I can hardly believe the start to a new school year is here! Which also means its been about a year since we started this blog. Unfortunately we haven't kept up to date with posts. It's on my agenda to get back on track. What I've found over the last year especially is that the three of us do best in an eclectic/unschool/roadschool/real life type learning atmosphere. I get asked a lot "which curriculum do you use?" It's hard to give a simple and direct answer. Documentaries. Museums. Nature. Adventure. Travel. Minecraft. Mythbusters. Exploring. Weather Channel. Baking. Living. iPad. YouTube. Board games. Books. Library. Did I say Books? Our eclectic collection of curriculum includes the following: iPad ~ Splash Math, SkyView, Nat Geo world atlas, Nat Geo freaky facts, Stack the states, Piano jam, Soundrop, Geoboard, human body Tinybop, Cimo spelling, and Crazy Machines { Apple App Store } Kumon books~ Wrting and Reading grades 2 & 4 { www.kumon books.com } Confessions of a Homeschooler~ Roadtrip USA & Literature units { www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com } Magic Tree House, American Girl, Magic Scool Bus, Schoolhouse Rock { Amazon.com } Writing it all out seems a little overwhelming. But obviously we don't do all of it every single day. I do create a schedule that includes math, reading, writing and alternating days throughout the week with science, history, geography, art, music etc. Flexibility is the name of the game though. If instead we want to write out a grocery list, choose the ingredients according to price vs quality vs quantity, read and follow recipe directions, and learn about fractions and cooking measurement equivalents then we choose to do so. If instead we want to play minecraft and build cities learning about architecture and math, biomes, raw material, creativity, teamwork, and problem solving to name just a few, then we do so. Last year we included unit studies on diamonds, mining, iron ore, smelting, gold, coal, as well as the different biomes. {All part of the world of Minecraft} If instead we want to take advantage of living in Oklahoma and go to Standing Bear park and learn about the Trail of Tears, Chief Standing Bear, and the six tribes of the Ponca City area then we do it! We love the flexibility of not being tied down to a rigid schedule or program but enjoy being able to absorb learning in a variety of ways!
Chief Standing Bear
'Tis the season! After "pinteresting" for ideas I've decided that our remaining days until Christmas will be focused on holiday movie units. Today is Grinch day! 
First we read the book by Dr. Suess
Then we completed a few worksheets. I found these via pinterest. I ended up making my own Grinch Growth worksheet on Microsoft word. [ I'm unable to provide a link as I can't remember where I found the idea :( ]
I am typing this post while we are watching the movie. (Jim Carey version) Multitasking at its finest! We can also compare and contrast the movie vs the book. Grocery shopping is still on the agenda for today and I am planning to pick up the ingredients for Grinch Floats! Lime sherbet and Sierra Mist.
Checking out the jail holding cell
{this was Lexi's favorite part}
Visitation area Checking out a police car
{BrookLynn's favorite}
And the court room...
*Lexis looks bored in this photo but she was actually quite interested and asked several great questions!
Last week we met up with the Elk City Homeschooling group to get a tour of our local Fire Station. There were so many kids there! A lot of homeschooling families in this area. Fire truck from 1929 We toured the dispatch room, sleeping/living quarters, fire trucks, & ambulances. The girls said the most surprising thing they learned was that the fire fighters worked 24 hour shifts!
Crawling through the "smoke house"
We loveThe Usborne Big Book of Science things to make and do!
We've created plenty of messy & exciting projects from this book and it has been so much fun! Today BrookLynn wanted to make the Wizard's Brew. Last week at the library we had checked out the book Imagine you're a Wizard!, so this fit in quite nicely. For several days the girls were lost in a magical world of becoming wizards complete with wizard hats, wands, secret codes, cauldron, & brews. One of their adventures eventually led to concocting a "smell-good potion". {cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, & allspice mixed in a big pot} Wizard's Brew
Supplies needed: vinegar, dish soap, glass jars, glitter, food coloring, baking soda, & baking tray Half-fill a glass jar with clear vinegar. Add several drops of food coloring, then sprinkle a little glitter over the top of the vinegar. Add a good squeeze of dish soap to the jar. Then gently stir the mixture with a spoon to mix everything together. Put the jars in the middle of your baking tray. Add a heaped teaspoon of baking soda to the jar and see what happens! {we used a heaped tablespoon} 
The foam that pours out of the jars is a simple chemical reaction. When the vinegar & baking soda mix, they make tons of tiny bubbles of gas. The bubbles churn up the dish soap, making lots of foam!
We {our family} have a goal to one day live on a farm. We are going to have horses, cows, pigs, chickens, and sheep. With the goats we are going to make cheese....yummy yummy! And some ice cream. One thing I really want to do is learn how to ride a horse. Anybody know how? Yesterday we looked up information on horses. Specifically Appaloosa horses. They are the ones with spots. Like this one in the picture. We learned buttercups are toxic to horses! Appaloosa horses are easy going and good family horses. The Appaloosa's are named after the Palouse River. We are going to have lots of fun living on a farm! We are so excited and we wish it could happen right now. But mommy says it will be a few years before we get to live on a farm. Mommy talked about planning and working together as a family to reach our goal. And that is our story. The end.
This is Shelly. She is an Ornate Box turtle. Daddy found her while he was at work.
After looking up information on our iPad's about Ornate Box Turtles, we each made an entry in our writing journals. Ornate Box Turtles by Lexis
Ornate box turtles eat fruits and vegetables. If the turtle has red eyes it is a boy. If it has brownish eyes it is a girl. Ornate Box turtles live in prairies, woodlands, dunes, and shrublands. In Oklahoma Ornate Box turtles can be kept as pets legally. Ornate box turtles have 4 toes on there (their) hind legs.
Adult Ornate Box turtles are 4-5 inches long.
We measured Shelly and she is 5 inches long.
BrookLynn's writing journal entry Cutting up fruits and veggies for Shelly
We put together our Road Trip USA binders. It is divided into sections. The northeast, southeast, midwest, southwest, and west. We wrote down which states are in each region. We also put together our Literature Studies binders. Our first story is The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Mommy read the first chapter to us. We are making a lapbook for each book we read. First we took a folder and folded the edges into the middle line. Mommy printed out all the lapbook activites for us. Next we colored the cover sheet and glued it onto our lapbooks. Then we cut out a matchbook and wrote down how Alice got into Wonderland. We also made predictions based on the title and cover of the book.
We just watched the magic school bus topic digestion. They went through the body seeing what happens to our food. This was Lexis :) Why are cherries, peaches, and plums always sad? Because they are down in the pits!
Oh yeah. We also went to the Science Museum in Oklahoma City! Two things. It was awesome and I got to go on stage! BrookLynn got to go on stage too. I liked the experiments. We learned about solving crimes, combustion, explosions, and hydrogen. We also got to ride a segway!
|
RSS Feed