature calling, inviting us to take a walk. It was quite enjoyable. We remembered our walking sticks and my backpack with camera and water. Good day to visit the Beaver Dam again. Thing One and Thing Two are ahead of me, on the dog path which leads to the paved path.






Here's a tree I'm guessing that the beavers decided they didn't need after they got started.














Here's a waterfall, over the dam and around the lodge. It was nice to sit, hear the water, and let the boys play in the sand and water. Didn't see any deer on this trip, though.









Thing Two likes to play in the sand. He came home with dirty, wet shoes. Such is life!!









Picture of lodge just upstream.










Thing One coming back down to the sandy area.















Some pretty flowers along the paved walking path. They are a light purple color.







Here's the stick we brought home from the last walk we took. The beavers had knawed at both ends. It's about 2 1/2 feet long.

How many rocks?

How many rocks are there here?

If you had to guess, what would your answer be?

Go ahead and make a guess -

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Okay, enough of the guessing and counting, we came up with 80, ten of which are black. Black pebbles where traded in Roxaboxen. Just to further the math concepts with Thing One, I had him come up with a few math problems that equal 80. Here's our list:

40 + 40
70 + 10
40 x 2
10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 10 (Thing Two wanted to contribute to the list!)
4 x 20
1 x 80
6 x 16
8 x 10

We could have spent a lot of time coming up with more, but this seemed like a reasonable amount for now. We've been working on finding the factors, in Math U See, when given the product. Was pleased to see that he found them all.

Roxaboxen

Thing one and I have been reading Roxaboxen this week for school (next week, too). It is a great story written by Alice McLerran, illustrated by Barbara Cooney about a bunch of kids using their imagination to make a "city", how they design it, and other aspects as well.

It seemed fitting, that while we were at Toys R Us, of all places, and I found Crystals and Gemstones Mining Kit, by Edu Science, that we should buy it. I hadn't reviewed the lesson's yet, but it just "spoke" to me and knowing that the boys love hands on science, it had to come home with us.

Here's the gypsum block with crystals and gemstones buried inside, before the boys had an opportunity to start chiseling.



The beginnings of getting into the block and taking a look at the outside. It looked like it had been fossilized along with a dinosaur and was rough feeling,









The first gem found was red jasper.









Here are Thing One and Thing Two making sure that all gems had been found. Lots of mess, lots of fun. Some how those two always go together.









When all was said and done, four gems where found. Red Jasper, Rose Quarts, Jade, and the one without a card is Rock Crystal Quartz. It was a neat way to be able to show the boys how rocks get polished through sand storms or even in a river. They didn't quite grasp the time element, but that can be saved for another day.

For Better or For Worse

Very appropriate cartoon for my life!!