School Days August 2020

We are wrapping up another great month of learning today.  School has kept us very busy lately.  I feel like I spend the majority of my time in the school room either doing school or planning for school.  It is a full time job in itself!  I love it though, and it brings me a lot of joy.

Here is a look at some of the things we did this past month-

The boys began their Awana classes.  After the first two weeks they earned their shirt and vest.  They were very excited.  They are working hard to learn their verses each week.

We are using this book to study culture and geography.  In August we studied the countries of Bulgaria, China, Colombia, and Cuba.  We do one country each week. We spend time each day praying for these countries and the missionaries who serve there.   I pray that most of all it is teaching them to have a heart for the nations.

Cruz coloring his map.

We do worksheets each week to go along with the specific country we are learning about.  Here are the ones from China. 

Ben completed three books- Prairie School, Keep the Lights Burning Abbie, and Riding the Pony Express.

After he finishes a book he has to do a report that includes a summary and an illustration.

This is the guide I made for him to use for his summaries. 

Cruz is continuing to read Farmer Boy and will finish it later this week.  He will have a book study to complete when he does.

Ben is also reading through a set of books about each U.S. State.  In August he studied the States of Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota.  He does these written reports at the end of each week.

To incorporate art, we do an additional study on the state birds and then an art project for it.  Here Ben used oil pastels and watercolor paint to make a common loon which is the state bird of Minnesota.   

History has always been one of my favorite homeschool subjects to teach.  This past month we have had some really fun lessons.  We began with a study of Native Americans.  The boys made wampum belts using pony beads and string.  We watched a YouTube video to teach us how.

We learned about the housing, customs, food, and culture of the different groups.  I used this as a geography lesson too.

During break one day Cruz used a pole and a tarp to make a teepee to eat his snack in. 

They made an Indian headdress.

and also a totem pole.

This study reminded me of the fun we had studying Native Americans when Cruz was in 1st grade and Ben was in K4.  Look how small they were!

At the end of our study they each had to pick a group to do a report on.  Cruz chose the Yurok tribe and Ben chose the Mohawk tribe (mostly because he liked their name, ha).

Ben's Native American report

Cruz's Native American report

To wrap it up we sat on our couch, played Native American music (thanks to YouTube), and listened to each of them give their reports orally. 

It was just in front of our family but was still a small way to get them used to giving an oral report.

Next, we began to study the early explorers.  They have always loved every study we have done on the Vikings.  I made this fun breakfast to begin our study.

We love word searches and I incorporate them often.

An art project was drawing a Viking ship.

In the end we had a long list of explorers that we had studied.  The boys had to each pick out their favorite and do a report on him. 

Cruz did a report on Vasco da Gama and Ben did a report on Leif Erikson.

We began our Science study.  This year we are doing Apologia's Human Anatomy and Physiology.   It looks like it is going to be a lot of fun.

They began a notebook project of their body.  As we go throughout the study they will begin to learn and label the different parts. 

As an introduction we learned about what people once believed about the human body long ago.  When studying the Egyptians we learned how they used mummification to preserve bodies.  We did an experiment to test it out.  We used apple slices and covered them with table salt, Epsom salt, baking soda, and different mixtures of each to see which one preserved the apples the best. 

We had eight different testing cups.  We weighed the apple slices before we tested them. 

We each made a guess of which one we thought would work best.  We then let them sit for one week.

When the week was over we cleaned off each slice and weighed them again.

Here are the results. 

The table salt was the winner.

Keyboarding is not their favorite subject but it is definitely necessary in this day and age.  We use Keyboarding Without Tears and love it.

We took a long weekend road trip and did school on the go.  That is one thing I love about homeschooling. 

The following week I made them do a report on their trip.  They had to map our journey and do a write up.  Cruz did his in the form of a letter to a friend and Ben just wrote a short report.

We also do a lot of math, spelling, and language but I did not take photos of any of those. Maybe I will for next month.

We are starting week 7 today and cruising into September excited to see what all new things they will learn.  I think I'm the most excited of all.