Mealworm Scientist
We begin our fourth week of the homeschooling experiment, with a blanket of snow on the ground. This illustrates my new resolve to worry less, take more breaks, and enjoy the unique gifts of schooling at home.
This week, we start a long science unit, beginning with animals (C) and the human body (D). (We’re still looking for fun, hands-on activities for these units – please share if you have some!) We’re taking my mom to the airport tomorrow, and will visit Underwater World while we’re there. Scavenger hunt!
D will begin the Sonlight curriculum for reading, writing and language. We’ll study US history informally from the reading books, but continue with the Wisconsin history text wherever it aligns with her reading. And today we’ll make a timeline to use the rest of the school year. The timeline and the markable map will help us to keep continuity throughout the year.
Wish us luck! And see you tomorrow for Pass the Torch Tuesday!
More experiment milestones:
The Beginning
One-month Review
Two-Month Review
Three-Month Review
Four-Month Review
Five-Month Review
(The curricula and resources we’re using are listed on my curriculum page. As I discover materials and use them, I add to the list and make notes. So the page is changed weekly. We do spelling, reading, writing, and math on a daily basis. Social studies and science are studied in themes or integrated with other subjects.)
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Tags: curriculum, home school, homeschool, homeschool experiment, homeschooling, review
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9:56 am
Boy, this homeschooling sounds so much fun! Who needs to go back to school then? You seem like you have everything under control and this is just up your alley Kelly!
10:23 am
you do make it sound fun.
My mom home schooled me my very first year – because the school said I wasn’t old enough.
Then I passed the test and went to 2nd grade. I don’t remember it studying, and barely recall any thing about it.
11:05 am
I loved all those science projects way back when in the dark ages! Ha! When I homeschooled we built a huge eye, one that you could crawl through out of washer and dryer boxes and other things. It was pretty cool. We fried an egg in a coke bottle – amazing how acid cooks an egg…what fun memories!
I’m filing this idea for our chemical reaction unit. Thank you!! That sounds very intriguing!
12:54 pm
This is a great picture of Curt, but those little critters are creepy crawlers! Hope none got loose!
4:07 pm
Home schooling sounds so much more fun than regular school!
After reading Pam’s comment I’m going with homeschoolig my almost 4yr. old, because, she won’t be old enough either, which might work out for homeschooling my son at the same time! Thanks for inspiring me Kelly with your experiments!
8:04 pm
I have an idea for both your studies.
1. For animals: I played a game with my students and their beanie babies. We piled all the beanie babies (or other stuffed animals) into a pile. Then we used hula hoops to create rings on the ground. We labled each hoop with the name of a habitat. Then we “raced” to get all the animals into the right habitat. It goes great with book Milton The Early Riser by Jose Aruego (sp?). In the story Milton wakes up after an earthquake and finds that the sleeping animals are all in the wrong place. He put all the animals into their proper habitats.
2. Human body “ride”- The fifth graders created a ride for my 1st graders through the digestive system. They had the first graders sit on scooters ( you could use a big wheel or a wagon) and one child pushed the child through a path in the gym(you could use the driveway.) First they went into the mouth which was a cardboard box tunnel w/ paper lips and teeth. Then they traveled down the esophogus into the stomach where they were sprayed with spray bottles of stomach acid (water) all along the older kids explained the process. It was pretty cute and they made it up themselves. You could do almost any organ similarly. Or how about organ dioramas?
Sounds like fun!
10:44 pm
A blanket of snow?! Glad I’m not there! LOL Glad you are learning to enjoy the homeschool experience!
12:21 am
[...] You’ve had the opportunity to learn some of Curt’s talents in recent posts, but some of you may not have witnessed his singing back in July, and I thought it deserved a reprise. So in honor of all you blog readers that appreciate a kid who steps out of his comfort zone to try something he’s never done before, I present… [...]
4:33 pm
[...] Last week was very productive, despite the fact I was gone again on Monday to facilitate a training. And C’s mealworm FINALLY made it through to the adult stage. That was pretty exciting. Recent A-ha’s They love the science garb. The goggles, the gloves, and the test tubes and beakers make it all far more interesting. They could do science experiments all day if I’d let them. [...]