Planning - Week 3

English
Workbook and on-line games for the basics.  Reading  The Mitten (can read this on-line here) plus reading and writing activities relating to this story.

Maths
Workbooks and also printables with activities related to The Mitten.

Science
Workbook. Also Weather  experiments  Tornado in a Jar, making frost and making fog

History and Geography
Museum trip to look at the Egyptian collection and  the Geology section.
At home - Rock experiment using chocolate chips and marshmallows

Igneous Rocks: Melt some white chocolate (and red dye) on the stove.  Talk about how magma/lava is melted rock. Then take spoonfuls of the melted chocolate and let it cool on a baking sheet.  These will be ‘igneous’ rocks.

Sedimentary Rocks: Hammer the chips in a ziploc bag to make them smaller. Put spoonfuls of the different types of chips into a jar.  These will be the  sediments.Apply pressure to squeeze the rock/chocolate layers together to create sedimentary rocks:

Metamorphic Rocks: Put layers of chocolate chips and mini-marshmallows into a pan that could be baked in the oven. Put the pan in the oven and let it heat up for 10 or 15 minutes. Take it out, let it cool for a few minutes and then apply pressure to the top of half the mixture.  This will transform the “rocks/chips” into a new concoction and on the other side you will see distinct layers and distinct rock forms (like sedimentary rocks).

(above from The Homeschool Den Blog )

Egyptians - us the Discovery Kids Hierogenerator to see what our names would look like in hieroglyphics and if I can find sugar lumps in the supermarket we will make a Pyramid out of Sugar lumps.

Will also watch The Prince of Eygpt (if I can get the bloody BT pin number to work) :)

Week Two - Still on Target

We have managed another week of following our semi structured Home Ed plan for J - it doesn't always go exactly to plan, but we did cover most of the activities planned.

English and Maths - from workbooks and printable sheets.

Science
Experiment - Food Colouring  and Oil, Density.   Mix equal parts oil and water and then adding a drop of food colouring. The water-based drop remains intact until it sinks through the oil and contacts the water, at which point the colour at last disperses. The oil remains separate from the water because it lacks polarity  and floats because it’s less dense.
Workbook - Living and non living things and naming parts of animals and plants.

Also taking part in the Garden Bird Watch for the RSPB this weekend.

History 
Egyptians - We didn't look inside a virtual Pyramid as planned but instead performed a virtual mummification, which was quite gruesome but J enjoyed it.

Coloured in a sarcophagus

Mummified Action Man.

That was the end of History for that morning as J then went and mummified all his action man and had a mass battle.

Geography

Rocks and Minerals- watched The Magic School Bus on you tube, all about this subject obvs.  Read this book

Also found a magazine at Tesco,  first issue focusing on Gold.  It was 99p, but of course the price will go up,and then I wont be able to find the rest of the issues without paying a fortune for it which is what often happens with these kinds of educational magazines, but this issue was quite useful and has lots of photos of various rocks and minerals with descriptions.

The soil experiment is being saved for today when we go to the allotment to collect the main ingredient.

B is continuing to study for her exams to be taken this year, and this week submitted an application form for our local college to study A levels in English, English Literature, RE and Politics.

D also continue to study for his exams to be taken next year, which includes, English, Maths, Chemistry, Biology and Physics.  

Now making plans for J's activities for next week :)

Plans for next week

Same plan for English, and for Maths will be using a Winter Printable from Hip Homechool Moms, which is Winter themed (obvs) and covers sequencing, sorting & classifying.

History and Geography topics remain the same:

Egytptians - Interactive look inside a Pyramid and making an Eygptian Mummy from this site and will probably use an action man doll to perform this activity.

Rocks - reading from Rocks and Fossils (KingfisherYoung Knowledge) which also have a few activities to do.

Science - Living Things - Animals and Plants (printable) plus a few pages from his Science workbook plus an experiment  Dirt Discovery - looking at what is in soil.

Also it is RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch next weekend which we are taking part in.

First week of the new term 2015

Home Ed this week

First week of  our "workbox" theme and J has completed  the activities set out for him, apart from trips to the park because of bad weather.

First part of the week was taken up with English and Maths, then Wednesday he was so into his action man game all day so we carried the activities over to Thursday and were all caught up by Friday.

I don't like strict schedules for learning at this age, but I as I have only organised a few activities I would like to try and get the few I have organised done each day if possible.

So Thursday and today the activities have been Science, History and Geography based.

Science - Workbook, covering animal classification and healthy eating. Science Experiments were "What dissolves in Water"

We used five jars and rice, salt, sugar, coffee and honey

(should have been ground coffee as well as this wouldn't have dissolved but I only had instant)


 Also "Do soluble substances evaporate with the water?"

No result as yet, have to wait a day or so for the salt crystals to form.

History - Egypt, which we will be following this month.

Read a story involving Egyptian animals in the dessert, Egyptian mazes, colouring and making an Egyptian neck torque and headdress

Geography was my favourite, Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic Rocks, along with the Earths Crust and Tectonic Plates, explained in Primary age form of course, and also using chocolate and pink marshmallow wafer biscuits:

 Sedimentary Rock

 Igneous

Metamorphic rock was explained by bashing a curly wurly (no photo as it got eaten straight away by J) around in a sandwich bag, then sitting on it, explaining how heat and pressure can change igneous and sedimentary rocks into metamorphic rocks.

 A Mars bar representing a tectonic plate and how it forms a mountain

The Earth, aka a cream egg, showing the earth's crust, mantle and core.

So all subjects covered this week, now to start planning for next week :)

Getting Organised for the new year

Getting organised for next Mondays "back to school".  Although the eldest two have already gone back to studying,

Will be looking at a Workbox themed learning style for J, which will including reading, writing, science, etc and lots of different activities to choose from. The Workbox theme takes a lot of organising and planning, but I think once I get into a routine, it should be pretty straight forward.

I haven't  got all the equipment, but that isn't  necessarily a requirement for work boxing,  so I am just going to use different folders for each subject, and I will use jars for each day of the week.

Each jar will contain a picture card printed from Homeschool Creations

Subjects will include, Science, Nature, PE, Literacy, Numeracy, Geography, History, Computer time, Bible Story and Art and Craft. Also will include library visit, museum, field trip, church, playdough, tv, puzzles, board game, game console, bike ride, park, walk, excercise, swimming, cooking, chores and clean up to also be included.

Science Resources

Science Workbooks - covering living things and non living things, different animals, parts of animals, animals on land and animal in the water, food of animals, parts of a plants, fruits and seeds, long or short, tall or short, big or small, heavy or light, hot or cold, hard or soft, smells, shapes and colours, body parts, senses, habits, food, solid and liquid,water. float and sinking, sound and light and shadow.Also one weekly science experiment

Plus Nature walks with spotting and activity sheets from Nature Detectives

Geography

Rocks and Minerals  using  chocolate geology which I did with my eldest two a few years ago after reading it on the  Peas in a Pod blog, and also using worksheets from Homeschool Den

History

Egyptians

Colouring - Princess of Egypt
Pharaoh Headdress from Firstpalette
Egyptian themed maze
River Nile Maze
Colouring Pages

Toilet roll cats

Egyptian Collars

using paper plates



English and Maths will be using worksheets and workbooks, and also websites during computer time.  Also will add read aloud time. M is reading The Faraway series by Enid Blyton at bedtime, so will find another book to read aloud during the day, maybe Harry Potter.

The eldest two are carrying on with their studying, B will sit 4 exams this summer, English Lit and Biology iGCSE, Religious Studies (Roman Catholic and The Gospel of Mark Units) and Maths GCSE.  D will be taking his next year, and for the moment is studying for Maths, English, Chemistry, Biology and Physics.

D is obviously still playing rugby, will his final Devon trials for under 15 taking place next month, and also continuing with his training with the Devon School of Rugby Academy

Just have a few more things to organise, then I am all ready for Monday..... I think!