Science In Summer



Late July we went for a field trip to Science World in Vancouver. It was a nice trip even though there was construction going on. While there we learned about fulcrums, magnets and many other fun things. I picked up some great school supplies while I was there. One of these items is, "The Klutz Guide To The Galaxy."

Today using this book we learned how to make and set up a sundial. We found north and south in our back yard, we also looked on a map to find our latitude of 49 degrees. The parts we needed to make the sundial were supplied in our book. The children learned that they need to set the sundial at the right angle by placing the gnomon through the sundial into the right degree (49) and that they had to place the sundial the gnomon facing north to get the accurate time. They also learned that above the gnomon will be the North Star at night time.



We also learned how shadows are long in the early morning and late afternoon and how they get shorter at lunch time. 12 noon there is hardly any shadow at all.

We found a few videos on youtube that further explained what we were learning.

Wrap up for May 2-6th

Copies of dictation work for BigH and LittleE.

Dictation LittleE

Dictation LittleE

Dictation LittleE

Here are some pages from BigH and LittleE's journal this week. Theses sentences were dictated to them. They did very well needing very little help. Occasionally with LittleE I had to point out reversals. I had to remind both of them about periods at the end of sentences. However they needed very little spelling help. Sometimes they did worry about the spelling of a word. I would encourage them to write it and let them know I would correct them if  it was wrong. I also often sounded out words very carefully for them so they could figure out the spelling themselves. All that phonics is paying off. The first three journal entries are from LittleE and the last three are from BigH's journal. The pictures are just whatever they want to draw. 

This week in First Language Lessons we completed lessons 36-38. We completed a narration of, "The Hen and the Golden Egg." We identified nouns in each paragraph in that story, I wrote them down for the children. We also learned that days of the week are proper pronouns. We wrote down the days of the week in English and Spanish and learned that in Spanish the days of the week are not written in capital letters. 

For phonics we have been rereading "Slam & Dunks Big Game," having silent reading time,  reviewing sight words, and initial consonant sounds.

BigH finished up lesson 13 in Math U See Beta and LittleE is really struggling with her Math U See Alpha. She finds the 8 + table very difficult. Because of the 8 having to take two numbers away from the other number she feels like she is doing an extraction problem. Even though we have gone through the 8 + tables many times with her blocks showing for example how 8+4 is the same as 10+2 this whole concept is not clicking. I've made up some flash cards and I think next week I'm going to try to get her to just memorize the facts. I'm a little disappointed because she started out not having any problems at all and now she is feeling deflated and frustrated.

For Sonlight history and science this week we completed week 12. The children in history read about Babylon. They also compared the flood stories of 'Noah' in the Bible and the story of 'Gilgamesh'. They also learned about Abraham's journey from Ur to Canaan.

In science we learned about the natural habitats and animals of Asia. We read about the Himalayans, the Sichuan forest, the Borneo swamps and the Sumatra. They learned about pandas, tarsiers, orangutans and rafflesia flowers (the smell like rotten meat). The also learned how apple juice is made.

Week of April 25-29th

This week Big H finished story # 15 in HOP 1, "Slam & Dunk: The Big Game." He worked through this story working very hard at it. I'm going to stay in this review area to build up more confidence and ease with these words. He was very proud to be reading such a big book to his father. Little E has just started this book but has not finished it yet.

In First Language Lessons we are up to Lesson 35 and I've found our copy of it. Thank you Holly for lending me yours. I'm going to have to mail it to you, I meant to bring it to the convention this weekend. This week we did a picture narration of NC Wyeth's The Master Bedroom.

We also reviewed proper pronouns for days of the week. I had the kids put the days of the week in order they both did very well at this. Little E needs a bit more work. The both mix up Tuesday and Thursday. We also reviewed are memory verses: The Caterpillar, Work, and Hearts are Like Doors. They also were introduced to a new memory verse.

Days of the Week

Mother Goose rhyme, adapted by Sara Buffington

Monday's child is fair of face,

Tuesday's child is full of grace;

Wednesday's child is ever so sweet,

Thursday's child is tidy and neat;

Friday's child is prone to a giggle,

Saturday's child is easy to tickle;

But the child that is born on restful Sunday

Is happy and cheerful, and loves to play. 

We ventured into dictation this week. These are the sentences we worked on.
1. The cat ran.

2. The dog sat.

3. The man can tan.

They have such a hard time with the sight word 'the' I wrote that on the board for them to copy. I also corrected any reverse letters they wrote as we went along. They both did surprisingly well and I don't think it will be as stressful as I thought it might be. I've decided to start off by using words from HOP K program. I think they will both being doing three sentences.

For Math U See Big H is on lesson 13 Beta and Little E worked on lesson 11 Alpha she was working on the shapes: circles & triangles.

For science we finished week 10 and are half way through week 11. We finished up week 10 learning about the animals of Madagascar in "Usborne World of Animals" and learning how sausages are made in, " See How it's Made." In week 11 we are starting to learn about the animals of Europe the children watched 10 part, 10 min each video series on youtube called "The Wildlife and Scenery of Europe." The children located Europe on the map, as well as the Pyrenees Mountains and Coto Donana in Spain. They learned about the habitat and animals that live in the Pyrenees Mountains: Ibexes, Marmots, Bearded Vultures, Pyrenean desmans and Butcher birds. They also learned about the habitat and animals of Coto Donana in Spain some of these animals are the: Iberian lynxes, Red deer, European bee-eater and Flamingos. In the Western Isles they learned about seals, puffins and otters. They have just started to learn about the animals of Asia at the end of this week. They located all of these areas on a map.

Wrap Up April 4th -8th

The kids watched me make a window stars this week. I was going to get them to make ones as well but folding tissue paper is tricky business. I went to Michael's to see if they had kite paper but they didn't I think the kite paper might be a bit stiffer and easier to fold. When I get around it I'll have to buy some online. I made a few using primary colours so the children can see the secondary colours the primary colours make as the sun shines through them.

I was excited to receive the 'Blue Fairy Book' this week. The kids and I have read the first two stories: The Bronze Ring and East of the Sun and West of the Moon. They both seem to being enjoying it. This week in Hooked On Phonics the kids have been working on the inital consonant sounds of:sh, wh, and th. There last review page contained the words: that, than, this ,them, then, chap, chat, chip, chick, chum, Chuck, thin, thick, thud, shall, shag, shin, shut, shed, shell, whip, whiz, whiff, whim and when. The word play section is a page that has empty spaces that the kids take cards with letters on them and spell out requested words. In HOP K the letter spaces where three long, they are now spelling out four letter words. The word list this week was: chin, thin, ship, chip, when, then, chop, whip, shut, and shed. BigH found this fairly easy to do and LittleE really struggled with it. I gave her the intial consonant flash cards to help her. LittleE will be reviewing this spelling next week. She reads the words well but when asked to spell them really struggles. It's really nice to see BigH humming along with his phonics.

For copywork BigH finished 'The Land of Counterpane' and LittleE has finsihed 'Who Has Seen The Wind' a few weeks ago. I plan on video taping the reciting those poems. They have started to be work on the 'Doxology.'



Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

We've been behind on our science so we are going to focus on it for awhile now until we are caught up. This week the children learned about Congo jungle and the Serengeti plains in Africa they coloured in and labeled these locations on their map of Africa. They learned about Gorillas, Congo bongos, Elephants, and Leopards to name a few.

I've misplaced our First Language Lessons book and I'm going crazy searching for it, it's one of our favorite resources. Also this week we've been using a new resource for Spanish 123.teachme.com we've been doing the day of the week in Spanish & the season at calender time. They have also been learning some vocabulary for animals, food and colour.

Wrap Up March 14th -18th

Mcarthor Island Park

Another school week with different energy. The week started with a lovely bike ride around Mcarthor Island Park We worked on math the same level as last week for both kids. We've been reading a lot of library books. BigH has took out a bunch of DK books on castles, knights and medieval Europe. LittleE took out some books about non fiction books on dogs and wolves and she took out a DK book on Butterflies & Moths.

We watched an interesting documentary on netfix.ca "Between the Folds," Filmmaker Vanessa Gould takes you on a provocative odyssey into the mesmerizing world of modern origami, where artists and scientists use the ancient art form to craft works of delicate beauty and to model cutting-edge mathematical theories. Pushing the envelope of origami to include caricatured portraits and elaborate abstract designs, these experts examine how paper folding can reveal the profound connection between art, science and philosophy. One of the people featured in this movie is past  homeschooler Erik Demaine . Erik and his father spent a lot of time in his early years figuring out puzzles. Erik entered college at 12 years old graduated at 14 at 20 years of age he was hired by MIT as a Proffessor of Computer Science the youngest proffessor in the intistitutions history. Origami and mathematics are just a few of his many talents.

The kids were very moved by this movie as we were watching it the kids and ran and got paper and just started to fold it. When I was at the library I put in for two inter library loans on mathematics and origami: 'Math in Motion' and another book thats name has escaped me. I'm excited to receive them but the librarian told me that they might not release them because they are the only two by these particular authors in the province.  To hold us over until we receive the library books I found this cute website Origami Club  who knew there was so many people involved in origami!

Phonics both children are working away on HOP 1 work through some new words with initial consonants 'sh,' shall, shag, shack, ship, shin, shot, shock, shut, shed, and shell. And initial consonants 'wh,' whip, whiz, whiff, whim, and when. They are both working with the HOP K sit words and initial consonant sound flash cards for HOP1. I've noticed that BigH is having problems remember the sound that U makes. So we are working on that as we do his reading.

BigH has been digging out in the yard and bring in rocks to share with me. He's very interested in them I found this cute site that talks about the life cycle of a rock and the different types of rocks.

We have done a lot of read aloud reading this week of many library books and home books but none from our school curricula. I guess we just need a bit of change. Friday we are going to Kamloops for a swim & lunch it should be a fun day. 

“A man's errors are his portals of discovery.” ~ James Joyce