Spring Semester 2017

It has been months since my last blog post.  I have discovered over the course of this year that although I love teaching my own children, I do not enjoy teaching all of them at the same time.  There just does not seem to be enough time in the day to spend the appropriate amount of time with each of them.  I'm learning that they will not work independently as long as I am somewhere close by and as long as another child is getting the attention instead.  As a result, there has become more arguing, and/or someone is always getting the short end of the stick (usually Baby), which makes me feel guilty.  

This brings me to my announcement:  we are going mainstream next year.  We are taking a break from homeschooling in order to get a new perspective on education.  The two older boys will be attending the elementary school just down the street from our house, and our youngest will be starting VPK for 4 days a week.

In the meantime, here is a brief summary of our spring semester:

Language Arts

Worked with Contractions

Parts of Speech booklets - this one was the Noun Booklet in progress.
We also made verb and adjective booklets.

Types of sentences

Made a comic strip of The Whipping Boy to summarize each chapter they read.

Other Books Read for Language Arts:

50 American Heroes Every Kid Should Meet by Dennis Denenberg and Lorraine Roscoe

Who Was Helen Keller? by Gare Thompson

Math

Clocks - Time to the Minute and 5 Minutes

Roman Numerals, Place Value, and Adding Numbers in the Thousands

The Commutative Law of Multiplication using tiles.

Played the Subtraction Corners Game and learned about check numbers
and how to use them.

Writing large numbers in word form.

Finding perimeters of different figures.

Other Math Skills Learned:

Finding Area and Solving Area Problems

Multiplication Tables

Working with Centimeters

Constructing Equilateral Triangles with T-square & 30-60 Triangle

World Geography

Located Israel on the Little Passports map

Learned a little Arabic

Experimented with salt water after learning about the Dead Sea on YouTube.

Holidays

Mardi Gras Bead Necklaces

Added names and made patterns with the colors

Mardi Gras King Cake!

Easter - used plastic eggs to count change and identify coins.

Social Studies - Government and the People

Sawyer for Mayor!

Hayden for Mayor!

We studied this unit after reading the Whipping Boy.  The boys learned about the relationship between U.S. citizens and their government.  They learned about the three branches of government and they did a mock election after learning about the process of voting and elections.  Books we read to go along with this unit were:   How the U.S. Government Works by Syl Sobel and Vote! by Eileen Christelow.

Scientific Method and Experiments

The Scientific Method reminder posters

Using the Communicating Skill, the second step of the Science Process Skills

One person built an object and had to describe it to the other person without them
seeing anything.  The second person had to build it as it was described to them.

Using the Science Process Skills with M&Ms

One of several experiments concocted at our house.  This was the Egg Drop Experiment.

How the boys kept track of the experiments they did.
(I can't believe I didn't take pictures of the actual experiments)

Other Social Studies and Science Units Studied:

 People Change the World 

(inventors, being a responsible citizen, and looking for ways to make the future better)

Sound

(studied alongside the literature unit, Who Was Helen Keller?)

Art

Project using Opposite/Complementary Colors

Contemporary Folk Art Landscape using Heather Galler's method.
(Someone got a little overzealous and then gave up on his patterning
once he realized how long it was taking him).  

Circles!

Paper Plate Weaving

And that is more or less a short breakdown of what we accomplished this semester.  It's been a crazy year, and we are looking forward to a summer full of activities, camps, and maybe a little more school before going off to public school in the fall!

Sarah Plain and Tall

Apparently, when I said, "next week" I'd post about the two older boys, I actually meant, "next month"!  This unit took a lot longer to complete than I anticipated.  However, we learned a LOT, including when to just say NO to an activity.  Lesson learned.  We're moving on now.  

As long as it was, Sarah Plain and Tall from the 7-9 year unit of Moving Beyond the Page was actually a really good unit.  If you want your kids working on their writing skills, this is the curriculum to use.  It is intense!  And so many activities to do or choose from.  It can be (and was) overwhelming at times, but I think we are all a little wiser now that we have completed two separate language arts units from this curriculum.  

Here are some of the activities that the boys did:

- Made book covers using their name in place of Sarah with two words describing the type of person that they are.

Sawyer, Great and Awesome

Hayden, Nice and Confident

- Read the story on their own.  Upside down most days.

 - Wrote a persuasive letter.

- Learned about connecting two shorter sentences to make one.

- Researched the environments of the states, Kansas and Maine.

 - Made a mini Wildflower Field Guide.

There was a lot more than that, but it gives you a general idea of their lessons.  Then we finished out the unit with a pioneer party.

Game of hopscotch

Making boiled cookies

And they look like cow poop!

Making butter (Halloween-style)

It was very exciting.

Bobbing for apples

Pioneer lunch of homemade bread (and butter!), dried fruits and nuts, cheese, and ham.

Yum!

Math was more of the same.  There wasn't much to get photos of.  They get more paperwork and less manipulatives the older they get.  So, it's not very exciting to photograph.  

Hayden did start the next level of RightStart Mathematics (Level D).  He had a lot of reviewing of addition strategies, adding time and perimeter, and adding fractions and money.  Sawyer finished his Level B Right Start with measurement, constructing triangles, finding perimeters, subtraction, and graphing.  Then he started Level C learning some of the addition strategies that Hayden has been reviewing as well as Venn Diagrams and a bit of fractions.

Using color tiles to work on addition.

Making a graph of birthdays

Fractions

Making an octagon

Word problems in adding time.

Venn Diagram

Addition for Sawyer

Our science fell in line with our language arts unit.  The boys learned about mapping, resources, and the environment.  They still need a little work on their mapping skills, but they can at least read one now without assistance which is what my goal for them was.  In addition, they gained a lot more knowledge about farming and non-renewable resources than most 7-9 year olds could care to have, I'm sure!

Sawyer's imaginary world map

Hayden's imaginary world map

Finding Natural Resources

Categorizing the resources

Reading a political map and finding where we live.

Natural Resource Products Scavenger Hunt

More scavenger hunting

Coloring in the regions of the U.S.

Finished map

Drawing a map of the backyard.

This is really a scaled down group of photos showing all that we did with the science unit.  They actually made multiple maps, both real and imaginary.  They learned how to identify the different parts of a map (i.e. compass rose, map key, map grid, map scale).  They discussed conservation of electric energy and water, and they touched on the individual states of the U.S. and their capitals.  This was a great unit!  Looking forward to the next one.  :)