What we did for Science this Year

Something I love about my son becoming a more independent learner is running into questions that he already knows the answers to, and that I do not. 

He'll say things like:

Oh, they do that with radiation.

or

That's a Red-billed Oxpecker.

and I'll be like... A wha-wha??? Where'd you learn THAT? 

Of course, there is not one answer to that question. Lu has learned these things from the books we've used in Science class. He's learned from conversations with his dad, and from documentaries we've watched together. He learns from observing the world around him, and connecting the dots.

Here's a little overview of the main science resources we used this year:

The DK Encyclopedia is divided into seven chapters: World Regions, People and Society, History of People, Living World, Science and Technology, Planet Earth, and Space and the Universe. With books like this, I recommend coming up with some questions for review and discussion. The book doesn't provide the questions, so I read ahead and prepared them myself. It was totally worth it. Lu learned SO much from this book.

I wanted to include some Spanish resources in our science classes so that Lu would be familiarized with science vocabulary in his mother tongue. It's full of fun little bits of information. For this one, Lu came up with his own questions, which he would write down and answer in a notebook - this also meant that he was getting in some Spanish writing in science class. 

When you homeschool, multi-tasking is a must!

Mr. Q's Life Science packet was also jam-packed with science learning that kept Lu engaged and wanting more. Each chapter includes about five pages of reading and three activity pages. With Mr. Q, Lu learned about Living and Non-Living Things, Biomes/Ecosystems, Life Cycles, Classification, Food Webs, and The Five Senses. Lu really likes the way the chapters are formatted, as well as the way Mr. Q talks to the reader. We are saving the last three units - Body Organs, Cells, and Nutrition and Health - for next year, because I plan to expand on them with other resources.

 

How To Think Like a Scientist was the only book I actually bought for science this year. I recommend borrowing it from the library for a very clear explanation of the Scientific Method. Lu read the book by himself and then did some independent experiments to try out the steps, and recorded his findings. It wasn't the most exciting thing we did in science class this year, but understanding the Scientific Method is important.

Animal Hide and Seek was totally awesome for reviewing biomes and learning about all kinds of different animals. Lu would read a page and then I'd quiz him by naming animals for him to point to. It was a simple activity, but very effective for sparking an interest in zoology and understanding how vast the Animal Kingdom is.

 And, our favorite science teacher - David Attenborough.

 We watched around 30 hours of BBC nature documentaries, 

usually at lunchtime.

We watched the series

First Life, Life, Planet Earth,  

and (my very favorite) Life of Birds.

Lu quotes David Attenborough on a regular basis, showing that he has retained an amazing amount of information from these wonderful films. 

If I had to choose only one science resource, it would definitely be YouTube for documentaries and science videos.

A Productive Morning and a Chicken Bone

It's not something I do everyday, but this morning I laid Lu's work out for him to work through in whatever order he wanted.

He chose history reading first,

 and read about Ancient Mesopotamian

games, music, and sports.

 After math (which we did together)

he did his science reading.

Right now, he's learning about Food Webs with Mr. Q

Lu REALLY digs the way Mr. Q writes like he's talking to him, and makes funny jokes. He laughs while he's reading science! What better recommendation can there be than that?

3 baskets -

The top basket is for daily work,

the middle one is for once or twice a week work,

and the bottom one for finished work.

Finished packets are filed in the blue storage unit on the right.

Next, he moved on to Geography.

He's studying Asia.

We're using Sheppard's Software and  

Head of the Class videos for geography. 

I'm not a big fan of spending time on flags, but he insists.

 

By mid-morning, the daybed-couch is always covered in papers and books. Lately, I'm spending a lot of time on that one meter of floor space doing sit-ups and stretching. Lu is becoming so independent that I need something to do when I'm not needed, and sit-ups are a good thing to do while waiting for the occasional "Mama, I don't get this." And even then, most times, before I can even finish the explanation, he's already got it, and (not always) politely tells me to go back to my whatever I was doing, thank you very much. 

mmmm.... Yeah, just you wait until we hit algebra and essays, and then you'll need me again. Little Mr. Know-It-All. But I'm kidding, kind of. Cha keeps saying that it's a great thing, and that that's exactly what we want - a self-guided learner. But I miss working on stuff together and feeling needed :sniff:

Anyway...

 Back to our day -

 Lu decided to go out to the river with his snorkeling gear.

and found the most amazing...

CHICKEN BONE!

What???

 Okay, it could have been a vulture bone, 

or some other bird... but chicken is funny.

 Then we sat by the river and read a story together.

 A lovely, lovely story.

 Then one more dip, in the natural jacuzzi...

After lunch, there was knitting and cookies.

 Lu started Roald Dahl's The Witches this week.

I love that he loves to read. It is a wonderful thing.

Tests and Hawks

This week, we tested Lu's "standard" 4th grader skills. 

We used these: math test and language arts test. 

He did the language arts test in three sessions of 90 minutes each, and the math test in two sessions of 75 minutes. 

I mostly do this for the sake of learning how to take tests and not getting freaked-out-stressed-out-lose-your-head-crazy if and when the day come that he need to take a standardized test. And I don't spend any time on Lu studying for them, or prepping him in any way - except for the customary motivational speech on how tests are to help us see where we need to work harder, and not to make us nervous or scared.

Lu does NOT do well with tests. He'll have a full-on existential crisis if he thinks he doesn't know the answer to a question on a test. So I especially feel the need to do this a couple of times a year with him, and to work through the anxiety and fear. He did really well at learning to catch himself this time, and controlling the freak-outs.

We school from January-November, so we are at the beginning of our last trimester. I like doing the tests now so that we have time to strengthen skills, and the tests help me see which skills need strengthening. Of course, because they are not the official tests, I don't know how Lu really scores. I know how many answers he gets right, but I don't know what percentile he's in. And I don't need to know - as long as I'm sure that we've covered it all, which is really not a difficult or time-consuming thing to do. 

And you might just be starting to homeschool, and looking at all the stuff your kid is supposed to learn this  year, and you might feel overwhelmed... DON'T. It gets done. But you're not going to believe me until you've done your first year and realized that you had loads of time left over, and that there was no need to worry or rush.

It takes us five or six months to finish our standard grade level stuff, which leaves the other 6 months for fun projects, unstructured learning, and for practicing and strengthening skills. So now, knowing that we have covered almost all the standard stuff, this is what we've been doing:

Typing

We're using this new site for review and practice.

 Reading about Ancient Egypt.

In our History class this year, we studied the first humans all the way through the first civilizations. I had wanted to get as far as Greece, but it didn't feel right. Mesopotamia and Egypt were so mind-blowing, we decided to stick around a little longer. So we got some DK Eye Witness books on the ancient civilizations that we'd already studied, for Lu to read independently during the next three months. We'll start Ancient Greece in January, having really sunk our teeth deep into those first, awesome civilizations.

 Reading about Sailing on the Nile,

and explaining the keel of the boat to me.

We're using Khan for math daily, and we're finishing up our MEPYear4. I still can't believe that we're going to finish it! It seemed so impossible at the beginning of the year.

For Science we're watching BBC Life of Birds series, and the whole family (well, we're only three, but still...) has a new-found fascination for our feathered friends. Seriously, birds are awesome, and crazy, and do the most unexpected things. I'm totally tripping out on birds right now.

We're about half way through the whole series of 10 episodes, and the other night I told Lu that it'd be really cool if he could further research something from what we've recently learned about birds that especially interested him. 

Right away he said "Hawks!" 

The next day, he asked me if we could go by the stationary shop, and he bought a small notebook with his own money. As we were leaving the shop he told me that it was for taking notes for his research report! I was like - Dude, I would have bought that for you! And he responded: it's my education, I can put money into it too. 

Well, okay then! I can't argue with that :-)

Last year, Lu did an independent research report on the Saber Tooth Tiger.

I won't be helping him at all with this project - no editing, nada. It goes into our homeschool records as a true product of Lu's research and writing abilities. For me, this is the real language arts test. This is where I'll see how much he has truly retained.

("lover", hehe)

It's Friday. The weekend is here.

I'm going to go make myself a margarita now :)

Basketball, Minor Gods, and using MEP

 After the final touches...

the new basketball hoop is up!

Lu started on the Minor Gods in Greek Mythology.

 

Pandora and Deucalion

And we're 3/4 the way through in our MEP Year 4 math.

I thought there was no way we were going to be able to finish the whole thing this year, but we've really gotten the hang of it. We were both so intimidated by it in the beginning. The worksheets look different than what we were used to. One worksheet would take us up to an hour to get through. Now, it usually doesn't take us more than 30 minutes.

Here's an example of a MEP exercise 

for understanding negative numbers.

If you decide to try MEP and feel frustrated at the beginning, don't give up, it'll come. Just give it time. It's like learning a new language - a new math language. I don't use the MEP lesson plans, only the practice books. For learning new concepts, we use this free resource. We do half an hour of each every day, but not back-to-back. The combination of the two has really strengthened Lu's (and my) math skills.

Here's a little video of Lu's very vocal math work -

I wonder a lot about whether Lu is good at math despite my math weakness, or if it is because of it. I guess, in a way, if someone who has such a hard time with it (me) finds a way to explain it, it will probably be an explanation that anyone can understand. I think I manage to break it down so much (because it's the only way I understand it), that it makes it super easy for Lu (who is much more of a natural in math) to understand. Or maybe it has nothing to do with me at all. One thing I know for sure is that math is definitely going more smoothly since I stopped worrying about it so much.

Unlike Denominators, Vegemite, and Art Breaks

 Wrapped up in a blanket 

for chilly early morning writing assignment.

 Adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators.

Cultural differences within the same household:

Lu's Vegemite-on-toast snack.

He gets this and the liking of Marmite from his dad. 

(blech!)

Science Review -

I decided to break up our Mr. Q Science free downloadable Life Science program into this year and next year. We've been using several resources, and although we do like Mr. Q, we want time for other stuff too. So, we're reviewing the first 16 chapters. We read all of them together, and Lu answered the questions at the end of each chapter, during the first half of our year. Now, he's reading silently and I quiz him at the end - all of which takes us about 20 minutes. And we'll finish the other chapters next year.

Art Break -

Since Lu's community art program isn't running this month, I'm trying to make space for art breaks - no big projects, just short, 30 min of whatever artsy something or other.

 

 Cucumber Salad.

Lu made a most delicious cucumber salad all by himself. 

He dressed it (and I must say, I was very impressed with his mix) 

with rasberry vinegar, mustard, honey, and sesame oil!

And a puzzle after lunch.

We're not taking much of a break this mid-year. Instead, we are having light days during July and August. We have family visiting, and we're enjoying some awesome weather. So, since we start at 7am, we get done early and have pretty much the whole rest of the day, which is (compared to our usual long days) a vacation.

Writing a Short Research Report

First, Lu chose a topic - the Solar System. He wrote a bullet list of interesting facts on his topic, in his notebook. Then he worked on turning each fact into a well-composed sentence on a separate sheet of paper.

 Next, he cut out each sentence, 

 and arranged them in two paragraphs.

 

A few minor changes...

and on to writing the final draft!