Monday, August 31, 2015

Homeschool Funnies for the Week



Here's a few funnies for the week.....





Have a great week!!!


Sunday, August 30, 2015

Week 13 - School starts - Inventors, Wigwams and Connecticut



This was our first full-time week back to school.  We went part-time all summer because I was so busy working on our remodel.  Still have some stuff to finish, but I really need to get the kids back on a schedule.  I'll figure out when to schedule the rest soon.

I did get Lydia's horseback ribbons in a frame and also hung up a couple of the girls pieces of art from the fair.  The rest are hanging in the hallway with their ribbons attached.  They love being able to see them everyday as they walk through the house.




I decided to try and make it special for the kids since they had some time off and encourage them to do their best this year.  So I made them up a few treat bags and declared Tuesday Pajama Day.  We have decided to have official pajama day every week now.








Here's our new "school" area:




Here are the students of East Street Academy 2015-2016:


We went to the library on Monday.  Loaded up our bikes and headed to town.  Brayden LOVES being able to carry the library bag in his new bike.


The girls have decided to work on the Mensa books lists for their grade levels and earn their completion certificates.  They are pretty excited about this.  Have you seen the suggested reading list?  Check it out on the Mensa site.  Great titles to introduce your kids too.  Lydia also decided to start an online Facebook Book Club.  She is very excited about this project.

Lydia started her Mandarin classes with Middlebury Interactive.  Watch for our upcoming review.  She was actually pretty excited to be starting this and worked very hard this week on her materials.  She did double lessons this week, and she even practiced writing the characters in the evening.

This week we started Group classes for Science, Geography and History.  In History we are working on American History starting with the Native Americans and working our way through.  In Science we started Christian kids Explore Chemistry.  And in Geography we are working on US Geography.

History
Here they are all gathered around the TV watching a YouTube video on Native Americans.

 They built a Wigwam after learning about some of the housing styles of the Eastern Native Americans.

 The kittens really liked playing inside the wigwam.
This week they also learned about the Mound Builders and made their own mounds from Model Magic.




As usual, I had some tweaking to do on our History lessons.  It's always a slight learning curve to see what will work with all of them.  Not too many major changes.  Just a few things.

Geography

We spent this week learning about Connecticut.  I was going to try and do 2 states a week, but decided we wouldn't learn as much.  We did several cooking projects and watched Aerial America on Connecticut.  We did a timeline of great events in Connecticut history and colored a sheet of state symbols.  They also did a nature painting of the Charter Oak after we learned the story behind this historic tree.




They made Connecticut - New England Pot Roast, Election Day cake and ate hamburgers since the first hamburger was served at Louis Diner in Connecticut.  They also enjoyed a Pez from Orange Connecticut factory we visited.



They also watched the movie Adventures of Huck Finn since Samuel Clemens lived in Connecticut and we saw his house this past winter when we spent a week in Hartford.  It was neat to watch Aerial America and see places on TV that we have been to.

Individual learning....

Caty started learning about Inventors this week.  We actually toured the Edison factory in West Orange last year.  So it was neat seeing this all again.  These are some of the video clips we watched.




We watched a video on Karl Benz and saw someone driving an original 1886 automobile.


We also learned about Alexander Graham Bell.  We are currently reading the Inventors Magazine from Kids Discover.  I like them because they are simple, and still packed full of knowledge that we can expand on with videos and projects.

We planned a end of the first week of School BBQ with our niece and nephew.  I wanted to be crafty and cute, so I made "sweet" treat bags for all the kids and wished them a "sweet school year".  I think they all liked them.


Both the girls worked on cooking projects, including Lydia who is learning about food safety.  She did a germ project on the importance of washing our hands when we cook.  The mixture is cooking oil and cinnamon.  She had to see if cold water would clean her hands.  Then she tried warm for a short amount of time with no soap and then 20 seconds and with soap.  It was pretty amazing for her to see the difference in which way got the germs off.



Other cooking projects included Caty making banana bread and Lydia made sandwiches for a tea party with our dear, sweet neighbor who is moving.
 They worked hard on the set up.


And Brayden made an ice cream cake for a family BBQ.  He saw this recipe in a Kroger sale flyer and had to try it.  It was so easy for her to do.





Our week was actually very good.  We have some tweaking to work on in our group subjects, but I was very happy with our week.  Can't wait for the next week to start.  

Linking up with other homeschool moms at:

Weekly Wrap-Up