Unit 4 & 5 - Preparing - 27/02/12 - 9/03/12

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks.  We have been fairly busy with our day to day things with extra curriculars added in and our first homeschool group of the year, not to mention a birthday party thrown in, and harvest on the farm happening whenever it can.

I thought I would just pop in a bit of Beth's cursive work she is doing.  Her handwriting is really coming along this year, considerably tidier than last year.  She has also found she really loves doing cursive so much so that some days she does it in her free time.

UNIT 4

During Unit 4, the girls were learning about the Climate Changes, so we finished reading Life in the Great Ice Age.  Quite a fascinating book to read.  Very interesting to see a viewpoint of people who lived in caves in the Northern Hemisphere.

Here the girls are working on their project of making a model of the map of that era.  They made it with air dry clay which they managed to keep pliable after the project finished and are now slowly making small things from it and drying them.  I thought it was very wise of them to use it twice.

The girls working on labelling their toothpicks to place on their maps.

Shakayla's finished map, including the great wall of ice.

Beth's finished map, including the great wall of ice but missing one label which decided to fall off.  Never mind.

We began reading A Child's History of the World this week, and began talking about the different cultures, languages and foods that were in the world then, and also in the world today.

Our poem of the week was "To Any Great Reader" by Robert Louis Stevenson.  The girls did some creative writing and retold the poem in their own words.

They also finished memorising the rest of Psalm 1.  It really was a joy to have discussions with them about this psalm.  It not only taught them something, but I too learned quite a bit.

For their science project this week, they made a cactus each out of playdough and used toothpicks as spines.  They had to work out how the spines help to keep the cactus cool.

Shakayla's cactus.

Elias playing with the playdough too.  How could we leave him out.

So, all in all a great week.


UNIT 5

This turned out to be a bit of an interesting week.  It was a week learning about the Egyptian Civilizations.  The week started out on a bit of a sad note as I and a couple of the blossoms had headcolds.  So we started off slower than usual.  Partway through day 2 of the week, things went from bad to worse.  It was then I realised I really needed to slow Beth down so that she would learn completely and not be dragged along with Shakayla, so she is now going at half pace, so has only finished half of week 5.  So from here on in, I will be blogging for Shakayla and Bethany seperately.

Anyway, it was a great week of learning.  Shakayla learnt a great deal about the Egyptian Civilizations.  Together the girls learnt about hieroglyphics and the project of the week involved making a cartouche of the lady Pharoah Hatshepsut's name. 

Here the girls are making their own air dry clay.  I think the interesting looks on their faces were due to J's speech therapist coming in.

Here is Shakayla's finished cartouche, which fell apart a little, and didn't quite work the way it was meant too with the etchings not coming out as clearly as they should.

You can see the etchings a little better in this photo.

All in all, she had a great week and is really enjoying working a little more independently now.

Unit 3 - Preparing - 6/2/12 then 20/2/2012 to 23/02/12

Well, this turned out to be a unit that took a great deal of time.  Fortunately, it wasn't due to us dragging it out.  I all of a sudden, after finishing school on the 6th of Feb, ended up having and excursion to the local hospital via an ambulance ride.  Definately not in my plans.  However, God had other ideas, and I ended up having surgery two days later and finally got home to my family on the 11th.  I gave myself and the children a whole week of recovering from the ordeal and finally got back into the groove this week.

Heart of Dakota Preparing did it again and provided us with a week full of fun and blessing.  The girls have really been enjoying learning their memory passage and it is just wonderful to see them beginning to think a little deeper about the passage each week.  Their actions make it so easy for them to memorise.

We have been mainly reading Life in the Great Ice Age.  It has really been interesting to think about how these people lived, but also to delve into the tools they used, they way the cooked and how they passed on their stories.  It has really made me realise that these people probably were just as intelligent as people today, despite most people of today thinking they were of lesser intelligence.

The girls are enjoying their independent science.  It is wonderful to see them learning about the natural world.  Science has been the one of the things I have never been consistent on.  I love that not only are they reading about the Artic Tundra, but they are making notebook pages, orally narrating, answering questions and doing an experiment weekly.

Independent history is another hit.  Shakayla in particular is loving the Draw and Write through History book.  She is very much a creative and artistic person.  It is a bit more of a struggle for Bethany, but my precious girl has been concentrating very hard and is producing some lovely pictures now.

We have started the year using a grammar programme free off the internet, but I am starting to get very frustrated with it, especially as we had used Susan Wise Bauer's First Language Lessons 2 and 4, last year and loved that.  So, I took the plunge and ordered Rod and Staff English 3 and 5 yesterday for them.  I'm sure it will be a far better fit for us.

The history project for the week was making a cave painting.  This was a little disjointed because of the unexpected break.  Bethany left her paper in the tea for too long and it ripped.  By the time we got back to it, she had thrown her piece away, so thankfully Shakayla was gracious and we cut her piece into two.  She obviously got the bigger piece though.  They have done a cracker of a job on them.  I was really impressed with their diligence.

Bethany peaking out from behind her painting.  I helped her trace the bull, but she painted it and then she did the mammoth all on her own.  She is doing such a great job, and is really perservering with her art.

Shakayla was very proud of her efforts, particularly her mammoth which she copied, and it looked very similar to the picture she copied from.

Shakayla is reading The Indian in the Cupboard, and Bethany is reading Stuart Little for our literature study.  We are using Drawn into the Heart of Reading to help us delve deeper into these stories and to do some character studies.  We are currently doing the adventure genre.  It is proving to be an enjoyable part to our schooling.  The girls are both really enjoying the books, but most of it, it is a delight to see them discuss with me the characters they are reading about, and comparing the book characters with people in the bible.

Beth really did a great job of her picture.  She was having to help Stuart resolve his issues with Snowbell the cat, so her picture is of her role playing with Stuart so he is ready to discuss it with Snowbell.

Shakayla also was helping resolve issues within The Indian in the Cupboard.  She was helping Little Bull and Boone to discuss what was happening, so they could become friends.

The growth in my girls abilities have grown in three short units of using this programme.  I look forward with such joy.  Shakayla has been looking ahead and tells me the things she is looking forward to doing in coming units.