Homeschool Days September 2021

We ended another busy month of school last week.  We are in a good rhythm and our days, for the most part, are running smoothly.  In spite of several road trips lately, we have still kept up our school work. The boys have been very flexible to do school on the go.  That is a blessing. 

 

We are loving our missionary study! During September we learned about Gladys Aylward and Eric Liddell.  Our focus word for Gladys was virtue and for Eric we learned about living a life of honor. We are doing audio books instead of chapter books for this study.  That has come in very handy while traveling.  We have enjoyed listening to several chapters while on our road trips.  The boys have loved the story of Eric Liddell the best so far.  This study covers character traits, geography, and most importantly the life and ministry of some great Godly servants.

 

 

In reading, Ben read this Flat Stanley book.

 

He has also been reading this fun book and will finish it today.

 

Cruz read two books.  The first was The Sign of the Beaver.

 

Next, House of Robots.

 

 

Cruz doing a daily math worksheet.  They also both do daily online drills using Xtra Math and sometimes drills on the Math U See website. We also drill using flashcards from time to time. They take a math test every Friday.

 

Cruz doing a Fix It Grammar lesson.

 

Ben practicing spelling words on the board.  They do daily online spelling practice using Kids A-Z.  They take a spelling test every Friday.

 

Cruz does a weekly online IEW writing class.  They meet for an hour online and then he has the rest of the week to finish his keyword outline, rough draft, and final paper.  He submits a paper each week to his teacher.  He also has regular vocabulary tests through this class.  He really enjoys writing.

 

I can see this shelf from my desk and often get a chuckle when I look over at it.  The bottom stack of books belong to Ben.  Notice how nice and neat they are, always.  The top stack belongs to Cruz. See the difference?  This image pretty much describes the two of them. 

 

Our local library had a 911 exhibit on loan from New York.  We went to see it one afternoon.  Cruz had just recently read a book about the 911 attacks so it was extra interesting to him to see the photos and read more about it.

 

On the way home from a recent road trip we stopped at the Mississippi welcome center to pick up some brochures for our Mississippi History study.  We are using them to cut photos of places and things from around the State.  

 

During September we studied the State symbols.  We did a magnolia, mockingbird, and flag art project. We learned the State motto and listened to the State song. We learned about weather patterns and did a weather tracking experiment. We also looked at car tag images from over the years.  Lastly, we ended the month learning about Mississippi Indians.  We are enjoying our study so far and learning a lot about Mississippi.

 

They are compiling all of their work into a keepsake notebook.  I took their photo in front of this sign at the welcome center to go on the cover.

 

 

 

In Science, we began the month with a lesson titled Mapping Your World.  We began to study the globe.

 

We expanded on our project from last month.  We added lines of latitude and longitude to our globe. We learned about the hemispheres, north and south poles, equator, and prime meridian.

 

We then began drawing on the continents.  We will use this globe and add to it throughout the study.

 

Cruz doing a Science notebook activity to log what he had learned.

 

We also studied tectonic plates and the earth's movement.  We used a boiled egg to help understand tectonic plate movement and also used it to review the three main parts of the geosphere- the core, mantle, and crust.  We learned about convergence, divergence, and transform motion.  Living in Guatemala has helped them better understand this study of earthquakes and volcanoes.  It is a part of life there.

 

They did an afternoon art class with our homeschool fellowship group.  They painted these wooden pumpkins.  During September they also had an afternoon park play day with the homeschool group and I participated in a mom's night out.  Fun times!!

 

For P.E., they started tennis lessons.  It is a group lesson with other homeschool kids.  They are loving it!  We go back several evenings during the week and play/practice as a family.  It has been great exercise and fun for all of us.

It is now October and I am loving all things fall!!  It is my favorite month to be home in the States.  

School Days September 2020

Today we are finishing up another great month of learning.  We will complete week eleven on Friday.   Here is a look at what we have been learning lately.

 

We have studied and prayed for the countries of Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Greenland, and Guinea-Bissau. 

The boys are continuing to enjoy their Awana class. Here is Cruz excited about a new badge he earned.

In Math, Cruz is learning fractions.  We use Math-U-See.  He is in the Epsilon level.  What I love about Math-U-See is the DVD lessons that come with it.  Each Monday we start the week by watching Mr. Demme teach the new concept and then we spend the rest of the week mastering it. They take a test every Friday and if they pass it we move on to the next lesson. 

Ben is in the Gamma level learning his multiplication facts.  In addition to his lessons, he does a lot of online and flashcard drills.  

They both do a lot of reading.  Ben read and did a report on The Secret Valley by Clyde Robert Bulla (one of our favorite authors!),  and also The Clue of the Left-Handed Envelope.  This is part of the Third-Grade Detectives series.  He has four of those to read this school year.  He loved it so much that he has already started the next one.  Both of these are part of the Sonlight Grade 3 readers.

In his U.S. States reading series he read about the States of Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.  He does a report each Friday on the state he has read about.

                                     He also does a weekly art project to go along with it.

 

Here is his drawing of the State Bird of Ohio.

Cruz read Mr. Popper's Penguins.  He loved this book!

 

He did a book study on it as he read. He learned a lot about penguins and Antarctica during this study.

When he finished, we had a penguin themed Friday movie night.  We watched the movie and then he had to do a report comparing the movie to the book.  It was a really fun study for him. 

I made some fun snacks to go with our theme.  We had penguin cookies made from Oreo's and M&M's.  I used marshmallows for ice and we had Goldfish crackers because penguins love fish.  I also found some cute gummy penguins and ocean themed ones to add to their plates.  They loved it!

We also had pizza and blue Gatorade that represented ocean water.  

Mid-September Cruz began an online IEW writing course through Outschool.  He is doing All Things Fun & Fascinating.  His class meets once a week and then he has homework to complete and submit before the next class.  He is really enjoying it so far.

As a great compliment to IEW writing he is also doing their Fix It! Grammar course.  

Ben practicing his spelling words.

We love the program Vocabulary Spelling City.  We use it to help review our weekly spelling words.  I am also using it for Science vocabulary, book study vocabulary, and IEW writing vocabulary.  They take weekly tests and it keeps up with all of their grades.  It is only $35 a year for homeschool families and you can add up to 5 students on your account.  Check it out!

In History we finished a unit on The American Colonies.  It was a fun study learning all about how the colonies were founded. When learning how they made their own furniture we did a fun craft using clothespins and glue to make wooden chairs. 

How cute are these! 

Cruz doing a Science crossword puzzle wearing a box helmet he made one day for fun.

Our Science lessons have been a lot of fun.  We finished a study on cells and Cruz had to make a model.  He used Styrofoam and playdough. 

We then spent the rest of the month learning about bones and muscles.  Here are their personal person projects after adding the bones and muscles to them. This is a great visual.

One Science experiment had us making a body figure out of clay.   They then had to try to stand them up.  We were learning about bones.  The figures couldn't stand on their own so we had to add toothpicks to act as bones to support them. 

We did another cool experiment with a chicken wing bone.  For three days we soaked one bone in water and another bone in vinegar.  After three days we checked them and noticed that the bone in water was pretty much the same but the bone in the vinegar felt soft and rubbery. Vinegar is an acid that removed the calcium salts from the bone.  It was a perfect time to reinforce the importance of drinking milk and how important calcium is for strong bones.  

checking our bones

The smell from the vinegar was pretty bad so Cruz put his mask on.  That made me laugh.

Ben broke one open to see the red bone marrow inside.

We ended the month studying muscles.  Our last experiment focused on the smooth muscles and how they push food through our intestines.  We used a nylon stocking and a ball of playdough. 

Hello October! Tomorrow we begin a new month.  I am looking forward to more fun days of learning but also an upcoming mid-month fall break.  This teacher mom is tired and ready for some R&R.