If you don't want to get too serious, but want it to be fun, I would recommend Steve Spangler. He has a couple of books, but his website has a lot for free too. http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiments

Some of the ones I like have already been mentioned, so I'll add a few others. Books by Peter Sis http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Peter+sis Especially: The Tree of Life (Darwin) Starry Messenger (Galileo) Follow the Dream (Columbus) Also: Both by Brian Wildsmith-- Joseph Saint Francis

Sounds wonderful. I say go for it. And no, it does not sound like it would be a disservice to her at all.

I have started this year scheduling 4 regular days and 1 light day. However, that day gets moved around sometimes. Might be Monday, Friday or even a Saturday. Generally, though, these days we seem to need it most on Mondays, as weekends are very busy. Ds is on a travel baseball team and we do a lot of driving and time away from the house on the weekends, so by Monday we are all pretty wiped out and just need to chill. Tuesday is like Monday, but a good Monday. :) On Mondays, we might do no school or focus more on read alouds, a couple of light basics, and getting outside.

:iagree: What scares me is that those kids are the future of this country?! yes, our kids are too, but they're not the majority. :sad:

So, would a general trading card template work?

Love it when I can do that. :tongue_smilie: And all that printing--definitely worth avoiding when possible.

As far as projects go, I have one ds who naturally does quite a bit and another who does not. Also, one who will often use his free time to wander around the house aimlessly, ask to play video games, and wait.......for what? Something to happen ,something fun, me to take him somewhere, etc. Pbl is at least giving him some direction. Also, for the one who already does projects, I am finding my attention and support are enabling him to take it to the next level. In the past, for both dc,some interests and projects would just fizzle out pretty quickly. That is fine, if they have really done all that they want to do with it, but it is nice to be able to help them do more if that is what they want. My kids have always had plenty of free time (time to do projects) but that does not mean that the time was used well. They do still have free time, but I also make sure they have some project time. I think it is helping me to make the time to give their work more attention, but also helping my ds find other things to do with free time.

I asked something similar. Here is a link to that thread, which also has links to other helpful threads. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/showthread.php?t=339045&highlight=beautiful+feet+science

I would love to see a picture of this.:)

Shanleya's Quest.

I'm not exactly sure what you need in a template, but I found these (which is probably not it:)) but they look cool. ?Maybe helpful. http://watermark.currclick.com/pdf_previews/43517-sample.pdf

?? I too am missing the connection to AO. Do you mean you use the AO literature selections?

I think Fiar for awhile with math and reading at his level would be a nice fun way to start.

The library has this. I think I will take it out and watch it or have dh watch it. It looks like it has potential.

What's the Brad Pitt movie? I need to study too. :tongue_smilie:

I see an older version of All Quiet on the Western Front at our library. any thoughts on that? I may see if I can get the new one through Inter Library loan. Thank you. I appreciated the ideas.

Do any of you know of a website that lists films by time period? tia.

Thank you both. anyone else? Or does anyone know of a site that lists films by time period? Maybe I should start a new thread for that.

I've been meaning to get back to blogging, but for now a few pics. Ds has been working on the Parthenon. He wanted to build it out of legos, but we had to order some special ones. He needed to figure out what he needed and how many. while we waited for those to arrive, he wanted to build it out of clay. The first two pictures are of the clay model. The third is him making Greek coins out of clay. The last is The Parthenon itself. He has been looking at books, asking me to read to him about it and planning. Since these pictures were taken, he has worked on more of the Acropolis. Today he built The Lighthouse in Alexandria and started on the place where they raced chariots. This is not just him building with legos. It is more than that. It has taken planning, thought, research. Yes, there are rabbit trails. I have been there to support, but not direct. This has been a really wonderful project for him.

Interesting, my dc projects right now are history and science based. My younger ds is building ancient greek sites out of legos. And my older ds is attempting to make a radio. As to the bigfoot project, yes, I think you can check those boxes off. Sounds like he's really covering a lot with that interest. And the last part which I bolded; this still seems to be a struggle here, as they don't view their projects as learning, which is both good and bad. School=something mommy makes them do, something done to them. Projects=something they are interested in, something good. I'm hoping as we go along, there is more blending, less distinction in what "learning" is.

Okay, so this was my original thinking in adding pbl into our lives. And to some extent, it seems fine. However, I can see where some of our schooly stuff (my plans) distracts them from their projects. I think you want to help keep them focused on their project. I guess maybe I'm overthinking this. :tongue_smilie:

I think, perhaps, these are two different things--project based learning as described in the book, and certain subjects being interest led. Project based learning (pbl) would not necessarily fall into a certain subject category. It would be letting the child pick a topic, interest, whatever, to pursue. Whereas, letting content subject be interest led is predefining the project to an extent. Totally a doable and wonderful approach, but different than pbl. I think it is not too difficult to schedule either one into your day. The challenge that I am finding is that if there are distractions from a project, the child (or adult) can be waylaid. That would include all sorts of things, but I am thinking right now about ds' project. He has been building structures from ancient Greece out of legos. We were studying American history. I am pausing that to help him flesh out his project. Easy enough. However, it gets more complicated when it comes to other read alouds, things we do out, even some of the school work we do. So, to go back to your question. In your situation I might do something like this: Schedule math, Latin, etc. first. Then I would have blocks of time for content areas. I would find out what they wanted to learn about in those areas and if there was certain things they wanted to do as part of that--hands on projects, watch dvds, take field trips. Maybe then we would collaborate on getting resources, etc. Then I would get the ball rolling, being there to help out as needed, feeding the fire as necessary, following their rabbit trails too. I think if I were to do this I might not require anything (?or maybe I would depending on age--not sure, some writing, some kind of project? I don't know. I'm just talking out loud here.) I think when they are interested in it, they naturally do a bit more. However, having ideas on hand to suggest seems like a good idea--maybe some lapbooks, crafts, cooking, books. I think maybe to switch gears between the two I would try not to view it as school so much as helping them to pursue their interests. I've sort of done this in the past, but am not now. It's looking good as I reread it myself, though.:tongue_smilie:

Zoboomafoo

Any suggestions for movies based in this time period or about WWI? My ds is 12. He can handle seeing some violence. I definitely don't want anything with sex scenes in it. I was wondering about Gallipoli and War Horse? Appropriate or not? Any other suggestions appreciated.