elegantlion Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Yesterday we watched Michael Palin's Himalaya. I meant to watch one episode yesterday as part of our Asian Studies and add the others in later. Ds liked it so much we ended up watching 4 hours and doing nothing else for school. We'll watch the final two episodes today. When I asked what his favorite part of the program was he said All of it. Quite the stretch from the child who claims his favorite part of school is break. We paused the video a few times (Netflix streaming) to discuss. So what have you done outside the box this week? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LunaLee Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Well, I haven't done anything outside of the box, but I let dd spend the last two days helping build an off road vehicle. She is taking an automotive care class this semester, and I figured that learning from the experts was better than any kind of book work I could have assigned her. Today they are going to Pick-N-Pull. :auto: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 White Stripes: Under the Great White Northern Lights Some nice scenes from across Canada and insight to the life of a musician/artist. Jack White discusses his work ethic and how that plays into his performances and work as a songwriter. Youngest son is teaching himself guitar and we both enjoyed it and had a lot of interesting discussion related to it. ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plink Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 We took a short trip into Boston to visit a few Ben Franklin sites. :auto: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleIzumi Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 ETA: Oops. I saw this as the newest post in K-8 & didn't realize it was from the Logic Stage forum! This absolutely does not apply to your board, sorry.... They had one day as Art Day & drew allll day. Today dd decided to make an illustrated ABC songbook, so she did (through G, at which point she ran out of paper :lol:). Tomorrow she will go see a For Youth Audiences play about Babe, the Sheep Pig! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Another Lynn Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Not quite what you had in mind, but.... we welcomed dh home from Afghanistan :D And we worked on cleaning out the basement. And dh taught our older two how to list things on ebay, and promised them a percentage of the sale for their help. And we went with dh today to his civilian employer and cut down the yellow ribbon they had in his honor (for the year he's been gone) and made the news! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susie in CA Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 We went to a pottery class last week, and again this week to do the glazing. We had so much fun with it. I was wondering why pottery wasn't more important than math. LOL Susie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen in CO Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I gave my dd the book Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction Thursday morning then took her to Target Thursday afternoon with a list and a budget. Right at this moment, she and the little one have set up a firing range in the hallways with a blast shield made from couch pillows. She has built three weapons so far today. WHen I asked her how they worked, she explained to me about the potential energy from the rubber bands or springs she used and how the weapon used that potential energy to create force and how the impact was determined by the mass of the projectile and the force. She is aiming at a target she made in math earlier in the week in a lesson on circles reviewing radius, diameter and circumference. She also made sure no one enters the blast zone without safety goggles; "You'll put your eye out." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen in NS Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 So what have you done outside the box this week? This morning, instead of going to the library and pool like we try to do most Friday mornings, we had cooking and baking "lessons." I sat on a chair in the kitchen, knitting, while talking my kids through their chosen projects. Ds made a batch of homemade fudge (real fudge, with cocoa, butter, sugar - not melted chocolate chips!), and dd made a sponge cake (which she will frost and decorate in a little while). Since we do science experiments on most Friday afternoons, I will let them write up these projects as their chemistry experiments today. :D Although, they are playing outside in the snow right now, and they don't know it yet. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paisley Hedgehog Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 nm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted February 11, 2011 Author Share Posted February 11, 2011 I'm loving all of these, thank you. You've given me some great ideas too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paintedlady Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Not quite what you had in mind, but.... we welcomed dh home from Afghanistan :D And we worked on cleaning out the basement. And dh taught our older two how to list things on ebay, and promised them a percentage of the sale for their help. And we went with dh today to his civilian employer and cut down the yellow ribbon they had in his honor (for the year he's been gone) and made the news! :D How wonderful for your family! :patriot: Enjoy your dh being home. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paintedlady Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 We're making paper a mache spider and ant since we're studying arthropods and on Monday we're heading to Springfield, IL to protest and have an "everything Lincoln" field trip. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 We've been getting quite a bit of "out of box" lately. Two of the ds's are on a TARC model rocketry team so some of their science and math time has been devoted to working on the presentation they will have to do in White Plains, Va. if they qualify for nationals. They've also been drawing schematics, making electrical boards, drilling, and soldering together the components for laser room alarm systems. One of the boys has his done. Tomorrow night we'll be having a viking dinner with lamb stew and lefse. Faith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennW in SoCal Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 How wonderful to have your dh home!! And to get to cut down the yellow ribbon! What a very special time for your family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin in DFW Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 the Nature Center! My oldest is already a volunteer, she's 18. My son and I went along and turned in our applications and got to shadow dd while she fed and cared for the animals in the education center. We LOVED it!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennW in SoCal Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Just stopping by to say "hi" and to cheer everyone on. So many fun things going on -- missiles being built, Viking dinners, nature centers, dads coming home from Afghanistan, and Colleen's kids making yummy stuff in the kitchen. I spent a few hours today with KarenAnne and we found the most terrific cook book that I want to share with my fellow outside-the-box homeschoolers. It is called Cooking for Geeks: Real Science, Great Hacks and Good Food We were laughing out loud in the science aisle at Barnes and Noble, each quoting a section to the other. The book has the science of food safety, of how heat is conducted and cooks things, the chemistry of cooking, along with real recipes and it is all delivered with the dry wit of a real computer geek. We each bought a copy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GWOB Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Wednesday we were listening to SOTW 1 on CD. We dd10 heard the chapter on Mohenjo Daro. her curiosity was awakened. She spent the rest of the day looking up info on Mohenjo Daro and formulating theories an what happened to this civilization. During our library visit this week, we picked up a book of African Fol Tales. The kids have been devouring it all week. I walked out of the shower today to find dd10 reading it to the two others. Today we had a Valentie's Day party, so we didn't do anything official. Dd10 read Detectives in Togas while ds7 read Bully for You Teddy Roosevelt. After exchanging Valentines, our group went to a paint-your-own-pottery store. I called it art. When we came home, the older two built a bridge out of toothpicks, marshmallows, and playing cards. We had a great week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiobrain Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 I have had a horrible few weeks, coupled with a horrific week this week, so I have thrown the box out of the window for right now. I have asked the kids to make comics about US history. They have these reoccurring cat characters that are now time travelers. They have been to the Salem Witch trials, and complaining about Writs of assistance or whatever they are... really, I have been getting Life of Fred done, and that's about it. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 I'm not entirely sure it qualifies as "outside the box", LOL, but we've been reading original documents and discussing them the past couple of weeks and it has been a joy. We've been reading from Franklin's autobiography, from Paine's Common Sense, from Washington's Rules for Civility, from the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, from Washington's inaugural and farewell addresses, and today, from The Declaration of the Rights of Man. This has led to some very interesting connections and some far reaching questions spanning later time periods! He spent this afternoon at a Valentine's party which was held at a large, indoor play area filled with adult-sized tunnels.... He's watching The Scarlet Pimpernel right now.... We're going to see The Eagle tomorrow (can't wait)! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 I'm still confused on the whole out the box thing but the boys helped to draw 3 closets to scale so we could have get closet organizers designed at The Container Store today. Living Math - check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyNellen Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Aw, this brought tears to my eyes. Enjoy your Daddy break!!! (And thank you and your dh for your service to this country!!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyNellen Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 I had my oldest, history-loving son create a lesson for my 7 year old history-loving son on one aspect of WWII that he thought the little guy would enjoy. He searched through books, created a list of reading (some aloud, some for the 7 year old to do on his own), created questions to do orally, as well as a craft component. they both enjoyed the experience (it went on for an hour and a half!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Dd's chemistry lab last week was a trip to the local drugstore, where she and her father (a chemist) spent nearly two hours reading labels on nearly everything in the store and discussing their relationship to concepts dd has been studying. Next week they're doing the same in the grocery store, to focus on additives, stabilizers, and preservatives. Dd has been obsessed with the old BBC series Yes Minister of late, and we have used this as the basis for a number of discussions about politics, government, and the use (misuse?) of language to say what appears to be a lot while actually conveying little or no content. Great links to current political rhetoric as well as to books such as Orwell's 1984. We went to see a new musical version of Jane Austen's Emma, which is headed for Broadway after its run here; it was a lovely introduction to the Austen world for dd as well as a source of much comparison to Sondheim's use of sung dialogue. Dd also began keeping a book of "wonderful sentences" she finds in her reading, and we discuss what aspects make them wonderful to her. Actually the only thing we did "inside" the box this past week were math lessons and spelling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jilly Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 I allowed the twins to play Little Big Planet 2 this week to create a level inspired by The Lord of the Rings. They created the Shire and various characters from the book. The dialogue includes poems from the book. They spent hours on this, and in the process they memorized numerous passages from The Lord of the Rings. :) I also took the twins to see The King's Speech, and this led to a great discussion on the rating system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 What a wonderful idea! I had my oldest, history-loving son create a lesson for my 7 year old history-loving son on one aspect of WWII that he thought the little guy would enjoy. He searched through books, created a list of reading (some aloud, some for the 7 year old to do on his own), created questions to do orally, as well as a craft component. they both enjoyed the experience (it went on for an hour and a half!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Dd's chemistry lab last week was a trip to the local drugstore, where she and her father (a chemist) spent nearly two hours reading labels on nearly everything in the store and discussing their relationship to concepts dd has been studying. Next week they're doing the same in the grocery store, to focus on additives, stabilizers, and preservatives. Hey can we come along!!!!! Actually, FIL has a Ph.D. in chem eng....I think this is his next project with the boys! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NanceXToo Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Hm. Spent one day doing a lot of reading of various books and very little of anything else. Probably because I was stuck in bed with a heating pad not wanting to move thanks to sciatica and I really couldn't care less if, say, math got done. Went to the bowling alley two different days this week (once for homeschool bowling league, the other to make up games for the same league since we will miss a few weeks by going on vacation). Went to see a guide dog presentation by a blind gentleman and his dog. Need to do a short book report and a simple science experiment this weekend because we fell a bit behind (but we leave for vacation Tuesday morning and I have a million other things to do, so we'll see how it goes.) :P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AuntPol Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 We are studying Asia in the 1800's this week (Week 19 of TOG). My DD, with some help of DS, made cupcakes and decorated them with different Chinese words and then took them to her dance class. She did most of this while they listened to different read aloud. We went on a field trip to a Solar House. It's not in this year's science but one that we've discussed before. The kids watched the Hercules TV show on netflix several times this week during lunch and we discuss setting, characters, and plot. Again, not our area of study in history but one that my daughter adores so having this as a lunch break makes the day "tolerable." We watched one episode of Young Riders this week. (Pony Express) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 So is outside-the-box outside of YOUR box? If so, I'll throw math out there for this week. DS10 is speeding through MM5A after having done RSA-E and a good way into RS Geo, w/ a good portion being review. He asked a question about negative numbers so I pulled out MM6B and printed those exercises for him. Yes, I jumped all the way to 6B! Now that is certainly outside the box for me! I then found some negative numbers in 5B which is already printed and bound so he completed the negative numbers in 5B and wanted to continue into coordinates and to functions. He also wanted to do more w/ pecentages so we'll just keep going. WE'll then go deeper into coord and functions by finishing up that portion in 6B. I've actually toyed w/ the idea of skipping 5B and moving right into 6 this year but I think some fraction cementing/automaticity will be good for him. If he's miserable, we'll jump ahead. I find that he seems to be better w/ having 2-3 strands in math going simultaneously, rather than just one topic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted February 12, 2011 Author Share Posted February 12, 2011 I'm loving all these examples. Just for clarification, I put "outside the box" in quotes ad I leave it to you to define outside the box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tammyla Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 (edited) (With my youngest.) We continued our chemistry experiments instead of just doing the one scheduled in the lesson plan. He had a blast blasting through the next three and....has decided to begin each day EARLIER than required with chemistry:001_smile:. I can not, can not believe he wants to start any subject before he must. We've also read and discussed our literature and history without picking up a pencil (big one), while I ignored all the pre-written questions. This is the hardest one for me. Edited February 12, 2011 by Tammyla Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiegirl Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 The only 'out of the box' thing we have done this past week is ditch a formal grammar program and have been doing grammar with online games and our read alouds. For next month, though, we are doing something a bit more radical, at least for us. We do our content subjects in blocks. We did science in Jan and history in Feb. Instead of going back to science in March, I have decided to do a block on my kids' interests instead. For my ds, we will be spending the month looking at the history and science of hockey. We will be reading bios of famous hockey players and doing other things that will all focus on hockey. My 11 yr. old will be focusing on the horse. I have BF's History of the Horse so we will use that as our base and go out from there. My 8 yr. old will do a month of arts and crafts. I am hoping to use art mediums that we don't usually have time for like charcoal drawing. We will go down some rabbit trails of various artists and their schools of art as well as learning of the science of colour and light. I know that I am totally insane for doing 3 different units all at the same time and that this might come back to bite me. ;) but I feel like it is time to jump into the deep end and taking it in short chunks might be the way to begin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4Hisglory Posted February 12, 2011 Share Posted February 12, 2011 We read Katie and the Mona Lisa by James Mayhew and then had pasta and ice cream for dinner (they do this in the book.) Then we read Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue by Anna Harwell Celenza followed with listening to the music and dancing about. It added so much to the listening experience. Sometimes I have a hard time adding something wonderful and omitting the norm which is also great. Everytime I do though I see the light in my childrens eyes and have to remind myself to exit the box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erica in OR Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 Well, it wasn't part of school, but DD 11 designed a bento-making class and started teaching her younger brother and sister, so they can become "bento masters". It's her latest hobby and we're all enjoying it; I'm the official taster. :) Erica in OR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyGrace Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 I've been wanting to do this for quite awhile, and since the old thread on this I have been making a more conscious effort to go "outside the box"-trying to be less controlling and more flexible. It has really helped. I let go of TOG, and we're just going to read through books on Greece and Rome. We do skill subjects in the a.m. but even that has changed a little. This week for out of the box: -older dd (just turned 11) has been reading "Exploring the History of Medicine" (Tiner) and loves it. Providentially, we're doing WWS at the same time, which has chronological narrations (history and sci) and has some of the people she's been reading about in Tiner. So we ordered a used copy of one of the books SWB pulled a selection from (Doctors and Discoveries). Turns out it's an adult book, but dd is consuming it and loving it! History and science, CHECK! -We read "The Story of Chocolate" while we drank hot choc-this surprisingly covered sci, history, botany, etc. -I let both dc (11 and 8) pick whatever they wanted to do for their timeline time this week rather than me saying what we were putting on the timeline. -We watched "Wild China"-great BBC documentary. -Listened to SOTW 1 CD and Diana Waring CD and some other CDs on a long drive and called it good for the day! -I picked a whole stack of cool looking books at the library and we just read them and ran to the Internet to follow rabbit trails. One example-reading about the Iditarod led us into a TON of other stuff, some of it way out there, like reading about the Ice Hotel in Canada-just that hotel had a ton of learning-they even had architectural plans/models for the ice rooms, which led into some math applications! -I am assigning more independent nonfiction reading to older dd-one book she is loving this week is "The Real Deal on Global Warming" Basically it doesn't sound like much but I'm coming to terms with the fact that content subjects can be way more interest led than we have done in the past. One thing I'd love to do more of is finding ways to have them do more "output" from this type of content stuff-writing about what they've read, etc. But I want to make it original (as others have mentioned here) like design a travel brochure, write a public service announcement about a sci topic, etc. That's the creative part I'm not too good at though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corraleno Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 (edited) We do pretty much everything except math “out of the box.” In the last week or two, we’ve done the following activities for the other subjects: Astronomy: Went to a special lecture & show at the planetarium and also participated in a series of hands-on activities relating to the sun and solar energy, including looking at sunspots through a solar telescope. We picked up a large, very cool, free poster showing images of the sun in all different spectra, and followed that up at home with further reading about the sun. Biology: Continued our “pond life” study. Caught some more planarians to add to our colony (we now have about 40), fed them a tiny piece of chicken liver and watched them eat (they don’t have mouths, they “eat” through a tube they evert from their midsection). DS12 did some very detailed anatomical drawings of their digestive and nervous systems from an invert zoology book, and wrote about them in his science notebook. We caught several damselfly larvae and watched one shed it’s skin. We looked at lots of different algae, diatoms, and micro-critters under the microscope, and the kids drew them in their science notebooks and identified them from guidebooks and online info. Also watched a bunch of nature documentaries. Anatomy: Studied eyes, including watching a documentary on the senses, watching several short Discovery Streaming videos on eyes and vision, did a virtual dissection of a cow eye on Froguts, and sketched an eyeball using a plastic anatomical model as a reference. Physics: Studied engines (this was a direct response to questions from DD about how car engines work). Watched an episode of How It’s Made about engines, watched several short Discovery Streaming videos about engines and energy, played with a transparent plastic battery-operated toy engine, and built a cool paper model from Ellen McHenry (free download of the pattern here). History: Watched lots of Teaching Company lectures on Greek & Roman history and archaeology as a family. Looked up references to Herodotus and Xenophon in the Landmark books and read more of the context for the quotes & references in the TC lectures. DS continued his independent research on the use of war elephants in ancient India, Persia, Greek, Rome, & Carthage. DS is also taking an online Lukeion class on ancient warfare. DD8 decided she wanted to go back to Egypt because Greece is too boring, lol, so she watched a TC lecture on King Tut, read Who Is King Tut?, drew a copy of the famous gold mask, and wrote a paragraph about him. She’s now reading and learning about Hatshepsut, and wants to follow that with a report on Cleopatra. Geography: Since the weather was beautiful this last week (finally!), we squeezed in several geocaching trips. DD learned about latitude and longitude, and DH explained satellites & GPS systems to both kids. DS found a foreign coin in one of the caches, which we researched online and discovered was from Thailand, so we did some internet research about Thailand and Thai archtecture, because of the interesting archtectural image on the coin. DD picked a fridge magnet from New Orleans from the second cache, so we did a bit of research on New Orleans and talked about Katrina and how hurricanes form. English: I’m reading Aristophanes aloud to DS; DD8 is reading some graphic novel versions of the Iliad, Odyssey, and Trojan War. For grammar we did a few Killgallon lessons, some Madlibs, & the “Silly Sentences” game I made up. I also printed custom handwriting pages using the last 5 lines of Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn, which served triple duty as cursive practice, memory work, and a poetry lesson. Spanish: Elementary Spanish on Discovery Streaming. They also do typing games, geography puzzles, and chess, and for PE they do a rock-climbing class once/wk and take Tae Kwon Do. DD8 also takes violin lessons. Jackie Edited February 13, 2011 by Corraleno typos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swellmomma Posted February 13, 2011 Share Posted February 13, 2011 Hmm, let's see, we watched EVERY SINGLE dvd my library had to offer on volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunami's. THere was a lot of them. We now know those topics very well. I ran away from home for 2 days ;) in order to attend a HWOT workshop so the kids spent 2 days with grandma/auntie getting haircuts, making V-day cards and playing with friends. Ds12 and I have had MANY discussions this week about next year's curric and he is having a lot more say in it next year as he will be starting grade 7(the start of junior high in Alberta, so a good transition year). Other than those things the topics of discussion for most of the week(with the 2 oldest kids) have been the hard topics- suicide, s*x, puberty, mental illness, drugs, alcohol etc. They have been reading, watching documentaries and asking a ton of questions, so we have many many conversations about these things, pretty hard to focus on a math lesson when someone is asking those sorts of questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyGrace Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 - suicide, s*x, puberty, mental illness, drugs, alcohol etc. We have had this this week too-artificial insemination, selective abortion, etc.-must be something in the air! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arch at Home Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 All of our "outside of the box" activities were regarding Girl Scouts. For the Cadette group I am leading, we painted frames that everyone then mosaiced. For the Brownie troop which the girls are helping with, dd 11 sanded paint sticks and tied them together with rubber bands (ala SOTW 1) to make boomerangs. She then gave a short speech about boomerangs and lead the Brownies on making them. Dd 9 made ANZAC Biscuits to serve at the Brownie troop and gave a short speech on the history of ANZAC Day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmermom3 Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 We do pretty much everything except math “out of the box.†In the last week or two, we’ve done the following activities for the other subjects: Astronomy: Went to a special lecture & show at the planetarium and also participated in a series of hands-on activities relating to the sun and solar energy, including looking at sunspots through a solar telescope. We picked up a large, very cool, free poster showing images of the sun in all different spectra, and followed that up at home with further reading about the sun. Biology: Continued our “pond life†study. Caught some more planarians to add to our colony (we now have about 40), fed them a tiny piece of chicken liver and watched them eat (they don’t have mouths, they “eat†through a tube they evert from their midsection). DS12 did some very detailed anatomical drawings of their digestive and nervous systems from an invert zoology book, and wrote about them in his science notebook. We caught several damselfly larvae and watched one shed it’s skin. We looked at lots of different algae, diatoms, and micro-critters under the microscope, and the kids drew them in their science notebooks and identified them from guidebooks and online info. Also watched a bunch of nature documentaries. Anatomy: Studied eyes, including watching a documentary on the senses, watching several short Discovery Streaming videos on eyes and vision, did a virtual dissection of a cow eye on Froguts, and sketched an eyeball using a plastic anatomical model as a reference. Physics: Studied engines (this was a direct response to questions from DD about how car engines work). Watched an episode of How It’s Made about engines, watched several short Discovery Streaming videos about engines and energy, played with a transparent plastic battery-operated toy engine, and built a cool paper model from Ellen McHenry (free download of the pattern here). History: Watched lots of Teaching Company lectures on Greek & Roman history and archaeology as a family. Looked up references to Herodotus and Xenophon in the Landmark books and read more of the context for the quotes & references in the TC lectures. DS continued his independent research on the use of war elephants in ancient India, Persia, Greek, Rome, & Carthage. DS is also taking an online Lukeion class on ancient warfare. DD8 decided she wanted to go back to Egypt because Greece is too boring, lol, so she watched a TC lecture on King Tut, read Who Is King Tut?, drew a copy of the famous gold mask, and wrote a paragraph about him. She’s now reading and learning about Hatshepsut, and wants to follow that with a report on Cleopatra. Geography: Since the weather was beautiful this last week (finally!), we squeezed in several geocaching trips. DD learned about latitude and longitude, and DH explained satellites & GPS systems to both kids. DS found a foreign coin in one of the caches, which we researched online and discovered was from Thailand, so we did some internet research about Thailand and Thai archtecture, because of the interesting archtectural image on the coin. DD picked a fridge magnet from New Orleans from the second cache, so we did a bit of research on New Orleans and talked about Katrina and how hurricanes form. English: I’m reading Aristophanes aloud to DS; DD8 is reading some graphic novel versions of the Iliad, Odyssey, and Trojan War. For grammar we did a few Killgallon lessons, some Madlibs, & the “Silly Sentences†game I made up. I also printed custom handwriting pages using the last 5 lines of Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn, which served triple duty as cursive practice, memory work, and a poetry lesson. Spanish: Elementary Spanish on Discovery Streaming. They also do typing games, geography puzzles, and chess, and for PE they do a rock-climbing class once/wk and take Tae Kwon Do. DD8 also takes violin lessons. Jackie Sigh! We are going to pack our bags and come join you. It is raining here and school is not nearly exciting. Does finding out that the Dude can take a squid dissection lab through our science museum count? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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