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!