School Work for Week 28 - 2012

We maintained our regular routine for most work this week.  Here are some readings that were added:
Scholastic Encyclopedia of the United States at War - selections pertinent to the Korean War.



(Also completed the Stein book on The Korean War.)





Read from First Facts About American Heroes regarding personages of the 50's:  Cesar Chavez, Jonas Salk, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King, Jr.




From Words That Built a Nation, we read about Brown v. Board of Education and discussed school segregation.




Read more on women in the news during the 50's from Remember the Ladies.




Read about the instant cities that began to be thrown up in boom areas, such as Lakewood, California, from Places in Time.




Read from The Great Ships regarding The Nautilus (first nuclear powered sub).



Read from Haywood's Atlas of Past Times regarding the Middle East since 1948; Russia during the 20th century; and Asia since 1945.  Talked about current events in the news and ongoing problems in these areas of the world since the 1950's.
















(I adore Haywood's atlases and maps!)

Read from A Child's Eye View regarding Independence for India.



I read aloud from The Indian Subcontinent, Anita Ganeri, and Enchantment of the World, Nepal, Ann Heinrichs.  I also started reading aloud a bio on Mother Teresa, by Maya Gold.

            



My son continued his reading in chapters 1-7 of volume 10, History of US, as well as his reading of The Korean War, Gay.




He completed his readings pertaining to Sandburg and Frost, but I elected to read Cummings's work aloud so that we could discuss it.  We also got into a discussion of Frost and his complexities....  There's a lot available online regarding poetry (I've recently pinned numerous things to Pinterest, as well as saving other lesson plans that did not allow for pinning, due to being in PDF form, etc. - just let me know if you'd like these).  I read Cummings from books I own at home:  A Child's Anthology of Poetry and an old lit book of mine by X. J. Kennedy (which includes questions for discussion, etc.)


A Fifth Edition is the oldest one of his works I see, although I think mine is older than that, LOL....

I see he also has out a book just for children:






We're off to the USAF Museum on Monday!

Regena

Links for Civics/Government Studies....

Here are some links I just pulled together for someone regarding various areas of Civics study (all ages).  There is also a link for studies for my state (Kentucky):

http://www.kids.gov/k_5/k_5_government.shtml

(...this is one of the K-5 pages, but they have 6-8, too)

http://www.congressforkids.net/

I'm not sure why they haven't updated this one, but maybe they will, since we're in an election year:

http://pbskids.org/democracy/

http://civics-online.org/

http://www.icivics.org/

Kentucky Civics:

 

http://sos.ky.gov/kids/civics/

 

Resources for high schoolers:

http://www.centerforactioncivics.org/resources/

 

Some lesson plans for all grade levels:

http://new.civiced.org/resources/curriculum/lesson-plans

 

I hope someone may find these useful,

 

Regena

Week 27 Work - 2012

Monday was a day lost this week, as my son shadowed at a local Montessori high school for the day.  We played a little catch up the rest of the week.  He didn't have his outside lit class on Monday, anyway, so had the week to finish up his work pertaining to Tom Sawyer.  They will begin work on A Separate Peace next week.
     

We finished up numerous books already underway this week.  In addition, I've been reading from our usual round of atlases and encyclopedias about the time period following WWII, especially focusing on the Korean War.  We are also focusing on post- WWII Asia at this time.

I am reading from Conrad Stein's The Korean War: "The Forgotten War"



He is reading chapters 1-7 in History of US and has completed chapters 35-36 in Story of the World, as well as the part of chapter 33 covering the Korean War, and the part of chapter 32 covering China.  He is also reading Voices from the Past: Korean War, Kathlyn and Martin Gay.



His geography club met for a make-up from last week (they will also get back on schedule by meeting next week).    They work on two states per week (started out West) and one country or region of the world.  They are currently covering South America.  They also play geography games.

His algebra teacher got back on track with extra work to make up for the week she missed due to illness, too.  I feel like all we're doing right now is shuffling classes and making up work!  He's almost finished with the drill work I've been doing at home using Videotext's year one modules in follow-up to his Algebra II work with the tutor.

I had planned to have him reading To Kill a Mockingbird during this time period, but since it has ended up as a selection for his outside lit class, I've currently got him reading the poetry of Sandburg and Frost.

         

I'm hoping to get him started on Gay Neck next week:



Poetry for next week will involve Cummings and de la Mare....

We will be moving into our last nine weeks of school next week!

Here's his schedule for spring chemistry labs:

Redox reactions - completed
pH of salt solutions / buffer solutions - completed
Titration / common ion effect
Electrochemistry (2 weeks)
Photochemical reactions / Quantitative analysis of inorganic anions
Distillation / formula of a hydrate
Specific heat / enthalpy change
Vapor density / analysis of bone

For his co-op class, he created verdigris pennies and copper-coated a steel nail.  In class this semester, these are the topics they've been covering:

Gases (2 weeks)
Tempering of steel / refraction of light / specific heat
Black light  / crystals
Dread Red Disease! game / baking soda and baking powder comparison / color change markers
pH of soil
acid /base indicators
physical and chemical changes - work through this level completed
hot and cold packs
naked egg experiments / surface area
double displacement reactions
starch testing / catalysts / observe crystals using a stereo microscope

The rest of our work proceeds per usual.  His co-op will be wrapping up in just a few more weeks.  I think that his drawing class is progressing well.  Here is the latest sketch he's completed using the grid method:

Pretty good, I think, for my left-brained guy (all those extra light spots you see are cloud cover - sorry the photo does look as clear as it does in real life)....

Here's what I greeted them with for St. Patrick's Day:

And here he is blowing out his flaming birthday cake last Saturday.  I think I need to forego candles in future....

We are at least a month early in terms of our weather here.  I guess I'm going to give in and start my gardening for the year (normally not started until the first weekend in May)....

Regena

Week 26 - 2012

On to a study of the Americas this week - mostly the Latin American countries.  He's reading Latin American Tales, Genevieve Barlow, and a biography of Che Guevara by Kate Havelin.  He is also still doing some Holocaust reading with In Kindling Flame: The Story of Hannah Senesh, Linda Atkinson.

    














He read chapter 34 in Story of the World (the section on South America) and chapter 31 in volume 10 of History of US.  I'm reading about Latin America from our standard round of encyclopedias and atlases.



In science this week, they fiddled with the electric bell and motorized boat kits.  Both are old and fiddled with before by my older son.  There are some parts that need to be replaced so I've got to go to Radio Shack to see if we can get these things to work for us.  No luck thus far. 



We did, however, have far better luck with the little Scholastic Electronics Workbench.  It is really great!  I'm sorry that they don't make this any longer.  Snap Circuits may be fun (and they're certainly a lot more expensive), but I think that wiring the components into the circuit yourself is more meaningful than just snapping together components already put together for you.  The book that goes with this is great, too, and provides a lot of info!  It's very satisfying to run the tests and have all of them work correctly!  We all had fun with this kit and have more work to do with it when they get back together.  We are also going to work through a kit on static electricity before we move on to gravity and flight studies....



I put together a study sheet for them reviewing the math of motion, mostly, as well as some of the terms related to our earlier motion studies.  They aren't going to meet for 2 weeks as my son's friend is going on a trip out of state.  I also gave them some work on Newton's Third Law to work with and discuss when we get back together. 



We finished going over all the worksheets on magnetism and electricity that they had done prior to this week, plus a review of those areas that they completed.  We also went back over the review of simple machines I gave them last week.  I'm getting ready to prepare some worksheets reviewing terminology that we've been covering this year to see how they do on that....



My son is reading Experiments with Magnets and Electricity, Margaret Whalley, this week.  I am reading aloud some from  Eyewitness Light, Eyewitness Electricity, and World Book's Invisible Journeys: Energy, Caroline Grimshaw.




         

   

We were supposed to meet for geography club this week, but the leader can't do it, so we will meet next week. Instead, he continued working in his workbook on Europe, and we played The 50 Great States Game.

 

(Another good Scholastic product.  I was on their circulars mailing list for years and stockpiled tons of good games, kits, and models, as well as books for my children.  I don't know if they still sell such great things or not!)



Mid-winter bowling league started in earnest this week.  I'm glad he's able to do this because he got kicked or stepped on in soccer and wasn't able to play his next-to-last game on Monday night.  His foot is still swollen on the side and painful if he moves it the wrong way.... 



He started his spring chemistry lab work today.  He's almost finished with the program!



We saw a production by Diavolo dance theatre at Centre this morning.  It was pretty good - for modern dance (not really my thing)....



Tomorrow is my son's 14th birthday!  He's going to shadow at a new, local Montessori high school on Monday.  If he decides to go to an organized school next year, I hope that this is the one he will choose....



Regena

Here's a project I've been working on: Sensory Boxes

I have a grand-niece who just turned three and I've been working on putting together several sensory boxes for her so that her mother can begin some pre-school work with her at home.  Her mom and dad both work (and her dad is still in school, too), plus they have a new baby in the family, so I wanted to try to help them out a little.

Here are the boxes that I've created:

Animal friends - lots of matching activities here; two books of animal stories (one is a pop-up counting book); bear stamping activity with a non-toxic stamp pad (I've included a big pad of paper for activities, too); suction-cup gecko to stick on a window; pony finger puppet; bluebird water whistle....

And here is the box closed up.  I cut out various sizes and shapes of felt "leaves" to use as fill:

I made up an "itty-bitty Easter bucket" from some left-over stickers, etc. I had at home.  It is chock full of not just stickers, but also finger puppets and tiny dolls, a maze game, and a couple of books for Easter/spring season, including the classic Peter Rabbit....


I created a counting and sorting/patterning box that uses bright feathers as the fill.  There are large dice to use for number work, as well as numbers on some of the lacing beads (which come in a variety of shapes and colors).  I've included some extra, rainbow laces for the lacing work.  There's a dustpan to "sweep up," a set of flash cards for colors and shapes, and Eric Carle's book about colors....

Here is the box filled:

I created an "art" box that includes more sorting/patterning activities, as well as play dough (with molds), crayons and a big pad of paper, and a "messy mat" (brightly colored place mat).  I included a plastic bin for sorting the pom-poms that are included as "fill."   For fun, there are also a pair of purple sunglasses, an unusual sounding whistle, and rainbow ribbons cut to different sizes (both for wearing in play and for sorting out small, medium, and large (have three sizes of balls in there, too)....

I created an "insect safari" kit, where loads of plastic bugs are hiding in the paper "grass."  There's a felt butterfly mask for fun, as well as a sticky note pad of butterflies that can be attached to all surfaces (and re-used at least a few times).  There are tweezers for fine motor skill work (can be used with the pom-poms in the other kit, too).  Bugs can be collected in the net.  There's a magnifying glass for examining them and a bug's eye viewer to see what things look like from their perspective.  There's a book on butterflies (Let's-Read-and-Find-out-About-Science, level 1) and a butterfly/caterpillar kaleidoscope.  I've included ideas for sorting, patterning, etc.  The place mat seen here can also be used with the animal friends box....

Under the sea includes two lovely little mermaids (cat toys, of all things, but perfect in size, feel, etc.)  The place mat reminds me of a tropical lagoon (but could also be used with the bug box).  I included lots of shells and "sea glass" as my fill.  There's an assortment of tropical fish and a sea turtle that have been hanging out in our animal bin for years.  I included another stamp pad with some seashell stamps I had around the house, too (more patterning work in this box).  I got a little set of sand toys to include (which can also be used with play dough, used for tracing, etc.)  She can use the shovel to scoop up the shells and sea glass, too.  I included Eric Carle's Seahorse.... 

I created index lists to the contents of each box, as well as lists of ideas for activities and laminated those so that they will (hopefully) hold up well....

...and I'm also sending along a selection of nursery rhymes and lullabies, as well as a Little Golden Book about God that is a classic....

 I've almost got everything finished and ready to ship off to them!

Regena