Academia and Field Study

So last week we finished off our first chapter in science. It stressed classification of living things. I created a test of a fill in the blank word box, also short answer, and just plain old fill in the blank. For my third grader, it was a little challenging and I gave him about five minutes to look in his book to get answers he just had on the "tip of his brain" *wink* They both got a B, so I feel that it was a success!

Yesterday was tough for a few reasons and I'm glad it's a new day and that by God's grace we can begin anew.



I realized I was being a little bit "all business" about school and we needed to get back into nature and get out of this house!! It was a beautiful day so we headed to the park with a nature walk, including creek walking (my kids' favorite).

Exploring near the creak

Flowers and tiny mollusk shell found near creak

They collected some items and I kept my lecture to a minimum (per Charlotte Mason's philosophy). I did sneak in some talk about erosion as we looked at the exposed tree roots. I also had the kids find a nonvascular plant and we once again talked about what makes moss different from a tree. We spotted some fungi (not a plant) and saw two different kinds growing under a very nice tree trunk perfect for resting with baby and watching the kids explore in the creek.

We followed with a picnic lunch and then drove to the playground portion.

Little Y had an utter meltdown and made a punching motion and grabbed my legs when it was time to go. He was so red and hot after playing at the park. It was a stark contrast to the cool shaded walking trail and calm appreciation of nature. How I love peace and so it was time to go home. Thankfully the screaming stopped when we got to the car (seriously, thank God).

Mommy and Baby E relaxing on a fallen tree

All said and done, it was a great day.

We will do some math time later and we do have our spelling tests today. I also wanted the kids to sketch their favorite find and write a little bit about that.

It feels laid back, but we are still learning. This is the beauty of home schooling in an eclectic style. You can exchange your schedule for a field day and enjoy life.

Cute fungi near the stream

But our schedule is working great with the blocks on normal days. The day is guided, but it's not a moment by moment thing. You can't schedule for one child needing extra help or some other problem, etc but it does help to know when we move on and how to get each subject done in the day. 

week's goals

Last week was me at my minimum with the kids. Flexibility of starting right away is being able to take breaks if I need to...I had lots of school work and writing projects that I had to speed through all week to not feel behind! It was good to work but I am spending time this morning re-organizing.

Fae will be given her social studies book.

We are alternating between science and social studies during the week.

This article is really helpful to explain the Charlotte Mason style of learning nature (what kids really need to be learning at this age). The purpose is to build observation skills, familiarize with note-taking, labeling, etc. Note that mom keeps lectures to a minimum in nature and prompts the child to make his or her own observations with gentle questions. I love it. We will be dabbling in a science text when we are inside to learn the parts of a plant. We are going out to observe our garden outside. Some lettuces are ready for picking and our plants are getting big! We are waiting on tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, onions, and we unfortunately had tons of pigweed we had to pick and it killed our bell peppers :(

Charlotte Mason style:

http://www.squidoo.com/cmnaturestudy

and

Nature Journaling

I'm also going to be sending the kids links for math work from softschools.com and making decisions about our long term math format - online resource or textbook or both. I also found an awesome app that includes teaching, practice, and more practice that is really promising.

Mid June - One Month In!

We recovered from last week's bad attitude from Sis...she turned in her draft but I sent it back and am teaching her that it's best to not rush through editing. She is going to keep it another day because she edited all the errors but then turned it in without a read through. Overall she did great with her information and I felt like she supported her claim pretty well...I will post the finished copy soon. I want to stress that last year she had less than a handful of writing assignments the whole year. She will have probably dozens and dozens each year at home.

What does writing really teach?

Not just typing or handwriting/neatness but planning, supporting your claim, finding reliable sources and citing them, critical thinking, research and development of ideas....and pretty much the only way you are going to pass college is knowing how to write a good persuasive paper.

She's still reading; she is in book 6, I believe, of Harry Potter. She is loving it. Also, I found a super cool book I will be getting at the library that tells you how to reclaim paper into usable items and art using glazes and other techniques. I'm hoping sister will love that...she is very tactile and loves to work with her hands and loves paper crafts. 

The checklist of activities everyday is going well. They are still doing chores, playing games, and doing activities that build math and or creative skills.

Every Tuesday is piano lessons!! She was intimidated at first but she is working through those feelings (yes a theme with all my kids and those feelings) and learning the piano!

Big brother is still working his social studies and we are using the writing questions to work on editing. He wasn't nearly as behind on multiplication as he felt. He knows most of his facts but is shaky. This week he needs to work on his facts for eight.

Friends - both kids spent time with their bff's this week. Brother's friend and his super nice mom met us at the splash pad and park and I got to know her a little more. Today Sis's bff picked her up and they watched a movie and hung out.

Little Y and I have been learning card games. He's really becoming a little guy! He listens and can follow the rules of a game. He's just such a sweetie. For Father's Day we played Settler's of Catan, which of course he didn't really participate in because it is a complicated game. It also lasted for about two hours. It got intense.

Natural Sciences -

Scarlet Tanager

We saw this Scarlet Tanager when we were at the park last week!! It was amazing and this red does not do it justice. Much more saturated than a cardinal.











And coming up soon - each kid is tracking a plant from our garden and measuring it and making observations. We did our initial measurements two weeks ago and this week we are going to see how much they have grown. This is going to kick off our natural sciences unit!

 Our plant that conveniently shows the stages of bud to pepper!

image: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Scarlet_Tanager/id

Garden

Sis recording in her science journal and Baby E being all cute.

Today the kids started writing and observing for their science journals.

We talked about the 5 main questions to ask and observe in science, talked about how it's always important to label, date, and describe.

We measured the perimeter of the raised garden bed and they had to sketch what they saw in the garden and date it. They will sketch again in two to three weeks any changes, and write down the changes that they observe as well.

We also saw creepy crawlies and the butterflies  were really interested in our plants!!

We planted parsley that didn't make it into the garden (whaaat!?! That was MY favorite, humph!!) into a pot and Brother wanted to plant some basil in a very tiny pot. Sis planted a white bean in the front and it is also sprouting.

I actually captured the butterfly!!!!

So...... things are growing around here!!

It was a really peaceful time outside and we were also able to relax and get fresh air. Sis was really happy and said, "We're actually doing REAL science!!" I'm telling you, I really can't believe how as she's getting older, she is finally connecting that all that crazy larger than life energy has can be used for good and not "ebil".

Really great. Really huge. Happy Mom!