Wordless Wednesday

Weekly Report-Week 24

This week went well, I was able to finish Chemistry for the Grammar Stage (see the post below). This was also the last day of Term 2 of our school year. We finished the term with Charlotte Mason style exams for the first time. I thought I would share about that instead this week. I got the idea from this blog. We recorded her answers which was alot of fun for her and for me. I let her answer all the questions without me listening so she felt free with her responses. Here's the questions I askesd...

Bible:
1. Tell something you learned about the Holy Spirit OR Forgiveness.
2. Recite Acts 5:29 OR Hebrews 5:8 OR Colossians 3:20
3. Which test of obedience do you find the hardest to pass and why?
4. Can you sing one of the hymns we have studied?

Math:
1. How many dimes are in $1.00?
How many quarters are in $0.50?
How many nickels are in $0.20?
2. I give you five boxes. Each box has two cookies in it. How many cookies did I give you?
3. Sally bought 356 peanuts on Monday and 167 peanuts on Tuesday. How many peanuts did she buy altogether?
4. There were 700 children at a park playing. 468 of them were boys. How many of them were girls?

Poetry/Recitation:
1. Recite Mr. Nobody.

Read-Aloud:
1. Which was your favorite read aloud book from this term? (Understood Betsy, Indian and the Cupboard, The Year of Miss Agnes, Follow My Leader) Why?
2. Can you retell a part of your favorite read aloud?

Writing:
1. Write in your best handwriting…
“Good morning, Jimmy,” she greeted him. “My, we all looked spruced up.”

History:
1. Tell me what you remember about Cyrus the Great OR King Nebuchadnezzar OR Alexander.
2. Describe how they built the Great Wall.
3. Show me China, Egypt, Babylon and Greece on the map.

Science:
1. Tell me something you have learned about the human body.
2. Tell me about your favorite animal.

Music & Art Appreciation:
1. Tell what you liked about Tchaikovsky’s music. Which piece was your favorite?
2. Which artist did you like better Haeckel or Audubon? Which was your favorite piece and why?

Shakespeare:
1. Which was your favorite story from Shakespeare this term? (The Tempest or A Midsummer's Night Dream)
2. Can you retell your favorite part?

Wordless Wednesday

NOW AVAILABLE!!! Chemistry for the Grammar Stage

Chemistry for the Grammar Stage is a complete 36 week set of plans for chemistry. It is designed to be used with 3rd and 4th graders, but the plans include ideas to adjust the plans for use with your younger students. The plans lay out a study through the periodic table using Fizz, Bubble, Flash as your guide followed by an adventure in experimentation using Adventures in Atoms and Molecules Book 1. They inculde vocabulary, experiments, narrations(summary sheets), ongoing projects and additional readings from the Usborne Science Encyclopedia. I have also created a student workbook to go along with the plans. The workbook includes all the pages you need for the ongoing projects, definitions, summary sheets and experiment sheets that are planned. The workbook also includes over 100 pictures for you to use with those pages. I have put in the hard work so that you don't have to! You can see samples here at my yahoo group.

This program is the same quality that you have come to know and expect from Elemental Science. Even though this program took quite a bit more work to put together, I am offering it for the same price as my other programs. The teacher's guide is $6, the student workbook $7 and the combo is $13 for download only.

Our website is currently under construction due to having multiple problems with those using Firefox as a browser. So for right now the only place the program is available is on the sidebar of this blog. We hope to have the website updated and moved by the end of the week. Thanks for your patience! Feel free to email me with questions at info@elementalscience.com.

Weekly Report-Week 23

We had a productive week here. I was able to finish the pictures for chemistry and I am almost finished with the remaining editing issues. It's my hopes that Chemistry for the Grammar Stage will be available for purchase later this weekend! In between all that, we did manage to get some school done. Here's the rundown...

Language Arts: We spent the week taking a break from what we are currently doing to try out a few of our options for next year. I think that we have settled on sticking with Sonlight readers. As for the rest, it looks like I'm going to put together my own materials to go with our Core 2 studies. Hopefully, I'll post more on that later.

Math: This week we wrapped up times 3 facts and had a test on her times 2 and 3 facts. She passed it with flying colors. For some reason multiplication clicks better than the rest of the operations for her. I'm not sure why that is.

Science: We studied muscles this week and tested our own muscle strength. It was a good week and princess is enjoying studying the human body.

History: We started studying ancient China and the Great Wall. Princess loved doin her own chinese calligraphy. Here's what she did...
Others: We used oil pastels to make impressionist style drawings and listened to Tchiakovsky. We also looked at another painting by John James Audubon. Here's princess's notebook page from that...

I hope you all had a good week, thanks for reading about ours.

Thoughts on Next Year (revisiting SOTW & Sonlight)...

If you've followed this blog for long, you know that I'm constantly planning. It's a disease that I can't shake! The thing is my time is very short these days and I'm realizing that I will not be able to plan out every subject next year. I was very seriously considering using Story of the World 2 next year and planning out my own reading, read-aloud and language arts program along with arranging history and math. Plus I would still have to plan out the extras. The reality is that I don't have access to a library and I don't have the time to pull together all those plans (you know I wouldn't be happy with mear schedules for reading). The biggest problem is that I would want my plans to have what Sonlight's plans have.

I'm realizing that Sonlight is what I really want and need at this time. They have pre-read the books, organized them and adding questions, vocabulary and so much more. It's much easier for me to tweak Sonlight by adding maps and a few hands on activities than for me to write everything from scratch. So we will be using Core 2 next year, which is a good thing because I already have the guide!

I'm very glad that we did the Story of the World and Sonlight combo this year because it helped me to see what is important to me and what I want to have as a part of our day. I love Story of the World and the activity guide, but I love all that Sonlight has to offer. It's the good books and the whole package that keeps me going back. I'm probably going to end up writing my own language arts to go with Core 2 using the Aesop fables they have planned. And I will continue to plan out our extras, but that doesn't take too long. You didn't think I'd give up all planning, did you?

When I get everything set, I'll do a what we are doing next year post for those that are interested!

Weekly Report

This was a typical week at our house as far as school goes. Except for me, there are just not enough hours in the day to get done all that I want to. I need a few 28 hour days to put the final touches on Chemistry for the Grammar Stage! Maybe next week will be better. Anyways here's a look at what princess did this week...

Language Arts: Princess read "Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia" this week and she did a great job. I also caught her reading one of our previous books to her animals at bedtime! I was really encouraged as I was beginning to wonder how I was going to transition her from oral reading to independent reading. Now I'm thinking that time will do the trick for me!

Math: We talked about our multiplication 3 facts this week. I'm realizing that all that time working on skip counting was really worth it as it is making mulitlication a breeze to teach. I also stumbled upon this scene the other day...

Daddy and daughter working on algebra problems. She actually got what he was doing and did a few problems herself, which is very scary to me. Eventually having to teach calculus is a very strong possibility!

History: We spent the week with Alexander the Great. Princess was far more interested in his horse Buchephalus, though. I really like SOTW and the Activity guide, but the projects are getting harder to do because I don't have access to the same supplies that I did in the States. None the less we are still enjoying history!

Science: We studied the skeletal system this week. Princess was very excited to find out that bones keep her from looking like a pile of jelly (her words, not mine). Here's a look at her notebook page from this week...Other: We watched part 1 and 2 of the BBC animated version of the Tempest on you tube. We really enjoyed these. Princess spent some more time working on her cross-stitch butterfly which is now two-thirds of the way done. I'm really proud of the job she is doing on it. We also did our nature study this week which you can read about in the post below.

Hope you had a wonderful week, thanks for reading about ours....