School Views...

We just finished up a geology unit and did so many fun things with it over the last 2 weeks! We grew a crystal garden, played a game to go through the rock cycle, modeled the rock cycle with crayon shavings (will do another post about that), made a lapbook (some of the pockets and mini books were printed from this site--I found them under the Rocks In His Head lesson plans and materials). I also purchased a rock and minerals kit from Home Science Tools--the boys really enjoyed getting to do the different tests when learning how to identify the different types of rocks and minerals. We read Magic School Bus Inside the Earth and Magic School Bus: Rocky Road Trip. There are 2 more things we have to do to finish this unit: finish our volcanoes and look at coal.

A and I also made a lapbook for review on our studies about Ancient Egypt, and we are now doing spring-themed copywork for penmanship and writing practice.

Here is a look at the "board" at the end of lessons today. D's spelling words are on there (A decided to write a few of them himself). A lot happens here--I don't know how I managed without it before now! :) I'm also going to start placing a few Spanish/English flashcards up here for the boys to grab to help them with learning Spanish. For the next week or so, we will be looking at colors.

Science experiments - electricity with batteries. The boys had a blast making their circuit maze and the headlamp. We still need to make our buzzer game, make our electromagnet in addition to a couple of other lab activities. Some things require more planning and time to execute, but we all have been learning a lot (and Rob thinks I'm now ready to start changing out outlets since I am becoming quite adept at stripping wires, connecting them, etc. I may leave those sorts of fun tasks to him though).

Math. We are just finishing up the first unit in each of these books. A flew through Singapore levels 1A and 1B and is just starting out in level 2A. It is definitely more challenging for him, but he enjoys it. D is now in Singapore 3B. I have really enjoyed using Singapore and Miquon math. My only qualm with the curriculum, Singapore especially, is that there is not enough drill and practice for certain sections. We have been able to by-pass that through various math websites online where you can print worksheets for free. Math-drills.com has been my favorite go-to site for the past 3 years when we need to do a little extra drill and practice. I think the boys like it best when they get to do speed drills with Daddy, or when we get to play other games.