Weeks 29 and 30 (MFW weeks 28 and 29): Jesus the Good Shepherd, Abraham Lincoln, Energy and Magnets

Well, once again I find myself playing "catch-up"! So this blog will be about the last two weeks...and then we'll be on Spring Break this next week. We finished our study on Abraham Lincoln. Dario wrote: "Abe Lincoln was born in Kentucky. Then he and his family moved to Indiana. His mother died when he nine. Abraham Lincoln's nickname was Honest Abe. He married Marry and they had four sons. His two sons died when they were children. He became president of the United States. He didn't like slavery because he thought that all people are created equal." I think he learned a lot! He also enjoyed learning about Harriet Tubman. We read a few books about her life and also had two movies that he watched over and over. The following week he went on to complete four State Sheets (Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada, and Nebraska). It's pretty neat how he recognizes so many of the states by their shape! While studying Energy we continued to use the Evan-Moor book (ScienceWorks for Kids). He learned that all moving things require a force and that force is a push or pull that makes an object do something. We also discussed Heat, Light, and Soung Energy.

We then moved on to study Magnets, which was fun for both of us! We used our "My First Magnet Kit" that came with our MFW curriculum. We completed the first three experiment cards that came with the kit. My personal favorite was seeing the magnets repel (see picture below with the pencil).

We also added in something new the past two weeks...drawing. I found the book "Follow the Directions & Draw It All by Yourself" at Scholastic Teacher Express during their Dollar Deals sale. So far Dario has practiced drawing apples and balloons. I have him trace the picture on tracing paper over and over and then on the page from the book. He is working on one shape per week, and is really enjoying it! He has always struggled with all things fine-motor related...but, this really seems to be working. He's really proud of his apples and balloons! Unfortunately, I don't have any photos! We also started a new read-aloud this week..."Mountain Born". This has been a great book to go along with our study of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Here are the books we used:

Drawing wasn't the only new subject Dario started...he has started taking on the chore of washing and drying the towels. He's been asking to help with laundry, so I taught him how to wash/dry the towels and he loves it! He's also learned to make his own mac n cheese...the single serving, microwaveable kind.

Well, along with our Language Arts and continuing our study of the Multiplication Facts, that about covers the last two weeks. Now, Spring Break! I'm linked up to the Ultimate Homeschool Blogroll and at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Week 28 (MFW wk 27): Abraham Lincoln, Evaporation & Condensation

Well, this week started off a little differently. Last Friday, Jewell came home from school and announced that they weren't having school on Friday because of illness. The school was going to use one of their calamity days due to so many students and teachers having strep throat. Well, this threw a bit of a curve ball into our homeschool schedule! But, I was pleasantly surprised when Dario asked if he could work on a state sheet even though we weren't going to have school! So, Monday morning both Dario AND Jewell did both state sheets for the week...Minnesota and Oregon. I think they BOTH enjoyed this activity.

Once they completed the state sheets they took turns reading to each other from the book basket.

Tuesday, it was back to school as usual. Dario practiced putting words in alphabetical order (still not an easy thing for him to do) and used his dictionary a few times this week. He also rocked his spelling words yet again!
In History it was all about Abraham Lincoln. We learned that Abe was born in Kentucky, then moved to Indiana, then on to Illinois. We also learned that his mother died when he was nine. And yet again, as we read about his life, in various children's books, I was struck by how often "bad" or "difficult" things happened to Mr. Lincoln, yet he kept on, never giving up. Seems to be a theme going on here! I especially liked a quote from one of our books ("Abraham Lincoln Will You Ever Give Up?") "Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed."

Moving on to Science this week. It was more about water and the states of matter. We continued to use the e-book from Evan-Moore's ScienceWorks for Kids. We discussed evaporation and condensation. We did a couple little experiments to demonstrate both of these and also completed a few worksheets and booklets.

And as always...here are the books we read this week.

Oh, and I almost forgot...we decided to see how tall Abe was (6 feet 4 inches)...so, here are the pictures.

I am linked up at Discover Their Gifts, Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, and The Ultimate Homeschool Blogroll.

Week 27 (MFW wk 26): Westward Trails, States of Matter

This week was more of the same with our Language Arts...spelling, writing, and grammar. Nothing new...just moving on! We completed our third chapter in Health this week. I plan on including the next two chapters (table manners and taking care of your body) sometime before the end of the end of the year. These should be really interesting chapters! In math this week we continued to work on multiplication facts 0 through 5...again, he's doing really well. Now, the fun stuff...History! We studied the Santa Fe Trail, The Oregon Trail, and the California Trail...we also added the state of California to our map. While reading about the various trails west, we completed a Lapbook using the book "If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon

".

We also started studying the states of matter (solid, liquid, gas). I thought we could do something more than what MFW includes in their curriculum, so I purchased an e-book from Evan-Moor to use both this week and next. The book is one of ten units in the Evan-Moor ScienceWorks for Kids series. We learned that water occurs in three forms in nature, and that cold changes water from a liquid to a solid.

Here we see that water expands when it changes from a liquid to a solid...and that solid water (ice) is lighter than water (the ice floats in the cup of water).

I really liked this book from Evan-Moor, and will probably purchase the Energy e-book to use in the upcoming weeks.

And lastly, here are the books that we read this week...again, a favorite part of our day!

Week 26: (MFW wk 25) Iowa, Wisconsin, Gold in California, Atoms & Molecules

Wow! It's March already! We've come a long way this year and I can see the end in sight! This was a really good week. We got a lot accomplished this past week, and had our last Zoo School field trip for this school year.
This week we added Iowa and Wisconsin to our map. Dario really seems to enjoy his state studies. He's really good at recognizing the states by shape. Part of this is from playing "Shake the States" on the iPad. In History we read about Captain Sutter and finding gold in California. We also added another piece to our timeline - I hope our timeline is long enough to complete this year's study!
In science this week we studied Atoms and Molecules. We learned that atoms combine to make molecules. To make this more visual, we created a water molecule. We used toothpicks and two different colored mini marshmallows. Two marshmallows represented Hydrogen and one marshmallow represented Oxygen. We put them together to form a water molecule. We made several of these "water" molecules and placed them in a glass to give to Poppy when he got home from work.

We also started another chapter in our Health book. This chapter is about nutrition. We learned about the Digestive System and are learning about the various nutrients our bodies need to grow and develop.

Dario also went to the Zoo for Zoo School this week. I don't have any pictures this time, because he said he didn't want me to go with him! Huge step for him! I was very proud of him...and he seemed to have a really good time, but was disappointed that we have to wait until next fall for the next Zoo School! I do know that they learned about South American animals and that they got to see a tarantula and a parrot up close.

This week Dario continued to work on his multiplication facts - adding in the 3's family. He also continues to use the iPad to review Place Value, Number Sense, Addition, Subtraction, Time, and Graphs on a daily basis.

We're moving right along with our Language Arts curriculum. I just realized today that we only have five more weeks of spelling left! He's done really well with his spelling this year!

Here are the books we read this week. We seemed to have read quite a few! We both enjoy our reading time each day...a time to curl up on the couch and just enjoy the books!

I am linked directly to the Weekly Wrap-Up and the Ultimate Homeschool Blog .

Weeks 23-25: (MFW weeks 22-24)

As usual I've fallen behind on blogging our Adventures! So, today I'm going to get caught up and try to get back on track!

During MFW week 22 we learned that Jesus is the Head of the Body (Colossians 1:18).

We also studied Illinois and Alabama this week. We read about George Washington Carver and Rosa Parks (both spent much/all of their life in Alabama). Then we read more about how the Pioneers traveled in covered wagons while moving west. We also made a covered wagon...but, Dario was disappointed that he wouldn't be able to play with it (I was pretty sure it would NOT stand up to his type of play!).

In Science this week we started learning about our body. We read about bones and muscles, what happens to the food that we eat, and we also did an experiment to see how much air our lungs hold.

Here are the books we used this week:

Dario continues to work on his multiplication facts...he has pretty nearly mastered the 0, 1, 5, and 10 families! YEAH!

MFW week 23 we continued our study of the states. We added Maine, Missouri, Arkansas, and Michigan to our map. While studying these states this week we also spent some time reading and learning about the Pony Express. I found a couple of "Daily Warm Ups" at Teacher Vision that we used this week. Dario completed one for Rosa Parks and one about the Pony Express.

We continued our study on the body this week. We read about our brain and our senses and we also conducted a taste test. This was to see how foods tasted on different parts of our tongue, and also how important smell is to the way our food tastes.

We finally started our next Read Aloud..."On the Banks of Plum Creek" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This time we are listening to the CD's...typically during our lunch break. I'm hoping the next Read Aloud we can go back to reading as a family at bedtime.

In math this week, Dario continued to work on his mulitiplication facts. We've added the 2's family and he is doing really great! He also continues to review many other concepts daily using the iPad. I'm starting to see some real improvement in his retention of previously learned concepts.

Here are the books we read this week:

MFW week 24 brought us Samuel Morse. We read about his life and eventual invention of the telegraph and Morse Code. We saw how Mr. Morse, like other inventors before him, thought he would spend his life in pursuit of the arts (painting in particular), but, instead went on to invent the telegraph. This took many years, and many sacrifices on his part. We used the Morse code to decipher a message...a worksheet I found at Teacher Vision.

This week in Science we did a taste test while learning how acid in food makes the food taste sour.

We also saw how the acid in Coke will clean the dirt right off of a penny!

We also read about our lungs and how they work. To go along with this, we watched the Bill Nye the Science Guy video about respiration. Dario loves these videos!

This week we also learned another name for Jesus. He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings (Revelation 17:14). To remind us of this, we made a crown to set on the kitchen table.

In Math this week, we went back to our math curriculum and completed a chapter on graphs. Dario also started learning the 4's family of multiplication facts. He continues to do really great with his multiplication facts! Better than his addition and subtraction!

Here are the books we read this week:

Well, it feels good to get caught up! Let's see if I can stay on track from here on out!

I am linked directly to the Weekly Wrap-Up and the Ultimate Homeschool Blog and at Discover Their Gifts.

Week 22: (MFW week 21) Robert Fulton, Floating, Juice

This week we read about Robert Fulton. We're both really enjoying learning about so many different men and women in history. I especially appreciate the difficulties these individuals endured along the way. Not all of these men and women were good at formal schooling (Eli Whitney), and many had setbacks along the way to success. One example is Robert Fulton, he thought he would have a career as an artist, but, realized that he would never be great as an artist and went on to invent the "diving boat" or submarine as we know it and also built the first "practical" steamboat. After reading "Robert Fulton - Steamboat Builder", Dario completed a notebooking page. It read: "He made the diving boat which we called a submarine. He made the first practical steamboat. He named it the Clermont. It sailed from New York City to Albany."

In Science we learned about floating and density. To go along with our "First Encyclopedia of Science" book, we also read "The Magic School Bus Ups and Downs". While reading this book, I decided to do an impromptu experiment based on one of the examples of floating found in the story. We discovered that a flat piece of bread will float, but that a wadded up piece of bread will sink...because the flat piece of bread is less dense, it will float.

Later in the week we looked at fruit and how the cells in fruit hold the juice (which is mainly made up of water...as all living things need water). We saw that oranges have larger cells and therefore hold more juice. The plum had smaller cells and was harder to squeeze, and produced less juice.

This week in English, Dario practiced using Is, Are, Was, Were, Has, and Have. These are still really tricky for him and something we need to continually practice!

This weeks writing assignment was a perfect one for Dario! Dario LOVES music, and this week we studied "joining words" and ended the week writing a paragraph about his favorite singer. He chose Jeremy Camp. This is what he wrote: "My favorite singer is Jeremy Camp. Two of my favorite songs are "The Way" and "Everlasting God". I like Jeremy Camp because I like the words to his songs. While I'm playing in my room I listen to his CD. If I met him I would give him a high five and invite him to my house for supper."

This week in Math, we added in Multiplication. He did REALLY well! He's pretty much mastered the 0, 1, 5, and 10 fact families. He continues to practice addition and subtraction and is showing improvement in the other areas he practices daily on the iPad.

Here are this weeks books.