experimenting

Science experiments....

 

The experiment...

 

Celery in food coloring. 

 

We chose purple and blue. 

 

Blue leaves!

 

This was the best show of how the water was being absorbed by the celery.

 

Purple dots. 

 

Blue dots. 

Mapping

Aiden's Socials Map Book

LA

Gemma

 

Sometimes dinosaurs show up for school. 

 

Gemma making words :) 

 

Happy with herself. 

Aiden

 

 Picture recognition for two syllable words. He is spelling well :)

In the school room.

Our last week or so had been a blur. Here are some pics of both Gemma and Aiden's learning.

 

Grade 2 Socials- a book about maps. 

 

K socials- a book about surprises and one about differences (the boy is deaf).

 

Cutting and pasting...

 

Gemma's math. 

 

Aiden's math. 

 

This year Aiden has math tests to go along with each week. He is doing very well. 

 

 

Aiden's socials books for the week. 

 

Gemma's math- I am proud of her progress in writing her numbers. 

 

Some more of Aiden's math. 

 

Science- mountains. 

 

Science- rivers. 

 

Gemma has been drawing spiders. 

 Aiden's science worksheets. 

 An "a" picture- Gemma chose an apple.

 Matching, word recognition.

 Gemma's copywork.

 Sound recognition.

 Gemma really likes those spiders.

Fine Arts

Music:

 

Mom picked up some Boom Whackers, or some tuned percussion tubes. 

The kids made some noise and made up some rhythms. 

Outside school

Science experiments:

 

Collect dirt. 

 

In a jar. 

 

Add water and shake. 

 

Let sit overnight. See the layers?

 

In the science book. 

The kids had fun with this experiment and kept shaking it up and letting it separate again. 

 

Collect yard waste. 

A bag of leaves, apples, etc.

 

The stash. 

 

Decomposing plants. 

 They wanted to separate the parts of their finds...

apples, seeds, pine cones, grass, and berries.

The run down.

We are having a really good week. We have worked out all the kinks in our curriculum and now things are running smoothly. It is nice to be enjoying schooling and to be settled in. We have let go of our Socials program and are now waiting on some books in the mail. We can actually still use some of the library books in the Living Books for Life program as supplement, but the stress is gone in trying to keep on track with the workbook since we couldn't time when books would arrive from other libraries. We are also waiting for some extras that go with Gemma's English curriculum. It is exciting to watch Gemma thrive in her learning and Aiden is very competent in keeping up his work more independently. Keiran is picking up different things too and it is easy now to let him go and run when he needs to, so he is not distracting Gemma away from her learning. Joy comes in the little things, like watching Gemma stack and count her pizza pepperoni. I am loving homeschool year two.
A funny story from today....
Aiden was reading his Beginner Bible (that is part of his reading for English) and was reading about Ruth and Naomi. When he got to the part about Naomi deciding to go back to her homeland, which was Israel, he stopped and proclaimed, "Wait! So that means our teacher is in the Promise Land right now. Wow!"
I laughed. I find it pretty amazing to find connections to God's word as well, and it is neat that our mentor teacher and her family are serving there right now. I will have to remember to show him all the emails and pictures included that come from there.

What we were reminded of this month/ Mom tip: When things aren't working, find out why. Behavior can be the result of something deeper and the kids can even pick up on what is stressful for you. The beauty of homeschooling is that you can change to what works for your whole family. Sometimes that even means changing your mind, your curriculum, your workspace, or your break times. Don't forget why you decided to homeschool and especially, don't forget to include God in your decisions and learning.