Week 24! (2012)

I'm embroiled in a couple of projects right now and didn't have a chance to post over the weekend.  I'm just going to post a couple of highlights of things we covered last week in history and science, as most other things are proceeding per usual right now:


In addition to completing several books already started (which I've detailed the past couple of weeks), we began reading about the re-establishment of the state of Israel following World War II and the resulting Arab-Israeli conflict that continues today.

I read excerpts from the Usborne Atlas of the 20th Century, Kingfisher Encyclopedia, and our Haywood Atlas of the 20th Century.  I also read excerpts from Causes and Consequences of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Stewart Ross. 








I am currently reading Israel: The Founding of a Modern Nation, Maida Silverman (which includes Jewish history from the time of Moses, forward), and Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood, Ibtisam Barakat.  The first is written from the point of view of a Jewish repatriate and the latter is written from the point of view of a Palestinian who grew up during the early years of conflict following the formation of the new Jewish state of Israel.  These are both simple books that could easily be read by children, but because my son is behind in his reading right now, I didn't want to pile more books on at this time....





In addition to his outside science class, in our class at home we made and tested an electromagnet, then talked about how electricity is generated in our area and worldwide, its importance, etc.

My son read:

Science at Work: Light: Prisms, Rainbows, and Colors, Gina Hamilton

Light: From Sun to Bulbs, Christopher Cooper

Playing with Magnets, Gary Gibson

...and he's working on The Usborne Young Scientist: Electricity, Philip Chapman....

   


He also continued working through several worksheets on electricity from his physical science workbook:



I believe his outside chemistry lab class begins within the next week or so....

Other new books in our arsenal right now include an Evan Moore geography workbook on Europe:








And in religion he began reading through The Usborne Book of World Religions:








I think that pretty much covers the new items in our work week!

Regena

What week is it? Oh, 23 (2012)... I've Been Confused all Week!

We're trying to finish up readings related to World War II.  I've been reading The Airmen's War, Marrin, all week (LOVE his work!):















My son continued with Code Talkers, History of US (last part of volume 9) and read chapters 30 and 31 of Story of the World.  I'm anxious for him to move on - he's been dawdling in his reading the past couple of weeks.  He's still reading Anne Frank, as well....

We're moving on to the repatriation of Israel next week.  He started reading a book for religion last week that we're continuing through the time period of Israeli studies: World of Faiths: Judaism, Trevor Barnes:




In science work, he has been doing some chemistry related work in his co-op class.  They've been testing the dissolving power of bleach; doing pH tests on many acid and base substances from around the house; and working with color changing and precipitate producing substances in class.  They also made glow in the dark putty a week or so ago.  They worked in class this week with color changing markers.  We're still growing crystals at home, too....

In my physical science class at home, we finished talking about magnets this past week, then moved on to work through the Science in a Nutshell kit Electrical Connections.  They should finish that next week and start work on building various electrical gadgets for which I have kits. 

My son read Light and Sound, Robert Snedden, and Magnetism: From Pole to Pole, Christopher Cooper:

     

Some of the kits they'll be using for electricity related work:





(I have the older, mini-tech series kits, but I don't think they are available now and there are many similar kits available in the Slinky brand series....)

Wild Goose Sparks and Zaps!  (Static Electricity)







Other classes proceeded as usual.  We didn't have a field trip this week, so had a chance to catch up on more reading time.  The outside lit class study on Robinson Crusoe is ending and my son will begin reading Tom Sawyer for next week.

I have been sucked into Pinterest this weekend.  I have an interest in using it to create boards of ideas for study of different subjects, including a lot of resources that we used when the boys were younger....

Regena

Week 22 School Work (2012)...

Ah, I'm getting soooo old!  I've scheduled loads of field trips for years.  Now I'm scheduling, then forgetting to attend them.  Oy.  So, we were supposed to go to a local ballet this week.  Except I didn't recall that until about an hour after the start time.  Oh well....  Why can't I do a better job of looking at my calendar?  What happens when you get too forgetful to remember to look at your calendar?

We did manage to get to some other things this week.  We saw Red Tails, which supported our reading at home on WWII topics very well.  And we traveled to Centre College to see an L.A. Theatre Works radio play production, which was interesting.  It was entitled The Rivalry, and detailed the Lincoln/Douglas debates.  They apparently have a large collection of radio broadcast productions available for free download in various formats:

http://www.latw.org/audio/index.html

We attended the second Geography Club meeting.  I do wish there were more older kids involved, but my son seems to be okay with the group present, so I intend to keep going for now....  They are covering the geography of North America right now, along with two specific states each meeting.  I also have him working on various things for U.S. geography at home.

In science at home this week, they read their Einstein reports and we discussed his work with special and general relativity, as well as his search for a unified theory.  We talked a little about the various theories put forth since Einstein's time in an attempt to find unification, and we talked a little about the variable speed of light theory.  We then began exploring the properties of magnets in preparation for looking at electricity and electromagnetic theory....

A few kits I have at home to help me with looking at magnets:

 

(This last is an updated look from my kit.  Dowling Magnets company puts out a lot of different magnet kits....)
These items, plus a few extra magnets we own, a piece of aluminum foil, and a box of straight pins stood me in good stead for our discussions.  I also have a container or iron filings, somewhere, that I need to find for looking more at magnetic fields....

These are kits I've had since my kids were little, but it is simple enough to use the materials and expand the topic for older students by using info available online or contained in the Prentice Hall Science Explorer book I'm using as a reference: Electricity and Magnetism.  I also supplement with library books.  I've found with many science kits that those rated for older kids don't really contain materials (or even experiments or discussion) any different from those rated for younger kids, so I've stopped wasting my money trying to buy "older" kits....



When we move into electricity, I'll be using a Science in a Nutshell kit, Electrical Connections, to start off our study, then they'll be building various other electric models.

http://www.delta-education.com/productdetail.aspx?Collection=N&prodID=3459&return=1054

In our reading this week, we finished up the Einstein biography we'd started earlier, and read more about the various events of WWII from:

The Atlas of Past Times, Haywood; Time-Life 20th Century America; Scholastic's Encyclopedia of the United States at War.

       

We've been having some very strong WWII related discussions about the coercion and brainwashing of the German people; the atrocities committed against perceived "inferior" races; the strong, underground resistance that arose in many countries; the continuation of racism in the American military, the rise of the iron curtain after the war, etc. 

We read The Tuskegee Airmen, Philip Brooks.













My son finished reading Ten True Tales: World War II Heroes, Zullo; and is almost finished with Code Talkers, Bruchac.  He read the two chapters in Story of the World that pertain to WWII (28 and 29, I believe); and he is finishing up volume 9 in History of US (about chapter 28 to the end).  I have handed him Number the Stars and The Triple Nickles to work on next week, once he has finished up his other book.

       



Other work proceeds as usual and isn't worth comment at this time.  We're going to a high school open house next week and trying to schedule for him to shadow at another school.  While I'm not thrilled with the idea of him going anywhere, particularly not next year, he may be leaving me sooner rather than later....  Then what?

Regena

Week 21 (2012) - Into Modern Times

I really detest studying the history of our modern era.  Now that we're well into World War II era studies, I'm looking ahead to the rest of the year and sighing a bit....  I do believe that it's a good and necessary study for understanding modern day alignments of allies and trade partners, modern politics, and modern day aggressions (or threats of aggression).  So we are plugging ahead, but I'm really not particularly looking forward to the rest of the year....

Since I didn't mention history at all last week, here's a look at what we've been reading for the past two weeks:

We read more about the era of Fascism from Kingfisher World History Encyclopedia and the DK Millennium Atlas of the 20th Century.



(This edition is more updated than mine....)



I read an old article from USA Today about the one hundredth anniversary of Einstein's "miracle year." (2005)

We've been reading essays and excerpted works for the past couple of weeks regarding the rise of Nazi Germany - how the German people were co-opted, brainwashed, etc. from The Rise of Nazi Germany, Don Nardo, Ed.  This book as provided great discussion material for us.

We've been reading Albert Einstein, Freida Wishinsky.

 


My son completed his reading of The Nazis, William Lace.

We read about World War II from the Usborne Atlas of the 20th Century.



We read about the Bismarck from The Great Ships, Patrick O'Brien.



We read about famous women of the WWII era from Remember the Ladies, Cheryl Harness.



We completed the section of early 20th century heroes (those from the WWII era) from First Facts About American Heroes, David King.



We read about how the various soldiers of WWII were outfitted in A Soldier's Life, Andrew Robertshaw.



We read about how children fared during the war years from  A Child's Eye View of History, Fiona Macdonald.



He read a picture book called Hiroshima No Pika, Toshi Maruki, which about the bombing of Hiroshima and is NOT for younger children....



We read about The Berlin Airlift, following the war (and talked about the beginnings of the Cold War era), Michael Burgan.













My son read Twenty and Ten, Claire Bishop (French resistance); Adolf Hitler, Katie Daynes; and Winston Churchill, Katie Daynes.

         


He's working on completing World War II Heroes, Allan Zullo; and Albert Einstein and Relativity, Steve Parker (he and a friend are preparing reports on Einstein for next week's science class).

  

He completed The Hiding Place and began reading Anne Frank (The Definitive Edition, with previously unpublished material).



Other classes proceeded as usual.  We did attend another play this week and it was thankfully better than last week's offering!  We are doing some volunteer work right now with the daycare run out of our church, helping them get ready for Valentine's Day.  We're also getting our church in on making up car packs of food staples for the homeless.  They will carry these in their cars for the purposes of handing out to those in need when they encounter them....

Regena