School Days October 2020

We finished up another enjoyable month of learning last week.  Here is a peek at some of the things we did during the month of October.

Ben doing his devotion before breakfast one morning. 

Ben reading scripture during our Bible class.  We read through many of the Psalms during October.

The countries that we studied and prayed for were Iceland, India, Iraq, and Israel. 

They love their Awana classes.  Here is Ben proudly showing me his new jewel he had earned for reciting his verses.  In addition to Awana, this quarter they are also taking a music class and P.E.  These extra curricular classes take place in the afternoons through Encounter Academy (an expat school close to our house).

While Cruz is focusing on fractions in math, Ben is working his way through the multiplication facts.  Here he is practicing skip counting using our Math U See blocks.  

Here is Cruz typing a paper for his IEW writing class.  He does this class through Outschool.  They meet online for an hour a week.  He then has a paper to write and submit before the next class.  I have him write out his rough draft and just recently let him start typing his final draft. 

We do a lot of reading every day.  Ben read about the States of Oregon, Nevada, and Utah.  He has a reader for each State.  He also does an art project, watches YouTube videos about the State, and fills out a worksheet at the end of the week. 

Ben happily watching a video about Oregon.  He especially likes the ones by Homeschool Pop and National Geographic Kids.

Ben reading a chapter book to David.

He read The White Stallion and did a book study on it.

He read three more books in the Third Grade Detectives series and did a report on each.

Ben writing a book report.

Cruz read The Trumpet of the Swan and did a book study on it.  We he finished the book we had a weekday movie night and watched the animated movie.  

 In addition, Cruz also does this reading curriculum from BJU Press.

Our Science lessons have been interesting.  During October we studied the digestive and renal systems as well as a unit on health and nutrition.  I love Apologia Science. 

We began our digestive system study by looking at the mouth.  We studied the teeth and talked about the importance of keeping them healthy.  We did an experiment showing how acid can eat through your enamel.  Our Science experiment kit included a tooth (the large one) and we also tested a baby tooth.  We soaked them for several days in cups of soda.  

What our teeth looked like after three days. 

When learning  how the digestive system works we did an experiment with bread and water to show how our stomachs churn food. 

This was how it turned out.

Another experiment had us use a measuring tape to mark off 20 feet to show how long our small intestine is.  That was fascinating to them.

In our nutrition study we tested several foods to see their starch content.  We put a drop of iodine on each item.  If a food item had starch, a chemical reaction would occur turning the place where the iodine was dropped dark blue/ black. 

This was exciting to them.

Here are our results.

We did another food experiment to test for fat content.  We cut up a brown paper sack and placed an item on each square.  We let it sit for several hours before checking for results. 

 

Our results.

We also learned about the food pyramid, food labels, vitamins, and minerals.  The boys had to create a menu based on the food pyramid and help prepare it.  Cruz chose a breakfast meal and Ben did supper.  I add in YouTube videos almost daily to further explore the Science topics that we are studying.  Any time I can add a video, the boys get excited.  Their current favorite for Science is Operation Ouch.  

We are enjoying our study on American History.  We did not do a History project but covered a great unit on the American Revolution.  We watched Liberty's Kids videos on YouTube to further enhance our lessons. 

These two keep me on my toes but even on the hardest of days I am still thankful to be their teacher. 

 Hello November!