Sassafras Science

Sassafras Zoology has been sitting on my shelf since the last Rainbow Resource order came. I made a plan for its use last weekend, and now we are back to doing science on Tuesdays and Thursdays (after a longer break than I am going to admit to).

We did the first chapter, "The Adventure Begins," on Tuesday. It introduced the main characters of the book and (for people who didn't buy the logbooks) instructed parents on setting up the SciDat logbooks. It also introduced the concepts of classification and observation. One of the assignments was to go on an Observation Walk, which we did. I gave the kids the ipad to use for a camera and we went on a roughly 40 minute walk in the blocks around our house.

Delilah was not initially impressed with this plan.

I gave her the camera first and she found some pretty cool things growing out of the sidewalk on the way to the elementary school.

There were some very cool plants at the elementary school (which has a garden and greenhouse). The gardener let the kids each taste a stevia leaf (sweet!) and gave us an impromptu tour of what she was growing.

Today we started chapter two "The African Grasslands," in which the main characters have traveled to the African Grasslands and are on safari. I read them the first section, "Look! A Lion," and they wrote about lions in their logbooks. Right now, they're watching the Meat Eaters episode of The Life of Mammals series on Netflix. This afternoon, we're going to go to the Lebanon library and try to find some of the recommended books for this chapter. The Sassafras activity guide book gives lists of recommended books for each chapter, along with activities and experiments.

Not the End of the School Year Here

For our neighbor kids who go to school, today is the last day of their school year. For my poor children, who have a terribly mean mother, it's business as usual.

Today we finished ch. 33 of Story of the World bk. 3 (about Napoleon). They watched the first episode of Scholastic's "Horrible Histories," which just came onto Netflix. All of the kids have been spending lots of time reading because they signed up for the Lebanon library's summer reading program and want to get their prizes; the program is based on time spent reading.

They will have a two week vacation while I am in Haiti. Aside from that, we're going to continue with our regular year-round schooling.

Bears in Space :)

Patrick and Delilah both finished their assigned schoolwork this morning by 10am. Since I hadn't put away the outer space window clings that we got from Rainbow Resource, I decided to have all of the kids put them up on the back door:

From there, we started talking about the solar system and what order the planets were in. Patrick read about the solar system in the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia. Then I broke out the Dover Solar System kit we had (also on the counter).

The children then spent the next forty-five minutes coloring pictures of rockets, stars and planets, watching videos about the solar system on youtube and making "spaceship" paper airplanes.

Ben with his rocket picture

Dr. Ben coloring

Everyone at work

That's James behind the pictures

Monday Homeschooling

Here's what we've actually gotten done today. The kids are going to have to get the rest of their work done with the babysitter this afternoon while I'm visiting a client and going to study group.

Patrick

Did p. 9 in Spectrum Spelling 6
Did lesson 115 in Saxon Math 7/6
Copied chapter maxim for Latin Alive! ch. 2
Watched lesson 2 on Latin Alive! DVD

Delilah

Did 2 pages in Spectrum Spelling 4
Did lesson 4 in Saxon Math 3
15 minutes on www.ixl.com

James

Did p. 68 in SRA Phonics

Ben

Still needs to do something

Mom

Should be reading about prenatal screenings instead of blogging.

James and John

John and James

All of our children love their new brother. James in particular is convinced that we had John in order to provide him with a brother so that they could be like James and John from the Bible. He loves Johnny and insists on me forking the baby over as soon as I get home from work.

"But it's supposed to be a day of rest!"

Here's Delilah doing her CLE Math 307 Lightunit test today. She was pretty offended that I made her do a math test on a Sunday, but since it had been assigned for this past Thursday, I didn't feel bad for her.

Patrick is spending the evening catching up on the Saxon Math lessons that he was supposed to have completed this week. He is also not impressed with my plan to try to get him back on track.

The only studying I'm planning to do myself today is watching a webinar on stress in pregnancy. I signed up for it for free through http://www.injoyvideos.com/index.php?id=73&page=Webinars

Study time :)

He's coming!

My student/work day (after hanging out with the family earlier today) ended up looking like this:

3:30pm- Chat with a midwife on facebook about coming and speaking to our midwifery study group in October. Midwife agrees, excitedly text preceptor and everyone in said study group. Realize that baby John is officially rolling from his back to front when put on carpet; take picture to post online.

4:00pm- Visit briefly with client.

4:40pm- Arrive at birth center, type up note. Spend two hours researching prenatal education and outlines for topics to cover at prenatal visits. Wash skirt and baby's outfit after baby poops through his clothes while laying on my lap. Type up Prenatal Checklist draft. Spend another half hour reading prenatal handouts from different OB and midwife practices.

8:00pm- Head home. Say hi to kids before bed. Spend an hour reading Gail Hart's book Research Updates for Midwives.

Now Tim and I are going to watch a movie with Patrick before bed :)