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Otter: Our wiggly 5th grader
Bear: Our big bear of an 12th grader
Emily: Our froo-froo homeschool graduate

June 16, 2009

It seems like a whole week got away from me and passed in the blink of an eye! We are finding our groove with Sea & Sky and things are progressing rather nicely. Most of the books we are reading through are pretty interesting and Otter is really enjoying the extras. Here are some pictures of last week's lapbook work. We finished up studying about whales.

A whale of a tale contains a story Otter wrote about pirates that sounds very closely related to the Treasure Island story we've been reading lately. The pocket showcases the different lengths of various whales.

Whale lapbook

Here is little file folder with some whale info... and yes, he forgot to put a period at the end of his sentence!

Whales lapbook

Here are a few more elements of our whales lapbook. Things were kind of getting crowded so we decided we would paste things into the file folder at the END of our lapbooking units from now on so we can better plan out where everything goes. We also learned something rather interesting - orcas are NOT whales! They are actually dolphins.

lapbook about whales

This week we've started a new lapbook about Vikings. Otter is reading two books that go along with it:


Living Long Ago	Viking Adventures

You can download the lapbook for free from Homeschool Share. Each chapter has several lapbook components to go along with it to help your child get even more out of the story.

Here is a picture of the items Otter put together for chapter one:

Vikings lapbook

Another thing I've recently added in to our studies is physics. Adventures in Sea & Sky has quite a bit of science in it and the extras I've come up with also add in even more. However, I feel like these explorations don't dig deeply enough into some of the things Otter is interested in. He LOVES science.

I'm slowly in the process of putting together a schedule for him and will share it when I'm done. I don't think it's going to be a daily check-the-box schedule, but rather just a lining up of topics and resources on a chart to keep me on track. Right now we are using some of the things I already have available like a Real Science-4-Kids physics textbook, a Young Scientist Kit, K'nex and books from the library. As always, I want things to be in depth with lots of different resources. Here's a picture of one of the experiments we did. The board has sandpaper taped to it to show how friction slows down the blue car as compared to the red.

friction experiment

Another project we have going on is our garden! My husband was so gracious and put together garden beds made out of redwood for our family. So far we've planted 4 different kinds of tomatoes, a bell pepper plant, watermelon, cantaloupe, onions (which are almost done growing), lettuce (which it's starting to be the end of the season for), scarlet runner beans, 2 kinds of bush beans, cucumbers, summer crookneck squash and carrots. I plan to put in some more things either this weekend or next. We also have fruit that's starting to ripen like nectarines and plums!

I think having a garden is a wonderful experience for kids. It's a great way to show how you can benefit directly from your work. Out of all the kids, Otter is the most interested in our plants and in helping to take care of things. He has been going out to water the young plants lately and I hope I can nurture a love for growing things and nature in him. I love seeing father and son out working in the yard together. I feel very blessed we have a yard big enough for that sort of activity as well as a husband who will be out there with me! In fact, he's the one that does the most work out there (*blush*)! Without him, the whole place wouldn't be anywhere as nice as it is!

An artichoke flower:

Artichoke flower

We have two artichoke plants but I'm afraid they don't taste as good as the ones from the store. I've been considering pulling these out and putting something else in or trying to find out what type the commercial growers use.

We've been enjoying our home-grown onions!

onion

We're going to have a big grape harvest this year. We're thinking of putting in some more vines this winter because they do so well here.

Grapes

Our first crop of apples on a young tree is starting to grow!

unripe apples

I've learned so much from gardening. I never knew onions made such pretty flowers. I also learned that you don't want your garden onions to flower!

onion flower

Here's a close up!

Closeup of onion flower

I didn't even notice that little bug until I looked more closely at the picture!

June 8, 2009

Otter is finally better now, so we are back to doing schoolwork. Today he finished up his sea and sky mobile that symbolizes the major themes we'll be studying this year:

Sea and Sky mobil

Today's drawing lesson was a humpback whale to go with this week's science "extras":

Mom's whale drawing

Humpback whale

Otter's humpback whale drawing

Humpback whale

We also got to take a look at our learning packet that came in from China. I received it last week but didn't want to pull it out until Otter was feeling better. Today is his first day without a temp so we finally got to open it up. Otter was so excited! First we took a look at the big envelope everything arrived in.

China learning kit

Emily didn't realize the packet was really from China. She stepped over to examine what little brother was looking at and exclaimed, "Oh wow...they even made it look like it really comes from China!"
I laughed and replied, "It really IS from China!"

Here is a picture of some of the writing on the back.

Here is a close up of the front postage area.

There's just something so neat about getting something "real" from another country. I think we enjoyed the outside of the package as much as the inside.

We reached inside and pulled out the items. As we looked them over, Otter read about each one from the informational sheet / brochure. The information is printed onto a high quality glossy paper and there are lots of little photos as well as text explaining each item. The text is short enough that it isn't overwhelming, but there are plenty of neat facts to learn.
Otter does NOT like to read (generally), but he was really excited to read to me all the snippets of info as he investigated each goodie.
It was fun to learn the different meanings behind some of the objects.

Information about China

There was a variety of things to explore:

A paper lantern

Chinese paper lantern

A Chinese knot

Chinese knot

Otters favorite item - money!

Chinese money

There was also a "papercut", a flag, 2 postcards with pandas on them, a bookmark with Chinese writing and an amusing, awkward english translation and a red scarf.

Otter has been wearing the scarf all evening while doing the rest of his schoolwork. After reading the paper, he wanted an explanation of Communism and what the red scarf represented. We had a great discussion.

After learning about all of the items, Otter exclaimed, "This stuff is really cool." He had a wonderful time getting a glimpse into another culture and it was very educational to actually get to handle real objects. This packet is perfect for a hands-on learner. It's also great for getting a child to actually be interested in another country.

Otter has been playing with the items all evening and the Chinese money has found a home in his coin collection. This was totally the highlight of our day and I know this is an experience he will remember and treasure as one of our better homeschooling moments.

If you are interested in ordering a packet, please visit the Learn About China Kit page.