Our Week: 9/10-9/14

I'm still surprised with how well we've all adjusted back to school. We're still not starting as early as I would like, but it's getting earlier. Everyone got used to sleeping in later while I was dealing with the tiredness and sickness of pregnancy. I'm still dealing with some sickness, but it's mostly just nausea and has gotten much better. 
The weather was great this week and I wish we had gotten out to enjoy it more. Looks like next week is going to be nice too so I really want to try to get us all outside more.

History

 

 

We ended up getting in a lot of history this week.

We started by reading more about Catherine the Great and learning how she became the empress of Russia. Then we read about the steam engine being used in Britain and how that increased the demand for coal. We also read about Eli Whitney's cotton gin and how he made standardization popular by making interchangeable parts for guns.

 

We finished the week by reviewing a little about the Jamestown settlement, the Battle of Yorktown, and what life was like in Williamsburg during Colonial times to prepare for a trip next week to visit those places.



We made our own cotton gin to help them understand how it worked.

 

Science



We finished the first chapter of Zoology 1.
The girls did a couple of experiments.

The first used a balloon and soda bottle to demonstrate how lungs react when a person dives into the deep ocean.

 

 

The second experiment was to find out if hot or cold water is heavier. This one was a little difficult
 for the girls to see. You were supposed to color the cold and hot water different colors. When the water came out of the cup into the bowl, they should have been able to see where it went, but it was really hard to see. It worked a little better when we tried leaving the water in the bowl clear and only coloring the water in the cup.

 

For General Science, Colin did an experiment that showed two chemical reactions occurring.

 

The girls were very excited when they saw the balloon suddenly blow up.

 

Art

 

This week's lesson from Artistic Pursuits was about form. We read about what form is, looked at a picture to discuss if it had form, and then made animals with form.

 



Molly's cow

Caleigh's dragon

Colin's dog

 

 

Other News

 

 

We drove two hours to go to an apple orchard Sunday. It was a beautiful day and we all had a good time. The kids picked 40 lbs of apples. We had a picnic lunch there, petted and fed some animals, and bought lots of goodies. The only bad thing was that we had car trouble right after leaving there. Luckily, we made it home, but the car wasn't going any farther. We had to have it towed and ended up getting a new transmission, which caused some rearranging earlier in the week with only one car.
 

 

Colin had hockey practice Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings. We drove to Richmond, VA today for his first games of the season tomorrow and Sunday. We're planning to get in some history field trips while we're here.





Arlington National Cemetery

On our trip to Washington, D.C., last month, we visited Arlington National Cemetery for the first time. I could have never imagined how many graves there were without seeing it. They seem to go on forever.

The Eternal Flame at the gravesite of President John F. Kennedy

Changing of the guard

The cemetery is really beautiful with gorgeous trees and great views of the city.

Benjamin Franklin Study

We spent a couple weeks studying Benjamin Franklin. We used the Download N Go study to break up our days. We learned about his life, who he was, his inventions, his other accomplishments, and much more.

 

 

Books we read:

 

 

 

Kids drew the U.S. seal with a turkey instead of an eagle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Liberty Bell art- idea found here

 

 

 

 

 

 

You have to talk about kites when studying Ben Franklin. I got the kids mini kites to play with.

 

 

 

 

 

Charged cereal experiment

 

 

 

 

 

Notebook pages with pieces from Homeschool Share and Download N Go.

 

 

 

 

 

While visiting Washington, D. C. after doing the study, we went to the Old Post Office Pavilion to see the statue of Ben Franklin there.

 

 

 

Our Week: Franklin, Pennsylvania, and Neutralization

When I found out Colin's hockey games on Monday meant leaving the house at 10:30 a.m. and not getting home until 9:00 p.m , I was afraid the week would be ruined. Usually if Monday doesn't start well, the rest of the week falls apart. Of course, we didn't get much school done on Monday, but the rest of the week ended up going great. The weather was really nice so the kids were very motivated to get their work done and get outside. We had three days in the 70s. The kids spent lots of time playing outside, the girls and I did our walks/runs on the trails, and we met friends at the park one afternoon.

History/Geography

We continued studying Ben Franklin, primarily using Download 'n Go. We read lots of books about him, did an electricity experiment, drew the U.S. seal with a turkey instead of an eagle, and played with kites. We also used some lapbook pieces from DNG and Homeschool Share for our notebooks. We still need to paste them in so I'll post pics of those later.

Static electricity experiment

Seals with turkeys

Kites

We started reading about Pennsylvania a couple weeks ago, but didn't get a chance to finish it. It went along well with studying Ben Franklin this week. We finished reading our books, and the kids did the flag coloring page and the other pages for their notebooks. They also made their own Liberty Bells.

Liberty bell art

Science

In chemistry, we read about acid and base neutralization. We did two experiments this week. The first was testing items to see if they are acids or bases. The second was adding a base (ammonia) to an acid (vinegar) to make it neutral.

Making an acid neutral

Acid or base?

Pilgrim (Thanksgiving) Study

Last month we studied pilgrims because that's where we were in history. I thought it was great doing it early because we didn't have any trouble getting all the books we wanted at the library. As you can see in the pictures below, we got a lot of books.

Corn Cookies

Pilgrim Hat Cookies

Using Draw Write Now, the kids drew the Mayflower, pilgrims, and Squanto.

Molly's



Colin's



Caleigh's

Pilgrims from History Pockets: Life in Plymouth Colony

 

 

 

Notebook pages from the Live and Learn Press Thanksgiving study and Homeschool Share.

 

Our Week: Jamestown, Ladybugs, and Water Park

It was a really good week! The rain cancelled some of our plans so it turned out to not be as busy as I had expected.

We went to an apple orchard Sunday.
On Monday, we met some friends at Great Wolf Lodge and had a great time at the water park.
Colin had hockey practice Monday and Wednesday evenings.
He started a biology class this week also.

The girls were exploring the nature center when I looked out and saw Colin gathering something during his class so I had to snap his picture.

Yesterday we saw the movie, Dolphin Tale. We all really enjoyed it.

Science



We learned about beetles this week. We concentrated on fireflies and ladybugs. I ordered ladybug larvae from Insect Lore. We've been observing them all week. We were able to see them molt and now most of them are in the pupa stage.

We also made some ladybug treats with apples, strawberries, grapes, pretzels, mini chocolate chips, and M&Ms.

Left: Caleigh's
Right: mine
Caleigh said mine were wrong because they don't have 3 body parts so she made hers the correct way.

Left: Molly's (she said the head is hiding)
Right: Colin's

All the rain we've had the last three days has interfered with our experiments. Hopefully it will dry up soon and we can do them.

Colin's biology class is using Real Science 4 Kids. This week they talked about taxonomy, the kingdoms, and classification.

History

We read about King James VI of Scotland and how he also became king of England. We also learned that he sent people to North America to search for gold. They started the Jamestown settlement.
We learned that Guy Fawkes was involved in a plot to assassinate King James, but he was caught. Caramel apples are one of the treats they have during the Guy Fawkes Day celebration so we made some.

Pocahontas was mentioned briefly in our history book. We read some other books about her and did the Pocahontas lapbook from Homeschool Share. We finished our week by watching the Disney movie, Pocahontas.

Notebook pages from Homeschool Share