Less Traveled By ~ Homeschool Edition

Homeschooling Highlights--In the Home Stretch

DG finished her Teaching Textbooks 4 (math) today!  After today we have 10 more days of "fourth grade" and then we are having a two week mother-daughter camp that we are both looking forward to.  ("Camp" at home.....I'm busy planning fun things for us to do together!)  Our sweet girl is already looking forward to starting 5th grade----and we've scheduled that first day for June 1st!  It will be here before we know it!

Looking ahead to June and July, DG will actually be quite busy with a discipleship camp at church, her dance recital near the end of June,  a summer dance intensive/camp that she will participate in, and dance camp for younger girls that she will be helping out with again this year.  But we will start our new studies and continue on with some that will carry over from our current year (like Florida history).

Here are a few pictures from recent days---we visited family and went to a marine lab/aquarium and we also took a trip to our local art museum where we got to see some of my favorite type of art---impressionism!  The museum has a beautiful garden area (and pictures were not allowed in the impressionism exhibit) so the flower pictures are from the museum trip.

And a few shots of some of her recent work (she REALLY enjoyed designing her own notebook page for the first chapter from Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day!)  She is also really enjoying reading about the Timucua Indians.

Beautiful art projects that DG completed recently---the frog is so cute!  I had fun making one too.

Colorful Light Ray Cross art project from Housing a Forest

Woven Eye Frog  art project from That Artist Woman

Homeschooling Highlights-February and March

Well, this post is more like a highlights of the highlights post since it spans two months....Time has been flying and we've been busy!

DG completed about five units in Creation to Christ since the last update.....and we have pretty much decided to stop with Creation to Christ there----just short of the sections of Jesus's life and ministry. Since we have been involved in an indepth study of Luke this year, we have been studying His life and ministry all throughout the year.

We are going to finish our year up with a study of our state's history and also begin a science study of Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day.   Some of this may carry over into "next year" but that's okay!

DG has eight more math lessons and two math quizzes until she is finished with Teaching Textbooks 4 and then we'll be ready to start Teaching Textbooks 5!

She read seventeen books in her free reading time in February and March----and has been eagerly awaiting the release of Kingdom Keepers V (which has been ordered, shhhh....it's a surprise though)!

This is the time of year we like to spend outside more often and inevitably go on more field trips, so it seems.  We recently we to the local science and history museum together and also on a tour of our local newspaper and a federal reserve bank with a small group.  Each of these trips was excellent!  I think we enjoyed the newspaper tour and the museum the most. 

Here are a few pictures from the museum:

We watched this little guy swim around and eat for awhile.

 

We played with this neat magnet/liquid combination exhibit (along with lots of other physical science stations).

 

DG had fun doing a new to us scavenger hunt through one of the museum's rooms.

 

We've also been doing more art projects (thanks to Art Projects for Kids , Deep Space Sparkle and That Artist Woman):

Warm/Cool Color Hands

Line Drawing/Patterns

Textured Watercolor

Back to School Project

She has really enjoyed the projects!

That's it for now.....hope to be back before too many more weeks go by with another update.

 

 

Homeschooling Highlights - End of January

The last few weeks have zoomed by; and I am a bit behind on our updates, so I'll briefly recap the end of January.

The weather has been great and we have visited the zoo three times since I last wrote!  We've gone at different times of the day on each trip, and we've been able to see animals in action that we often don't see up and about when we go earlier in the day.  The lions were up and about on one trip and we got to see the black bear sipping water from his small pond and eating a small bird on the most recent trip.

We began a series of picture studies by the artist Johannes (Jan) Vermeer.  The first piece we studied this was The Milkmaid which I am able to picture below as it is in the public domain: 

We used the prints from the Ambleside Online related Yahoo Group, and then found the work online at a site where we could look at some parts of it more closely.  We also found the answer to "what is that box on the floor?" 

We've also studied The Geographer, pictured below.

DG completed two more units in Creation to Christ and continues to work diligently through her Math and English assignments. We were also fortunate to make another trip to the symphony and our local paint on plater place.  Fun times!

I will close with pictures of some of her recent work:

Science journal sketches:

The Parthenon:

Alexander the Great's Horse- Bucephalus

Poetry Painting-

 

Homeschooling Highlights: January 9-13

DG finished up Unit 19 in Creation to Christ this week.

Here are a few snapshots of her work....

History notebook page:

Draw and Write Through History, Greek soldier drawing:

Plant Life book page (Shepherd's Purse):

Poetry painting:

We ended our week with a trip to the symphony----and it was FANTASTIC!

Homeschooling Highlights: January 2-6

DG had another great week!  She is enjoying her studies very much, and I am thrilled to see her excitement over learning and completing her work!

This week she completed Unit 18 in Creation to Christ.  We are now officially over half way through the year's plans!

In history, she began reading about Ancient Greece.  Our new read aloud is Archimedes and the Door of Science.  I have read wonderful reviews of this book, and it is as good as I was hoping it would be so far!  She is reading from Streams of History: Ancient Greece independently and we are reading Old Greek Stories together.  (The last book mentioned is not scheduled in Creation to Christ.)

History narrations, timeline and map work for this unit:

In Science she finished reading Birds of the Air and completed an experiment to see how oil might affect the feathers of a duck.  (We used paper "feathers".)

She completed a beautiful sketch of a cardinal----one of my favorite birds.

 

She memorized a Robert Frost poem,

wrote a book review and completed the Unit 8 Cumulative Review in English.

She continues to work diligently through her math book! 

We both enjoyed returning to our Community Bible Study class this week.  She prepared for class over the break and into the early part of this week by completing three weeks of at home questions. 

We are working on including singing and poetry reading in our days more often as we embark upon the new year.  This week we sang "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" several times and enjoyed various poems from Favorite Poems Old and New.

To wrap up our week, we spent part of this beautiful day at the zoo.  It was such a nice trip.  We were able to watch this fellow

make some nice mud puddles to play in.  Take a little water....

Mix it with some dirt....

Enjoy!

 

--And there you have a glimpse in to our homeschooling days for this week!  Thanks for stopping by!

Homeschooling Highlights: Starting Back Up

We have started back on our lessons.  DG is eager to start fifth grade, so that means finishing up fourth grade first.  ;-)   I think it's a sure sign of a good and long enough break when your child asks to start back a week sooner than planned.  It's such a blessing that we have the freedom to do just that!  We really enjoy our year round schedule that allows us to work and take breaks on our own/family timeline.   This time of year is sort of like our "summer" with the longest consecutive number of weeks we usually take off.  So without further ado, here's summary of the week:

This week in Creation to Christ, DG completed Unit 17.  

In history, she read about Cyrus and Darius, and reviewed the story of Esther.  (We read ahead to complete the book of Esther before the break.) She completed The Story of the Ancient World and will begin reading Streams of History:  Ancient Greece next week!  The Story of the Ancient World is the first history book of this size (over 250 pages) that she has read and completed narrations from completely independently.  We were both so excited when she finished the book!   Her timeline for the week is pictured below:

 

In Science, she continued reading Birds of the Air and enjoyed answering the unit questions.  This is one of her favorite parts of science!  She also enjoyed completing a new sketch in her book about birds.  Pictured below is her sketch from Unit 17 and her notebook/questions page (if you look closely you can see a "heart" science at the top right corner  :-)  )

 

 

In math DG has been studying angles as well as reviewing multiplication and division.  She completed her tenth quiz and is on lesson 72 in Teaching Textbooks 4.  

 

In English, DG completed Unit 7 of Bob Jones English 4 which covered reference skills, outlining and notetaking; and began Unit 8 which covers how to write a persuasive short essay in the form of a book review.

Thanks to Grand D for gift certificates to a local paint on plaster shop, DG spent an afternoon thoroughly enjoying painting these new treasures:

 

It was a very nice week!

 

And even though this post is already long and full of pictures, I want to close with a series of pictures from an assignment from Unit 16 since I never did post on that unit.  The assignment was the first from the Draw and Write Through History:  Greece and Rome book.  DG enjoyed the assignment very much, and it was a lot of fun to watch (and photograph) the stages of her drawing.

 

 

 

 

 

Homeschooling Highlights-Early November

DG has been working hard and has completed Unit 14 and half of Unit 15 in Creation to Christ.  We are hoping to finish Unit 15 and all of Unit 16 next week, then we'll take a week off for our Thanksgiving celebrations.  After that, we hope to finish Unit 17 the last week of November.....and then if all goes as planned, we'll be taking off from December 5th until after Christmas (except for math and seasonal fun)!  We'll be celebrating DG's 10th birthday, focusing on Advent and Christmas, and spending time with friends and family in December.  It is sort of like a month of "summer" for us since we school year round.  As you can imagine, we are eagerly looking forward to Thanksgiving and the weeks beyond.

But without further ado, here are some snapshots of some of DG's work:

Notebook pages from Unit 14

The art project was to simulate a "mosaic" that included a picture of a chariot.  It was such a small piece of paper, that DG didn't like the thought of having a horse half off/half on the page, so she just left him off!  :-)   Here is DG's drawing before it was cut apart and reassembled:

Her poetry painting from the unit.....This unit's poem was my favorite Frost poem----my regular blog is named from part of it, in fact.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I----
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference!

In Science, DG completely finished reading and studying from the Land Animals Zoology book and she's now moving on to Birds of the Air. She really enjoyed reading Land Animals (except for the snake pictures which were promptly covered up by sticky notes) and she is so excited about the bird book. 

 

She'll be keeping a booklet in which to sketch and do copywork as she reads through Birds of the Air, similar to the Animal Tracks book I've posted from in the past.  She had fun drawing the first two birds in the book:

She finished up the first logic book of the year, and is looking forward to beginning work in the second in the series.

 

In math DG has continued working on multiplication and is also beginning division.  In English, she is working on reference skills.  She is continuing to read The Wonderful Winter as her assigned independent reading; and in her free time reading, she is on a third book in the Redwall series.  She loves it! 

We finished reading God King:  A Story in the Days of King Hezekiah as our read together literature book, and even though she said she didn't like it that much off and on while we were reading it, at the end she said she liked it.  I thought it was a very good book all the way through.  (Though I did edit out a particularly violent scene.  The CTC guide gave warning of the content, which was good so I could scan ahead.)

I'll close with a couple of images of a prayer box project that DG made from folding paper (origami).  I love the symbols she put beside the A-C-T-S reminder in the lid of the box (a heart, an open mouth, a smiling mouth and a hand).  Her little creative addition.  :-)

Thanks for reading, and hopefully I'll update again in a week or so. 

Homeschooling Highlights-The Rest of October

Time has been flying!  Though it has been awhile since the last update, we have been busy. 
Here are some pictures from all that DG has been doing these last few weeks:

History/Geography Project--Dough map of Ancient Israel/Judah and surrounding areas:

Science/Copywork--

Nature Program with a local park naturalist--Bat fossil and skeleton:

 

Field Trips--We've been to the symphony, a professional ballet and a muscial theater production this month in addition to the nature program mentioned above.

First  Dance Company Performance of the Year-

Our annual trip to the pumpkin patch:

Costume Party--DG baked brownies to take to the annual costume party at her dance studio.  She also helped other company members to decorate, host and clean up after the party. 

Delightful, busy days!

We are hoping to get through a few more units in Creation to Christ before starting our holiday schedule for Advent and Christmas.  I can't believe it's already November!

Homeschooling Highlights - October 3-7

We had a very nice week!

DG completed Unit 11 in Creation to Christ.  We are hoping to finish half of the guide before December so we can take that month off (from HOD) and we are on track to be able to do that!

Her history notebook page:

And her poetry painting for this unit:

We completed Jashub's Journal.  Below is one of DG's pages from the study.

She was glad to be finished with this study.  She thought it would have been great to read a study that applied situations to our modern life.  When I explained to her that a mother/daughter team wrote Jashub's Journal, and encouraged her that she might be able to write like that one day---------she excitedly decided to begin story in a similar manner and make it modern------that very day.  She asked me if I could help her find Bible verses that applied to the situations she would write (of course, my sweet girl!), but so far she has written two short scenarios and has found Scripture without my help (her Bible has some topical references).  A rough draft sample of what she is working on.....

It is such a blessing to watch her learn and grow!

DG completed an Atelier art lesson on "shape" in which torn paper was used to form the shape of penguins and their surroundings.  I think her little penguins are so cute-----one jumping in the air, one sliding into the water and one riding the waves!

DG finished the first three books in Kingdom Keeper's series this week! She reminds me of someone I know who used to read like that when she was younger.....

We also spent a couple of hours at the zoo this week.  The weather is slowly getting to where we can enjoy being out for long periods of time.  We are looking forward to going back again soon and staying longer.   DG had fun taking lots of pictures!  (So did I.)

 

Homeschooling Highlights - September 19-30

A glance at what DG has been up to in recent days.....

 

Completing Unit 10 of Creation to Christ

I thought I'd type out her narrations from her notebook page this week since there is a discussion going on about written narration on one of my favorite CM forums, and I know the picture is sometimes hard to read.  Though one assignment each week is to copy from her reading, she sometimes elects to do narration instead, which is okay with me!

She is reading The Story of the Ancient World independently and then completing short writing selections over portions she reads.

The Philistines were fighting the Israelites.  David's brothers joined in.  David often went down to bring food.  One day he went and saw a giant come out of the Philistine army and challenge any Israelite man to a single combat.  But all the Israelites shuddered in fear.  David said, "Let me go fight this man!"  So he went with just a sling and a stone.  He swung his first shot and knocked him down.

******

Saul was searching for David in vain for awhile, when he finally stopped at a cave and fell asleep.  Little did he know, David was in the cave also, only a few feet away.  So David cut off a piece of Saul's robe and kept it.  When Saul arose, he went outside.  Suddenly, David appeared at the doorway holding the piece of Saul's robe.  Saul was stunned by David's generosity, and stopped pursuing him for awhile.

 

Crocheting- She finished three coasters and a scarf.

Sewing- She completed the pet blanket, and it is being enjoyed by her little dog already!

 

Painting- We went to a paint on plaster store the other day and she completed this project:

 

Dance- Four days of dance this week!  The first company performance for the year is coming up soon and the dancers are working really hard.  DG is excited!

Homeschooling Highlights-September 12-16

Another great week has come to an end!  DG took so much enjoyment in getting up and started on her work independently this week, and in deciding how she would use her free time later in the day.  We had a bit more free time than usual, and it was very nice to be at a slower pace than our normal for a few days.

DG has become "hooked" on latch hook!  We spent part of one afternoon listening to Vivaldi's Four Seasons and crafting-----she on her latch hook project, and me on my first soon to be finished crocheted baby blanket.

DG also started a Sew Teach Me sewing project-----a pet blanket.  She measured out her seam allowance with a sewing gauge, marked off her seams, and sewed two fabrics together for the first round.  She will sew another round and add fringe soon, so we'll post the finished project next week.  In the meantime, here she is sewing away!

 

We completed a delightful nature study of our milkweed plants and all the creatures that are enjoying them, and enjoyed being able to work outside one day as well.  (We are both looking forward to more days like that!)  Here are a couple of other pictures DG took while we were outside:

And a picture taken from the inside as she watched birds at our feeders-----until this furry little guy came along:

 

DG and her Daddy have enjoyed playing No Stress Chess over the years-----and she is so excited that they have begun playing regular chess together too!

And to wrap up for the week, I'll close with some snapshots of some of her written work.

History timeline, copywork and narration:

 

From Jashub's Journal:

 

Some multiplication:

Logic:

Grammar:

 

From the animal tracks book she adds to periodically in science:

Science questions:

 

 

 

 

Homeschooling Highlights - August 29th to September 9th

DG has worked diligently through two units in Creation to Christ!  She continues to enjoy her history readings from The Story of the Ancient World-----so much in fact, that we may continue with this series next year.

Last week I received a wonderful surprise from DG after her independent work time.  She was so excited to surprise me, that I was asked to stay out of the work area until she was finished.  Then she presented me with an excellent written narration about rodents!  Yes----she is enjoying her readings in Land Animals of the Sixth Day as well!  I continue to be amazed at her natural writing ability.

This week she read about Ungulates.  One of the most interesting things was learning how a horse's age can be estimated from its teeth!

In math DG continues to work on multiplication along with review of past concepts.  In geography, we are now reading about Israel, and in poetry she is working on memorizing "The Pasture".  One stanza down, one to go!

I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I shan't be gone long. -- You come too.

I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother. It's so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I shan't be gone long. -- You come too.

For the Jr. Homemakers Club, part of her homework was to make muffins.  YUM!  

We started this year's Community Bible Study (CBS) class this week.  Her class is following the same study as the adult class, and this year we will be studying the book of Luke.  DG was very excited to go to class and see her old teacher, meet a new teacher and be with friends.  This is our third year in CBS, and DG has learned a lot each year, and thoroughly enjoyed each study so far.  The weather finally cooled off a bit here, and after CBS, we headed to a park to picnic and visit with friends.  Good times!

Weekly Review- August14-26

I never quite finished my post from last week, so I'm posting what we've been up to for the past two weeks today.  DG completed Unit 6 in Creation to Christ over the two weeks as we had several outside activities in which she also participated. 

In history, she is reading about Ancient Egypt in The Story of the Ancient World.  We had a few readers on Egypt that she enjoyed reading.  Even though they are easier readers, she (we) learned a lot from looking at the beautiful photographs and diagrams.  The Nile River has excellent photographs of the region.  She also read Egyptians and Tut's Mummy Lost and Found.

DG continues to enjoy Boy of the Pyramids and she is also continuing to read Little Miriam of Galilee.

In geography, DG worked on adding to the map of Turkey she began earlier in the year.  We want to try the Turkish Delight recipe in A Child's Geography (Vol. 2), but need to get a few supplies and ingredients first.

In Land Animals of the Sixth Day, she has been reading about primates.  The science experiment for the week was to see if/why depth perception is important, and DG had a good time seeing how close she could come to estimating distance of various objects.

Last week DG went to her sewing class where she finished up her first project----a bandana shirt.  She has her homework project (a second one) pinned and ready to sew.  She mastered the chain stitch using finger crochet, and is working on mastering the chain stitch on the crochet hook.  She has it down, and will continue to practice so her tension is more uniform.   She is excited at the thought of being able to make gifts for others!

Last week DG also went to another painting class with friends, and they all seemed to have a wonderful time.  She certainly did!  For now her cute owl is watching us from his piano perch, but we'll probably find a home for him in her room or our sewing/art room soon.

I think her painting to accompany Unit 6's poem, "Firelfies in the Garden" is lovely too.  It is going to be so neat to see all of her poetry paintings bound into a book at the end of the year!

Weekly Review-August 8-12

We've had a good and busy week.  DG finished up Unit 5 of Creation to Christ this week. 

Highlights from Literature studies:

DG was SO glad that we finished reading The Golden Bull.  Overall, she did not enjoy this book because she thought it was too sad.  It started off sad and even though the ending was "happy", it wasn't enough so to leave a favorable thought about it for her.  However, we learned a lot about Ancient Mesopotamia through reading it, and I think it was an excellent selection for that time period.

I'm happy to report that after one chapter of Boy of the Pyramids she was asking for another!  Perhaps she will enjoy this book much more.  (It's very good-----I've already read it.)

Since we did not complete all of Preparing Hearts for His Glory last year, I have decided to have DG read some of those books for her independent reading time this year, and she is currently reading Little Miriam of Galilee.

DG really enjoys the poetry painting work!  Below is a picture of Unit 5's rocks painting followed by her completed field painting from Unit 4.  I am also showing a close up of each because she really enjoyed adding the details to each of these.   We added "sand" to the first picture by using a toothbrush to flick on paint.

She has been enjoying painting in her free time too, and she has completed several pieces.  Those below have been done with watercolor pencils or crayons and water.

Last week DG was able to attend the first meeting of the Jr. Homemaker's Club that another homeschool mom is leading.  The girls were taught how to thread a sewing machine, make a bobbin, and sew basic stitches.  DG was eager to practice more at home and made two doll pillows and a blanket that she gave to her cousin for her dolls.  (Kit helped model before they were given away.)

The girls also learned how to do a finger chain stitch to prepare for beginning crochet.  DG has made lots of chains this week!  I have tried to teach myself how to crochet several times, but have never stuck with it.  So I am determined to learn again now to be able to help her; and I have (I think) successfully mastered the basic chain stitch and single crochet. DG wanted to start practicing a chain stitch with a hook, so I introduced it to her yesterday.   She did a great job completing a few stitches before time snuck up on us and we had to rush out the door for her dance company rehearsal!

Today we went on a field trip to a sea turtle center/hospital.  It was so much fun!  I'll close with a few pictures from the trip.

 

Fourth Grade-Week in Review 4 - Part 2

We had a nice week!  Last week with dance camp was a bit busier than anticipated, so it wasn't until this week that DG finished up Unit 4 in Creation to Christ.  She had a terrific time at camp and is looking forward to helping again the last week of July.

She is really enjoying the history reading and notebook work----though she wishes for more space for her written narrations.  The Story of the Ancient World is her favorite book right now.

The science experiment for this week from Exploring Creation with Zoology 3: Land Animals of the Sixth Day was interesting.   DG was to find out the relationship between cougars and deer in a certain area of space.  The experiment was set up to allow for reproduction of the cougar if it survived by eating enough deer, and for the reproduction of deer who were not eaten. 

She quickly ran out of deer to place in the space as they multiplied by leaps and bounds, and we had to improvise with little post it notes.  In fact, the deer population outpaced the number of post-its we had too, and we just gave up on adding the correct amount of new deer (and cut the experiment short in the end).  But the point was well made...... very few deer=original cougar not able to survive/new cougar moves in to the territory; more deer=cougar may survive to have offspring and cougar population begins to grow.....many deer=more cougars able to survive.....many cougars=deer population starts dwindling, and so on.

We were able to go on a few outings this week.....one an impromptu trip to an IMAX nature movie with friends and another to our local art museum. 

DG wanted to be sure to see the few Egyptian pieces the museum has, and we were also able to see some early Greek pieces and a pair of gold Etruscan earrings.  It brought to mind our reading in The Golden Bull, where the main character is learning how to work with gold. 

DG also came across a book of art history, and LOVED scanning the pages of ancient art history----many of the locations and topics we have recently studied were mentioned and she was making connections to everything.  (It was exciting to sit with her and listen as she discussed what she was noticing and remembering!)  I told her I would take out our art history books at home, and she is looking forward to going through those----as well as to a return trip to the museum sometime soon when we can spend more time reading and exploring. 

We took a short walk in the gardens outside the museum and enjoyed some time in the section of the museum especially for children.  I'll close with some of my favorite pictures of our visit:

 

Part 1 of our Unit 4 work doesn't really mention the CTC assignments, but it does have a few fun pictures.  :-)

 

Fourth Grade- Week in Review-4-Part 1

Since I have been titling each week in review post by the unit number completed in Heart of Dakota's Creation to Christ, and we are only half way through that unit so far, this post will be in two parts.

We've had a great week, though we are not quite finished with our unit work.   That aside, we have been able to spend a couple of afternoons swimming since this was a break week from DG's dance schedule.  And we were able to spend one morning at a painting class with friends, followed by lunch and a trip to the bookstore.  (All the girls LOVE to read!)

DG's finished painting:

Last week much of our "off" week was spent at dance.  DG's studio had their recital----and it was beautiful!  She had so much fun!  The production was "Noah's Ark" and DG was in The Vineyard dance, The Flood dance, The Rainbow dance, and the finale dance.

And as a special treat for DG, her father participated in the recital this year too.  He was part of a group of men that fought just before the flood scene.

Next week, DG spends four days at her studio's dance camp as a teacher's helper for the younger girls.  She is so excited about that as well!  We'll finish up our CTC unit between now and the end of next week, and I'll be back with pictures of her unit work.

Until then.....take care!

 

Fourth Grade-Week in Review-3

We had another great week studying the Ancient Israelites, the land of Turkey, animals, the poetry of Robert Frost----and more!  I am really enjoying our literature read aloud right now, which is The Golden Bull.  DG seems to like it, but it is not one of her favorites----at least not yet.  We'll see if that changes as we continue to read.

One activity we did in relation to the reading this week was to look for verses related to what we were reading from The Golden Bull to the book of Proverbs.  DG was able to find several and tell how they related in a very thoughtful and analytical way.  Very cool!  I think it is also so neat how DG has read about cylinder seals in both her history book, The Story of the Anicent World, and now in The Golden Bull-----and she made one last week! 

A few snapshots from DG's work this week:

Notebooking pages:

She really enjoys written narration, and is especially enjoying her history reading assignments!

Science project:  The project was to see how white vs. black absorbed sunlight and how that affected the rate at which ice would melt.....to see how the black skin of a polar bear affects the bear....we modified the directions just a bit.  DG placing the experiment out in the sun:

 

A few lines from her personal narrative writing assignment (from BJU English 4):

As I slipped into my bathing suit I thought about how I was going to enter the pool.  Stairs?  No way!  Pencil dive?  No!  Cannonball?  Yes!  So I ran outside and jumped into the pool yelling, "Cannonball!"  When I came up mom said, "Wow, that was a huge splash!"  I smiled and swam over to get my swimming goggles.  I put them on and walked to the slope in the pool.  I held my breath and plunged into the deep-end......

 

Her poetry painting for the week:

And the poetry reading this week (click through to the site and scroll down to hear it):

 

 

We are trying out a "three weeks on, one week off" schedule this year (roughly....some weeks will be different intervals)---and we have finished our first three weeks!  Next week we'll be "off", so there may be no weekly report (but you never know)! 

Fourth Grade-Week in Review-2

Another great week of learning was had by DG (and me)!  DG's dance recital is two weeks away, and she is having so much fun preparing for the performance.  We completed the Unit 2 lessons in Creation to Christ, and had a fun afternoon of art at a local pottery studio as well! 

DG's painted dolphin from the pottery studio:

 

The history project for this week was to make a cylinder seal and a clay tablet with cuneiform writing on it.  While DG enjoyed mixing the salt-dough air dry "clay", it did not work as well as anticipated in the project.  The dough was too "doughy" to easily hold the form of the etchings (or for the seal to stay in a cylinder shape); and without putting it in the oven on a low temperature, I'm not sure it would have dried in a timely manner.  Also, when DG tried to add her seal to the tablet, the dough stuck completely to the seal and it was a mess.   So, DG did the best she could with it; and we've decided that we will seek out a commerical product for any future projects calling for clay.  Here is a picture of DG's finished seal and tablet.

 

 

DG's poetry painting for the week (A pasture spring....she decided she liked the background of the water without adding anything else to it.):

 

And the reading recorded on YouTube:  (If you are reading this through a feed reader or email, click on this link to go directly to the post and scroll down to see the video.  I am still learning how to adjust the settings for recordings, and hopefully they'll get better as we keep making them----if anyone has recorded directly to YouTube and has tips, please let me know.)

 

 

Completed notebook work:

And one of her favorite things from the week....making an "Animal Tracks" book and completing the first page---a dog track.

 

We finished reading Dinosaurs of Eden and began The Golden Bull.  We are reading about Turkey and the surrounding lands and bodies of water in Geography and are continuing on in Teaching Textbooks for math.  DG began her first assigned writing project of the year:  a personal narrative. 

Last week I figured out how to get Netflix through our Wii. and we have come across so many educational shows and movies!  We started watching the Liberty's Kids series, and so far, so good! (If you are studying American history this year, you should especially check it out----there is a free month trial for Netflix, and you can stream it directly from your computer as well.  Liberty's Kids also has a companion website found here.  Some episodes can be viewed freely online too, so you can preview a few that way if you're interested if you search them out.)  And in the just for fun category, DG is hooked on Flipper (the 1960s version).  Dolphins have been one of her favorite animals for awhile, and she really enjoys the show.  She also watched the IMAX Dolphins movie last week.  Such a nice treat!

Until next time.....have a great week!

Fourth Grade-Week in Review-1

Our first week* of fourth grade was excellent!  DG and I both enjoyed all the readings and activities from Creation to Christ (CTC)! 

She wrote after the first day of school

Today was the first day of school and I absolutely loved it! We are doing a new program, and I started a history project today, and believe it or not, a poetry project. I copied some of a poem by Robert Frost, and did a background of a painting to go with it!

We have a frame that is made for art work storage (easy open/close-in/out) and it is going to store DG's paintings that go along with the poetry assignments through the year.  At the end of the year, I hope to take all the poetry/paintings to an office store to have them bound into a book.  Here is the first one of the year sitting in a pass through space in the kitchen.

She really enjoyed the painting, and even painted some more in her free time over the weekend. 

Here is a special treat for you (Hosted on YouTube:  DG's reads the first poem of the year-If you can not see the video in an email subscription, please click through to the post if you'd like to hear it.):

 

 

 

Here are a few other pictures of work completed during the week:

Teaching Textbooks Lessons 

 

CTC Notebook Page--A flap book of the generations from Adam to Noah:

And a Science notebooking page (also posted under the first day of school post):

We had our first Tea Time of the year.  The first picture study/artist of the year is Degas, and the first composer study of the year is Chopin.  We'll listen to Chopin each week during Tea Time, and read a little from the Opal Wheeler book.  Thanks to an Ambleside Online member and her picture study yahoo group-----we will use the prints there for our Degas study.

One last note to share:
I was so glad to have read a tip about using a cookbook stand to hold open the CTC manual (and I'm sorry I can't remember where to give credit and individual thanks).  We got the stand after the first two days of work, and it made a huge difference in DG being able to use the guide while shifting things around on the table and having plenty of work space.  We are using little post-it notes to cover each box as it is completed so she can see at a glance what is left to be done.  I am letting her decide the order of her work each day, and this is working well so far.

Until next time....

Have a great day!

 

*Fri. 5/27- to Thurs. 6/2
We are running "weeks" Friday-Thursay.

First Day of Fourth Grade

JB has been so excited to begin fourth grade, that we didn't quite make it to our original plan of starting in June.   It's so nice that she is eager to learn and work and start a fresh year.

To kick off our day, we had our traditional pancake breakfast----with the requested chocolate chips again this year.  I did my best to shape the pancakes as 4s for 4th grade! 

JB filled out an "All About Me" page---another first day tradition (or some variation thereof).

And of course, no first day of school around here would be complete without a math activity that includes graphing and some sweet treat...up this year:  Skittles. 

In addition to our traditional beginnings, we launched into work in our main program for the year:  Heart of Dakota's Creation to Christ.  JB's first science notebook page of the year:

She was so excited this morning that she was up before I was and we got a much earlier start than usual.  We completed everything, and even had time for an afternoon swim with a friend!

I'll update next week on all that we accomplished in our first "week".  

(We are running our weeks from Friday to Thursday since we will be going to Community Bible Study on Thursday morning in the fall and then will be due at the dance studio a few hours later.  Hence, Thursday will be our "Friday"/lighter school work/finish-up-the-week-day, so I'm trying it out now. That and we thought it would be fun to start the First day of Fourth grade on a Friday!)