After experiencing two weeks of Essentials….
I sat down with Stephen and asked him what he’d like to drop from the schedule. Well, naturally, he didn’t want to drop anything, except practicing his math facts. (For a person with a natural gift and love for memorizing, why would he rather scrub toilets than memorize his math facts? I mean, he completely understands and even likes the concept of negative numbers… He thinks it’s neat to add -3 +5, but adding 8 + 6 is NO FUN for him. At least it pushes me to be more creative.)
SO…. we decided to slow down our pace on the lapbooks (which means our lapbooking will no longer line up with our history sentences) and for him to dictate anything that must be written down because he is already writing A LOT in copious quantities for Essentials. I’m still not sure that this is going to free up a bunch of time, but at least I was able to reduce the workload without taking anything completely away. Maybe with a little trickery I can simplify the workload even more…
What we did this week
Ongoing Projects: Stephen updated his USA Book (using Crayola pages, History Illustration book, and “Book of Decades” timeline notebook as noted in our ongoing projects post. David did not take ANY interest in updating his notebooks, but at least they will be in pristine condition for the next time we study American History & Geography. (Let me just add here that Phonics Road to Reading is working very well for him thus far, and he enjoys his Saxon Math 1 lessons. AND, LO AND BEHOLD, he actually remembers what he learned last year! He seriously had me fooled on that one! So, for our 5yearold, Memory Work, Math, and Phonics are the only things we really focus on, and that’s really all that’s needed at this point.)
MATH:
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| Multiple Blessings File Folder Game |
Multiple Blessings Game for practicing 2s and 3s multiplication facts. We printed out blank templates to make for the other math facts. NOTE: Each times table takes up one file folder.
HISTORY:
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| Overview of the 17th Century Lapbook |
We finished this lapbook on the 17th Century today! Stephen insisted that we go in chronological order, even though we are now on the American Revolution in our memory work. I can’t say how much I’m looking forward to the free American Revolution Lapbook available on the Just Us blog. Here’s a snippet from the download, but go here to see a finished version:
After completing the American Revolution Lapbook, we will be lapbooking about the 18th Century.
We read the 1773 edition of The Boston Tea Party by H.W. McVickar, free on google e-books or at archive.org.
Stephen completed the Mission US: For Crown or Colony game. There are several downloadable teacher’s resources that provide additional information regarding the history behind the Boston Tea Party and American Revolution.
We also played the On-line Games: The Patriot Spy (contains good history tie-ins for American Revolution) and Explore Jamestown: Dig the Fort, which is much like the game Minesweeper.
We read Matchlock Gun, Paul Revere’s Ride, and Ox-Cart Man (among many other books of the boys’ choosing…)
SCIENCE:
The boys asked begged to do more science. So, we completed the following quick-and-easy science experiments from Van Cleave’s 201 Awesome, Magical, Bizarre, and Incredible Experiments at home:
#65 Fooling your tongue
#66 Trickery
#67 Wagon Wheel
#69 Vanishing ball
#72 Sound and direction
#78 How do you feel?
And we studied this diagram of the human body and labeled this diagram of the human body,
read and completed activities for Chapter 25 of The Classic Elementary Life Science Curriculum,
and Chicken Wing Dissection Lab using Chicken Wing Dissection Lab
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| Snipping the skin away from the wing… |
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| We talked about how the skin is the biggest organ, classified it as epithelial tissue, discussed epidermis and dermis, and described the function of skin as we completed Chicken Wing Dissection Lab. |
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| We observed how the muscle was connected to the bones, used the tendons to move the wing, observed how the muscles contracted and relaxed in pairs, and snipped the tendons to remove some muscles before recording observations. |
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| We examined the muscles and tendons. We found a small amount of fat, and then we started to uncover the ligaments. |
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| We snipped the ligaments to pull apart the bones and discovered how the bones fit together. We also discussed the role of cartilage in cushioning the joints. The boys now understand the difference between tendons, ligaments, and cartilage. |
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| Finally, we uncovered the bones, finding nerves and blood vessels in the process. We cut through the bones to see the compact, spongy, and marrow part of the bone. |
This was really, really cool. It didn’t turn out the way I expected, though. Stephen would manipulate the tissues a bit and then run off to wash his hands immediately every single time. To my surprise, David was not interested at all in touching anything, but he was fascinated by the whole thing. Levi… well, he was asleep. And that’s how I handle messy projects around here. (I will never be able to cook chicken wings again without thinking about anatomy. )
We also completed the lapbook components on bones and muscles. You can find some good, free lapbook components on Homeschoolshare.
We also read and completed the Your Muscles article & questions from Superteacherworksheets.
In the past I’ve referenced many more human anatomy resources that we just don’t have time for because we are memorizing and practicing SO MANY CHARTS for Essentials right now.
More things we’d like to do if we have time in the coming weeks (these are new finds that are not listed elsewhere on our site):
I have who has card game to practice states & capitals
States & Capitals board game
Audio Recording: Paul Revere and the Minute Men
Audio Recording: Daniel Boone
On-line Q&A Activity: The Road to Revolution
Activity: Compare the flags of the colonies
As for reading Johnny Tremain et al…let’s just say, ESSENTIAL-ly, we’re adjusting our plans….
By the way, I’ve joined Pinterest – you can find me at http://pinterest.com/HalfaHundredAcreWood/ though I’m just starting out. I have to say, it’s a convenient way to save all the ideas I find on the Internet!
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History Readings/Correlations, including SotW, American History Stories, and A Short History of the United States
- Math resources