Week 2 of the New Year

So, it turns out we are doing a little bit of science at home after all.  This past week, we missed going to co-op because some nasty bug made its way into our house and made 2 of the 3 boys sick (not to mention myself later in the week).  So, we did our best to make up for the missed classes, and we ended up doing a little human anatomy and geology here at the house.

First was human anatomy.  We learned a little bit about the nervous system, the main components of it (brain and spinal cord), what the brain looks like, and how it's protected.  We did a little experiment - Mr. Egghead Activity - to show why it's important to protect your head (and your brain) and how it is protected by cerebrospinal fluid.

First Mr. Egghead was placed in a container with no fluid inside to protect it.

It was happily destroyed when the container/skull was shaken.

Second Mr. Egghead was placed in a container WITH fluid surrounding it
to protect it.  This  time,  the boys worked really hard to break it with little
to no success.  

The next "at-home co-op class" we did was geology.  Hayden was supposed to be learning about crystals and geodes this week.  So, we looked up several youtube videos on how to find geodes, and we read up on different types of crystals.  Then, we made some salt crystals and rock candy (sugar crystals).  This, of course, became a week long experiment.  Our salt crystals turned out much better than the sugar.  I think maybe we didn't heat the sugar and water up long enough?  Who knows.  But we had fun doing it, and we still have the crystals up on top of our bookshelf.

Dissolving the sugar in water to begin our sugar crystals.

We colored the sugar-water mixture blue and added some vanilla extract
in hopes of making a tasty treat.  Then we wrapped a pipe cleaner around
a pencil and suspended it in the liquid.

After a few days, this is what we got on the pipe cleaner.
For some reason, the sugar did NOT want to crystalize on
the pipe cleaner, but instead on the sides and bottom of the jar.

So, we pulled a bunch out and let it dry.  We ate
some anyway.  :)

Our salt crystal gardens beginning.
We actually have done something similar to this before.  So we changed it up
a bit by doing one batch in a plastic container and one in an aluminum pie pan
to see if there would be a difference.
Hayden is holding his nose because the ammonia we had to use smells really bad!

Day 1: the plastic salt crystal garden

Day 1:  the aluminum pie pan crystal garden

Day 2: plastic

Day 2: aluminum

Day 3: aluminum

Day 3: plastic 

Day 4: plastic

Day 4: aluminum
Hayden decided that the aluminum salt crystal garden grew the quickest
on the toilet paper roll, but the sponges in the plastic garden did better.

And now on to the rest of our school week…..

Language Arts 

I decided, this week, to start Sawyer on the Dear Dragon books that I did with Hayden last year.  I remember Sawyer really enjoying hearing them, and everything else we do seems to be a big chore.  He's not a fan of the BOB books (and frankly, neither am I), the Hooked on Phonics bores him (probably because he doesn't like to sound out words), and he still has a difficult time with Reading Eggs.  So, I figured it was worth a shot, and for the first week, it seems to be going well.

Our first Dear Dragon book of the year.

Vocabulary: took some words from the story and wrote
them on post-it notes and read them out loud to Sawyer.

Then it became a sight word activity.  I would mix up the words and tell him
to point to each one that I called out.

After that, it was a word search activity.  He found each word in the story and
put the post-it note with the matching word on the page it was located.

Phonics:  Finding and identifying the /w/ sound.  Here, he circled all the w's
he could find in the words that I wrote.  I also said aloud several words in which
he had to change the beginning sound to /w/.  Ex: talk -> walk

Sawyer's writing for the week was in his Handwriting Without Tears workbook.  He is enjoying this book.  So, I'm going to stick with it until he is finished before deciding whether to move on to another level or try something different.

Writing the letter L.

Writing the letter E.

Hayden's reading and writing continues on in his blue Learning Language Arts through Literature book:

Blending sounds to make new words.  Afterwards, he had to pick 5 of the words
to make sentences with.

Word Family Flip Books he's made so far this year.  We read through them
just for practice.

Context Reading activity.  He had to cut out the pictures on the right and match
them to the corresponding word on the left.

First one down, he realized he made a mistake.

Activity corrected and completed.

After reading the short story, "The Turnip", he completed a sequencing activity.
He had to color, cut out, and put in order the turnip and the people who pulled
on the turnip.  Then we talked about order numbers (first, second, third, etc.)

Completed activity.

 I forgot to take pictures of Hayden learning a little bit about letter writing.  He wrote a letter to his cousin, addressed the envelope, and we mailed it off either Friday or Saturday.  

Math:

Sawyer's math this week was a little varied.  All he wanted to do was play MathSeeds on the computer, but I'm ready for him to start doing more off the computer.  For the most part, he enjoyed it.  But it didn't stop him from asking to do MathSeeds EVERY day.

Learning to write the number 6.

Making "stairs" with the abacus to help with counting from 10 to 1.

Grouping tally sticks by tens and learning what to call the numbers.

Determining evenness by grouping tiles in pairs.

Worksheet on finding groups of ten.

Patterning on the geoboard.

"This one is my favorite!"

This was supposed to be a continuing pattern.  He made a repeating pattern
which would have been correct had that been the lesson.  Once I explained
the difference to him, I could almost see a little lightbulb click on in his head.

Correcting the pattern

Hayden's math this week was all about measuring.  Mostly perimeters of rectangles.

A little warm up of double digit addition and discussion about things people measure.

Measuring the abacus with paper clips.

Using 1-inch tiles to measure two strips of paper taped to the floor.
He had to figure out which strip was longer without moving them.

The second strip was taped a little ways away from the first.
There was only a 1-inch difference between them.

Learning the term perimeter and measuring the perimeter of different sized
rectangles.

He used the tiles to measure each side.  I would draw a similarly shaped rectangle,
and he would write down the length of each side.

Practicing writing equations after figuring out the perimeter.

Social Studies (a.k.a. Geography):

Continuing with our study of France this week, we learned a little more about the culture, the language,  and the music.   And, of course, the Eiffel Tower.

I found this awesome 3D puzzle on Amazon.  The only downside:  thousands of teeny tiny pieces to punch out.  I mentioned in my first post of the year that we started this thing.  It took us through the second week of the year to finish it.  The punching out of all the little minuscule triangles took freaking FOREVER.

The mess that was created by the teeny tiny devil triangles.

For scale purposes:  my finger next to the teeny tiny devil triangles.

Sawyer with Part C of the tower.

Hayden with Part D of the tower

My proud little architects with the finished product.
(I swear this thing is going up high on a shelf where it will NEVER be destroyed
after the length of time and cramped fingers it put us through!)