Week In Review: Science Center, Stonehenge, and Another Ski Hat (Week 5)

Regardless of what the calendar may report, for me, autumn has truly begun.  I am happy, happy, happy down to my toes with the advent of the new season.  I LOVE autumn and all things autumnal.  I know it's fall when the local apple orchard has Honeycrisp Apples in stock and the local Great Harvest Bread bakery adds Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bread to its weekly rotation of breads.  Yesterday, I purchased two big bags of Honeycrisp Apples and four loaves of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bread.  All is right in my world!

On top of the joy of Honeycrisp Apples and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bread, we had a productive week at home.  This week was another four day rather than five day week of traditional book learning so once again our weekly art class got bumped from our schedule.  On Tuesday, we spent the day at the local science center with friends.  The day was completely hands-on from start to finish for all of the children. 

We explored a traveling exhibit about materials science that I, in particular, found very interesting.  There were all kinds of fascinating centers, including a giant geode.  My boys were particularly excited by a center in which they could swing a bowling ball at tempered glass to see if the glass would break. 

The science center was practically empty so it was a delightful day of hands-on exploration.  My friend and I were even able to chat a bit while the children explored different centers in one of the several areas.  In the afternoon, we watched a science show in which a five gallon steel drum was crushed by heating the interior and then spraying the drum with cold water and the ever-popular Menthos and Diet Coke explosion.  The exploding Diet Coke never gets old!

Mason spent all of his time in one of the rooms building a massive structure.  When I saw the wooden blocks, I knew he would be building for a long time!

Both of my boys started back to swim team practice this week after a two week break.  Amber, of course, did not take a break and simply continued her six-day-a-week training schedule.  The time cuts were released this week for the 2012 Olympic Time Trials and Amber was absolutely, beyond-thrilled, bouncing-off-the-walls excited to see that she's only about 1.5 seconds off the time cut for the 50 Free.  Truly, if Amber sprouted gills one day, I wouldn't be too surprised.  She craves the water and is absolutely and completely passionate about swimming.  She likes to joke that she is dating Poseidon.  Yes, that's my girl.

In our history lessons, we completed more of our Ancient Mesopotamia lapbook and finished the Week 4 readings in Winter Promise's Quest for the Ancient World.  One of the topics this week was Stonehenge.  To explore this topic further, we watched Stonehenge Decoded from National Geographic.  Amber and I, in particular, found this video fascinating.  I had never really considered the massive amount of effort that moving those huge stones would have entailed.  The film is long (90 minutes) so we watched 30 minutes a day over three days.  I would definitely recommend this film to older students.

Amber began her literary analysis course in earnest this week after spending a few weeks working through, Teaching the Essay from Analytical Grammar.  After reading, Call of the Wild, she wrote a very good essay exploring the importance of the setting on Buck's transition to wildness.  She started reading Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain and I am quite pleased to report that she is enjoying it quite a bit more than I did.

Amber also progressed in her sewing course, completing yet another ski hat this week for her brother.  She has plans to make some more of them for Christmas presents.  We also started working on her next project, a candy swirl pillow.

I ended the week with a review game for the boys in science.  We reviewed the first three chapters of Real Science 4 Kid's Chemistry Level 1 using a Jeopardy-inspired game board that I made using an idea from the Winter Promise teacher's guide.

The boys enjoyed playing the game and we had an excellent review of the main points of the first three chapters.  I had attached the point values with velcro tape so it was easy to simply hand the card to one of my sons when he answered the question correctly.

That was our Week in Review!  If you'd like to read about what other homeschoolers were doing this past week, check out the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.