On Monday, we completed the Outdoor Hour Challenge on Maple Trees. I had planned to do the challenge on Oak Trees but we were unable to access the tree I wanted to study on that day. My parents have a fabulous old oak tree at their house but they were having some work done in their yard on Monday and I didn't want us to be in the way. So, I changed my plans and we trooped outside.
The Nature Study is worthy of its own blog post, so I won't go into too much detail but we really enjoyed our time outside. We spent about 45 minutes outside and then came in to complete a notebook page. We took a bark rubbing, and did leaf rubbings as well. My daughter particularly enjoyed taking lots of pictures and looking at things from a new perspective. My sons enjoyed their adventure into the woods to procure a sample of a leaf and flower from a tree with which we were not familiar.
We enjoyed another delightful art class using our new curriculum, Atelier Art Level 5. I simply can't say enough good things about this program. We have been involved in co-op art classes, art classes at Art Centers, and art classes taught by artists. We have also taken a hit and miss approach to doing art projects or left the study of art out completely. I am so very happy to be doing a structured, weekly art lesson in our own home. We are ALL enjoying the class very much - even me!This week's art lesson focused on contour drawing and we completed contour drawings of cats and then painted them using tempera paint. I love how our individual personalities shine through in our paintings.
Mason expressed his interest in graffiti through his painting. His sad cat lives in an alley!
My cat is sunning herself and is happy and content.
Duncan loved the bright colors he used in his painting and he made his cat into a pirate cat.
Amber used splatter painting in her background for her cat.
We continued with our unit study on the American Revolution this week. This week's focus was the French and Indian War. I read "Struggle for a Continent, The French and Indian War, 1689-1763" to the children over the course of the week. We also completed the French and Indian War mini-book from "Hands on History, American Revolution." Both of these books can be found through links on the side. I found learning about the French and Indian War extremely interesting and hopefully, all of the children now have a basic understanding of the conflict.
Our Random Experiment this week was OK. We completed the experiments in a science kit I had purchased quite a while ago.
Sadly, our first experiment - make a human powered light- just didn't work. We tried and tried to build up enough static electricity to power the little light but it just wouldn't work. The other two experiments were kind of cool - the glow in the dark powder worked really well and the glowing blobs were really interesting to see.I am still a big fan of using workboxes and they are still working really well with my boys. All three of the children are doing well with their independent curriculum materials and Amber is even complaining less about Spelling!
Both Amber and Mason started back to late swim team practice so adjustments needed to be made to our schedule throughout the week (getting to bed later and starting a bit later in the morning). Mason is new to USA Swimming, although he has experience swimming through years of swim lessons and three seasons of recreational team swimming. He started in the Beginning USA Swimming group and the coach moved him to the Advanced Group. So, happy day, Amber and Mason have the same practice time! Yea! They both practice from 6:30-8:30 each weekday evening. Amber has added a Saturday morning practice (7:00-9:00 a.m.) to her practice schedule as well.
That's our week in review - week 2. We are all looking forward to art class next week and, hopefully, we will get to study the Oak Tree that I had planned! If you would like to see what other homeschoolers did this past week, check out Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for the Week in Review.
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