Homeschool Highlights Weeks 16- 18 (2018-19)

This is my first homeschool blog post since we made our move.  I have gotten a little behind on posting so I will catch up today.  One of the things I was sad about leaving in Chiquimula was our homeschool room.  I loved our school room there!  But, after the move, I have been quite surprised just how much I love our space here.  We have a great location for our school room at our new house.  It is probably one of my favorite rooms of all.  Here are a few photos of it I took a few weeks ago-

We got right back into school soon after moving in and have been going steady ever since.  Here is a look at some of the things we have been doing.

In Bible we had a series on "What Jesus Did".  Our lessons covered his death, resurrection, and ascension back into Heaven.  The boys are memorizing a verse a week of Psalm 23.   We have learned about and prayed for three people groups.  They are the Khaling of Nepal, the Livvi-Karelian of Russia, and the Marma of Bangladesh.

In History we have studied the Persians, Greeks, Europe, India, and Ancient China. One of our Ancient China lessons was on writing.  We made a Chinese wall hanging that included a landscape drawing with the Chinese characters for mountain and river painted on it (the black things at the top).

Ben's language lessons have focused on letter clusters.  In addition to his workbook we play several games to help him learn and review the sounds. Here he is coloring one of his readers.

 both of them working hard

(a rare quiet moment in our classroom)

 playing letter cluster bingo

This game is called The Duck Pond.  He places the letter cluster sounds (ducks) on the pond when he says it correctly.  We also play a lot of go-fish and memory using letter cluster cards.

doing an a,b,c order exercise

Cruz busy on a language/ grammar lesson

Cruz doing a reading lesson.  This is a flip book so it just appears that he is reading upside down.  He has read about the States of  Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming. 

doing a keyboarding lesson

counting syllables   

This is his current chapter book. 

Doing an evening reading lesson.   Our weekday nighttime routine includes reading by both boys and myself.  That is when I do our read aloud books.  Our current read aloud is this book-

 

In Science we began a study of the human body.  This is the book we are reading through.  So far we have learned about the brain and nerves, seeing, hearing, taste and smell, touch, skin, hair and nails, and bones.  It has already been an interesting study for the boys and we are just getting started.

Our Science experiment topics have been on magnets.  Here are a few of the experiments they have done-

We did a pulling test using several different sizes of magnets and a pin.  We put the magnet four inches away on a ruler and moved it slowly towards the pin. When the pin jumped to the magnet we would log on a chart the distance.  We then compared the magnets to see which magnet pulled the pin the farthest.

some of the magnets we tested

Here we did the same test with the pin as above except this time we tried to pull the pin up instead of across.  They learned that the magnet could not pull the pin as far as before.  This is because gravity is trying to pull the pin down.

Here is Ben testing magnetic force using two magnets.

They really loved this experiment.  It was called "Flying Butterfly".  We cut butterfly shapes out of tissue paper.  We slid a paperclip onto it.  We then tied one end of a piece of thread to the clip and taped the other end to the table.   Then, using their magnets, they made them fly.

Ben testing his without the tissue paper.

Our art lessons have been random.  This day they chose to make artwork using yarn.

Ben made a picture of me.

Cruz made this van. 

I love how he made the swirls.

Another day they made frames.

One recent school day we took a field trip to a local hotel to see a free art exhibit they were hosting.  It featured beautiful bird paintings.  

At the end we all had to say which was our favorite and why.

When we returned home the boys had to do their own drawings.  We pulled up examples on the internet and they got busy working.  

Ben used watercolor pencils for his drawing.

 Cruz used regular paint.

Ben's artwork

Cruz's artwork

Lastly, we found out about a new homeschool fellowship group that is starting up in our town.  We went to the kickoff meeting in November and had a great time.  The group consists of local homeschool families both from the U.S. and Guatemala.  We enjoyed several get acquainted activities and games.  I am so excited about the opportunity to meet other homeschoolers around here.  The idea is to meet monthly for themed activities, games, and fellowship.  Our next get-together is this Friday.  The boys and I cannot wait.

We have two more full weeks of school before we break for Christmas.  I am counting down the days!