Homeschool Week:7

I cant believe it's Friday already! We had a pretty full week

Monday we had the day off for Sean's birthday, so we had a short and full week.

History: We learned about how the New York colony began and also about the start of the southern plantations and slavery. We also learned about a brave queen in Africa that stood up against the slave traders. We know her area of the world today as Angola.

Science: We learned all about birds this week.
Different bird's beaks and feet and their purposes:

Their wings and how God designed their bodies perfectly for flying:

And finally the bird's digestive system, which led us to our fun project of the week:

I surprised the boys with Owl Pellets to dissect this week!
What is an owl pellet, you ask? Owls eat their prey whole and whatever they do not digest (bones, fur, etc) gets regurgitated back up into the owl pellets we see here!

We had a blast!! I bought a "kit" online which included the pellet, tools and a little observation packet which helped us identify the bones and use our scientific method.

The boys had to measure and observe the pellet describing what it looks like. They also had to fill out a hypothesis on what they thought might be inside the pellet.

Boy were they surprised!

They both found several skulls and all sorts of little bones.

We soaked the bones in a little bleach water as we went along so that we could clear off some of the fur and get a better look at what we had.

Then the boys used their chart to match up the bones and try and identify the skeletons.

It was a really neat learning experience!!

Art: We learned about hue (color) and value (shade) . How to use our colored pencils, by the way the pencil is held, to lighten or darken the value of our hues.

Sean had to color this nature scene using the techniques he learned.

Ryan had to use his pencil to shade over real leaves and cut them out to add to his picture.

Bible: We discussed David's sin with Bathsheba and the consequences of his sin. We continued learning the hymn "The Lord's My Shepherd".

Math: Sean is reviewing using fractions in addition and subtraction. Ryan is learning his 5 multiplication tables and still getting the mechanics of division down.

Language: Ryan is learning the different uses of a comma. Sean finished up a unit on capitalization and comma uses.



" this post is linked to Homeschool Highlights in MFW at Discover Their Gifts or 2 ladybugs and a lizard "

Happy Birthday Sean!!

Sean had quite the celebration this year for his 11th birthday!!

On Saturday we told everyone to get dressed, we're going to the mall! The boys started groaning (especially Sean), they were hoping to lounge around the house all day. Dennis and I exchanged smirks because they had NO idea that we were really going to Medieval Times!!
(I know that picture isnt showing up so well, looks better if you click on it to see it full size)

Boy were they surprised!!!
We got the celebration package which included our pictures, Sean got to be knighted and we got cake with dinner!

While we were waiting for everything to start, we played with the camera a bit. Elizabeth said this was her "bad guy face"

Then, of course, the boys needed to give their "bad guy faces"
(haha notice Dennis in the background there)

Sean's "bad guy face", I dont think he has it in his heart to be "bad" ;)

I didnt get any real good pictures of his knighting (had to bring the small pocket camera)

But at least we got this neat picture and certificate to remember it by

The show and food were great!

During the show, you are at a particular colored table and you are supposed to cheer for your knight who matches your color. When the knight scores in the "games" he receives flowers from the princess and then he tosses his flowers to the girls on his team.

Elizabeth received a flower. You should have seen her face light up!!!
Look at that smile!!

She loves her flower!!

We opened presents and had cake on birthday day (today). The cake was a complete disaster (too bad I didnt get pictures). One of those disasters, that are so bad, you just cant help but laugh. BUT it tasted good, so that's what matters, right?!

Presents are never a disaster!

The theme for this year was definitely WWE wrestling!

Sean (and Ryan) were more than pleased!!!

Happy Birthday Sean!!!

Homeschool Week: 6

History: This week the boys learned about the Puritans who started the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Roger Williams who started the Rhode Island Colony - the first with true religious freedom.
The boys learned also learned how the children in those days learned to read with a hornbook. They made one for themselves.





Science: We talked about marsupials, what a neat bunch of animals they are. Did you know that when they are born, some are about the size of a grain of rice? The amazing thing is that they crawl up their mother's fur, so small and helpless, and find their way into the pouch. Really neat! For some reason, I always thought they were born right into the pouch.

Art: We got new art books this week. The art book we were using was a hold-over from last year. A good book but I wanted something that would teach them more techniques in art than just "copy this artist". We got our books from Abeka. Each child- Elizabeth too- has their own age appropriate book so they can master their artistic skill.

This week, the boys learned about primary colors and made color wheels.



Elizabeth learned about colors too. She made a crayon pouch and we cut out little paper crayons to put in it to practice her colors.

Speaking of Elizabeth. I came across this neat teacher's display at Michaels for sale the other week. It comes with a big colorful calendar, some seasonal decorations and this weather chart. She gets to change the square out each day so she can learn about the weather. Notice, it's raining..... again.


Math: Sean continued working on factors and started a review on fractions (fun!). Ryan is continuing his practice with division

Language Arts: Both Ryan and Sean are practicing using commas in their sentences.

Reading: We finally finished up Almost Home for our read-a-loud book. It's a real tear jerker towards the end. Do you realize how hard it is to read aloud and hold back tears at the same time? Maybe it's just my hormones! ;)
I added an additional, unplanned, book to our read-a-loud list this week. We started reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond. Since we were learning out the Puritans, I thought this was a great addition. The setting is during the famous witch trials that the Puritans held during the late 1600s. Right about the era we are studying now.



Ryan is reading Riding the Pony Express. Kind of self-explanitory but it's a book about a boy who rides the Pony Express. A little bit off our history subject but not a lot of Ryan's readers this year stay with us there. It's more about getting him exposed to different books.



Sean's books are staying more with our history subject this year. He started reading A Lion to Guard Us this week. It's about 3 children on their way to the Jamestown Colony in America to meet their father after their mother had died.




" this post is linked to Homeschool Highlights in MFW at Discover Their Gifts or 2 ladybugs and a lizard "

Homeschool Week: 5

This morning was chilly and none of us were motivated to leave the house, so we decided to skip the co-op today. Low and behold, I find out later that there IS no co-op today because they have scheduled a field trip. Good thing we didnt go! Though that will teach me to look closer at the schedule and not just assume.

Instead of co-op we decided to do ART this morning (after our spelling test)!

Today the focus was on the "shapes" of objects. They had to cut out the shapes (without drawing) of the objects they wanted in their scene. Both boys chose wild animals as their object.


Sean has a red panda, here, carrying hay back to his "home"


Ryan has a Rhino (of course) and a tiger, they're getting attacked by an Indian who is across the river there shooting arrows.


Elizabeth did some art too. She used scissors for the first time! She did a great job and was so proud of herself!!



This week in school:

HISTORY: We studied the Pilgrims and the Mayflower Compact.
Here's a sample of the notebooking pages the boys work on. We discuss together what we learned after each lesson and write up a short narrative.




On Thursday we watched an episode of Drive Thru History that visited and talked about the places the Pilgrims came from and of course Plymouth, Mass.


We're still reading Almost Home for our read a loud book. Which is about their trip across in the Mayflower. It was really neat seeing all of the people we are reading about in the book show up on our History pages. And seeing their names signed under the Mayflower Compact.


Science: We are continuing our study on the Animal Kingdom and mammals. This week we talked about the different Primates and Aquatic Mammals. The boys loved learning that not all Primates are "monkeys" and how to tell the difference.


Bible: We finished up learning about David while he was hiding from King Saul. Our Hymn for this week is Leaning on Everlasting Arms

Language: Sean finished up his creative writing unit last week and is back to grammar (he's thrilled, not really). He is reviewing Capitalization rules. Ryan has finished up his week on sentence types and capitalization. He did great on his test!

Math: Sean has been working on Greatest Common Multiples and Least Common Factors. He does much better on those than I ever did in school - I always hated that! Ryan is learning the mechanics of division and still working on memorizing his 2, 3, 4, and 5's in multiplication.


Reading:
Sean is reading Om-Kas-Toe, he should be finishing that up on Monday.


Ryan has finally finished Viking Adventures! There were a LOT of chapters in this book, but they werent too long. It just took a lot of days to finish. Ryan said that he enjoyed the book though.



We had a pretty good week!!

PS here's a quick Chloe picture for you! I couldnt resist... I think she wants to play piano. :)



" this post is linked to Homeschool Highlights in MFW at Discover Their Gifts or 2 ladybugs and a lizard "